Power supply switching for a mm-wave asymmetric multilevel outphasing power amplifier system

• Main Author: Spaulding, Jonathon David
• Other Authors: Joel Dawson and Taylor Barton.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011
• Subjects: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62479

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === This thesis demonstrates power switches to be used in our new Asymmetric Multilevel Outphasing (AMO) transmitter architecture at mm-wave frequencies. The AMO topology breaks the linearity vs. efficiency design objective in radio frequency power amplifiers (PAs) which has until now appeared to be fundamental. These power switches allow for the modulation of the PA supply rail between four discrete levels at a maximum sampling rate of 2 GHz. This modulation results in a higher average system efficiency by reducing the outphasing angle between the phase paths. This work was designed in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process. === by Jonathon David Spaulding. === M.Eng.