Lossless Multi-Way Power Combining and Outphasing for Radio-Frequency Power Amplifiers

MTL WP admin — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:27:16 +0000

For applications requiring the use of power amplifiers (PAs) operating at high frequencies and power levels, it is often preferable to construct multiple low-power PAs and combine their output powers to form a high-power PA. Moreover, such PAs must often be able to provide dynamic control of their output power over a wide range and maintain high efficiency across their operating range. This research work introduces a new power combining and outphasing system that provides both high efficiency and dynamic output power control^[1]. The system combines power from four or more PAs (Figure 1) and overcomes the loss and reactive loading problems of previous outphasing systems^[2]^[3]^[4]. It provides ideally lossless power combining, along with nearly-resistive loading of the individual power amplifiers over a very wide output power range. The theoretical fundamentals underlying the behavior and operation of this new combining system were thoroughly developed. Additionally, a straight-forward combiner design methodology was provided. The prototype design of a 27.12 MHz, four-way power combining and outphasing system was presented and implemented (Figure 2), and its performance was experimentally validated over a 10W-100W (10:1) output power range^[5].

A. S. Jurkov and D. J. Perreault, “Design and control of lossless multi-way power combining and outphasing systems,” Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 1-4, Aug. 2011. =
H. Chireix, “High power outphasing modulation,” Proc, of the IRE, vol. 23, no. 11, pp. 1370-1392, Nov. 1935.
F. H. Raab, “Efficiency of outphasing RF power-amplifier systems,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 1094-1099, Oct. 1985.
A. Birafane and A. Kouki, “On the linearity and efficiency of outphasing microwave amplifiers,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 1702-1708, July 2004.
A. S. Jurkov and D. J. Perreault, “Lossless multi-way power combing and outphasing for high-frequency resonant inverters,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and Motion Control, to be published

David Perreault

MTL WP admin — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:19:07 +0000

Collaborators

J. Kassakian, MIT
J. Lang, MIT
S. Leeb, MIT
J. Kirtley, MIT
J. Dawson, MIT
T. Palacios, MIT
C. Sullivan, Dartmouth
M. Allen, Georgia Tech.

Graduate Students

David Giuliano (EECS)
Wei Li (EECS)
Minjie Chen (EECS)
Seungbum Lim (EECS)
Samantha Gunter (EECS)
Wardah Inam (EECS)
Alexander Jurkov (EECS)
John Ranson (EECS)
Juan Santiago (EECS)

Support Staff

Xiaoying Li, Administrative Assistant

Publications

Burkhart, J., R. Korsunsky and D.J. Perreault, “Design Methodology for a Very High Frequency Resonant Boost Converter,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2012 (IEEE Early Access).

Godoy, P.A., S. Chung, T.W. Barton, D.J. Perreault, and J.L. Dawson “A 2.4-GHz, 27-dBm Asymmetric Multilevel Outphasing Power Amplifier in 65-nm CMOS”, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 2012 (IEEE Early Access).

Han, Y. and D.J. Perreault, “Inductor Design Methods with Low-Permeability RF Core Materials,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2012 (IEEE Early Access).

Pilawa-Podgurski, R.C.N. and D.J. Perreault, “Merged Two-Stage Power Converter with Soft-Charging Switched-Capacitor Stage in 180 nm CMOS,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 47, No. 7, pp. 1557-1567, July 2012.

Han, Y., A. Li, G. Cheung, C.R. Sullivan, and D.J. Perreault, “Evaluation of Magnetic Materials for Very High Frequency Power Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 425-435, Jan. 2012.

Hu, J., A.D. Sagneri, J.M. Rivas, Y. Han, S.M. Davis, and D.J. Perreault, “High-Frequency Resonant SEPIC Converter with Wide Input and Output Voltage Ranges,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 189-200, Jan. 2012.

Rivas, J.M., O. Leitermann, Y. Han, and D.J. Perreault, “A Very High Frequency dc-dc Converter Based on a Class Phi-2 Resonant Inverter,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 26, No. 10, pp. 2980-2992, Oct. 2011.

D.J. Perreault, “A New Power Combining and Outphasing Modulation System for High-Efficiency Power Amplification,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems – I, Vol. 58, No. 8, pp. 1713-1726, Aug. 2011.

Jurkov, A.S., L. Roslaniec, and D.J. Perreault, “Lossless Multi-Way Power Combining and Outphasing for High-Frequency Resonant Inverters,” 2012 International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, pp. 910-917, June 2012.

Chen, M., K.K. Afridi, and D.J. Perreault, “Stacked Switched Capacitor Energy Buffer Architecture,” 2012 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference, pp. 1404-1413, Feb. 2012.

Pilawa-Podgurski, R.P., Wei Li, I. Celanovic and D.J. Perreault, “Integrated CMOS DC-DC Converter with Digital Maximum Power Point Tracking for a Portable Thermophotovoltaic Power Generator,” 2011 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 197-204, Sept. 2011.