Comparative evaluation of different current saving strategies for power amplifiers in back-off operation

Author

Sandro, Pinarello ; Mueller, J.-E. ; Weigel, Robert

Author_Institution

Intel Mobile Commun., Neubiberg, Germany

fYear

2013

fDate

6-10 Oct. 2013

Firstpage

557

Lastpage

560

Abstract

Three different methodologies are compared, which are suitable for saving battery current of a power amplifier operated in back-off. Dynamic Voltage Biasing (DVB), Dynamic Current Biasing (DCB), and Load Modulation (LM) have been paired in three different ways and experimentally tested for the first time on the same power transistor to achieve meaningful conclusions. Measurement results from on-wafer load-pull investigation of a SiGe power cell identify the combination of DVB and DCB as the most profitable strategy. This mode manifests a power added efficiency higher than 75% for an excellent 14dB back-off dynamic.

Keywords

modulation; power amplifiers; power transistors; DCB; DVB; LM; back-off operation; battery current; current saving strategies; dynamic current biasing; dynamic voltage biasing; load modulation; power amplifiers; power transistor; Current measurement; Digital video broadcasting; Frequency measurement; Gain; Impedance; Microwave communication; Power generation; Power amplifiers (PAs); energy efficiency; heterojunction bipolar transistors; microwave measurements; millimetre wave transistors; power tracking; semiconductor device testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2013 European

Conference_Location

Nuremberg

Type

conf

Filename

6686716