Efficiency enhancement of class-F GaN power amplifiers using load modulation

authored by: Mohamed Gamal El Din, Somayeh Mohammadifard, Bernd Geck, Ilona Rolfes
Abstract: In this work a 10W GaN based class-F amplifier at 1GHz is presented. The presented amplifier uses load modulation principle to achieve high efficiency over 11dB output dynamic range. The output matching network is an L matching network with a tunable inductor and a tunable capacitor. The tunable inductor is based on a λ/4 impedance inverter and a switchable capacitor bank. The tunable inductor presents a short circuit for the second harmonic and an open circuit to the third harmonic; additionally together with the tunable capacitor they present the optimum working impedance for the transistor. The designed amplifier has a power added efficiency of 82% at an output power of 40 dBm and through using adaptive matching it can achieve a PAE of 60% at an output power of 29dBm, in contrast to a PAE of only 22% in the case of using a fixed matching network.
Organisation(s): Institute of Microwave and Wireless Systems
Type: Conference contribution
Pages: 114-117
No. of pages: 4
Publication date: 2010
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@inproceedings{a608027caaa64110a8da2b60931e32a4,
title = "Efficiency enhancement of class-F GaN power amplifiers using load modulation",
abstract = "In this work a 10W GaN based class-F amplifier at 1GHz is presented. The presented amplifier uses load modulation principle to achieve high efficiency over 11dB output dynamic range. The output matching network is an L matching network with a tunable inductor and a tunable capacitor. The tunable inductor is based on a λ/4 impedance inverter and a switchable capacitor bank. The tunable inductor presents a short circuit for the second harmonic and an open circuit to the third harmonic; additionally together with the tunable capacitor they present the optimum working impedance for the transistor. The designed amplifier has a power added efficiency of 82% at an output power of 40 dBm and through using adaptive matching it can achieve a PAE of 60% at an output power of 29dBm, in contrast to a PAE of only 22% in the case of using a fixed matching network.",
keywords = "Adaptive matching, Class-F, Impedance inverter, Power amplifiers",
author = "{El Din}, {Mohamed Gamal} and Somayeh Mohammadifard and Bernd Geck and Ilona Rolfes",
year = "2010",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781424449330",
series = "German Microwave Conference Digest of Papers, GeMIC 2010",
pages = "114--117",
booktitle = "German Microwave Conference Digest of Papers, GeMIC 2010",
note = "German Microwave Conference, GeMIC 2010 ; Conference date: 15-03-2010 Through 17-03-2010",
}