A family of 20 W linear driver ICs for RF high power amplifiers

Three 20 W RF LDMOS power amplifier driver integrated circuits (driver ICs) for cellular base station applications have been developed in Si LDMOS IC technologies. They can be used for all typical modulation formats from 800 MHz to 2300 MHz with output P-1 dB of 20 W. 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz driver ICs achieved 32 dB gain with 200 MHz P-2 dB bandwidth (P-2 BW), 30 dB gain with 200 MHz P-2 BW, and 27 dB gain with 300 MHz P-2 BW, respectively. All three driver ICs have been characterized under all typical modulations formats and showed excellent linear power, efficiency, and bandwidth. The excellent performances of these three driver ICs, simplify basestation power amplifier designs, enable a small footprint and help lower the cost of the modern basestation.