CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers

Chang, Hsiu-Chen; Roblin, Patrick; Hahn, Yunsik; Martinez-Lopez, Jose I.; Liang, Chenyu

doi:10.3390/electronics10202507

Open AccessArticle

CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers

by

Hsiu-Chen Chang

^1,*

,

Patrick Roblin

¹

,

Yunsik Hahn

¹

,

Jose I. Martinez-Lopez

²

and

Chenyu Liang

¹

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

²

División de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Electronics 2021, 10(20), 2507; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10202507

Submission received: 31 August 2021 / Revised: 2 October 2021 / Accepted: 12 October 2021 / Published: 14 October 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis and Test of Microwave Circuits and Subsystems)

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Abstract

The second-harmonic input impedance plays a critical role on the performance of GaN power amplifiers. In a recent paper, a drain efficiency enhancement for a continuous-mode power amplifiers was reported to be achieved using active broadband second-harmonic injection at the PA input. In this paper, the strategy for selecting the second-harmonic input impedance and the necessity for using active injection in such broadband PAs are discussed in detail. Additionally, the methodology for designing an embedded broadband diplexer in the input matching network is reported. Finally, the importance of the phase of the second-harmonic signal injected is demonstrated for both CW and modulated signals using both simulation and measurement, respectively. The effectiveness of the CW and modulated active second-harmonic injection methodology presented here are validated by previously reported measurements that demonstrated an average drain efficiency improvement of 9.4% from 1.3 to 2.4 GHz for CW signals and of 9.7% at 2 GHz for a frequency-modulated 30 MHz chirp radar signal.

Keywords: broadband power amplifier; broadband diplexer; efficiency enhancement; input second-harmonic injection

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MDPI and ACS Style

Chang, H.-C.; Roblin, P.; Hahn, Y.; Martinez-Lopez, J.I.; Liang, C. CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers. Electronics 2021, 10, 2507. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10202507

AMA Style

Chang H-C, Roblin P, Hahn Y, Martinez-Lopez JI, Liang C. CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers. Electronics. 2021; 10(20):2507. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10202507

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chang, Hsiu-Chen, Patrick Roblin, Yunsik Hahn, Jose I. Martinez-Lopez, and Chenyu Liang. 2021. "CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers" Electronics 10, no. 20: 2507. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10202507

APA Style

Chang, H.-C., Roblin, P., Hahn, Y., Martinez-Lopez, J. I., & Liang, C. (2021). CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers. Electronics, 10(20), 2507. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10202507

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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CW and Modulated Input Second Harmonic Injection for Efficiency Enhancement in Broadband Power Amplifiers

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