Title :
Experimental Validation of a Four-Way Outphasing Combiner for Microwave Power Amplification
Author :
Barton, Taylor W. ; Dawson, Joel L. ; Perreault, David J.
Author_Institution :
Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
This letter presents a 2.14 GHz, four-way power combining and outphasing system for high-power amplifiers such as those in radio basestations (RBS). The combiner is ideally lossless, and enables power control through load modulation of the power amplifiers (PAs). A discrete-component power combiner is designed and characterized, and combined with inverse Class-F PAs using GaN HEMT devices to develop a complete PA system. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the system over a range of outphasing control angles. This first-ever microwave implementation of the outphasing system has a peak CW drain efficiency of 68.9%, with efficiency greater than 55% over a 5.5 dB power range. It provides an average modulated efficiency of 57% for a W-CDMA signal with 3.47 dB peak to average power ratio (PAPR) at 42 dBm output power.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; microwave amplifiers; power amplifiers; power combiners; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN; GaN HEMT device; PAPR; W-CDMA signal; discrete-component power combiner; four-way outphasing combiner; four-way power combining system; frequency 2.14 GHz; high-power amplifier; inverse class-F PA; load modulation; microwave power amplification; outphasing control angle; outphasing system; peak CW drain efficiency; peak-to-average power ratio; radio base station; Connectors; Loss measurement; Modulation; Peak to average power ratio; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Power measurement; Base stations; outphasing; power amplifier (PA);
Journal_Title :
Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LMWC.2012.2236084
