0.8-/1.5-GHz-Band WCDMA HBT MMIC Power Amplifiers with an Analog Bias Control Scheme

Abstract

This paper describes 0.8-/1.5-GHz-band GaAs-HBT power amplifier modules with a newly designed analog bias control scheme. This scheme has two features. One is to achieve approximately linear quiescent current control using not a BiFET process but only the usual HBT process. The other is to help improve linearity under reduced supply voltage and lower quiescent current operation. The following two key techniques are incorporated into the bias scheme. The first is to employ two different kinds of bias circuits: emitter follower bias and current injection bias. The second is the unique current injection bias block, based on the successful combination of an input buffer with an emitter resistance load and a current mirror. These techniques allow quiescent current control that is almost proportional to an externally applied analog control voltage. To confirm the effectiveness of the scheme, 0.8-GHz-band and 1.5-GHz-band power amplifier modules were designed and fabricated using the usual HBT process. Measurements conducted under the conditions of a 3.4V supply voltage and an HSDPA WCDMA modulated signal are as follows. The 0.8-GHz-band amplifier can deliver a 28-dBm output power (Pout), a 28.4-dB power gain (Gp), and 42% PAE while restricting the ACLR to less than -40dBc. For the 1.5-GHz-band amplifier, 28dBm of Pout, 29dB of Gp, and 41% of PAE are obtained with the same ACLR levels. The measurements also confirm that the quiescent current for the second stage in the amplifiers is approximately linearly changed from 14mA to 58mA over a control voltage ranging from 1.1V to 2.2V. In addition, our measured DG.09-based current dissipation with both supply voltage and analog bias controls is as low as 16.9mA, showing that the analog bias control scheme enables an average current reduction of more than 20%, as compared to a conventional supply voltage and two-step quiescent current control.