Design of broadband high-efficiency power amplifiers based on the hybrid continuous inverse mode

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid continuous inverse mode for designing broadband high-efficiency power amplifiers (PAs) is for the first time analyzed mathematically. The hybrid continuous inverse mode contains the classical continuous inverse Class-F mode, the continuous inverse F mode with maximally flat current waveforms and the inverse Class-B to Class-J continuum mode and so on, which provides alternative design space for realizing the broadband high-efficiency PAs. And a high-efficiency PA at the center frequency of 3.45 GHz is designed to verify this theory. Experimental results show that the implemented PA can output 10.5–16 W saturation power with drain efficiency (DE) over 70% from 3.2 to 3.7 GHz. Meanwhile, for a 5 MHz two-tone signal, drain efficiency of 40.3%–48% is measured with an average output power of 34–36.5 dBm at a two-tone carrier-to-intermodulation ratio (C/I) of 30 dBc.