Abstract
This paper presents a supply modulated X-band 12-W peak power transmitter that maintains an average efficiency greater than 50% for various shapes of amplitude-modulated pulses. The main power amplifier is a two-stage GaN-on-SiC MMIC with a peak efficiency of 65%, while the pulse envelope modulator is a 95% efficient hybrid 3-b power DAC implemented with GaN-on-Si transistor switches. Envelope shaping of a pulsed waveform results in improved spectral confinement of greater than 15 dB for the first sideband compared with constant-envelope pulses, with over 20 points improvement in total efficiency. The combination of supply modulation and digital predistortion is shown to result in high composite (total) efficiency of over 55%, with simultaneous high dynamic range and with flexible digitally programmable pulse shaping.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 881-891 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 16 Dec 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Acceptance date is provisional and based on date of publication.Keywords
- envelope tracking (ET)
- power DAC (pDAC)
- radar pulsing
- spectral confinement
- supply modulator