A Two-Point Modulation Technique for CMOS Power Amplifier in Polar Transmitter Architecture

A two-point modulation technique is presented that improves the performance of nonlinear power amplifiers (PAs) in polar transmitters. In this scheme, the output amplitude modulation is performed by controlling the current of the PA. The current control technique enables the PA to provide wideband amplitude modulation, as well as high power control dynamic range. In addition, the supply voltage of the PA is adjusted based on the output power level. The voltage supply adjustment substantially improves the effective power efficiency of the PA. The voltage supply control is performed using a second-order sigma-delta dc-dc converter, which presents an efficiency of over 95% in its operational range. The PA operates at 900 MHz with maximum output power of 27.8 dBm and power efficiency of 34% at maximum output power. The proposed PA achieves 62-dB power control dynamic range with amplitude modulation bandwidth of over 17.1 MHz. The circuits are fabricated in a CMOS 0.18 mum process with a 3.3-V power supply.     

Analysis of a Fully Matched Saturated Doherty Amplifier With Excellent Efficiency

A saturated Doherty amplifier based on class-F amplifiers is analyzed in terms of its load modulation behavior, efficiency, and linearity. Simulations included the amplitude ratio and phase difference between the fundamental and third harmonic voltages, the current/voltage waveforms, load lines, and the third-order intermodulation amplitudes/phases of the carrier and peaking amplifiers. The saturated doherty power amplifier was implemented using two Eudyna EGN010MK GaN HEMTs with a 10-W peak envelope power. For a 2.14-GHz forward-fink wideband code-division multiple-access signal, the doherty amplifier delivers an excellent efficiency of 52.4% with an acceptable linearity of -28.3 dBc at an average output power of 36 dBm. Moreover, the amplifier can provide the high linearity performance of -50 dBc using the digital feedback predistortion technique.     

Traveling-wave tube amplifier performance evaluation and design optimization for applications in digital communications with multilevel modulations

In this paper, we demonstrate the use of a power margin as a figure-of-merit for evaluating the performance and optimizing the design of traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) used in digital communication applications with multilevel modulations. The power margin is a system-level measure that balances both device efficiency and nonlinear distortion and provides a more direct prediction of the system-level performance of power amplifiers than device-level measures such as device efficiency or error-vector-magnitude. We calculate the power margin for M quadrature amplitude modulation for an existing TWTA to demonstrate the setting of an optimal amplifier operating drive level according to the criterion of the maximum power margin. The power margin can also be used to compare the performance of different traveling-wave tube (TWT) configurations. We compare the calculated power-margin performance for helix TWT circuits optimized with different optimization goal functions using the helix TWT design code CHRISTINE. The goal functions used in the optimization of the TWT circuits include AM/PM optimization, complex gain optimization, efficiency optimization, and a new digital goal function optimization. The digital goal function is shown to provide an enhanced power margin compared to the other three goal functions and demonstrates the potential of TWT device design optimization from a system perspective.     

LINC power amplifier combiner method efficiency optimization

Linear amplification using nonlinear components (LINC) is a method of vector summing two constant amplitude phase-modulated signals to achieve power amplification. The theoretical efficiency of the LINC power amplifier has been reported as 100% since highly efficient nonlinear constant amplitude amplifiers can be used. However, the 100% efficiency performance is only possible at one or two loads along the power output curve. The bulk of the papers regarding LINC has focused on clever implementations of the signal vector decomposition as well as methods to achieve highly linear signal separation. There has been little regard in the literature to the signal combiner implementation necessary to achieve the high power-added efficiency (PAE) of the LINC radio frequency (RF) power amplifier. Efficiency is not an intrinsic property of the combiner implementations, however, the combiner method is the single biggest contributor to efficient performance of a LINC RF power amplifier. This paper develops an analysis method that determines the efficiency of the LINC power amplifier as a function of the amplitude modulation statistics. This can be employed to design the RF communication system amplitude modulation characteristics and to tradeoff and optimize the RF transmitter PAE     

