Bachelor Thesis: Analysis and Design of A 900MHz Doherty Power Amplifier
Bachelor Thesis: Analysis and Design of A 900MHz Doherty Power Amplifier
Bachelor Thesis: Analysis and Design of A 900MHz Doherty Power Amplifier
by Nam Tran Pham in Partial Fulllment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Engineering at the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Electrical and Information Technology August 14, 2011
Abstract
In the late 1930s Radio became the dominant mass media in industrial nations and with it there was a demand for higher power levels in broadcasting. At that time most of the RF power ampliers had very low eciency, which increased the expense for operating a broadcast station in power consumption and cooling system. In September 1936 William H. Doherty introduced a new method to increase the eciency of power ampliers, this technique was able to increase the eciency up to nearly 80%, later it was widely used in mediumand high-power RF ampliers. Nearly 60 years later energy-eciency becomes more and more important, especially in new wireless transmitters such as cellular telephones, in which battery life is one of the key features of the device, the Doherty power amplier architecture has become the amplier of choice. There have been many improvements since the rst publication of the Doherty amplier; this thesis, however, only introduces the basic ideal of Doherty architecture. The basic functionality will be discussed and nally a Doherty amplier is implemented at 900 MHz, both in simulation and hardware.
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my advisor, Prof. Dr. Christoph Schick, for introducing me to this challenging and interesting topic. I have signicantly beneted from his broad range of expertise. I would also like to thank to my committee members for all of the time they spent to review my thesis and their helpful comments. Special thanks to Prof. Edmund Zhringer for his advices on working with transistor at high frequency. a My gratefulness is directed to all the technical engineers at faculty of Electrical and Information Technology, HTWG Konstanz and to all my friends, who supported me during the research for this thesis. Finally, I am grateful and indebted to the continuous love, understanding and supporting from my family. Love you all.
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Declaration
I declare that this thesis was composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualication except as specied.
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Contents
Table of contents List of gures List of tables Abbreviation 1. Introduction 1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2. Thesis organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Doherty Amplier Architecture 2.1. Power Amplier Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2. Doherty Load Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3. Analysis of the Doherty Amplier Architecture 2.3.1. Classical Doherty Amplier . . . . . . . 2.3.2. Low-Power Operation . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3. Peak-Power Operation . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.4. Medium-Power Operation . . . . . . . . 2.3.5. Summary of Operation . . . . . . . . . . 3. Design with analytic method 3.1. Design Parameters . . . 3.2. Input and output design 3.2.1. Input design . . 3.2.2. Output design . 3.3. Carry Amplier design . 3.4. Peak Amplier design . 3.5. Design review . . . . . . iv vi ix x 1 1 2 3 3 5 8 8 10 11 12 13 15 15 19 19 23 25 26 27 31 31 33 34 36 36 40 44 44 44 46
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4. Design with Load-Pull technique 4.1. Quality factor Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2. Power Amplier design with Load-Pull Technique . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3. Design parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4. Amplier design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1. Carry amplier V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2. Carry amplier V5, Peak amplier V4 and Doherty amplier 4.5. Performance review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1. DC current behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2. Carry amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.3. Peak amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv
Contents
4.5.4. Doherty amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Conclusions and Recommendations 5.1. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Load pull simulation results B. Schematics and layouts C. Data sheet Bibliography 48 52 52 53 54 59 65 69
List of Figures
2.1. Ideal class B amplier circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.2. Conduction angles for a class A, B or C amplier . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.3. Collector current and voltage with power dissipation . . . . . . . . . 5 2.4. Transistor amplier in common emitter circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.5. Active load-pull concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.6. Doherty amplier architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.7. Output voltage and current of classical Doherty amplier[6] . . . . . 8 2.8. Eciency of classical Doherty amplier[6] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.9. Comparision of real Doherty amplier with class A and AB amplier[20] 10 2.10. Doherty amplier architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.11. Ideal eciency of Doherty amplier vs. output power[5] . . . . . . . 14 3.1. Simplied transistor circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2. Collector current and voltage of class B transistor . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3. Peak value of collector voltage at 50mW output . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4. Fundamental and peak value of collector current at 50mW output . 3.5. Collector voltage at 25mW output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6. Current through load and collector at 25mW output . . . . . . . . . 3.7. Doherty amplier architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8. Hybrid divider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.9. Wilkinson coupler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.10. Input circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.11. Return loss and Insertion loss of the input circuit . . . . . . . . . . . 3.12. Phase delay and isolation of the input circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.13. Output circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.14. Phase of output signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.15. Insertion loss and Isolation from P1 and P2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.16. Collector current of AT42086 with Vcc = 2.7V . