Broadband GaN Class-E Power Amplifier for Load Modulated Delta Sigma and 5G Transmitter Applications

Broadband GaN Class-E Power Amplifier for Load Modulated Delta Sigma and 5G Transmitter Applications

The paper presents a design of a broadband high-efficiency class-E power amplifier (PA) for the advanced efficiency enhancement architectures applications. A sequential load pull methodology to design broadband class-E power amplifiers using a packaged gallium nitride power transistor is presented....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tushar Sharma, Pouya Aflaki, Mohamed Helaoui, Fadhel M. Ghannouchi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2018-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
broadband
class-E
delta-sigma
gallium nitride (GaN)
lumped element
microstrip
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8252919/
Description
Summary:The paper presents a design of a broadband high-efficiency class-E power amplifier (PA) for the advanced efficiency enhancement architectures applications. A sequential load pull methodology to design broadband class-E power amplifiers using a packaged gallium nitride power transistor is presented. Two different broadband matching synthesis techniques have been proposed using lumped elements have been presented and implemented in the manuscript. A fourth-order low-pass impedance transformation topology is designed as the output matching network to provide the optimum load reflection coefficients in the targeted bandwidth (1.8-2.7 GHz). A combination of input and output matching network has been proposed in the manuscript to satisfy the given fractional bandwidth requirements. For practical validation, a Wolfspeed (Cree) CGH40025 package transistor has been used. Under continuous wave test condition the fabricated PA showed more than 50% power added efficiency (PAE) with up to 29 W output power for 40% fractional bandwidth from 1.8-2.7 GHz. Furthermore, the proposed broadband Class E PA is deployed in efficiency enhancement architecture like delta-sigma modulation based transmitters. The PA shows more than 48% PAE all over the frequency band when driven with a delta-sigma modulated LTE downlink signal while maintaining high signal quality and PA reliability.
ISSN:2169-3536

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