Novel Doherty Power Amplifier Design for Advanced Communication Systems

As modern communication system demands higher spectrum efficiency and data rate, new communication standard using complex modulation scheme has emerged and led to transmitting signal with ever-increasing Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR). Moreover, the co-existence of different standards requires RF transceivers to support signal transmission at multiple carrier frequencies. Therefore, wideband operation and efficient amplification of high PAPR signal are prime requirements for base-station PA design.;For efficiency enhancement, the Doherty Power Amplifier (DPA) [1] has been regarded as the most popular approach due to its circuit simplicity and moderate linearity. Three innovative DPA design techniques relating to the enhancement of operating bandwidth, high efficiency range and power utilization factor (PUF) are proposed in this work.;In the first demonstration, a novel DPA configuration with Complex Combining Load (CCL) is presented to extend the high efficiency range of the amplifier. Theoretical analysis of dynamic load span, current ratio and drain efficiency reveals that complex combining load can offer a new degree of freedom to boost the Output Back-off (OBO) of DPA. For verification, a 2GHz, equal-cell, GaN HEMT-based DPA is simulated, prototyped and measured with both complex and resistive combining loads. Under Continuous Wave (CW) excitation, measurement results show that the CCL DPA can attain an OBO of 9.1 dB which is 3.6 dB higher than that of the RCL design. In addition, by the use of single-carrier WCDMA signal with PAPR of 9.6 dB and at an average output power of 33.2 dBm, the CCL design is found to deliver an average drain efficiency of 57.4%.;The second design presents a novel technique to extend the bandwidth and efficiency range of DPA by the adoption of frequency-varying Complex Combining Load and proper input current control strategy. For verification, a 42 dBm, 1.8-2.2 GHz DPA with OBO of 8.5 dB was designed, built and characterized. Under CW stimulation, a back-off efficiency (8.5 dB) of 55-59% and saturation efficiency of 69-73% were observed over the entire bandwidth. With single carrier WCDMA signal excitation (PAPR of 9.6 dB), an average drain efficiency of 53-58% was obtained at 33.5 dBm average output power and Adjacent Channel Leakage Power Ratio (ACLR) of around -30 dBc.;In the last technique, a novel DPA configuration with auxiliary transformer is presented for broadband operation. Theoretical analysis reveals that the presented design can offer enhanced PUF and wideband Doherty behavior. Based on the proposed theory, a 1.6-2.4 GHz, 20 W DPA with improved PUF is designed, simulated and measured. Under CW excitation, measurement results indicate that the presented DPA can achieve a PUF of 0.94, good Doherty behavior over the entire frequency band with a 6 dB back-off efficiency of 55-64% and saturated efficiency of 68-76%. In addition, by the use of single-carrier WCDMA signal (centered at 2 GHz) with PAPR of 6.6 dB and at an average output power of 37 dBm, an average drain efficiency of 56% is obtained with ACLR of better than -- 37 dBc.