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.17. Carry-Amplier circuit simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.18. Peak-Amplier simulation circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.19. Doherty Amplier Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.20. Collector eciency of the simulation circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.21. Carry- and Peak-Transistor at transition point Pin = 3dBm . . . . . 3.22. Carry- and Peak-Transistor at max input power Pin = 6dBm . . . . 3.23. Summary of collector current and voltage in simulation (line - carry, dashed - peak), peak value of the fundamental frequency . . . . . . . 3.24. Waveform of collector current at the Carry- and Peak-Transistor . . 3.25. PAE and Gain of Doherty amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.26. Output power, PAE, Gain versus input power [10] . . . . . . . . . . 4.1. Capacitor and inductor model at radio-frequency . . . . . . . . . . . 15 16 17 17 18 18 19 20 21 21 22 22 23 24 24 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 29 30 31
vi
List of Figures
Insertion loss of capacitor [Murata-Data sheet] . . . . . . . . . . . . Measurement the 220nF capacitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Block diagram of a load-pull system[19] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results of load-pull technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Measurement results from test device Carry-V4B, measurement 1 . . Measurement results from test device Carry-V4B, measurement 2 . . Schematic of input matching for carry V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison between software simulation and hardware measurement of the carry input matching network V4 , Simulation-Line, HardwareSymbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10. Layout and S-Parameter simulation result of the carry input matching network V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.11. Schematic of the output matching network for carry amplier V4D . 4.12. Layout and S-Parameter simulation of the carry output matching network V4D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.13. Stability factor of the carry amplier V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.14. Schematic of the input network for the carry amplier V5 . . . . . . 4.15. Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the input network for the carry amplier V5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.16. Schematic of the output network for the carry amplier V5 . . . . . 4.17. Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the output network for the carry amplier V5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.18. Schematic of the input network for the peak amplier V4 . . . . . . 4.19. Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the input network for the peak amplier V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.20. Schematic of the output network for the peak amplier V4 . . . . . 4.21. Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the output network for the peak amplier V4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.22. Collector current versus base voltage of AT42086, with 2.7V Vcc supply 4.23. Measurement setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.24. Measurement results from test device Carry-V4B . . . . . . . . . . . 4.25. Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with 5V supply voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.26. Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with dierent supply voltages, Pin = 3dBm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.27. Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with dierent supply voltages, Pin = 6dBm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.28. Measurement results from test device Peak-V4 with dierent bias voltages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.29. Measurement results of Doherty amplier V1B . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.30. Measurement results of Doherty amplier V1B . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.31. Measurement results of Doherty amplier V2B . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.32. Measurement results of Doherty amplier V2B . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.33. Measurement results of Doherty amplier V2B . . . . . . . . . . . . A.1. A.2. A.3. A.4. Load pull contour with 0.7V bias and 2.7 V supply . Source and Load impedance with 0.7V bias and 2.7V Load pull contour with 0.3V bias and 2.7V supply . Source and Load impedance with 0.3V bias and 2.7V . . . . . supply . . . . . supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. 4.7. 4.8. 4.9. 32 32 33 34 35 35 37
37 38 38 39 39 40 41 41 42 42 42 43 43 44 44 45 45 45 46 47 49 49 50 50 51 54 54 55 55
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List of Figures
A.5. Load pull contour with 0.7V bias and 5V supply . A.6. Source and Load impedance with 0.7V bias and 5V A.7. Load pull contour with 0.3V bias and 5V supply . A.8. Source and Load impedance with 0.3V bias and 5V A.9. Load pull contour with 0.5V bias and 5V supply . A.10.Source and Load impedance with 0.5V bias and 5V B.1. B.2. B.3. B.4. B.5. B.6. . . . . . supply . . . . . supply . . . . . supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 56 57 57 58 58 60 61 62 63 64 64
Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 2.7V supply, V4B . Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 2.7V supply, V4D . Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 5V supply, V5A . . Peak amplier schematic with 0.5V bias and 5V supply, V4 . . . Layout of the Doherty amplier V1B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Layout of the Doherty amplier V2B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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List of Tables
2.1. Summary of class A, AB, B and C amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1. Summary of source and load impedance for design . . . . . . . . . . 5 36
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Abbreviation
ADS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BJT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ESR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HBT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LSSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PSK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . QAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advanced Design System Bipolar Junction Transistor Computer Aided Design Computer-Aided Engineering Code Division Multiple Access Device Under Test Equivalent Series Resistance Field Eect Transistor Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor Harmonic Termination Network Large-Signal S-Parameter Power Amplier Power Added Eciency Printed Circuit Board Peak Envelope Power Phase Shift Key Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Radio Frequency Radio Frequency Choke
