Development of a Parallel-FET Linearization Technique for High Efficiency GaN Power Amplifiers

Darwish, Mohammad; Pham, Anh-Vu

doi:10.1109/lmwc.2016.2646914

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Such significant back-offs exacerbate the PA output power and efficiency, leading to high power consumption, which entails nonlinear effects in the form of intrinsic parasitic capacitances of the power transistor. Recent literature has made efforts to improve the PA linearity at the circuit level using an in-package 2,3 or a combiner network-based [4][5][6] distortion correction method. These contributions have significantly reduced the design overheads of external PA equalization (PD) systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7 Thus, parallelly combined GaN HEMTs with opposite magnitudes can be employed to minimize AM-PM distortion effects. 4,6 Besides, it is also shown in Alt et al 8 that additional care is needed for optimal input matching network (IMN) and supply voltage as these can also be the other sources of AM-AM and AM-PM distortions (AM/PM). Furthermore, the precise mapping of fundamental and harmonic impedances is also important to evade variable load conditions for high-efficiency operation with linear AM/PM characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Harmonic‐tuned high‐efficiency GaN power amplifier with precise AM‐AM and AM‐PM characteristics

Haider

Xiao

You

et al. 2022

Micro & Optical Tech Letters

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An optimal balance between high efficiency and high linearity is one of the main performance metrics of modern base stations to handle the deep compression of the power amplifier (PA) module. In principle, the plethora of amplitude-to-amplitude (AM-AM) and amplitude-to-phase (AM-PM) distortions are issues worth exploring. Therefore, this paper presents a linearized harmonic-tuned PA that operates at 2.4 GHz. The presented PA utilizes a compact input matching network (IMN) and output MN (OMN) with shuntconnected tunable resonant circuits augmented by the stabilization network, whose presence greatly reduces the transistor parasitics and high-order effects.Hence, a joint embodiment of each other gives optimal fundamental impedance matching alongside harmonic terminations and precise AM/PM waveform properties. The measurement results have shown that the fabricated PA exhibits peak saturated output power of 40.9 dBm and peak drain efficiency (DE) of 67%. In addition, the AM-AM and AM-PM curves under continuous-wave excitation yield a gain flatness of 0.5 dB over a 37.5 dBm power range and ±3.5°phase distortion, respectively, when the input power level is swept up to the saturation level of 40 dBm. When driven with a 5 MHz 64-QAM OFDM signal and 6.9 dB power back-off, the manufactured PA meets the adjacent channel leakage ratio specification of −30 dBc at an average output power of 34.5 dBm.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonic‐tuned high‐efficiency GaN power amplifier with precise AM‐AM and AM‐PM characteristics

Haider

Xiao

You

et al. 2022

Micro & Optical Tech Letters

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“…The origins of this behavior are the semiconductor physics of GaN, especially its nonlinear trans‐conductance and the thermal effect 11–13 . While the saturated output power in GaAs and LDMOS transistors occurs about 2–3 dB above the 1‐dB compression point, in GaN devices, it is about 3~8 dB leading to poor efficiency in their linear power range 14,15 . Several techniques have been applied to improve the linearity of GaN PAs; one of them is the second harmonic injection (SHI) which was developed in the early 1990s for the linearization of semiconductor amplifiers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[11][12][13] While the saturated output power in GaAs and LDMOS transistors occurs about 2-3 dB above the 1-dB compression point, in GaN devices, it is about 3~8 dB leading to poor efficiency in their linear power range. 14,15 Several techniques have been applied to improve the linearity of GaN PAs; one of them is the second harmonic injection (SHI) which was developed in the early 1990s for the linearization of semiconductor amplifiers. For example, in, 16 using an SHI approach, the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) of a 500 MHz MESFET amplifier is improved by 16 dB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A highly linearized second harmonic injected GaN power amplifier

Abbasnezhad

Tayarani

Abrishamifar

et al. 2022

Micro & Optical Tech Letters

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This article presents an active second harmonic injection technique for linearizing power amplifiers (PAs). In this method, a second harmonic signal with adjustable amplitude and phase, which is generated by a differential pair network, is injected into the input of a PA in a forward path. The tunable input and output matching circuits of the proposed second harmonic generator provide linearization capability in a wide frequency band. To validate the concept, the proposed second harmonic injection technique was implemented to linearize a GaN PA working around 1.5 GHz. It was shown that applying the proposed linearization method increases the output 1-dB compression point from 33.5 dBm to 39.5 dBm (about 2 dB lower than saturation power) under the CW signal. Furthermore, the backed-off efficiency at a higher adjacent channel power ratio was improved, and improvement of 16 dB at 200 MHz frequency bandwidth was achieved for an 8 MS/s 64-quadraticamplitude modulation signal.

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“…The design of a linear PA using different gate bias voltages for parallelly combined GaN HEMTs has been presented. [26,27] V gs of each subunit was adjusted independently, and the total power consisted of all subcell outputs. Considering the different g m values of the device under different V gs , the total g m can remain linear in the output power range and reduce IMD3.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of a Parallel Dual‐Metal‐Gate Structure for AlGaN/GaN High‐Electron‐Mobility Transistor High‐Linearity Applications

Jia

Wang

Chen

et al. 2021

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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This article proposes a parallel dual‐metal‐gate structure (PDM) of AlGaN/GaN high‐electron‐mobility transistors (HEMTs) for high‐linearity applications. Cancellation of the third‐order derivative of the curve (is achieved by splitting the device into two subcells in parallel with different gate metals. The two subcells have different threshold voltages. When the same bias voltage is applied, the operating states of the two subcells are independently controlled by the gate bias voltages. The maximum transconductance () of the conventional single‐metal‐gate (SMG) HEMT, double‐metal‐gate (DMG) HEMT, and PDM‐HEMT is all comparable, whereas of the proposed structure is 75% lower than that of the SMG HEMT and 47.8% lower than that of the DMG HEMT. The effects of the differences and width ratios of the work function on are studied and compared, and a suitably designed PDM‐HEMT that can considerably improve linearity without degrading other performance aspects is obtained. This research has significant implications for high‐linearity applications.

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Development of a Parallel-FET Linearization Technique for High Efficiency GaN Power Amplifiers

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

Harmonic‐tuned high‐efficiency GaN power amplifier with precise AM‐AM and AM‐PM characteristics

Harmonic‐tuned high‐efficiency GaN power amplifier with precise AM‐AM and AM‐PM characteristics

A highly linearized second harmonic injected GaN power amplifier

Simulation of a Parallel Dual‐Metal‐Gate Structure for AlGaN/GaN High‐Electron‐Mobility Transistor High‐Linearity Applications

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