Biography
Martin Walker is currently a member of the Solid State R&D Department of the Watkins-Johnson Company, his
principal responsibility being the development of GaAa FET amplifier circuits for operation at 10 GHz and above.
His current technical activities include the design and development of 12-18 GHz broadband amplifiers as TWT
replacements and 10 GHz narrowband low noise FET amplifiers for radar applications. He previously developed
12-15 GHz and 12-18 GHz amplifier prototypes for the U.S. Army (ECOM), and a 9.6 GHz radar front end for the
U.S. Air Force (AFAL). The 12-15 and 12-18 GHz FET amplifiers were the first reported for those frequency bands.
The radar front end included full integration of an RF preamp, RF gain control
oscillator, and IF amplifier –
, mixer, FET voltage controlled
all in a highly miniaturized configuration.
Mr. Walker was previously responsible for the successful development of 4-8 and 8-12.4 GHz FET amplifiers at
the Watkins-Johnson Company. A key contribution to the success of this amplifier effort was Mr. Walker’s
synthesis of a very complete RF circuit design computer program which included a sophisticated circuit optimization capability. Mr. Walker’s computer program has constituted an essential contribution to the success of
several GSAS FET RF amplifier program at Watkins-Johnson; he has acted as a computer analysis consultant on
numerous projects.
While at MIT, Mr. Walker developed fabrication techniques for a BARRITT diodes. He fabricated and characterized
the various devices to optimize performance.
Mr. Walker is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and the IEEE.