Design of broadband power amplifier based Design principle: The inverse class F PA requires that the voltage

on a series of novel continuous inverse waveform is a half sine wave and the current waveform is square
wave, which is to ensure the current and voltage does not overlap as
modes far as possible. The novel continuous inverse model is an extension
Wen Luo✉, Zongxi Tang, Binbin Ge and Xin Cao based on the inverse class F. The current waveform of the novel continu-
ous inverse model is not the expected square wave but a series of con-
tinuous waveform clusters, and the output voltage waveform is expected
A series of novel continuous inverse modes based on current element is
proposed. The series of novel continuous inverse mode is extended by to approach half sine. Compared with the inverse class F model, the
increasing the coefficient in the current equation of traditional inverse novel continuous inverse model has a larger design space. Equation
class F power amplifier (PA). The theoretical analysis shows that new (1) gives extended normalised current expression of the continuous
current equation can provide a wide matching space for the design of inverse F class model [7]
broadband high efficiency PAs. To prove this theory, a wideband high
efficiency PA is designed and fabricated. The experimental test results ids = [iDC − i1 cos (u) + i3 cos (3u)][1 − g sin (u)] − 1 ≤ g ≤ 1 (1)
show that the drain efficiency is 65–78% in the 1.8–3G frequency
range. The designed PA can obtain output power from 12.9 to 21 W where in this formula, iDC = 0.37, i1 = 0.43, i3 = 0.06. The voltage
and gain is from 10 to 13.3 dB in the interesting frequency range. normalised expression is given below:
2 1
vds = 1 + √

cos (u) + cos (2u) (2)
Introduction: Power amplifier (PA) is one of the most basic and widely 2 2
used microwave circuits in RF and microwave systems. With the devel-
By increasing the coefficient in the current equation, (1) is expanded and
opment of wireless communication technology, the research of broad-
the extended expression is given below:
band high efficiency PA has become a hot research topic. In recent
decades, researchers have made a lot of research results for the theory ids = [1 − d cos (u) + b cos (3u)][1 − g sin (u)] × [1 + a cos (u)]
research of the high efficiency PAs. Raab [1] carried out a deep theor-
−1 ≤ g, a ≤ 1
etical analysis of the current and voltage waveforms of class F PA.
Although the conventional harmonic control PA increases the drain effi- (3)
ciency, its bandwidth is limited to achieve broadband high efficiency
In (3), when d = 43/37, b = 6/37, α = 0, this expression is the continuous
PA. To realise high efficiency PA, Cripps et al. [2] studied continuity
inverse class F model [8]. Fig. 1 depicts the current waveform clusters
of high efficiency modes. Continuous class F, continuous inverse
which are defined by (3). When d and b are the fixed values, γ
class F and continuous classes B to J have been put forward in the
changes from −1 to 1 and α is equal to 0 and 0.2, we can get a series
past few years [3, 4], where the real part of the fundamental impedance
of different current waveform. Fig. 1a shows the current waveform of
is kept constant, and the imaginary part reactance is extended by extend-
continuous inverse class F model. By (2) and (3), the Yn expression of
ing the current and voltage equation. These results show that the ampli-
normalised fundamental, second harmonic and third harmonic can be
fier can obtain high drain efficiency in a certain bandwidth.
obtained
In this Letter, a series of novel continuous inverse modes is proposed
 
for the design of wideband high efficiency PAs. Compared with continu- 2 ab ad
ous inverse class F PA, the proposed modes have a larger impedance Y1 = √

(d − a) + jg 1 − −
2 4 4
design space. In this work, the theoretical analysis is presented and a (4)
1.8–3G wideband high efficiency PA is designed to verify the proposed Y2 = a(d − b) + jg(a − b − d)
continuous inverse modes. Table 1 gives a comparison of our work with Y3 = 1
other works.
Fig. 2 describes the impedance design space, which is obtained from (4).
Table 1: Comparison of recent published PA articles with our work Z1f, Z2f and Z3f represent the fundamental, second harmonic and third
harmonic impedances, respectively. When γ changes from −1 to 1 and
Reference BW (GHz) Gain (dB) Pout (W) DE (%) α is from to 0 and 0.2, the design space of fundamental impedance
Mimis et al. [4] 1.6–2.2 10–15.4 10–12.6 55–68 and second harmonic impedance is expanded. The third harmonic impe-
Chen et al. [3] 1.6–2.8 11.9–15.2 8.1–17.8 67.5–81.9 dance is always near the short-circuit point.
Sun and Zhu [5] 1.7–2.8 14.4–15.3 10.5–19.5 60.3–80.3
Sun et al. [6] 1.7–3.0 12.1–16 12.4–18.5 50–70
This work 1.8–3.0 10–13.3 12.9–21 65–78 g=1 a=0
d = 9/8, b = 1/8
d = 1, b = 0
3.5 a=0 d = 43/37 3.0
a=0
d=1 a = 0.2
a = 0.2 b = 6/37 d = 43/37, b = 6/37
3.0 a = 0.2 b=0
2.5 g = –1
normalised currents

