IMS 2014: Broadband Continuous-mode Power Amplifiers

Broadband power amplifiers (PAs) are key components in multichannel communication systems, such as software-defined radios and Cognitive Radios, which tend to use multi frequency bands, such as WiMAX and LTE, often concurrently. With great band gap energy and breakdown field intensity, GaN provides the opportunity to minimize output power losses through low loaded quality factor output matching networks. Newly proposed continuous-mode power amplifier concepts take the advantage of GaN high breakdown voltage and facilitate the design of the broadband PAs through relaxing the requirement on the fundamental and harmonic load impedances with respect to other traditional linear and switching mode PAs. In this presentation, we will explore the inherent design challenges of continuous mode PAs along with the circuit topologies and trade-off in both MMIC and hybrid implementations and present GaN PA demonstrations in L and S-bands, covering most of the current commercial wireless applications.