Future developments and technology options in cellular phone power amplifiers: from power amplifier to integrated RF front-end module

Author

Jos, Rik

Author_Institution

Philips Discrete Semicond., Nijmegen, Netherlands

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

118

Lastpage

125

Abstract

Millions of cellular phone power amplifiers (PA) are produced every day worldwide using a great diversity of technologies. This is true both for the active devices, where various silicon as well as GaAs transistors are being used, and for the PA design, in which MMIC, module and discrete solutions compete. This paper gives an overview of the various options for technological and architectural choices and their influence on PA performance, notably efficiency and linearity. It sketches the future of PA development towards more functional integration, which will be obtained by two paths: integration on chip and added functionality in modules

Keywords

MMIC power amplifiers; cellular radio; integrated circuit packaging; modules; power amplifiers; technological forecasting; telephone sets; GaAs; GaAs transistors; MMIC; PA design; PA development; PA efficiency; PA linearity; PA performance; Si; Si transistors; active devices; architectural options; cellular phone power amplifier technology; cellular phone power amplifiers; discrete solutions; functional integration; future developments; integrated RF front-end module; module functionality; modules; on-chip integration; power amplifier; technology options; Cellular phones; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Isolation technology; MMICs; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting, 2000. Proceedings of the 2000

Conference_Location

Minneapolis, MN

ISSN

1088-9299

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6384-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BIPOL.2000.886187

Filename

886187