Title :
A 5.8-GHz power amplifier with an on-chip tunable output matching network
Author :
Lee, Yi-Chun ; Fu, Jia-Shiang
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Central Univ., Jhongli, Taiwan
Abstract :
The power efficiency of power amplifiers (PAs) at low drive levels can be enhanced if the load impedance presented to the transistors can be adjusted using a tunable output matching network. In this work, a 5.8-GHz PA with an on-chip tunable output matching network on a GaAs 0.15-μm pHEMT process is presented. As opposed to most of the previous work in the literature, the varactor-based continuously tunable matching network presented here is fully-integrated. Moreover, in this work, another PA with a fixed output matching network is fabricated on the same chip with the tunable PA for the purpose of comparison. The measured saturation power levels for both PAs are 22.2 dBm. At the output power level of 17.5 dBm, a 4% PAE improvement is observed. This translates into a 16% reduction in DC power consumption.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; high electron mobility transistors; impedance matching; low-power electronics; microwave power amplifiers; varactors; DC power consumption; GaAs; GaAs pHEMT process; frequency 5.8 GHz; load impedance; on-chip tunable output matching network; power amplifier; size 0.15 mum; varactor; Impedance; Impedance matching; Power amplifiers; Power demand; Power generation; System-on-a-chip; Varactors; Efficiency; power amplifiers; tunable matching networks;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Conference Proceedings (APMC), 2011 Asia-Pacific
Conference_Location :
Melbourne, VIC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-2034-5