Optimized Design of a Dual-Band Power Amplifier With SiC Varactor-Based Dynamic Load Modulation

A new methodology for the design of single/multi-band power amplifiers (PAs) with dynamic load modulation (DLM) is presented. First, the topology for the output matching network (OMN) including the control varactor is selected. A comprehensive optimization of the OMN parameters is then developed by which varactor and transistor losses are considered to ensure maximum efficiency enhancement at each frequency. To verify the method, a dual-band PA with DLM is realized. Drain efficiencies of 75% and 60% at 685 MHz and 1.84 GHz, respectively, are measured at peak output power. At 10-dB output power back-off efficiencies of 43.5% and 49.5%, respectively, are obtained. Linearized modulated measurements with a 6.5-dB peak-to-average power ratio WCDMA signal show average drain efficiencies of 56% and 54% at 685 MHz and 1.84 GHz, respectively, at an adjacent channel leakage ratio of -49 and -47.5 dBc, respectively. The proposed method shows the effectiveness of applying an optimization process for the design of single- or multi-band DLM PAs. The results demonstrate that near-optimum performance may be obtained in terms of efficiency enhancement for a given transistor and varactor-based OMN, thus making DLM competitive against other load modulation techniques.