1. Introduction
1.1. Introduction
For the last decade the phenomenal growth of wireless communications has made remarkable impacts on the modern life. It began with the radio in the late 1930s and nowadays billions of people use mobile cellular phones everyday with the massive coverage around the world, which requires a signal with higher power level as well as high dynamic range. In order to communicate with the base station and among each other, every mobile device needs a RF power amplier, which is a circuit for converting DC supply power into a signicant amount of RF output power. In case of cellular telephone, the DC supply comes from the battery and the time it takes to discharge the battery while on call is an important metric to the success of a phone. Hence, there is an increasing demand for highly ecient RF power amplier to meet the growing need for power saving, compact and low cost solutions. RF power amplier with high eciency is able to extend the battery life and produce less heat, which means smaller heat sinks, this allows the cellular phone to have smaller size. Likewise for cellular base stations, high eciency power amplier is the key to save operation supply power, lower the cooling system cost and reduce thermal stress on active devices. The instantaneous eciency for the most power ampliers is at its highest at its peak envelope power and decreases as output power decreases. In modern digital communication for maximum spectrum eciency the modulation techniques like Phase Shift Key (PSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) are used in modulated signals such as W-CDMA. This results in a very large peak to average ratios of between 6 dB and 13 dB in the output power of signal [3], it means the power amplier are often operated in low eciency area. There are many methods to increase the eciency of power amplier for large range of output power like the Kahn Envelope Elimination and Restoration method [16] or the Chireix-outphasing transmitter [8], but they require a complicated circuitry. The Doherty amplier is the best candidate, as a relatively simple eciency enhancement technique. The rst goal in this thesis is to analyze the functionality and performance of the classical Doherty amplier architecture. The second one is to design, manufacture and evaluate a classical Doherty amplier, which is capable of deliver 20 dBm maximum output power at 900 MHz.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
A class B amplier example is used to demonstrate the calculation of eciency, because of its ease of analysis and its application in Doherty architecture. Figure 2.3 displays the collector waveform current and voltage of a class B transistor (assuming all harmonic currents are terminated that the voltage at the load is a sinusoidal wave), the drawn line shows the transistor in saturation mode3 , the dashed line shows the transistor out of saturation mode. The eciency is directly related to the DC power dissipated in the transistor. Since the collector current IC is zero for half the conduction cycle, the instantaneous power dissipation in the transistor happens only during the lower half cycle of the voltage swing, where the product of IC and VC is non-zero. This area is shown in Figure 2.3 as a hashed area under the curve, and as the voltage swing is reduced, the area under the curve goes up, therefore the eciency of transistor is reduced. The current waveform of a class B transistor is a half sine wave, its DC and fundamental values If 1 from the Fourier Series are: IDC = IP eak (2.2)
IP eak If 1 = 2 Substituting these into (2.1) gives If 1 IP eak RL 4 IP eak Vcc VL = 4 Vcc =
3
(2.3)
(2.4) (2.5)
Saturation: The condition, in which the minimum value of voltage swing at the collector equals the minimum voltage of P-N junction or in ideal condition 0V
(2.7)
To achieve this condition Doherty introduced the second current source into the circuit of amplier, where current from the second transistor (or tube) is used to modify the load seen by the rst device. This technique is called the active loadpull concept[14], which is shown in Figure 2.5. Assume that I1 and I2 combine in-phase at RL , the relation between the impedances R1 , R2 and currents I1 , I2 is shown as follows: I1 + I2 R1 = RL (2.8) I1 R2 = RL I1 + I2 I2 (2.9)
By using this eect, the current from one transistor can be used to manipulate the load resistance seen by the other. But the active load-pull concept illustrated in Figure 2.5 moves the load impedance seen by Q1 in the wrong way, as the current I2 increases so increases the impedance R1 . So Doherty used an impedance inverter network at the output of the rst transistor to reverse the active load-pull eect, this provides a reducing of R1 as I2 increases. If this reducing R1 is coupled with a rising RF drive to Q1 , the saturation mode at Q1 is still assured, consequently the eciency remains at maximum. The impedance inverter in Figure 2.6 is realized by using a quarter wavelength line with characteristic impedance of ZIN V , the governing equation for the impedance inverters is: 2 R1 R1,T = ZIN V (2.10)
R1,T
Using (2.10) I1,ef f = and the current I1,T at loads side is:
2 I1,T,ef f R1,T = 2 V1,ef f
VL,ef f IIN V
(2.14)
R1
R1,T,max
2 VL,max
R2,max
1 VL,max 2 RL
(2.19) (2.20)
R1,T,max = R2,max = 2 RL
The characteristic impedance of the impedance inverter is also chosen to be 2 times the load impedance ZIN V = 2 RL (2.21) These decisions result a region of high eciency from full power to 6dB below full power. Doherty summarized the voltage and current relationships for the two devices in Figure 2.7 and the eciency of the amplier in Figure 2.8. In the following paragraph, the term tube is used, because at the time, when Do-
Figure 2.9.: Comparision of real Doherty amplier with class A and AB amplier[20]
Assuming that the quarter wavelength transmission line is lossless, the voltage trans-
10
V1 = VL
1 R1 =2= R1,T
The Carry-Transistor enters the saturation mode when V1 = Vcc , therefore the saturation of Carry-Transistor occours at VL = Vcc . The RF-Output current delivered by the Carry-Transistor is derived as follows I1,T VL I1 V 1 = 2 2 VL I1 = = I1,T V1 I1 = I1,T = for I1,T = IL (2.27) (2.28) VL R1,T (2.29)
For an ideal B class transistor and relationships from (2.2) and (2.3) the DC-current is calculated as 2 VL (2.30) Idc = R1,T hence, the eciency of the amplier is: PAC = = PDC =
2 VL 2R1,T 2 VL R1,T Vcc
(2.31) (2.32)
VL 4 Vcc
When the Carry-Transistor reaches saturation and the Peak-Transistor remains cuto VL = Vcc , the resultant eciency is = /4 = 78.53%. This is the rst peak of collector eciency at 6 dB under maximum output power or 3 dB under maximum input power as shown in Figure 2.9.
