Broadband High-Efficiency Power Amplifier With Quasi-Elliptic Low-Pass Response

Abstract

This paper presents a broadband high-efficiency harmonic-tuned power amplifier (PA) with quasi-elliptic low-pass responses. A combination of continuous Class-F <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> and extended continuous Class-F PA modes is employed to significantly expand the design space. A quasi-elliptic low-pass matching network is proposed, which can realize a broadband impedance matching in the predefined optimal impedance region desired by the combination of PA modes. Furthermore, two transmission zeros are generated near the passband, exhibiting high skirt selectivity and providing rapid impedance transition from the passband to the stopband. A wide stopband covering up to the third harmonic is achieved which shows good harmonic suppression. Design procedures of the proposed broadband PA are presented. To verify the proposed methodology, the broadband PA is fabricated and measured. The implemented PA achieves a bandwidth of 145.2% from 0.5 to 3.15 GHz. Over this frequency range, the drain efficiency is measured as 58–74.9% with the output power of greater than 39.03 dBm and a large signal gain ranging from 8.43 to 15.67 dB. A wide stopband is realized from 3.4 to 10 GHz, showing excellent quasi-elliptic low-pass responses. The measured adjacent leakage ratios (ACLRs) using a 20-MHz LTE signal with digital pre-distortion are below −45.06 dBc.