High Gain Broadband Power Amplifier Design Based on Integrated Diplexing Networks

Abstract

This letter presents an enhanced gain broadband power amplifier (PA) design approach that is based on using an integrated diplexer with a phase compensation network to combine PAs of narrower bandwidths (BWs) over a wider overall bandwidth PA. The input and output matching networks of each amplifier are individually synthesized using a wideband matching network. The diplexer is designed using a lowpass/highpass topology approach. The separate amplifiers are integrated with the proposed diplexer, resulting in extended bandwidth and enhanced gain. For verification purposes, a broadband PA is designed and implemented over the frequency range of 2–4 GHz. Measurements demonstrate that the output power varies between 40.1 and 41.2 dBm with a drain efficiency (DE) of 61%–75%. The proposed design achieves a high small-signal gain of 12.5–15.3 dB. The reported saturated power gain is 10.1–11.2 dB.