Since the characteristic impedance of the impedance inverter ZIN V = 2RL , no transformation will occur, therefore the load impedance seen by the Carry-Transistor is
11
(2.35)
is the same as the rst peak eciency in an ideal class B transistor. The collector voltage of the Carry-Transistor is saturated, the same at the rst peak eciency, while the load impedance seen at the collector node is reduced to a half, as the result the output power of Carry-Transistor at second peak eciency is two times its output power at the rst peak eciency. This accomplishes the goal of using load modulation, described at the beginning of section 2.2. The Carry- and the Peak-Transistor now deliver two times more output power than the maximum output power of the Carry-Transistor in low power region, hence, the sum of output power at peak power region is four times more than at low power, this explains the 6 dB distance between two peaks of the collector eciency versus the output power as mentioned in Section 2.3.1. And because the Peak-Transistor has the maximum eciency of a B class amplier, it appears that the biasing point of the Peak-Transistor is shifted from class C to class B, as shown in Figure 3.24(b) the Peak-Transistor at maximum output power has the same conduct angle = like the Carry-Transistor in Figure 3.24(a).
From (2.36), the RF current from Peak-Transistor to produce an output voltage VL is VL Vcc I2 = IL I1,T = (2.37) RL Using (2.14), (2.17) and (2.36) the output current I1 of the Carry-Transistor is I1 = VL I1,T VL = V1 RL for V1 = Vcc (saturated) (2.38)
12
As the input power increases over the transition point, dened by VL = Vcc , the Carry-Transistor saturates and the Peak-Transistor begins to become active. The load R1 seen by Carry-Transistor is reduced by the additional current I2 , the Carry-Transistor remains in saturation and acts as a voltage source, since the output voltage V1 saturates, it operates at peak eciency but delivers an increasing amount of power. The eciency in medium-power region is composited of collector eciency from Carry- and Peak-Transistor, depending on which side is contributing more power at each point. Because the Peak-Transistor doesnt have the benet of loadmodulation like Carry-Transistor, its eciency is like a normal class-B amplier mid = VL /Vcc 4 (1 Vcc /VL ) + 1 for Vcc < VL < Vcc (2.41)
At PEP4 output, both transistors see 2RL loads and deliver half of system output power. The eciency is the same as class B amplier. peak = 4 for VL = Vcc (2.42)
Figure 2.11 shows the comparison of eciency between Doherty amplier with dierent values and class-B Amplier. The value of = 0.25 is a modern approach with Doherty amplier, called extended Doherty amplier, where the rst peak eciency is 12 dB below full power, therefore the region of high eciency is larger. But the dip in eciency with = 0.25 is also deeper, because the eciency of the Peak-Transistor in area near transition point is quite low. There are several researches ( [10],[21],[8],...) to reduce the dip in eciency with = 0.25.
13
14
which is shown in Figure 3.3 for an output power P = 50 mW, also the fundamental frequency If 1 is calculated as VL If 1 = (3.2) RL
1 2
15
The load impedance is chosen to be 50, because the resulting voltage and collector current are in the limit range of the AT42086 BJT, and the 50 load impedance at full output power allows the design of Carry- and Peak-Transistor to be directly and individually tested with a spectrum analyzer without using any impedance converter network. Because at saturation the collector voltage is not zero, the saturation voltage for BJT normaly ranges from 0.3V to 0.5V , therefore the supply voltage is Vcc = VL + VCE,sat 2.3 + 0.4 2.7V (3.4)
the value of VL is acquired from Figure 3.3 for an 50 impedance, also Figure 3.4 displays the peak values of the fundamental and maximal currents at the collector node for 50 mW output power. As for the low-power region, where Carry-Transistor delivers half of the output power compared to its output at full output power and Peak-Transistor remains cut-o, the output power is Pout,low = 25 mW, the CarryTransistor sees a load impedance two times larger than in the peak-power region R1,low = 100 (section 2.3.2). The resulting collector current and voltage is shown in Figures 3.5, 3.6.
