Design of highly efficient and linear class E SiGe power amplifier for highly-integrated multifunctional wireless transmitters

This paper discusses the design of highly efficient and monolithic linear RF Class E SiGe power amplifiers (PAs) at both 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz for various wireless applications. Without needing off-chip on-board matching, we achieved very high power-added-efficiency (PAE) for the single-stage Class E SiGe PAs at -70% (900 MHz) and -60% (2.4 GHz), respectively, which performance rivals that of commercially-available III-V PA modules. These switch-mode PAs can be successfully linearized using polar modulation and a hybrid Envelope Tracking (ET) technique, resulting in impressive high PAE suitable for implementing future highly-integrated multifunctional wireless transceivers systems.