| Description |
To propel wireless communication into the next generation, devices must operate more efficiently and handle ever-increasing data rates. The power amplifier is typically the main bottleneck in performance metrics such as linearity, bandwidth, efficiency, cost, and size of the transmitter. This dissertation addresses improvements in transmitter design including improved linearity performance, increased bandwidth of operation, increased power-added efficiency, decreased cost of implementation, and decreased size. One key contribution of this dissertation is the first closed form solution for Wilkinson combiners with partial isolation. In this dissertation, I provide for the first time a closed form solution for the selection of the isolation resistor, enabling optimization between amplifier linearity vs. efficiency. Traditionally amplifier combiner design is either isolated or nonisolated, optimized for either linearity or efficiency, respectively. The derivation presented here enables selection of an optimized combiner isolation point. This optimization provides improved linearity compared to the nonisolated combiner and improved efficiency compared to the isolated combiner in the same combiner design. The second key contribution is the first derivation and closed form design procedure for N-way ring power amplifier combiners. The new N-way ring combiners have advantages over other power combiner topologies. Advantages include a selectable common delta output port, high power handling, and low insertion loss. This dissertation presents the first design rules for ring combiners that enable more than 2 input ports. |
