A compact, 42% PAE, two-stage, LDMOS Doherty PA Module for Massive MIMO applications

Ladhani, Hussain; Maalouf, Elie; Jones, Jeffrey K.; Masood, Mir; Kenney, J.S.

doi:10.1109/imc-5g47857.2019.9160382

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Estimating a line-up efficiency for comparison, for a driver with 30% efficiency to reach a line-up gain close to the one presented in this study with the DPA [41], the full line-up efficiency would be around 50% which is close to our MMIC one, even lower (48%) using a driver with 20%. Now compared to other DPAs realized in LDMOS with similar high gain, which also present linearized efficiency for wideband signals (160 MHz/200 MHz with high PAR 8-9 dB) this study shows slightly lower gain compared to DPAs [44,45], around 1-2 dB below. The DPA [44] is more linear for 200 MHz LTE signals compared to this study.…”

Section: Discussion Of Measurement Resultsmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Now compared to other DPAs realized in LDMOS with similar high gain, which also present linearized efficiency for wideband signals (160 MHz/200 MHz with high PAR 8-9 dB) this study shows slightly lower gain compared to DPAs [44,45], around 1-2 dB below. The DPA [44] is more linear for 200 MHz LTE signals compared to this study. However, the presented design presents by far the highest linearized efficiency for 5G m-MIMO applications, with more than 49% efficiency after DPD.…”

Section: Discussion Of Measurement Resultsmentioning

confidence: 69%

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Fully integrated three-way LDMOS Doherty PAs for 1.8–2.2 GHz dual-band and 2.6 GHz m-MIMO 5G applications

Vigneau¹,

Ercoli²,

Maroldt³

2021

Int. J. Microw. Wireless Technol.

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This paper presents a fully integrated three-way Doherty architecture to address the challenges of 5G applications using laterally-diffused metal-oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) technology. By using the so-called CDS cancelation method for the Doherty combiner design, a wideband impedance transformation is achieved, that combined with the three-way Doherty power amplifier (DPA) architecture allows for high efficiency in deep back-off, with a reduced load modulation for high bandwidth. Throughout this paper, the design approach and realization are described, while multiple critical design challenges will be addressed such as low frequency drain resonance optimization, impact of in-package coupling effects, and linearity versus efficiency tradeoff. Two state-of-the-art three-way fully integrated LDMOS DPA monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMICs) are presented to demonstrate how these measures have been successfully applied to different power amplifier (PA) line-up components for 5G base station systems. First, a 60 W 1.8–2.2 GHz multi-stage device for driver application in true dual-band operation is presented. The circuit design pays special attention to extended PA video bandwidth thanks to integrated passive device. After digital pre-distortion (DPD) in dual-band operation, this highly linear device achieves an outstanding adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) of −56 dBc for a 2cLTE 20 MHz 8 dB peak-to-average ratio signal spaced by 345 MHz, thus 385 MHz instantaneous bandwidth (IBW), with 29% efficiency at 35 dBm, 12 dB output back-off (OBO). Second, the simulation and measurement results of a 55 W 2.6 GHz multi-stage DPA for massive-MIMO final stage application are presented, which yields an excellent linearized efficiency of 49% using a 200 MHz 10cLTE signal with an ACLR lower than −47.5 dBc. For 8cLTE 20 MHz (160 MHz IBW), the device yields 50% efficiency with −50.7 dBc ACLR linearized after DPD. The achieved efficiency is well comparable to published GaN DPAs. These results were achieved by improved simulation techniques to minimize frequency dispersion and thus allow high efficiency operation over wide bandwidth. Both devices show that LDMOS is not only a mature technology which allows those PAs to be reliable and low-cost for mass production in very compact packages, but also provide best-in-class RF performance according to the needs of 5G base station systems.

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