A compact 12-watt high-efficiency 2.1-2.7 GHz class-E GaN HEMT power amplifier for base stations

• Published in: 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest pp. 657 - 660
• Main Authors: van der Heijden, M.P., Acar, M., Vromans, J.S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2009
• Subjects: Bandwidth; Base station; Base stations; broadband; Broadband amplifiers; Capacitance; Circuits; class-E; Gallium nitride; gallium nitride (GaN); HEMTs; high electron mobility transistor (HEMT); High power amplifiers; power amplifier (PA); Power amplifiers; Power generation; power-added efficiency (PAE); RF circuit design
• ISBN: 1424428033; 9781424428038
• ISSN: 0149-645X
• DOI: 10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165782

A compact broadband class-E power amplifier design is presented. High broadband power efficiency is observed from 2.0-2.5 GHz, where drain efficiency > 74% and PAE > 71%, when using 2 nd -harmonic input tuning. The highest in-band efficiency performance is observed at 2.14 GHz from a 40 V supply with peak drain-efficiency of 77.3% and peak PAE of 74.0% at 12 W output power and 14 dB gain. The best broadband output power performance is observed from 2.1-2.7 GHz without 2 nd -harmonic input tuning, where the output power variation is within 1.5 dB and power efficiency is between 53% and 66%.