Title :
Trading-off stability for efficiency in designing switching-mode GaN PAs for WiMAX applications
Author :
Ebrahimi, Mohammad Mojtaba ; Helaoui, Mohamed ; Ghannouchi, Fadhel
Author_Institution :
Comp. Eng. Dep., Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Abstract :
This paper presents a 10 W, 2.4 GHz switching-mode power with a GaN HEMT transistor for WiMAX applications. By trading the stability for the efficiency, the overall power efficiency of the designed PA can be increased. It is shown in this paper that the parasitic effect introduced by the stability circuit affects the waveform shaping at large-signal drive level in switching mode PAs and consequently degrades its maximum peak efficiency. Hence, by using a potentially instable design, the efficiency and gain performance of a given transistor can be increased compared to an unconditionally stable design. To validate this approach an inverse class F PA was manufactured and tested. The power added efficiency and gain performance increased by 3.5% and 0.25 dB to reach 72% and 14.5 dB, respectively, when using a potentially instable design.
Keywords :
WiMax; high electron mobility transistors; power amplifiers; GaN; HEMT transistor; WiMAX application; frequency 2.4 GHz; maximum peak efficiency; overall power efficiency increment; power 10 W; signal waveform shaping; stability circuit affect; switching-mode GaN PA; trading-off stability; Circuit stability; Degradation; Gallium nitride; OFDM modulation; Peak to average power ratio; Performance gain; Stability analysis; Switching circuits; Voltage; WiMAX; Switching-mode PA; WiMAX; efficiency; harmonic load pull; harmonic matching; stability;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Conference, 2009. APMC 2009. Asia Pacific
Conference_Location :
Singapore
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2801-4
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2802-1
DOI :
10.1109/APMC.2009.5385454