16
Figure 3.4.: Fundamental and peak value of collector current at 50mW output
17
18
Supply voltage: Vcc = 2.7V At full output power: R1 = R2 = 50. As derived in section 2.3.3, the load impedance RL = 25. The characteristic impedance of the impedance inverter ZIN V = 50. At low-power region: R1,low = 100. The bipolar-transistor AT-42086 from Avago-Technologies is used in the prototype design, because its high output power at high frequency (20dBm at 2GHz - Data sheet) and its available simulator model for CAE3 program. Agilents Advanced Design System(ADS) is used to simulate and to rene the prototype design. The FR4 substrate with 1 mm thickness, 35m copper thickness, double side and = 4.3 was used.
Computer-aided engineering
19
The Wilkison-coupler is designed using microstrip line for convenient PCB4 implementation, and at 900MHz the quarter wavelength is short enough for small PCB
4
20
21
Figure 3.11.: Return loss and Insertion loss of the input circuit
22
23
24
25
26
(a)
(b)
(a) Carry-Transistor
(b) Peak-Transistor
(a) Carry-Transistor
(b) Peak-Transistor
Figure 3.22.: Carry- and Peak-Transistor at max input power Pin = 6dBm
At Pin = 6 dBm both transistors are in saturation as expected (Figure 3.22) and the output power is Pout = 20 dBm, the amplier reaches its maximum eciency. Figure 3.23 shows the summary performance of voltage and current in Carry- and Peak-Transistor dependent on Pin . There is a dip in collector voltage of the CarryTransistor due to the non-linear slope of Peak-Transistors collector voltage. At high input power level the bias of Peak-Transistor is shifted from class C to class B, this explains the waveform of collector current in Figure 3.24(b), therefore the maximum eciency of Doherty amplier is equal the maximum eciency of class B amplier as predicted in Section 2.3.3. Figure3.25(b) illustrates the gain factor of the Doherty amplier in simulation, the gain factor has a non-linear progress in comparison with the result from [10], which displays in Figure 3.26, this result is caused because of the small collector current of the transistor, the collector current at its maximum value according to Figure 3.16, is still in the non-linear area. In order to improve the linearity the collector current must be large enough to overcome the non-linear area, in this case it is not recommended from the data sheet, because the maximum limit collector current of the AT42086 transistor is only 80 mA. The research in [22] is dedicated to improving the linearity of the Doherty Amplier using Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor(HBT), which is a improvement of BJT for high frequency and high power application.
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Figure 3.23.: Summary of collector current and voltage in simulation (line carry, dashed - peak), peak value of the fundamental frequency
(a) Carry-Transistor
(b) Peak-Transistor
(a) PAE
(b) Gain
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Figure 3.26.: Output power, PAE, Gain versus input power [10]
The design in this section is quite easy to understand and straightforward, but this also has some disadvantages: Using the S-Paramter simulation is not particularly useful for designing high power amplier. The performance of the design depends heavily on the accuracy of each discrete components. Realization with discrete components and microstrip lines can be a major challenge, because of the physical form of the components. The mircostrip lines between the discrete components are not taken in to account in the simulation, and may cause undesired eects on the performance. The calculation of load impedance only concerns the resistive impedance, while at high frequency the imagine part of load impedance also has great inuent on performance of the transistor. The HF-bypass capacitors have a value of 100 pF and at 900 MHz it is quite dicult to acquire a capacitor, which has this capacitance. The typical limit value for capacitor at this frequency is 10 pF. The quarter wavelength microstrip line lter at collector output can only lter the even harmonic frequency and its eect reduces with the increasing frequency because of the inaccuracy of circuit fabrication.
