A reconfigurable SiGe HBT for wideband step envelope tracking power amplifiers

Author

Cidronali, A. ; Magrini, I. ; Fagotti, R. ; Alimenti, F. ; Köther, D. ; Manes, G.

Author_Institution

Florence Univ., Florence

fYear

2007

fDate

8-10 Oct. 2007

Firstpage

139

Lastpage

142

Abstract

This paper discusses and experimentally demonstrates the use of a reconfigurable class-AB power amplifier in a wideband step envelope tracking architecture. The experimental results are related to a SiGe HBT power device prototype in which we integrated the dynamic biasing switching capability. This paper proves that, in the case of 802.11g signals, the prototype allows for an average efficiency of 16.5%, which represents an increase of 10% if compared with traditional class-AB RFPA. The step envelope tracking architecture and its digital predistortion algorithm are discussed and analyzed by system level simulations, which demonstrate the capability of the SiGe prototype to provide 19 dBm output total power with EVM=3.4%.

Keywords

heterojunction bipolar transistors; power amplifiers; wireless LAN; 802.11g signals; SiGe; class-AB power amplifier; digital predistortion algorithm; dynamic biasing switching capability; heterojunction bipolar transistor; reconfigurable SiGe HBT; wideband step envelope tracking architecture; wireless LAN; Algorithm design and analysis; Analytical models; Broadband amplifiers; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Power amplifiers; Predistortion; Prototypes; Silicon germanium; Virtual prototyping; HBT; Index Terms; SiGe; envelope tracking; reconfigurable devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Integrated Circuit Conference, 2007. EuMIC 2007. European

Conference_Location

Munich

Print_ISBN

978-2-87487-002-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EMICC.2007.4412667

Filename

4412667