A compact 12-watt high-efficiency 2.1-2.7 GHz class-E GaN HEMT power amplifier for base stations

Abstract

A compact broadband class-E power amplifier design is presented. High broadband power efficiency is observed from 2.0-2.5 GHz, where drain efficiency > 74% and PAE > 71%, when using 2 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">nd</sup> -harmonic input tuning. The highest in-band efficiency performance is observed at 2.14 GHz from a 40 V supply with peak drain-efficiency of 77.3% and peak PAE of 74.0% at 12 W output power and 14 dB gain. The best broadband output power performance is observed from 2.1-2.7 GHz without 2 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">nd</sup> -harmonic input tuning, where the output power variation is within 1.5 dB and power efficiency is between 53% and 66%.