High Efficiency phemt Balanced Power Amplifier Design Using Load Pull Technique
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Date
2011-01
Authors
Vijayakumaran, Lokesh Anand
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
A rapid increase in transmission capacity is required to meet the needs of the multimedia society. In broadband power amplifier design, a key element is maintaining flat gain across band while providing good efficiency and high output power. Commonly this is addressed using the single stage amplifier design. But in reality, to achieve high efficiency while maintaining good output power usually not practical with a single stage amplifier design. Alternatively, few stages of amplifier can achieve this and this is the point where balanced amplifier design comes into picture. Implementation of the push pull configuration using uniplanar technology is very desirable for microwave as it can create a high performance low cost compact amplifier. This thesis provides suitable design method to achieve high efficiency of single balanced amplifier based on load pull technique. The device technology is using pseudomorphic High Mobility Electron Transistor (pHEMT) having gate-width of 6400-m. Wideband baluns were used to achieve balance to unbalanced characteristics. A test board with FR-4 material having dielectric of 4.5 and thickness of 14 mils was fabricated. Power-aided-efficiency (PAE) of more than 50 %, output power of 1 W and gain of 14 dB for the entire range 1- 1.5 GHz is achieved at measurement level. These results show the feasibility of the balanced pHEMT amplifier configuration using load pull technique for microwave applications. This high efficiency design is favorable candidate for two way portable radios where the radio is required to operate over a large number of channels for long period from a small size battery.
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Keywords
High efficiency phemt balanced power amplifier , design using load pull technique