TY - GEN
T1 - Monolithic class e SiGe power amplifier design with wideband high-efficiency and linearity
AU - Lie, Donald Y.C.
AU - Popp, Jeremy D.
AU - Lee, Patrick
AU - Yang, Annie H.
AU - Rowland, Jason F.
AU - Wang, F.
AU - Kimball, Don
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - This paper discusses and compares the design of monolithic RF broadband Class E SiGe power amplifiers (PAs) centered at 900MHz that are highly efficient and linear. It is found that high power-added-efficiency (∼65%) can be achieved with PAs designed using either high-breakdown or high-fT SiGe transistors. The PAs designed with high-breakdown devices can provide ∼3% better efficiency at higher supply voltages but with worse bias sensitivity, inferior broadband frequency response, and slightly lower gain than those designed with high-fT devices. However, the Class E PAs designed using high-breakdown devices can be successfully linearized using an open-loop envelope tracking (ET) technique as their output spectra pass the stringent EDGE transmit mask with margins, achieving an overall system PAE of 44.4% that surpasses the ∼30% PAE obtainable using commercial GaAs Class AB PAs. These promising results indicate the feasibility of realizing true single-chip wireless transceivers with on-chip RF SiGe PAs for spectrally-efficient non-constant-envelope modulation schemes.
AB - This paper discusses and compares the design of monolithic RF broadband Class E SiGe power amplifiers (PAs) centered at 900MHz that are highly efficient and linear. It is found that high power-added-efficiency (∼65%) can be achieved with PAs designed using either high-breakdown or high-fT SiGe transistors. The PAs designed with high-breakdown devices can provide ∼3% better efficiency at higher supply voltages but with worse bias sensitivity, inferior broadband frequency response, and slightly lower gain than those designed with high-fT devices. However, the Class E PAs designed using high-breakdown devices can be successfully linearized using an open-loop envelope tracking (ET) technique as their output spectra pass the stringent EDGE transmit mask with margins, achieving an overall system PAE of 44.4% that surpasses the ∼30% PAE obtainable using commercial GaAs Class AB PAs. These promising results indicate the feasibility of realizing true single-chip wireless transceivers with on-chip RF SiGe PAs for spectrally-efficient non-constant-envelope modulation schemes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34748854882&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/VDAT.2006.258128
DO - 10.1109/VDAT.2006.258128
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:34748854882
SN - 1424401798
SN - 9781424401796
T3 - 2006 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2006 - Proceedings of Technical Papers
SP - 79
EP - 82
BT - 2006 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2006 - Proceedings of Technical Papers
T2 - 2006 International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation and Test, VLSI-DAT 2006
Y2 - 26 April 2007 through 28 April 2007
ER -