Radio-Frequency High Power Amplifier

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2022) | Viewed by 7051

Special Issue Editor

School of Electronic Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, Republic of Korea
Interests: broadband; high power RF power amplifier; 5G and IOT RF system and parts development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

RF power amplifiers are essential components in military or civil communication systems. For military use, it is used for high-power radio interference jammers or active electronically scanned array (AESA), and for civil use, it is used for 2G, 3G, and 4G transmitters of base stations and mobile terminals. In particular, in the case of civil use, it was mainly designed below 3 GHz in the past, but the operating frequency range is expanding to millimeter wave bands such as 28 GHz or 39 GHz, due to the recent commercialization of 5G communication. In addition, high-power RF power amplifiers are used to generate plasma in semiconductor processes. Recently, due to the development of semiconductor technology, CMOS, GaAs, and GaN-based solid state power amplifiers are actively being developed, but still, many studies have been conducted on vacuum tube-type power amplifiers for high output, depending on the application field. In this Special Issue, we invite researchers to submit their original research or review articles that are concerned with recent advances and applications in RF power amplifiers.

Prof. Jihoon Kim
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • RF power amplifiers for military applications
  • 2G, 3G, 4G RF power amplifiers
  • 5G sub-6 RF power amplifiers
  • 5G millimeter-wave power amplifiers
  • RF power amplifiers with high efficiency, high linearity and high output power
  • wideband RF power amplifiers
  • solid-state RF power amplifers (CMOS, GaAs, InP, GaN etc.)
  • vacuum tube RF power amplifiers
  • design guidelines and methods about RF power amplifiers
  • system applications including RF power amplifiers

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 8603 KiB  
Article
A New GaN HEMT Small-Signal Model Considering Source via Effects for 5G Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifier Design
by Jihoon Kim
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(19), 9120; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11199120 - 30 Sep 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2583
Abstract
A new gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobile transistor (HEMT) small-signal model is proposed considering source via effects. In general, GaN HEMTs adopt a source via structure to reduce device degradation due to self-heating. In this paper, the modified drain-source capacitance (Cds [...] Read more.
A new gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobile transistor (HEMT) small-signal model is proposed considering source via effects. In general, GaN HEMTs adopt a source via structure to reduce device degradation due to self-heating. In this paper, the modified drain-source capacitance (Cds) circuit considering the source via structure is proposed. GaN HEMTs fabricated using a commercial 0.15 μm GaN HEMT process are measured with a 67 GHz vector network analyzer (VNA). The fabricated device is an individual source via (ISV) type. As a result, it is difficult to predict the measured S12 in the conventional small-signal model equivalent circuit. This causes errors in maximum stable gain/maximum available gain (MSG/MAG) and stability factor (K), which are important for circuit design. This paper proposes a small-signal equivalent circuit that adds the drain-source inductance to the drain-source capacitance considering the source via structure. The proposed equivalent circuit better reproduces the measured S12 without compromising the accuracy of other S-parameters up to 67 GHz and improves the accuracy of MSG/MAG and K. It is expected that the proposed model can be utilized in a large-signal model for 5G millimeter-wave GaN HEMT power amplifier design in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radio-Frequency High Power Amplifier)
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11 pages, 4225 KiB  
Article
A 2.4 GHz 20 W 8-Channel RF Source Module with Improved Channel Output Balance
by Hyosung Nam, Taewan Kim, Taejoo Sim, Sooji Bae and Junghyun Kim
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(16), 7491; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11167491 - 15 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1783
Abstract
This paper presents a 2.4 GHz 20 W 8-channel radio frequency (RF) source module with improved channel output balance. The proposed RF source module is composed of an RF source generation/DC control part, a power amplification part, and a power dividing part. A [...] Read more.
This paper presents a 2.4 GHz 20 W 8-channel radio frequency (RF) source module with improved channel output balance. The proposed RF source module is composed of an RF source generation/DC control part, a power amplification part, and a power dividing part. A 2-stage power amplifier (PA) is combined with gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors, including a 25 W transistor and 2-way combined 120 W transistors as the drive and main PA, respectively. In addition, a structure was applied to improve the channel output balance compared to that of the previous module, and the differences of the phase and magnitude of the output power between channels are alleviated within 0.35° and 0.18 dB, respectively. A water jacket was implemented under the drive and main PAs for liquid cooling; however, unlike in the previous work, it was designed by optimizing the size of the water jacket and reducing unnecessary materials using a brazing process. The output power at each channel was 43 dBm, and the drain efficiency was more than 50% at 2.4 GHz. The total module size was 244 mm × 247.4 mm × 30 mm, and its volume was reduced by approximately 58.4% compared to that of the previous module. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radio-Frequency High Power Amplifier)
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14 pages, 2882 KiB  
Article
Ka-Band Stacked Power Amplifier Supporting 3GPP New Radio FR2 Band n258 Implemented Using 45 nm CMOS SOI
by Janne P. Aikio, Alok Sethi, Mikko Hietanen, Jere Rusanen, Timo Rahkonen and Aarno Pärssinen
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(15), 6708; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11156708 - 22 Jul 2021
Viewed by 1849
Abstract
This paper presents a fully integrated, four-stack, single-ended, single stage power amplifier (PA) for millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless applications that was fabricated and designed using 45 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor silicon on insulator (CMOS SOI) technology. The frequency of operation is from 20 [...] Read more.
This paper presents a fully integrated, four-stack, single-ended, single stage power amplifier (PA) for millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless applications that was fabricated and designed using 45 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor silicon on insulator (CMOS SOI) technology. The frequency of operation is from 20 GHz to 30 GHz, with 13.7 dB of maximum gain. The maximum RF (radio frequency) output power (Pout), power-added efficiency (PAE) and output 1 dB compression point are 20.5 dBm, 29% and 18.8 dBm, respectively, achieved at 24 GHz. The error vector magnitude (EVM) of 12.5% was measured at an average channel power of 14.5 dBm at the center of the the 3GPP/NR (third generation partnership project/new radio) FR2 band n258—i.e., 26 GHz—using a 100 MHz 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) 3GPP/NR orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) signal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radio-Frequency High Power Amplifier)
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