Supply- and load-modulated balanced amplifier for efficient broadband 5G base stations

Cappello, Tommaso, Pednekar, Prathamesh, Florian, Corrado, Cripps, Steve ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2258-951X, Popovic, Zoya and Barton, Taylor W. 2019. Supply- and load-modulated balanced amplifier for efficient broadband 5G base stations. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 67 (7) , pp. 3122-3133. 10.1109/TMTT.2019.2915082

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Abstract

This paper presents a broadband efficient power amplifier (PA) targeting sub-6-GHz 5G base station applications. Due to the demanding requirements in both peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and bandwidth in 5G systems, we employ a combination of both load and supply modulation for efficiency enhancement. Active matching, implemented using an RF-input load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) architecture, enables efficient octave-bandwidth operation. Supply modulation, which is carrier frequency agnostic, is then used to further extend the back-off efficiency. This paper focuses on a study of supply modulation strategies for the load-modulated PA using an efficient GaN eight-level discrete supply modulator. To overcome the bandwidth limitations associated with discrete-level switching, a commutation rate reduction (CRR) filter is applied in digital baseband and its effects are analyzed theoretically and experimentally. The supply-modulated LMBA is characterized across 1.8–3.8 GHz with 100-MHz, 10-dB PAPR signals. An output power of 34 dBm with average composite (total) PAE ranging from 22.4% to 43.9% across the band is demonstrated, with an ACLR of about −50 dBc after digital predistortion.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
ISSN:	0018-9480
Date of Acceptance:	7 February 2019
Last Modified:	26 Oct 2022 07:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/124433

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