Title :
Wide-Bandwidth Power-Combining and Inverse Class-F GaN Power Amplifier at X-Band
Author :
Stameroff, A.N. ; Ta, Hai Hoang ; Anh-Vu Pham ; Leoni, Robert E.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
Abstract :
In this paper, we present a wide bandwidth power amplifier (PA) utilizing a Marchand balun to achieve power combining and inverse class-F (class-F-1) matching. We have used a 4-to-1 balun and its out-of-band characteristics to achieve matching at the second and third harmonic for differential class-F-1 operation. Thus, the balun simultaneously acts as a combiner and harmonic matching network. The experimental results demonstrate that the prototype PA achieves an output power of 41.5 dBm at the 1-dB compression point (P1 dB), power-added efficiency of 55%, and gain of 10 dB over a fractional bandwidth of 40% from 8 to 12 GHz. Due to the differential operation, the class-F-1 PA has also achieved a measured second harmonic distortion of -50 dBc.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; baluns; differential amplifiers; gallium compounds; harmonic distortion; harmonic generation; microwave power amplifiers; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN; Marchand balun; X-band; combiner network; differential class-F-1 operation; differential operation; frequency 8 GHz to 12 GHz; harmonic matching network; inverse class-F matching; inverse class-F power amplifier; out-of-band characteristics; power-added efficiency; prototype PA; second harmonic distortion measurement; third harmonic; wide bandwidth power ampliήer; Bandwidth; Gallium nitride; Harmonic analysis; Impedance; Impedance matching; Ports (Computers); Transistors; Gallium nitride (GaN); harmonic matching; inverse class F; power amplifiers (PAs); power combining;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMTT.2013.2244611
