Broadband Doherty Power Amplifier Using Short Ended λ/4 Transmission Lines Based on the Analysis of Negative Characteristic Impedance

Abstract

This paper presents a broadband Doherty power amplifier (DPA) using quarter-wavelength ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> /4) transmission lines with negative characteristic impedance. In conventional DPA designs, the load modulation network is frequency-dependent, leading to bandwidth limitation at the back-off power region. In this design, by integrating two <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> /4 transmission lines with negative characteristic impedance into the main and auxiliary branches, the impedance at the back-off power can be manipulated to maintain high efficiency at back-off power over a wide frequency range. Thus, the operational bandwidth is extended. In circuit realization, the two negative characteristic impedance <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula> /4 transmission lines are replaced by paralleled negative LC components. Then, the negative capacitor is combined into the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pi $ </tex-math></inline-formula> -shaped impedance matching network, while the negative inductor is eliminated by introducing Norton transformation. For verification, a broadband DPA with a fractional bandwidth of 108.6% from 0.8 to 2.7 GHz is implemented. The measured saturated output power is 41.8-44 dBm. The saturated and 6-dB back-off power drain efficiencies are 47.6%-84.4% and 39.5%- 52%, respectively. A 20-MHz LTE modulated signal with peak-to- average power ratio (PAPR) of 7.5 dB is also applied to measure the fabricated DPA. After digital predistortion, the adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) better than −45.35 dBc is achieved, and the measured average efficiency is higher than 40% within the operating band.