7-Highly Efficient Power Amplifier for Microwave Transmitter

HIGHLY EFFICIENT POWER AMPLIFIER FOR MICROWAVE TRANSMITTER

With the world moving towards the era of 5G networks where the means of communication can soon extend between 50 billion devices, technological trends are now looking into better coverage, low power consumption and more connected devices [1].

In concurrent to this future, power wastages are tackled vigorously and key components in the communication modules which are heavily power dependent are introduced with new types of highly efficient configurations. From these modules, the highest power consumer is the power transistor in the power amplifier [2]. Y.Qin [3], states that power amplifiers that are highly efficient are always sought for because these devices tend to have longer battery life, reduced power dissipation and are generally smaller in size. The conventional classes of power amplifier however wastes most of its input power in forms of energy dissipation of heat which cannot be avoided due to the very nature of power components used to drive amplification [4].

Highly efficient switching mode amplifiers such as the Class E has the potential to provide a solution to the above as it has a theoretical efficiency of 100%. This would reduce the power wastage compared to conventional power amplifiers. The main focus or drive of this proposal is to look into aspects of switching mode power amplifiers which is theoretically able to achieve 100% efficiency. In comparison, commercial power amplifiers used in current designs only can operate with the highest achievable PAE of merely 50%.

The subject of measurement for power amplifiers has always been vague and argued amongst researchers but for this work, the PAE will be used as decisive measurement. However, switching mode amplifiers like Class E and Class F are not preference due to its highly non-linearity. This disadvantage can be solved by using linearization techniques such as pre-distortion or feedback / feed-forward techniques. In practical, there is always tradeoffs between achieving high PAE and output power which will be proved in this work. Besides, investigations towards intermodulation distortion, (IMD) will be conducted across power amplifier configurations. It would be such a waste to discard a power amplifier that has very high potential in conserving energy such as the switching mode amplifier.

PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR:

DR. FARID BIN ZUBIR

MEMBERS:

DR. NOOR ASNIZA BINTI MURAD

DR. ASMAWATI BINTI SAMSURI

DR. OSMAN BIN AYOP

PROF. DR. MOHAMAD KAMAL B. A. RAHIM

DR. MOHD FAIRUS BIN MOHD YUSOFF

DR. MOHAMAD RIJAL BIN HAMID