A 280 mW, 0.07% THD+N class-D audio amplifier using a frequency-domain quantizer

Pulse density modulation (PDM) based class-D amplifiers can reduce non-linearity and tonal content due to carrier signal in pulse width modulation based amplifiers. However, their low-voltage analog implementations also require a linear loop filter and a quantizer. A PDM based class-D audio amplifier using a frequency-domain quantization is presented. The digital intensive frequency-domain approach achieves high linearity under low supply regimes. An analog comparator and a single-bit quantizer are replaced with a current controlled oscillator (ICO) based frequency discriminator. By using the ICO as a phase integrator, a third-order noise shaping is achieved using only two analog integrators. A single-loop, single-bit, class-D audio amplifier is presented with an H-bridge switching power stage, which is designed and fabricated on a 0.18???m CMOS process with 6 layers of metal achieving a total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N) of 0.065% and a peak power efficiency of 80% while driving a 4-?? loudspeaker load. The amplifier can deliver the output power of 280 mW.     

Phase modulation characteristics of 1.5 mu m strained-layer multiple quantum well laser amplifiers

Phase modulation characteristics of strained-layer multiple quantum well laser amplifiers were measured to 4 GHz. A phase modulation efficiency of 2.6 degrees /mA was observed at 1 GHz, with a fibre-to-fibre gain of 7 dB and a residual AM modulation of 5%. The characteristics are independent of the input power up to -12 dBm.<>     

Performance comparison of integrated fully-differential filterless class-D amplifiers with different feedback techniques

Two integrated stereo fully differential filterless class-D amplifiers are presented in this paper. The object is to develop a modulation of a class-D audio amplifier with high power efficiency in this paper. The traditional H-bridge class-D audio amplifier has a shortcoming of large signal distortion which is worse than realized. However, the proposed circuit improves the drawback and provides high power efficiency at the same time. The circuit implements a modified scheme of pulse-width modulation. In this paper, we presented two class-D amplifiers, compared their differences and explained why the efficiency and distortion performance can be modified. The increase in total harmonic distortion (THD) is due to non-linearity in the triangle wave. To overcome this problem, a negative feedback from the output of the switching power stage is adopted to reduce the THD. When a 0.7-V_PP and 1 kHz sine wave is used as an input signal, the minimum THD is 0.029 % and the maximum power efficiency is 83 %. The fully differential class-D audio amplifier is implemented with a TSMC 0.35-μm 2P4M CMOS process, and the chip area is 2.57 × 2.57 mm² (with PADs).     

Digital linearizer for RF amplifiers

Broadcast technology is at the beginning of a new era. It is characterized by the intensive use of the most advanced digital modulation formats (8VSB, QAM, OFDM) in combination with high power RF amplifiers. To date the linearity required for these digital formats has only been accomplished in cumbersome low efficiency class A amplifier or even more cumbersome feed-forward systems. A potentially more efficient and cost effective approach is the combination of nonlinear power amplifiers and a predistortion technique capable of compensating for the nonlinear amplifiers. Digital predistortion will provide a highly linear output and improved efficiency. Itelco has developed a digital adaptive base band predistorter to provide for improved performance and cost. The technique is independent of the modulation type, the output frequency, or the signal bandwidth. Furthermore the capability of automatic adaptive predistortion to compensate for the environment (temperature, power supply variations, aging, and even operation during replacement of a faulty module) is highly desirable     

Propagation of signal and noise in concatenated erbium-doped fiberoptical amplifiers

Signal propagation and noise accumulation in lightwave systems using saturated optical amplifiers as repeaters are analyzed. Numerical simulations of amplified spontaneous emission in concatenated erbium-doped fiber amplifiers indicate that a reach beyond 10000 km is possible with a 1.55-μm system in the absence of fiber nonlinearities. Distributed optical amplifiers are shown to have low noise, but require higher pump power than lumped amplifiers. Three operating modes of an amplifier lightwave system are identified and their relative signal power efficiency and noise performance are described     

Linearised class-B transistor amplifiers

The linearity and efficiency of microwave amplifiers were improved by operating the active devices in a linearised class-B mode. Good linearity, i.e., low intermodulation distortion, derives from a cancellation effect of the intermodulation products. At the same time, high efficiency is obtained because of operation in class B. Special active bias circuits were designed to extend the maximum modulation bandwidth of the amplifiers. Under low intermodulation conditions, the output power and efficiency were improved five to six times over those of amplifiers operating in class A. Moreover, the maximum modulation rate was extended to 100 MHz. These high-efficiency, high-power amplifiers are well suited for telecommunication satellite transponders.     

