access icon openaccess One watt gallium arsenide class-E power amplifier with a thin-film bulk acoustic resonator filter embedded in the output network

This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Received 07/04/2015, Accepted 09/04/2015, Published 30/04/2015

Integration of a class-E power amplifier (PA) and a thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) filter is shown to provide high power added efficiency in addition to superior out-of-band spectrum suppression. A discrete gallium arsenide pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor is implemented to operate as a class-E amplifier from 2496 to 2690 MHz. The ACPF7041 compact bandpass FBAR filter is incorporated to replace the resonant LC tank in a traditional class-E PA. To reduce drain voltage stress, the supply choke is replaced by a finite inductance. The fabricated PA provides up to 1 W of output power with a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 58%. The improved out-of-band spectrum filtering is compared to a traditional class-E with discrete LC resonant filtering. Such PAs can be combined with linearisation techniques to reduce out-of-band emissions.

Inspec keywords: gallium arsenide; acoustic resonator filters; high electron mobility transistors; band-pass filters; thin film devices; UHF power amplifiers

Other keywords: frequency 2496 MHz to 2690 MHz; power 1 W; thin-film bulk acoustic resonator filter; finite inductance; class-E power amplifier; out-of-band spectrum filtering; power added efficiency; HEMT; out-of-band spectrum suppression; PA; linearisation techniques; GaAs; PAE; ACPF7041 compact bandpass FBAR filter; discrete pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor

Subjects: Microwave circuits and devices; Passive filters and other passive networks; Thin film circuits; Other field effect devices; Acoustic wave devices; Amplifiers; Waveguide and microwave transmission line components

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http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/joe.2015.0058
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