A Review of Hybrid Power Ampli!er Technologies

Abstract

With the aim of synthesizing high-fidelity voltage waveforms without penalizing the system efficiency, several works have proposed hybrid power amplifiers (HPAs), composed of linear and switching amplifiers, combining the benefits of each approach. According to the connection of the linear and the switched amplifiers, the HPAs are classified as envelope, parallel and series configurations. Each configuration holds particular characteristics that can be advantageous in some applications meanwhile to be quite stringent in others. This way, through a review of literature, this work aims to identify the features of each configuration, highlighting its benefits and possible limitations. The topologies proposed hitherto are analyzed from the circuit and control perspective. Therefore, this paper can be useful for one who is starting researching on this field or aims to select a suitable hybrid arrangement for a given application. Finally, an experimental case study is analyzed and future trends in research on HPAs are addressed.

Keywords

• AC Power Source
• Hybrid Amplifier
• Linear Amplifier
• multilevel inverter
• Switching Amplifier