Analysis of Average Power Tracking Doherty Power Amplifier

An average power tracking (APT) Doherty power amplifier (PA) is analyzed in terms of its biasing voltage condition, efficiency, and output power. And the drain and gate bias voltages are optimized for operation at different output power conditions. The Doherty power amplifier is designed using 45 W gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) for the carrier and peaking cells at 1.94 GHz. The bias voltages are controlled for each average power level(42.9 dBm, 39.9 dBm, 37 dBm). The measured drain efficiencies and gains are 53.2%, 12.8 dB at 42.9 dBm and 54.3%, 11.2 dB at 39.9 dBm and 53.4%, 9.1 dB at 37 dBm for a 10 MHz LTE signal with a 6.5 dB PAPR. This result demonstrates that the Doherty PA can be reconfigured for different average output powers using the bias voltage control method.

[1]  S. C. Cripps,et al.  RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communications , 1999 .

[2]  Bumjae Shin,et al.  A fully matched N-way Doherty amplifier with optimized linearity , 2003 .

[3]  C. Fager,et al.  A Modified Doherty Power Amplifier With Extended Bandwidth and Reconfigurable Efficiency , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[4]  Jangheon Kim,et al.  Saturated Power Amplifier Optimized for Efficiency Using Self-Generated Harmonic Current and Voltage , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[5]  Slim Boumaiza,et al.  Doherty Power Amplifier With Enhanced Efficiency at Extended Operating Average Power Levels , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[6]  Frederick Raab,et al.  Efficiency of Doherty RF Power-Amplifier Systems , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting.

[7]  Bumman Kim,et al.  Enhanced Hammerstein Behavioral Model for Broadband Wireless Transmitters , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.