Linearity Improvement of a Power Amplifier Using a Series LC Resonant Circuit

Abstract

A radio frequency power amplifier microwave monolithic integrated circuit with a series LC resonant circuit as well as a bias control circuit for wide-band code division multiple access application is presented. The linearizer that consists of a series LC resonant circuit and base-emitter junction of a bias transistor operates as a diode rectifier circuit. A comparison between the circuits with and without the linearizer has been demonstrated. The power amplifier (PA) with the series LC resonant linearizer exhibits adjacent channel leakage ratio-1 (ACLR1) of -37.2 dBc at output power of 27 dBm, a 5.6 dB improvement compared to the circuit without the linearizer. The bias control circuit reduces consumed average dc current from 83 mA to 57 mA for efficiency improvement. The linearized PA exhibits 1-dB compression point (P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sub> dB) of 29.3 dBm, power-added efficiency of 45.7%, and power gain of 20.6 dB at low quiescent current of 37 mA with a 3.4 V single supply.