Coding efficiency of bandlimited PWM based burst-mode RF transmitters

The burst-mode transmitter has been proposed as an efficiency enhancement technique for signals with high peak-to-average-power ratios (PAPRs), where appropriate modulation schemes such as pulse-width modulation (PWM) are used to generate a switching signal to drive the radio frequency (RF) power amplifier (PA). Ideally, a PWM signal is of infinite bandwidth, however, high-frequency spectral components are attenuated, e.g., by the bandlimitation of the PA matching network or the PWM circuit itself. Bandlimitation introduces ripples in the signal amplitude, which might reduce the PA efficiency in burst-mode operation. In this paper, we show that a bandlimited PWM signal does not necessarily degrade the overall transmitter efficiency because of the higher coding efficiency. The coding efficiency of bandlimited PWM signals, i.e., PWM signals with a finite number of harmonics, is derived analytically and verified by measurements. Additionally, from the measurements, we exemplarily determine the number of harmonics for bandlimited PWM signals with the best transmitter efficiency-linearity trade-off, and therefore demonstrate the excellence of bandlimited PWM for burst-mode transmitters in terms of transmitter efficiency as well as transmission signal quality.