EE5403 Lecture 2

Introduction to RF Power Amplifiers

Dr Guo Yongxin
RF and Optical Department
Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R)
20 Science Park Road, #02-21/25 TeleTech
ParkScience Park II, Singapore 117674
Tel: 6870-9165
Email: guoyx@i2r.a-star.edu.sg
Web: http://www1.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/~guoyx

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 Outline
• Introduction
• Class A
• Class B
• Class C
• Example

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 Introduction
Design concerns of Power Amplifiers (PAs):
• output power: range from the milliwatt region for small, portable
transistor amplifiers to the megawatt region for large broadcast stations.
• efficiency (power output divided by power supplied)
• drive level
• power dissipation
• distortion: The PA is the last stage in the amplifier chain because the
power level is highest at this point. Because the signal level is the largest
at this point, it results in the maximum amount of distortion due to the
non-linear characteristics of the device. These nonlinearities produce
unwanted frequency components (harmonics) and intermodulation
distortion (IMD) products.
• modulation techniques: PA design depends on the type of
modulation signal to be amplified. Various modulation techniques can
tolerate different amounts of distortion, 3
 Introduction (cont’d)
• The various types of PAs are identified by their classes of operation,
that is, Classes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and S.

• Except for Class A, all of these amplifier types are easily differentiated
from small-signal amplifier amplifiers by their circuit configurations,
methods of operation, or both.

• Class A and Class B push pull amplifiers are linear PAs. These PAs
have a constant power gain, produce a magnified replica of the input
signal voltage or current wave.

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Linear PAs

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Non-Linear PAs

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 PA Metrics

• P1dB: output power at which linear gain has compressed by 1dB

(measure of linear power handling)
• Pmax: Maximum output power (saturated power)
• Gain: Generally taken to mean transducer gain
Power delivered to load / Power available from source
• PAE: power added efficiency
Power delivered to load – power from source
Power from supply 7
Large Signal Behavior: BJT

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Large Signal Behavior: FET

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Class A PA

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Class A Operation

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 Efficiency of Class A

• Class A: at best 50% , at worst 0%

• For really high power or battery

applications, Class A efficiency is
not good enough.
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Revisited SS Amp

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Revisited SS Amp

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Revisited SS Amp

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 How to improve efficiency
Power Amplifiers Efficiency limitations -- How do we improve this?

Reduce the conduction angle. The conduction angle is the portion of the RF
cycle in which the device is conducting (ie. Not in cutoff).

How? Change the bias condition from fully on (class A) to partially in cutoff.

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Class B PA: Single-Ended

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 Class B PA
Base bias level is adjusted so that the conduction angle = π (50% duty cycle)
Now, collector current is a half cosine function

Since current is not a complete sine wave, we must calculate DC power and AC
fundamental and harmonics from Fourier components.

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 Class B PA

I1 is the fundamental
current component.

I2 is the second harmonic current. Higher harmonics can be calculated in

the same way.
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 Class B PA

The current that actually is delivered to

the load is the fundamental frequency
component, I1 = Imax /2. This is the
current that must be used to determine
the optimum load resistance.

The figure shows the amplitudes of the

fundamental and harmonic currents
(relative to Imax = 1) as a function of the
conduction angle.

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 Efficiency of Class B PA
Choosing load resistance: The best load resistance is the large signal load
resistance that allows full voltage and current swing at the device collector or drain.
To get the full voltage swing across RL , VO = VDC , (neglecting knee voltage VK )

I2 (and higher harmonics of the current) are assumed to be shorted by the LC

resonator or bias network. Note that this load resistance is the same as was
optimum for class A.

Now, the output power, DC power and efficiency can be calculated for Class B:

The efficiency is much greater

than Class A: 79% vs 50%

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Class C PA

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Operation of Class C

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Operation of Class C

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Operation of Class C

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Efficiency of Class C

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Power of Class C

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Example 1

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Example 1

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Example 1

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