30
Noted 0 is the resonant frequency of a resonant circuit.Regarding a parallel conguration with a resistor, a capacitor and an inductor in parallel, the equation for the Q is shown R R Qp = = = 0 RC (4.2) 0 L L/C and the Q factor for the conguration of RLC in series is Qs = L/C R (4.3)
The Q Factor is very important at RF, where all the parasitic elements of package and environment have a signicant inuence on performance of the circuit. In Figure 4.1 is models of capacitor and inductor at RF. The ESR denotes the resistive impedance of parasitic element. Each capacitor and inductor has a self-resonant frequency, where capacitor becomes inductor and inductor becomes capacitor because of the parasitic capacitor and inductor. Figure 4.2 illustrates the insertion loss of capacitor depend on frequency, this leads to problem with choosing a usable
32
In Figure 4.4 is a simplied diagram of a load-pull system. The power transistor is placed at DUT2 , the bias voltage and supply voltage are set up as a desired working condition. A pair of tuner at input and output are used to vary the input
1 2
33
34
35
36
Figure 4.9.: Comparison between software simulation and hardware measurement of the carry input matching network V4 , Simulation-Line, Hardware-Symbol
ZL,B,V 4 = (66.398 j10.26) is used to design the output matching network, excepted that at the output network a lter for the harmonic frequencies is needed. The lter for the harmonic frequencies can be a part of the matching network or implemented separated as a Harmonic Termination Network(HTN), such network was used in the research [4] to achieve the optimum lter for the harmonic frequencies. Because the lack of time and to simplify the design process only a simple lter with quarter wavelength is used. Figure 4.11 shows the schematic of the output matching network, in Figure 4.12(a) is the physical layout of the matching network, and in Figure 4.12(b) is the S-Parameter simulation result. Even though the lter network is quite simple, its result is good enough to lter the second and third harmonic frequencies. One of the aspect, which was not taken into account with the load pull simulation, is stability factor of the amplier. Figure 4.13(a) displays the result of stability factor calculation using the function StabFact from ADS, there is a major problem with the stability in the low frequency region, the early prototype of the Carry amplier V4 also conrms this problem during the test measurement. Normally the open loop design of amplier should not cause any problem with the stability factor, but in this case the Miller capacitor between the collector and the base and the parasitic elements of the transistor package cause the unwanted feed-back from the collector to the base. In the low frequency region the reactance of the 7 F DC-Block capacitor in the input and output network is too high, therefore the low frequency wave component can not be terminated to ground. To solve this problem a 470 nF and a
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(a) Layout
Figure 4.10.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation result of the carry input matching network V4
Figure 4.11.: Schematic of the output matching network for carry amplier V4D
1 nF are implemented into the input and output network, also the bias and supply network are enhanced with large capacitors to create a short-cut to ground for the low frequency wave. At high frequency region most of the new added capacitors have already lost the property of capacitor, therefore there is no unwanted eect on the accuracy of the matching networks. Figure 4.13(b) shows the improvement of the stability factor after stabilization procedure, the stability factor is now above 1 for all frequencies. The nal design for the carry amplier V4D is shown in Figure B.2.
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(a) Layout
Figure 4.12.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation of the carry output matching network V4D
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Figure 4.14.: Schematic of the input network for the carry amplier V5
for the carry amplier V5, their physical layout and S-Parameter simulations results are shown in Figure 4.15 and 4.17, respectively. The complete design for the carry amplier V5 is shown in Figure B.3. Figure 4.18 shows the schematic of the input network for the peak amplier V4, while the schematic of the output network is shown in Figure 4.20. The physical layouts and S-Parameter simulation results of the peak ampliers input and output networks are illustrated in Figure 4.19 and Figure 4.21, in the order as mentioned. The nal design of the peak amplier V4 is displayed in Figure B.4. The designs of the carry amplier V4 and the peak amplier V4 are combined using the input and output network of the Doherty amplier (Section 3.2) to form the Doherty amplier V1B, while the design of the Doherty amplier V2B is created using the designs of the carry amplier V5 and the peak amplier V4. The physical layouts of the Doherty amplier V1B and V2B are shown in Figure B.5, B.6, respectively. Because the inaccuracy of the AT42086s CAD model for high power signal, the performance of the designs can not be evaluated based on the simulation results, therefore both of these two designs are fabricated for hardware measurement and analysis.
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(a) Layout
Figure 4.15.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the input network for the carry amplier V5
Figure 4.16.: Schematic of the output network for the carry amplier V5
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(a) Layout
Figure 4.17.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the output network for the carry amplier V5
Figure 4.18.: Schematic of the input network for the peak amplier V4
(a) Layout
Figure 4.19.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the input network for the peak amplier V4 42
Figure 4.20.: Schematic of the output network for the peak amplier V4
(a) Layout
Figure 4.21.: Layout and S-Parameter simulation results of the output network for the peak amplier V4
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Figure 4.22.: Collector current versus base voltage of AT42086, with 2.7V Vcc supply
A small test circuit is made to test the accuracy of the available CAD model of the AT42086 transistor. Figure 4.22 shows that the slopes of both collector currents are the same, but the real AT42086 has the lower knee base voltage than the one from CAE model, hence, the real AT42086 oers better linearity character than the CAD model, this property is conrmed through all the measurements with hardware.
