Designing for spectral conformity: Issues in power amplifier design

Author

Baylis, Charles ; Wang, Loria ; Moldovan, Matthew ; Martin, Josh ; Miller, Hunter ; Cohen, Larry ; De Graaf, Jean

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Baylor Univ., Waco, TX, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

8-13 Aug. 2010

Abstract

Spectral constraints placed upon radar systems by regulatory agencies require the design of highly linear amplifiers. Spectral spreading in power amplifiers is a result of transistors operated in the nonlinear regime to optimize efficiency. Several different methods are employed by power amplifier designers to maximize both linearity and efficiency. The methods of predistortion, feedforward, envelope tracking, Doherty, and “Linear Amplification Using Nonlinear Components” (LINC) are discussed in this paper. Tradeoffs and challenges inherent in these design approaches are surveyed.

Keywords

feedforward amplifiers; linear network synthesis; power amplifiers; Doherty method; envelope tracking; feedforward; highly linear amplifiers; nonlinear components; power amplifier design; predistortion; radar systems; spectral conformity design; spectral constraints; spectral spreading; Linearity; Microwave amplifiers; Microwave communication; Power amplifiers; Radar; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Waveform Diversity and Design Conference (WDD), 2010 International

Conference_Location

Niagara Falls, ON

ISSN

2150-4652

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-8202-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WDD.2010.5592610

Filename

5592610