Nonlinear amplifier effects in communications systems

This paper introduces a figure-of-merit to investigate tradeoffs between amplifiers and modulation waveforms in complex digital communications systems. Class-AB amplifiers are investigated with a variety of modulation schemes to better understand the relations between amplifier efficiency, amplifier distortion, signal in-band and adjacent channel interference, and power consumption. The goal is to better understand the tradeoffs needed to design low-energy communications systems     

1480-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers with optimized noiseperformance for AM-VSB distribution systems

Within analog video transmission systems, optical amplifiers have to display simultaneously good noise and output power performance because of the very stringent carrier-to-noise ratio requirements imposed by the AM-VSB modulation format. We show, theoretically and experimentally, that properly designed forward 1480-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers can deliver +16 dBm saturated output power with noise parameter (n_sp/C_x) as low as 3.5dB. These amplifiers do not exhibit significant degradation of their noise performance when the input powers are as large as +3 dBm. These characteristics make 1480-nm pumped amplifiers suitable for AM-VSB transmission systems     

Peak power and bandwidth efficient linear modulation

In portable wireless communication systems, power consumption is of major concern. Traditional modulation and coding schemes have been designed from the standpoint of minimizing average power. However, for linear power amplifiers needed for spectrally efficient modulation formats, amplifier efficiency and hence power consumption are determined by the peak power of the transmitted signal. This paper looks into modulation formats which minimize peak power and retain high spectral efficiency. Peak power is broken into a sum (in terms of decibels) of average power and a peak-to-average power ratio, and a variety of modulation formats are evaluated in terms of peak power efficiency in both a Gaussian noise and Rayleigh fading channel. A generalized phase shift keying (PSK) modulation format is developed and shown to offer superior peak power efficiency relative to that of commonly used linear modulation formats. Two schemes are presented for reducing the peak-to-average power ratio of various modulation formats. First, data translation codes are used to avoid data sequences which cause large peaks in the transmitted signal. This approach was found to be most productive in quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) formats. Finally, an adaptive peak suppression algorithm is presented which further reduces the peak-to-average power ratios of the PSK and generalized PSK formats. The peak suppression algorithm is also applicable to π/4-QPSK and was found to improve peak power efficiency of that format by about 1.25 dB over a Rayleigh fading channel     

功放非线性对QAM解调误码率的影响

QAM调制由于高频谱效率得到了广泛应用,但由于QAM信号的功率峰均比较高,功率放大器的非线性会导致解调性能的下降。针对功放非线性对QAM解调性能的影响,传统方法采用仿真实验的方法来获得,而文中推导了高斯信道下功率放大器的非线性对QAM解调误码率影响的闭合表达式,可求出非线性功放在不同静态工作点对应的误码率。仿真结果验证了理论分析的正确性。     

Design and Analysis of Frequency-Tunable Amplifiers using Varactor Diode Topologies

The design of frequency-tunable amplifiers is investigated and the trade-off between linearity, efficiency and tunability is revealed. Several tunable amplifiers using various varactor diode topologies as tunable devices are designed by using load-pull techniques and their performances are compared. The amplifier using anti-series distortion-free varactor stack topology achieves 38% power added efficiency and it may be tuned from 1.74 to 2.36 GHz (about 35% tunable range). The amplifier using anti-series/anti-parallel topology is tunable from 1.74 to 2.14 GHz (about 23% tunable range) and provides 42% power added efficiency. It is demonstrated that tunable amplifiers using distortion-free varactor stack topologies provide better power added efficiency than the tunable amplifiers using reverse biased varactor diodes and their linearity is similar to that of a conventional amplifier. These amplifiers may facilitate the realization of frequency agile radio frequency transceiver front-ends and may replace several parallel connected amplifiers used in conventional multimode radios.     

