Linear Hybrid Asymmetrical Load- Modulated Balanced Amplifier With Multiband Reconfigurability and Antenna-VSWR Resilience
Jiachen Guo, Yuchen Cao, Kenle Chen
Abstract
This article presents the first-ever highly linear and load-insensitive three-way load-modulation power amplifier (PA) based on reconfigurable hybrid asymmetrical load modulated balanced amplifier (H-ALMBA). Through proper amplitude and phase controls, the carrier, control amplifier (CA), and two peaking balanced amplifiers (BA1 and BA2) can form a linear high-order load modulation over wide bandwidth. Moreover, it is theoretically unveiled that the load modulation behavior of H-ALMBA can be insensitive to load mismatch by leveraging bias reconfiguration and the intrinsic load-insensitivity of balanced topology. Specifically, the PA’s linearity and efficiency profiles can be maintained against arbitrary load mismatch through <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z_{L}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> -dependent reconfiguration of CA supply voltage ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_\mathrm{DD,CA}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ) and turning-on sequence of BA1 and BA2. Based on the proposed theory, an RF-input linear H-ALMBA is developed with GaN transistors and wideband quadrature hybrids. Over the design bandwidth from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.7$</tex-math> </inline-formula> to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.9$</tex-math> </inline-formula> GHz, an efficiency of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$56.8\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula> <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$72.9\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> at peak power and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$49.8\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula> <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$61.2\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> at <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10$</tex-math> </inline-formula> -dB PBO are measured together with linear AMAM and AMPM responses. In modulated evaluation with 4G LTE signal, an EVM of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3.1\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> , ACPR of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-39$</tex-math> </inline-formula> dB, and average efficiency of up to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$52\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> are measured. Moreover, the reconfigurable H-ALMBA experimentally maintains an excellent average efficiency and linearity against arbitrary load mismatch at 2:1 VSWR, and this mismatch-resilient operation can be achieved at any in-band frequencies. The overall measured performance favorably outperforms the state-of-the-art.