Abstract
Power amplifiers (PAs) are the most power-consuming devices in a transmitter. Their performance in efficiency is crucial to the efficiency of the whole system. Therefore, the issue of high efficiency PA has remained hot over the years. This paper presents an approach to design an S-band single stage class-F PA biased in class-C condition. Through the manipulation of the 2nd harmonic at the input, shaping the voltage waveform at the gate node, a class-F PA with proper output matching network (OMN) is realized. The proposed class-C-F PA achieved 60% drain efficiency (DE) and 36.3 dBm of output power around the 3 dB compression point. The methodology of taking the input non-linearity into consideration is also presented. Its feasibility has been verified through both the design and measurements.
Highlights
The topic of high efficiency power amplifiers (PAs) will persist as long as the communication industry flourishes
A classic class-F PA, for instance, utilizes the 3rd harmonic to shape the drain voltage waveform into a rectangular wave [2,5,8,9], improving the output power, the drain efficiency (DE) and the gain up to 15% higher than the one achievable with a sinusoidal output voltage
This paper presents the design and experimental verification of a class-F PA biased in class-C, defining a new class-C-F PA
Summary
The topic of high efficiency power amplifiers (PAs) will persist as long as the communication industry flourishes. A traditional way to achieve improvements in efficiency is biasing a device deeper from class-A. It reduces conductive angle, while sacrificing the gain (up to 6 dB for class-B biasing point and even more for class-C). Taking the advantage of properly-phased harmonics, in shaping the voltage and current waveforms at the active device output, leads to the minimization of power waste. Various classes of PAs have been developed according to this approach when designing the relevant amplifiers [5,6,7]
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