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This article presents a novel architecture of load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) with a unique load-modulation characteristic different from any existing LMBAs and Doherty power amplifiers (DPAs), which is named pseudo-Doherty LMBA (PD-LMBA). Based on a special combination of control amplifier (carrier) and balanced amplifier (peaking) together with proper phase and amplitude controls, an optimal load-modulation behavior can be achieved for PD-LMBA, leading to maximized efficiency over extended power back-off range. More importantly, the efficiency optimization can be achieved with only a static setting of phase offset at a given frequency, which greatly simplifies the complexity for phase control. Furthermore, the cooperations of the carrier and peaking amplifiers in PD-LMBA are fully decoupled, thus lifting the fundamental bandwidth barrier imposed on the Doherty-based active load modulation. Upon theoretical proof of these discoveries, a wideband RF-input PD-LMBA is physically developed using the GaN technology for experimental demonstration. The prototype achieves a highly efficient performance from 1.5 to 2.7 GHz, e.g., 58%–72% of efficiency at 42.5-dBm peak power and 47%–58% at 10-dB output back-off (OBO). When stimulated by a 10-MHz long term evolution (LTE) signal with a 9.5-dB peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), the developed PD-LMBA achieves an efficiency of 44%–53% over the entire bandwidth at an average output power of around 33 dBm.
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Chireix amplifier with enhanced bandwidth using active load
The use of an active load has been recently proposed for the realization of power-efficient broadband balanced amplifiers. The application of an active load to a dual-input Chireix amplifier is investigated in this paper for the purpose of increasing their bandwidth. An embedding device model is used to established the optimal non-Foster loads required for both the transistors to remain operating in class F as the operating frequency deviates from the center frequency. Given the transistors must operate with a constant voltage swing between backoff and peak, it is found necessary for the two transistors to operate with different load impedances as the frequency varies. The required load impedance and outphasing angles for the Chireix operation are obtained using a generalized eigenvalue problem using the Y-matrix of the Chireix combiner loaded with the active load. It is verified that using an active load, it is possible to maintain a high efficiency not only at peak power but also under various backoff power levels over a bandwidth of 1 GHz. Within a 200 MHz bandwidth, the PA is predicted to be able to maintain an efficiency larger than 79% for 6 dB backoff. Further work is required to experimentally validate the proposed technique.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1711278
- PAR ID:
- 10098249
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2018 IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium (IWS)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 4
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEE-IWS.2018.8400841
