Design of Broadband Highly Efficient Harmonic-Tuned Power Amplifier Using In-Band Continuous Class-1/F Mode Transferring

A novel methodology for designing high-frequency broadband harmonic-tuned power amplifiers (PAs) is presented in this paper. Specifically, a hybrid PA mode, transferring between continuous inverse Class-F and continuous Class-F, is for the first time employed to design PAs with optimal performance over more than-an-octave bandwidth. A GaN PA is designed and realized based on this mode-transferring operation using a three-stage transmission-line-based low-pass matching network. Simulation and experimental results show that an in-band PA-mode transferring between continuous Class-F-1 and continuous Class-F is successfully performed. The implemented PA achieves a measured 87% bandwidth from 1.3 to 3.3 GHz, while exhibiting a state-of-the-art performance of >10-dB gain, 60%-84% efficiency, and 10-W output power throughout this band. Furthermore, modulated evaluation is carried out using a 300-kHz bandwidth 16-quadrature amplitude-modulation signal. Good linearity performance is measured with adjacent channel power ratio from -20 to -35 dBc and an error vector magnitude of 4%-9% over the entire bandwidth.