normalised currents

2.5 g=1 g = –1 g=1

g = –1 2.0 a=0
2.0
g = –0.5 g = 0.5
1.5
1.5 g = –0.5 g = 0.5 Z1f
g=0 1.0 g=0
1.0
0 •
0.5 0.5

0 0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 Z3f
phase angel, rad/p phase angel, rad/p
a b
3.5 a=0 d = 9/8 g=1
a = 0.2 b = 1/8 Z2f
3.0
normalised currents

2.5 g=1
g = –1
2.0 g = –1
1.5 g = –0.5 g = 0.5
g=0
1.0

0.5
Fig. 2 Impedances design space of the novel continuous inverse modes
0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
phase angel, rad/p
c From (2) and (3), the expression for drain efficiency can be expressed
by the following equation:
Fig. 1 Normalised current waveform of the novel continuous inverse modes √


2(d − a)
hD = (5)
a d = 43/37, b = 6/37 2 − da
b d = 1, b = 0
c d = 9/8, b = 1/8 Fig. 3a shows the relationship among the drain efficiency of the novel

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 11th May 2017 Vol. 53 No. 10 pp. 685–687

continuous inverse modes, d and α. Fig. 3b shows the output power results of this PA, which include drain efficiency, output power and
decrease with respect to d and α. The output power decrease is gain, are described in Fig. 6. The designed PA has drain efficiency of
defined as the novel continuous inverse mode minus the output power 65–78% in the 1.8–3G. The measured output power is from 12.9 to
of inverse class F. We can know that the drain efficiency and output 21 W in the interesting frequency range. The gain of the fabricated
power decrease with the increase of α. PA based on the novel continuous inverse mode is 10–13.3 dB from
the measured results.
80

100 0 –5 80

output power decrease

drain efficiencies, %

80 60 –5
–10 –10
60 70

Pout, dbm DE, % gain, dB

–15
40 40
–20 –15
20 –25 60
0 20 –30
1.20 1.20 –20
1.15 1.0 1.15 1.0
1.10 0.6
0.8 1.10
0.4
0.6
0.8
50
1.05 0.4 0 1.05 –25
d 0.2 a d 1.00 0 0.2 a
1.00 0

a b 40

30 measured drain efficiency

Fig. 3 Drain efficiencies and output power decrease of the novel continuous measured gain
inverse modes
20 measured output power
a The theoretical drain efficiency varying with d and α
b The theoretical output power varying with d and α
10
1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0
1.7 GHz
frequency, GHz
3 GHz
6 GHz
9 GHz Fig. 6 Measured results of designed broadband PA

Z2f and Z3f at package plane

Conclusion: A series of novel continuous inverse mode is proposed in
this Letter. The proposed novel continuous inverse mode extends the
design space by adjusting the current waveform of the inverse class F
Z1f at package plane model and provides the free fundamental impedance matching space
for the design of broadband high efficiency PA. A wideband high effi-
Z1f at I-gen plane
ciency PA is simulated and designed. From the schematic of simulation,
the fundamental impedance can fall well within the design space. It can
be seen from the measurement results that proposed PA has good
performance.

Z2f and Z3f at I-gen plane

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2017
Submitted: 23 February 2017 E-first: 3 April 2017
doi: 10.1049/el.2017.0674
One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
Wen Luo, Zongxi Tang, Binbin Ge and Xin Cao (School of Electronic
Fig. 4 Simulation curves of output impedance matching network at package Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
plane and I-gen plane Chengdu 611731, People’s Republic of China)

10pF 10pF
✉ E-mail: 362199166@qq.com
ER = 3.66
width/length
(mm/mm) 0.4/11.9 CGH40010F 0.9/11.9
HEMT
4.2/2.2 3.9/7.1 1.1/3.8 1.4/4
RFout
References
8.7pF 3.6/5.8 15/2.7 14.2/5.8
RFin 1.4/5.5 6.9/6.2 3.5/5.4 2.1/8.4 8.7pF
1.1/4 1.1/2.3 2.3/6.8 3.7/8.8 3.9/0.4
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ELECTRONICS LETTERS 11th May 2017 Vol. 53 No. 10 pp. 685–687