Higher Efficiency Switching Mode Power Amplifier Design using the Third-Harmonic Peaking Turning Mode

Abstract

This paper provides the design approach of one stage switching-mode based class F power amplifier (PA).The device’s nonlinear behavior was analyzed to reduce the dissipated power over the active device and therefore the PA efficiency was increase without having to compromise the power amplifier’s size. The load harmonics were controlled so that the drain voltage and the drain current do rarely coincide with each other, thus greatly increase the power performance of the device. Taking the device size and cost parameters into consideration, the design of load harmonic trap circuit was reduced only to the 2nd and 3rd harmonics. The GaN HEMT transistor, for its high-speed switching ability, is used in our design to maximize the output power and the optimized circuit operating at 5.8GHz with output power of 50.98W was simulated. A power added efficiency of 60% with the power gain of 14dB was obtained.