Design of Broadband High-Efficiency Power Amplifiers Based on the Hybrid Continuous Modes With Phase Shift Parameter

Abstract

The hybrid continuous modes are constituted by a continuum of power amplifier (PA) modes between class-J and continuous class-F. In this letter, a phase shift parameter is introduced in the voltage waveform formula of the hybrid continuous modes to generate complex fundamental and harmonic load impedances, leading to a further extension on the operation bandwidth. Based on the proposed theory, a gallium nitride PA is designed and fabricated over the frequency band of 1.2–3.6 GHz. The measured results show a 60%–72% drain efficiency at a saturated power of 40–42.2 dBm. In addition, when driven by a 20-MHz long-term evolution signal with a peak-to-average power ratio of 7.4 dB, the proposed PA obtains an adjacent channel leakage ratio of −35 dBc at an average output power of 35 dBm at 2.3 GHz.