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Figure 4.25.: Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with 5V supply voltage
Figure 4.26.: Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with dierent supply voltages, Pin = 3dBm
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Figure 4.27.: Measurement results from test device Carry-V5A with dierent supply voltages, Pin = 6dBm
the transistor AT42086 in class B conguration only has the maximum collector eciency about 32%. According to the results shown in Figure 4.27, to achieve the 17 dBm output power the input power must be increased to 6 dBm and the supply voltage to 7.5 V.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4.28.: Measurement results from test device Peak-V4 with dierent bias voltages
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48
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
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5.2. Recommendations
One of the reasons, which results bad performance and diculty during the design process is caused by the choice of transistor. In the modern RF high power amplier most of the transistor use the HBT or FET technology because of their ability to work with high power and high frequency conditions ([21],[11],[12],[10],...), therefore the further work should focus on using these new technologies. Although working with the load pull technique based on simulation can reduce the time intensity of the design, it requires an accurate CAD model, which should be able to characterize the behavior of the transistor with high power signal. If it is possible, a hardware load pull measurement on real hardware is recommended. There are some necessary tests, which are needed to be carried out, in order to fully understand the property of the designed Doherty amplier like the two-tone test for 3dB-interception point or the IMD3 test for the intermodulation distortion from the third harmonic frequency. If the further work is based on the same transistor, then a research on optimizing the performance of the amplier based on the measurement results is advised.
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Figure A.1.: Load pull contour with 0.7V bias and 2.7 V supply
Figure A.2.: Source and Load impedance with 0.7V bias and 2.7V supply
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Figure A.3.: Load pull contour with 0.3V bias and 2.7V supply
Figure A.4.: Source and Load impedance with 0.3V bias and 2.7V supply
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Figure A.5.: Load pull contour with 0.7V bias and 5V supply
Figure A.6.: Source and Load impedance with 0.7V bias and 5V supply
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Figure A.7.: Load pull contour with 0.3V bias and 5V supply
Figure A.8.: Source and Load impedance with 0.3V bias and 5V supply
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Figure A.9.: Load pull contour with 0.5V bias and 5V supply
Figure A.10.: Source and Load impedance with 0.5V bias and 5V supply
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Figure B.1.: Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 2.7V supply, V4B
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Figure B.2.: Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 2.7V supply, V4D
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Figure B.3.: Carry amplier schematic with 0.7V bias and 5V supply, V5A
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Figure B.4.: Peak amplier schematic with 0.5V bias and 5V supply, V4
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C. Data sheet
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Description
Avagos AT-42086 is a general purpose NPN bipolar transistor that offers excellent high frequency performance. The AT-42086 is housed in a low cost surface mount .085" diameter plastic package. The 4 micron emitter-to-emitter pitch enables this transistor to be used in many different functions. The 20 emitter finger interdigitated geometry yields a medium sized transistor with impedances that are easy to match for low noise and medium power applications. Applications include use in wireless systems as an LNA, gain stage, buffer, oscillator, and mixer. An optimum noise match near 50 up to 1 GHz, makes this device easy to use as a low noise amplifier. The AT-42086 bipolar transistor is fabricated using Avagos 10 GHz fT Self-Aligned-Transistor (SAT) process. The die is nitride passivated for surface protection. Excellent device uniformity, performance and reliability are produced by the use of ion-implantation, self-alignment techniques, and gold metalization in the fabrication of this device.
Features
High Output Power: 20.5 dBm Typical P1 dB at 2.0 GHz High Gain at 1 dB Compression: 13.5 dB Typical G1 dB at 2.0 GHz Low Noise Figure: 1.9 dB Typical NFO at 2.0 GHz High Gain-Bandwidth Product: 8.0 GHz Typical fT Surface Mount Plastic Package Tape-and-Reel Packaging Option Available Lead-free Option Available
86 Plastic Package
Pin Connections
EMITTER 4
420
BASE 1
COLLECTOR 3
2 EMITTER
Parameter
Emitter-Base Voltage Collector-Base Voltage Collector-Emitter Voltage Collector Current Power Dissipation [2,3] Junction Temperature Storage Temperature
Units
V V V mA mW C C
Absolute Maximum[1]
1.5 20 12 80 500 150 -65 to 150
Units
dB
Min.
15.0
Typ.
16.5 10.5 4.5 20.5 20.0 13.5 9.0 1.9 3.5 13.0 9.0 8.0
Max.
Power Output @ 1 dB Gain Compression VCE = 8 V, IC = 35 mA 1 dB Compressed Gain; VCE = 8 V, IC = 35 mA Optimum Noise Figure: VCE = 8 V, IC = 10 mA Gain @ NFO; VCE = 8 V, IC = 10 mA Gain Bandwidth Product: VCE = 8 V, IC = 35 mA Forward Current Transfer Ratio; VCE = 8 V, IC = 35 mA Collector Cutoff Current; VCB = 8 V Emitter Cutoff Current; VEB = 1 V Collector Base Capacitance[1]: VCB = 8 V, f = 1 MHz
dBm dB dB dB GHz A A pF 30
150
0.32
20
1.0 GHz
40 35 30
MSG
20
4.0 GHz
2.0 GHz
GAIN (dB)
16
12
25 20 15
|S21E|2 4.0 GHz MAG
2.0 GHz
12 G1 dB (dB)
G1dB
10 5
4.0 GHz
4 0 10 20 30 IC (mA) 40 50
0 0 10 20 30 IC (mA) 40 50
Figure 1. Output Power and 1 dB Compressed Gain vs. Collector Current and Frequency. VCE = 8 V.
