Backgate Modulation Technique for Higher Efficiency Envelope Tracking

Author

Ghajar, M.R. ; Wilk, Seth J. ; Lepkowski, William ; Bakkaloglu, Bertan ; Thornton, Trevor J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr., Comput. & Energy Eng., Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ, USA

Volume

61

Issue

4

fYear

2013

fDate

Apr-13

Firstpage

1599

Lastpage

1607

Abstract

A novel backgate modulation technique alleviating limitations associated with supply-regulated polar transmitters is proposed. The backgate of a partially depleted silicon-on-insulator metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor with a breakdown voltage of 15 V is used to modulate the gain and output power of an RF power amplifier (PA). The high-impedance backgate provides high-efficiency and wide-dynamic-range modulation of PA gain. Measured results at 1.8 GHz demonstrate 16% power-added efficiency improvement at 6-dB backed-off output power, compared with the same RF PA without backgate modulation.

Keywords

modulation; power amplifiers; radio transmitters; radiofrequency amplifiers; semiconductor device breakdown; silicon-on-insulator; RF power amplifier; backgate modulation technique; breakdown voltage; frequency 1.8 GHz; high-impedance backgate; higher efficiency envelope tracking; metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor; power-added efficiency; silicon-on-insulator; supply-regulated polar transmitters; voltage 15 V; Logic gates; MESFETs; Modulation; Radio frequency; Threshold voltage; Transmitters; Voltage measurement; Backgate bias; envelope tracking; silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MESFET;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2013.2247616

Filename

6476764