Abstract-This paper presents an envelope tracking power amplifier using a standard CMOS process for the 3GPP long-term evolution transmitters. An efficiency of the CMOS power amplifier for the modulated signals can be improved using a highly efficient and wideband CMOS bias modulator. The CMOS PA is based on a two-stage differential common-source structure for high gain and large voltage swing. The bias modulator is based on a hybrid buck converter which consists of a linear stage and a switching stage. The dynamic load condition according to the envelope signal level is taken into account for the bias modulator design. By applying the bias modulator to the power amplifier, an overall efficiency of 41.7 % was achieved at an output power of 24 dBm using the 16-QAM uplink LTE signal. It is 5.3 % points higher than that of the power amplifier alone at the same output power and linearity.
Abstract-This paper presents a dual-mode bias modulator (BM) for complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) power amplifiers (PAs). The BM includes a hybrid buck converter and a normal buck converter for an envelope tracking (ET) mode for high output power and for an average power tracking (APT) mode for low output power, respectively. The dual-mode BM and CMOS PA are designed using a 0.18-mm CMOS process for the 1.75 GHz band. For the 16-QAM LTE signal with a peakto-average power ratio of 7.3 dB and a bandwidth of 5 MHz, the PA with the ET mode exhibited a poweradded efficiency (PAE) of 39.2%, an EVM of 4.8%, a gain of 19.0 dB, and an adjacent channel leakage power ratio of -30 dBc at an average output power of 22 dBm, while the stand-alone PA has a PAE of 8% lower at the same condition. The PA with APT mode has a PAE of 21.3%, which is an improvement of 13.4% from that of the stand-alone PA at an output power of 13 dBm.
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