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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• UHF power amplifiers
• thin film devices
• acoustic resonator filters
• gallium arsenide
• high electron mobility transistors
• band-pass filters
• GaAs
• frequency 2496 MHz to 2690 MHz
• power 1 W
• linearisation techniques
• out-of-band spectrum filtering
• finite inductance
• ACPF7041 compact bandpass FBAR filter
• HEMT
• discrete pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor
• PAE
• power added efficiency
• out-of-band spectrum suppression
• PA
• thin-film bulk acoustic resonator filter
• class-E power amplifier