Efficiency Enhancement Techniques for RF and MM-Wave Power Amplifiers

Abstract

Some important aspects of CMOS RF PA design are discussed. First the reader is confronted with the ever prominent efficiency-linearity trade-off in the design of conventional amplifier classes, such as A and B, as well as the challenge to achieve high output power in low-voltage CMOS. To cope with this challenge, several power combining structures are introduced. Next, some RF PA architectures are presented to improve the efficiency at power back-off. Finally, some recently introduced architectures are discussed that use the advanced signal processing capabilities of CMOS to deal with this efficiency-linearity trade-off in RF PA design.