Efficiency of Outphasing RF Power-Amplifier Systems

The outphasing technique (LINC) combines two nonlinear RF power amplifiers into a linear RF power-amplifier (PA) system. The two PA´s are driven with signals of different phases, and the phases are controlled so that the addition of the PA outputs produces a system output of the desired amplitude. However, the resultant time-varying impedances presented to the PA´s alter their dc power consumption and efficiency. Power and efficiency characteristics are derived for both simple (transformer-coupler) and Chireix (transmission-line-coupler with shunt reactance) outphasing systems using saturated class-B PA´s. Simple outphasing systems have the efficiency characteristic of a linear class-B PA. Through proper selection of the shunt reactance, the efficiency of a Chireix outphasing system can be maximized at a specific output amplitude. The average efficiency with various amplitude-modulated signals is determined as a function of shunt reactance. Selecting the shunt reactance to fit the signal can improve efficiency by as much as a factor of 2.