Understanding linearity in wireless communication amplifiers

This paper investigates the linearity of active devices and amplifiers that have modulated input signals. We describe an implementation of a mathematical technique for calculating spectral regrowth due to the nonlinear amplification of modulated signals typically used in wireless communication systems. This technique only requires knowledge of the single-tone gain and phase data as a function of input power and can be applied to any modulated signal given (a) the device or amplifier characteristics do not change significantly over the bandwidth of the input signal and (b) the modulation frequencies are much less than the carrier frequency. Verification of the mathematical technique is presented using examples of measured and calculated spectra for π/4-differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) personal handy phone system (PHS) and code division multiple access (CDMA) Offset-QPSK personal communication system (PCS) modulation schemes. This calculation technique is essential in determining fundamental tradeoffs between device performance (linearity, output power, gain, and power-added efficiency) and device bias conditions and load impedance     

Design of tube power amplifiers for optimum FM transmitterperformance

Tube amplifiers are extensively used in modern high-power FM broadcast transmitters. The power amplifier bandwidth affects not only the modulation performance, but also the transmitter's immunity to RF intermodulation. The tradeoffs involved and the choice of bandwidth are discussed. The design of tube power amplifiers for optimum FM performance requires careful considerations in the selection of input-matching and output-coupling circuit topologies, due to their effects on the transmitter amplitude and group delay responses. Results of computer circuit analysis and of measured amplitude and group delay responses are compared for different circuit topologies. Modulation performance data of a typical 20 kW FM transmitter are also presented to illustrate the effects of tube power amplifier input and output circuits     

Design and performance of deflected-beam electron-bombarded semiconductor amplifiers

This paper describes the design and testing of developmental electron-bombarded semiconductor (EBS) devices as pulsed dc and pulsed RF amplifiers. These devices employ a well-focused electron beam deflected in proportion to the input signal to control the current in a semiconductor target. Both Class A and Class B amplifier configurations are described, with a prediction of their relative efficiency and distortion properties. The deflection sensitivity of simple deflection plates and traveling-wave deflection systems is considered. Experimental results are given for amplifiers with planar passivated semiconductor targets and traveling-wave deflection systems operated as video-pulsed amplifiers and Class B RF amplifiers. Performance of nanosecond-risetime videopulse amplifiers with peak output power greater than 700 W and efficiency in excess of 80 percent is described. Test data are presented from RF amplifiers with efficiency performance of 60 percent. A comparison of theoretical and experimental results is given based upon a computer simulation of semiconductor target performance. Preliminary life test data showing stabilized diode performance with negligible reverse breakdown voltage deterioration are presented.     

Polar SiGe Class E and F Amplifiers Using Switch-Mode Supply Modulation

Two integrated polar supply-modulated class E and F power amplifiers (PAs) in 0.18-mum SiGe BiCMOS process are presented. The amplifiers are used to transmit GSM-EDGE signals with an envelope dynamic range of 11 dB and a frequency range of 880-915 MHz. The amplifiers use switch-mode dc-dc buck converters for supply modulation, where sigma-delta (SigmaDeltaM), delta (DeltaM), and pulsewidth modulation are used to modulate the PA amplitude signal. A framework has been developed for comparing the three switching techniques for EDGE implementation. The measurement results show that DeltaM gives the highest efficiency and lowest adjacent channel power, providing class E and F PA efficiencies of 33% and 31%, respectively, at maximum EDGE output power. The corresponding class E and F linearized amplifiers' output spectra at 400-kHz offset are -54 and -57dBc, respectively     

Statistical analysis of coherent ultrashort light pulse CDMA with multiple optical amplifiers using additive noise model

This paper describes a study of the performance of various configurations for placing multiple optical amplifiers in a typical coherent ultrashort light pulse code-division multiple access (CULP-CDMA) communication system using the additive noise model. For this study, a comprehensive performance analysis was developed that takes into account multiple-access noise, noise due to optical amplifiers, and thermal noise using the saddle-point approximation technique. Prior to obtaining the overall system performance, the input/output statistical models for different elements of the system such as encoders/decoders, star coupler, and optical amplifiers were obtained. Performance comparisons between an ideal and lossless quantum-limited case and a typical CULP-CDMA with various losses exhibit more than 30 dB more power requirement to obtain the same bit-error rate (BER). Considering the saturation effect of optical amplifiers, this paper discusses an algorithm for amplifiers' gain setting in various stages of the network in order to overcome the nonlinear effects on signal modulation in optical amplifiers. Finally, using this algorithm, various configurations of multiple optical amplifiers in CULP-CDMA are discussed and the rules for the required optimum number of amplifiers are shown with their corresponding optimum locations to be implemented along the CULP-CDMA system.