RF-Input Load Modulated Balanced Amplifier With Octave Bandwidth

Abstract

This paper presents an octave-bandwidth load modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) that operates directly on a single modulated RF input. The architecture is based on the recently proposed LMBA technique, in which a control signal applied at the output isolation port of a balanced amplifier is used to modulate the apparent load impedance of the two devices comprising the balanced amplifier. In our approach, the injected control signal is used both as an active match and to dynamically load modulate the main devices to provide efficiency enhancement at back-off, thus extending the dynamic range compared to the original LMBA formulation. In this paper, we introduce a phase-compensation technique through which the active matching and load modulation tracks the frequency-dependent optimal loading trajectory of a packaged device. The result is a load-modulation power amplifier architecture able to perform an active, modulated match over an octave bandwidth. The technique is demonstrated over 1.8-3.8 GHz using packaged devices and an off-the-shelf hybrid coupler. The proof-of-concept octave RF-input LMBA has a peak CW output power of 44 dBm, with power added efficiency (PAE) over the 1.8-3.8 GHz operating frequency range of 37%-59% at peak power and 29%-45% at 6-dB output backoff. The RF-input nature of this architecture enables straightforward measurement with modulated signals; a W-CDMA signal at 3.8 GHz with 9-dB (measured) peak to average power ratio is demonstrated with adjacent channel leakage ratio of -30 dBc and average PAE of 18% for a 31-dBm average output power (2-dB backoff).