Radio Frequency (RF) Power Amplifier Design Providing High Power Efficiency in a Wide Dynamic Range

Recent advances in wireless communications have favored increasing data rates. For this purpose, complex modulation techniques with high peak-to-average power ratios (PARs) have been introduced. Conventional RF power amplifiers (PAs) provide high efficiency only at saturated power levels. At lower power levels, the efficiency decreases significantly. In modulation techniques with high PAR, it is necessary to increase the efficiency at the back-off power levels. Various techniques have been developed for this purpose. Among these techniques, the load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) has come to the fore in recent years. In this article, a power amplifier with 47 dBm (50 W) output power in the frequency range of 1.7 GHz–1.9 GHz, 60.1–63.3% drain efficiency at maximum output power, and 40.5–46.8% drain efficiency at 6 dB output back-off is designed and manufactured by using the LMBA technique. It is also shown that the efficiency of the system increases both at maximum output power and at 6 dB output back-off when using the LMBA technique. In addition, using the PA designed with the LMBA technique having 50 W minimum power, providing drain efficiency of 60% over the entire operating band at maximum power and drain efficiency of 40% or more at 6 dB output back-off, it is seen that better results are obtained compared to similar studies in the literature.