Concurrent Multiband Digital Outphasing Transmitter Architecture Using Multidimensional Power Coding

All-digital outphasing transmitter architecture using multidimensional power coding (MDPC) is proposed for noncontiguous concurrent multiband transmission with a high power efficiency. MDPC transforms multiband digital baseband signals into multibit low-resolution digital signals that drive switching-mode PAs. A prototype digital outphasing transmitter consists of two 1-GHz bandwidth GaN Class-D PAs and a Chireix power combiner. The two GaN PAs are driven by bipolar radio frequency (RF) pulse-width modulation (PWM) signals, which are transformed from a concurrent dual-band LTE signal by MDPC. The dual-band LTE signal with 15-MHz aggregate channel bandwidth at 240 and 500 MHz frequency band is transmitted with -30 and -37 dBc out-of-band emissions, respectively. Digital outphasing achieves more than two times higher coding efficiency than conventional concurrent dual-band digital transmitters with the same PAs in Class-S operation. Measured power coding efficiencies of 35.4% and 47.1% are observed with outphasing bipolar and 3-level RF PWM signals respectively, which are encoded from the dual-band LTE signal.