A 19W high-efficiency wide-band CMOS-GaN class-E Chireix RF outphasing power amplifier

Author

Der Heijden, Mark P van ; Acar, Mustafa ; Vromans, Jan S. ; Calvillo-Cortes, David A.

Author_Institution

NXP Semicond., Eindhoven, Netherlands

fYear

2011

fDate

5-10 June 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A class-E Chireix outphasing power amplifier is presented that enables high efficiency across a wide power back-off range and RF bandwidth. In this design the Chireix compensation elements and class-E loading conditions are provided by an asymmetric coupled-line power combiner. The class-E operated GaN HEMT switches are driven by high-speed, high-voltage CMOS drivers, implemented in a standard 65nm process technology. The proposed concept demonstrates 51.6% system average power efficiency and 65.1% average drain efficiency for a 7.5dB PAR WCDMA signal at 1.95GHz, while meeting the ACLR specifications. Moreover, the PA demonstrated more than 60% drain efficiency across a 6dB power back-off range and up to 19W peak power between 1800-2050MHz.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; UHF integrated circuits; UHF power amplifiers; code division multiple access; gallium compounds; power HEMT; power combiners; wide band gap semiconductors; Chireix compensation elements; GaN; HEMT switches; RF bandwidth; WCDMA signal; asymmetric coupled-line power combiner; class-E loading conditions; frequency 1800 MHz to 2050 MHz; high-speed CMOS drivers; high-voltage CMOS drivers; outphasing power amplifier; power 19 W; size 65 nm; CMOS integrated circuits; Driver circuits; Gallium nitride; Peak to average power ratio; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; Transmitters; Balun; CMOS; Chireix combiner; class-E; efficiency; gallium nitride; outphasing amplifier; power amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2011 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-754-2

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2011.5972564

Filename

5972564