Radio frequency power amplifiers (PAs) are the most challenging part of the design of radio systems since they dictate the overall system's performance in terms of power efficiency and distortion generation. The performance is further challenged by modern modulation schemes which are characterized by highly varying signal envelopes. In order to meet the spectrum mask requirements, PAs are usually operated at high power back-off to ensure linearity, at the cost of efficiency. To tackle this issue, many efficiency enhancement techniques have been presented in the literature. In fact, these techniques do increase the PA power efficiency at back-off, however, efficiency enhancement techniques do not ensure the linearity of the PA. Furthermore, these techniques may lead to additional distortion. On the other hand, several linearization techniques have been developed to mitigate the PA nonlinearity problem and allow the PA to operate at less back-off. Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) technique is gaining more attention, as compared to other linearization techniques, thanks to its simple concept and advancements in digital signal processors (DSP) and signal converters. DPD technique consists of introducing a nonlinear function before the PA so that the overall cascaded system behaves linearly. It was clear from the literature that this technique showed good performance. Yet, it has primarily been validated using commercial test equipment, which has good capabilities, and far from the real world environment in which this technique would be implemented. Indeed, DPDs would need to be implemented in signal processors characterised by limited resources and computational accuracy. This thesis presents an implementation of several DPD models, namely look-up table (LUT), memoryless polynomial and memory polynomial (MP), on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). A novel model reformulation made this implementation possible in fixed-point arithmetic. Measurements were collected to validate the DPD models' implementation and an improvement of the signal quality was recorded in terms of error vector magnitude (EVM) and adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR). As many wireless access technologies must continue to coexist, multi-standard radio systems are required to reduce the cost while maintaining the interoperability. This thesis presents a development platform for multimode radio which comprises mixed-signal modules. The platform provides the capacity for hardware and software development. In fact, the FPGA under investigation allowed for the implementation of a baseband transceiver and DPD schemes. In addition, a software tool was developed as a dashboard to control and monitor the system. The radio system in the platform was optimized through the equalization of the feedback receiver frequency response performed through a simultaneous measurement of the amplitude ripple of the transmitter and receiver. Furthermore, a phase-coherent frequency synthesizer was designed to bring more flexibility by allowing the transmitter's carrier frequency to be different from the receiver's frequency.

Radio Frequency (RF) Power Amplifiers are responsible for a considerable amount of the power consumption in the entire transmitter-receiver (transceiver) of modern communication systems. The stringent linearity requirements of multi-standard transceivers to minimize cross-talking effects makes Linear Power Amplifiers, particularly class A, the preferred choice in broadband transceivers. This linearity requirement coupled with the fact that the Power Amplifier operates at low transmit power during most of its operation makes the efficiency of the entire transceiver poor. The limited transceiver efficiency leads to a reduction in the battery life of battery operated portable devices like mobile phones; hence drastically limiting talk time. To alleviate this issue, several research groups propose solutions to improve PA power efficiency. However, these solutions usually have a low efficiency at low power and are mostly limited to narrow bandwidth applications. In this thesis, the efficiency of a class A Power amplifier in wideband wireless standards like WiMax is improved by dynamically controlling the bias current and supply voltage of the PA. An efficient supply modulator based on a switching regulator architecture is proposed for controlling the supply voltage. The switching regulator is found to be slew-limited by the bulky inductor and capacitor used to regulate the supply voltage. The proposed solution alleviates the slew rate limitation by adding a bang-bang controlled current source. The proposed supply modulator has an average power efficiency of 81.6 percent and is suitable for wireless standards with bandwidths up to 20MHz compared to the relatively lower efficiencies and bandwidths of state of the art modulators. A class-A PA is shown to promise an average power efficiency of 21.3 percent when the bias current is controlled dynamically and the supply voltage is varied using the proposed supply modulator. This is a significant improvement over the poor average efficiency of 1.06 percent for a fixed bias conventional linear class A PA. The project has been simulated using the TSMC 0.18 micrometer technology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / J. Stevenson Kenney, Committee Member ; G. Tong Zhou, Committee Chair ; W. Marshall Leach, Committee Member ; Ye (Geoffrey) Li, Committee Member ; Jianmin Qu, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-103).

No description available.

