Performance Study of a Class-E Power Amplifier With Tuned Series-Parallel Resonance Network

Abstract

This paper reports on a modified class-E amplifier with a tuned series-parallel resonance network. This configuration introduces two additional resonance frequencies. The design equations required to determine the optimum operations are analyzed in detail by introducing three additional boundary conditions. compared to the conventional class-E amplifier, the numerical results show that the improvements on load resistance, maximum transistor current, power output capability, and maximum frequency can be obtained by properly selecting the resonance frequencies of the tuned network. Comparisons between simulations and measurements of an experimental circuit of the new configuration are drawn to validate the feasibility. The drain efficiency of 81.77%, power-added efficiency of 79.58%, and output power of 32.71 dBm (1.866 W) at 250 MHz are measured.