High Efficiency RF Power Amplifier Designed With Harmonic Real-Time Active Load-Pull

In this work, a high efficiency p-HEMT radio frequency power amplifier (PA) is designed using a new multiharmonic real-time active load-pull using the large signal network analyzer. This technique synthesizes a large set of instantaneous load mismatches to quickly find the optimal harmonic impedances, so as to achieve high PA efficiency in a shortened design cycle. At 2 GHz a demo power amplifier implemented with a p-HEMT demonstrated a power added efficiency (PAE) of 68.5% for 18.0 dBm output power, while achieving a maximum PAE of 75% below the 1 dB compression point for 18.6 dBm output power.