Radio frequency power amplifiers (PAs) are the most challenging part of the design of radio systems since they dictate the overall system's performance in terms of power efficiency and distortion generation. The performance is further challenged by modern modulation schemes which are characterized by highly varying signal envelopes. In order to meet the spectrum mask requirements, PAs are usually operated at high power back-off to ensure linearity, at the cost of efficiency. To tackle this issue, many efficiency enhancement techniques have been presented in the literature. In fact, these techniques do increase the PA power efficiency at back-off, however, efficiency enhancement techniques do not ensure the linearity of the PA. Furthermore, these techniques may lead to additional distortion. On the other hand, several linearization techniques have been developed to mitigate the PA nonlinearity problem and allow the PA to operate at less back-off. Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) technique is gaining more attention, as compared to other linearization techniques, thanks to its simple concept and advancements in digital signal processors (DSP) and signal converters. DPD technique consists of introducing a nonlinear function before the PA so that the overall cascaded system behaves linearly. It was clear from the literature that this technique showed good performance. Yet, it has primarily been validated using commercial test equipment, which has good capabilities, and far from the real world environment in which this technique would be implemented. Indeed, DPDs would need to be implemented in signal processors characterised by limited resources and computational accuracy. This thesis presents an implementation of several DPD models, namely look-up table (LUT), memoryless polynomial and memory polynomial (MP), on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). A novel model reformulation made this implementation possible in fixed-point arithmetic. Measurements were collected to validate the DPD models' implementation and an improvement of the signal quality was recorded in terms of error vector magnitude (EVM) and adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR). As many wireless access technologies must continue to coexist, multi-standard radio systems are required to reduce the cost while maintaining the interoperability. This thesis presents a development platform for multimode radio which comprises mixed-signal modules. The platform provides the capacity for hardware and software development. In fact, the FPGA under investigation allowed for the implementation of a baseband transceiver and DPD schemes. In addition, a software tool was developed as a dashboard to control and monitor the system. The radio system in the platform was optimized through the equalization of the feedback receiver frequency response performed through a simultaneous measurement of the amplitude ripple of the transmitter and receiver. Furthermore, a phase-coherent frequency synthesizer was designed to bring more flexibility by allowing the transmitter's carrier frequency to be different from the receiver's frequency.

Thesis (M. S.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Member: John Cressler; Committee Member: John Papapolymerou; Committee Member: Joy Laskar; Committee Member: Thomas Morley; Committee Member: William Hunt.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1963. / "UC-37 Instruments" -t.p. "TID-4500 (19th Ed.)" -t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 50).

Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / In all radio frequency (RF) electronic communication systems, power amplifiers (PAs) are used to generate the final transmitted signal. Specifically, these PAs are used to increase the output power of the transmitted signal. The PA accomplishes this by converting the applied direct current (DC) power to the PA into RF power, while being driven by a RF input signal. The portion of DC power that is not converted into RF power is dissipated as heat. The power conversion mechanism that takes place in a PA is described by the power conversion efficiency (PE) and the power added efficiency (PAE). A CubeSat is a small satellite in the shape of a 10 × 10 × 10 cm cube, weighing less than 1 kg and contains a RF electronic communication system which allows communication with the satellite. A CubeSat requires a PA with high PE in order to increase the lifetime of the on-board battery, facilitate thermal management on-board the satellite, increase system reliability, and reduce the size and manufacturing cost of the satellite. To maximize the theoretical PE of a RF PA, several design techniques and classes of operation were investigated, the basis of which lies in the fulfilment of the necessary and sufficient conditions for a maximum PE. A PA, which uses the Class-F-1 (inverse Class-F) mode of operation, fulfils the necessary and sufficient conditions for a maximum theoretical PE, and therefore presents itself as a good option for a high efficiency PA. This thesis presents the design of a Class-F-1 PA, using the Cree CGH40010F GaN power active device. An optimum output matching network is used to terminate the drain of the GaN power active device with the required load impedances at the fundamental, 2nd and 3rd harmonic frequencies of operation. The designed PA delivers a maximum PE of 95 % at an operating frequency of 2.2 GHz, a maximum PAE of 82 % at an operating frequency of 2.2 GHz and a maximum output power of 40.6 dBm at an operating frequency of 2.2 GHz.

No description available.

Résumé / Abstract