Figure 2. Insertion Power Gain vs. Collector Current and Frequency. VCE = 8 V.
Figure 3. Insertion Power Gain, Maximum Available Gain and Maximum Stable Gain vs. Frequency. VCE = 8 V, IC = 35 mA.
FREQUENCY (GHz)
Figure 4. Noise Figure and Associated Gain vs. Frequency. VCE = 8 V, IC = 10 mA.
Bibliography
[1] K. F. Brand. The Experimental Design and Characterization of Doherty Power Ampliers. Masters thesis, Stellenbosch University, 2006. [2] Bumman Kim, Jangheon Kim, Ildu Kim, and Jeonghyeon Cha. The doherty power amplier. IEEE mircowave magazine, October 2006. [3] Charles J.Meyer, Booton Electronics. Measuring the peak-to-average power of digitally modulated signals, April 1993. [Online; accessed August-2011]. [4] X. Cui. Ecient Radio Frequency Power Ampliers for Wireless Communications. PhD thesis, The Ohio State University, 2007. [5] Darren W. Ferwalt. A Base Control Doherty Power Amplier Design for Improved Eciency in GSM Handsets. Masters thesis, Oregon State University, 2004. [6] W. Doherty. A new high eciency power amplier for modulated waves. Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 24(9):1163 1182, sept. 1936. [7] N. Dubuc, C. Duvanaud, and P. Bouysse. Analysis of the doherty technique and application to a 900mhz power amplier. In Microwave Conference, 2002. 32nd European, pages 1 3, sept. 2002. [8] F.H. Raab, P.M. Asbeck, S.C. Cripps, P.B. Kenington, Z.B. Popovic, N. Pothecary, J.F. Sevic and N.O. Sokal. Power ampliers and transmitter for RF and microwave. IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Tech, 50, March 2002. [9] Frederick H. Raab. Eciency of doherty RF power-amplier systems. IEEE, 33(3), September 1987. [10] M. Iwamoto, A. Williams, P.-F. Chen, A. Metzger, C. Wang, L. Larson, and P. Asbeck. An extended doherty amplier with high eciency over a wide power range. In Microwave Symposium Digest, 2001 IEEE MTT-S International, volume 2, pages 931 934 vol.2, 2001. [11] B. Kim, J. Kim, I. Kim, J. Cha, and S. Hong. Microwave doherty power amplier for high eciency and linearity. In Integrated Nonlinear Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Circuits, 2006 International Workshop on, pages 22 25, jan. 2006.
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Bibliography
[12] A. Z. Markos. Eciency Enhancement of Linear GaN RF power Amplier Using the Doherty Technique. PhD thesis, University Kassel, November 2008. [13] Robert J. McMorrow, David M. Upton and Peter R. Maloney. The Microwave Doherty Amplier. Microwave Symposium Digest, , IEEE MTT-S International, 3, September 1994. [14] S.C. Cripps. RF Power Amplier for Wireless Communications. MA: Artech House, 1999. [15] C. Tongchoi, M. Chongcheawchamnan, and A. Worapishet. Lumped element based doherty power amplier topology in cmos process. In Circuits and Systems, 2003. ISCAS 03. Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on, volume 1, pages I445 I448 vol.1, may 2003. [16] M. Vasic, O. Garcia, J. Oliver, P. Alou, D. Diaz, J. Cobos, A. Gimeno, J. Pardo, C. Benavente, and F. Ortega. High eciency power amplier for high frequency radio transmitters. In Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2010 Twenty-Fifth Annual IEEE, pages 729 736, feb. 2010. [17] Wikipedia. Miller eect wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2011. [Online; accessed 3-August-2011]. [18] www.microwaves101.com. Eciency of Microwave Devices, October 2009. [Online; accessed August-2011]. [19] www.microwaves101.com. Load Pull for Power Devices, July 2011. [Online; accessed August-2011]. [20] X. Q. Chen, Y. C. Guo and X. W. Shi. A High Eciency and Gain Doherty Amplier for Wireless Mobile Base Stations. Microwave Journal, 51(4):102, April 2008. [21] Y. Yang, J. Cha, B. Shin, and B. Kim. A fully matched n-way doherty amplier with optimized linearity. Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on, 51(3):986 993, mar 2003. [22] Y. Zhao, A. Metzger, P. Zampardi, M. Iwamoto, and P. Asbeck. Linearity improvement of hbt-based doherty power ampliers based on a simple analytical model. In Microwave Symposium Digest, 2006. IEEE MTT-S International, pages 877 880, june 2006.
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