Integrated Power Amplifier Design

Power Amplifiers (PAs) play a critical part in determining the power efficiency of a RF system because of their high output power levels, which can reach 3W for some cellular systems. As a result the design of highly efficient PAs is of great importance. At the same time, many types of modulation require linear PAs. Meeting all the necessary requirements makes PA design very challenging.

In the past GaAs, and discrete solutions have dominated the area of PA design. The higher cost and lower level of integration provided by these two solutions makes them less desirable in future systems. Because of this several members of the group are currently investigating the issue of PA design, with a major emphasis on integration with the rest of the transceiver. Both linear and non-linear PA design is being investigated using Bipolar, BiCMOS, and CMOS technologies.

Technical documents

People

  • Gray, Paul
  • Meyer, Robert
  • Narayanaswami, R. Sekhar -- Power Amplifiers for Transmitters in Portable Wireless Communication Systems
  • Tsai, King Chun -- A CMOS Class E Power Amplifier for RF Wireless Communications
  • Tee, Luns -- Transmitter Linearization for Portable Wireless Communication Systems
  • Graduates

  • King, Joel -- 1.5W Integrated Bipolar RF Power Amplifier, 150mW Integrated RF CMOS Power Amplifier, Integration of RF Power Amplifiers

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    Last modified: Wed Apr 29 10:20:42 1998