High efficiency wide bandwidth power supplies for GSM and EDGE RF power amplifiers

This paper presents and compares three circuit architectures that are promising candidates to efficiently and dynamically supply GSM and EDGE RF power amplifiers in handsets. The candidate architectures include a switcher with hysteretic control, and two linear-assisted switcher configurations. The architectures have been implemented and tested by simulation in a standard 0.5 μm, 5 V CMOS process. The circuits are compared in terms of efficiency and reference tracking capabilities.