HIGH-EFFICIENCY MICROWAVE BJT POWER AMPLIFIER SIMULATION

Anna N Rudiakova’, Julia V. Rassokhina’, Marian K. Kazimierczuk*,and Vladimir G. Krizhanovski’

’Donetsk State University, Radio Physics Department

ul. Universitetskaya 24, Donetsk 83055, Ukraine, E-mail: [email protected]
* Wright State University, Department of Electrical Engineering
Dayton, OH 45435, U.S.A., E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (937) 775-5059, Fax: (937) 775-5009

ABSTRACT ? + vcc

Simulation results of a Siemens BFP490 BJT power

amplifier for a frequency range 8-11GHz are for the fhndamental
frequency component :
presented. It was shown that the output network
input impedance is inductive and the collector high efficiency
current is negative during a part of the ac cycle, ? P

when the amplifier operates in high-efficiency mode.

1. INTRODUCTION d .4

Class-E [l], [2] and class-F [3], [4] amplifiers have tuned load
different theoretical backgrounds: transistor operates iC cb
as a switch in class-E mode, and as a current source
in class-F mode. However, the basic principles of an
increase in efficiency of these amplifiers are the
same: zero-current intervals during the transistor cut- for higher harmonics :
off state and non-simultaneous existence of
substantial voltage and current values at the IZL I=o
transistor output. These lead to a decrease in (c>
instantaneous power dissipated in a transistor, which
represents the dominant part of overall losses. Fig. 1. Analyzed BJT power amplifier. (a) Basic circuit.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a high- (b) Equivalent circuit. (c) Equivalent impedances.
efficiency power amplifier using a new concept of a
power loss reduction. Here, a high efficiency is negative collector current during a part of an ac
achieved by operating a transistor as a current source cycle.
in such a mode that the instantaneous values of the
collector current are negative during a part of the ac 2. CURRENT RESONANCE’S APPROACH
cycle. Along with the always positive collector-
emitter voltage, this leads to a negative instantaneous 2.1. Assumptions
power values during a part of the ac period. Since the
negative power “compensates” some of the positive The basic circuit of a BJT power amplifier is shown
power, the average power loss is reduced. in Fig. l(a), where C,, Ccb, and Cb, are the
These conditions can practically be satisfied due package capacitances of the BJT. The capacitance
to the influence of transistor capacitances. However, Ccb is assumed to be sufficiently low and is
the capacitance currents must be comparable with neglected in the analysis. Thus, the collector
the dependent source current to achieve a sufficient current ic is the sum of current through the

0-7803-7448-7/02/$17.00 02002 IEEE v-33

 1.4 - - 1.0

1.2 - - 0.8

1.0 - - 0.6

0.8- - 0.4

0.6 - - 0.2

0.4 - - 0.0
J , . , . j , , . , I
0 45 90: 135 180
Ag, (degrees)

Fig. 2. Normalized collector current (dashed line) and I

normalized output power (solid line) versus phase shift

between the findamental components of current through
U
V I ICce(1) ICU)
capacitance C
,, and current source is.
I
I
capacitance C ,, and the source current is, as _______-_____
I IW
shown in Fig. l(b). The coupling capacitance C, !
prevents the dc component from reaching the output (c)
network. It is assumed that this capacitance is high Fig. 3. Phasor diagrams. (a) Parallel resonance case. (b)
enough so that it can be neglected. The transistor is Tuned case. (c) Untuned case.
represented by the half-sine wave current source is
(Fig. l(b)) that operates with a 180' conduction Fig. 3 shows the phasor diagrams for three phase
angle. Thus, the dc and first harmonic spectral shift conditions:
components of is are given by 1) Fig. 3(a) corresponds to the case, where the
output network is a parallel resonance circuit with
h(0) = I , . Yo 3 (1) C,,being a part of the overall capacitance. In this
Is(1)= I , . Y I , (2) case, the phase shift in Fig. 2 is 90' and the highest
output power is achieved:
where yo and yl are the Fourier coefficients and I ,
vCEIS(I)
is the peak value of is. The transistor saturation P1 = (3)
2
voltage is assumed to be zero.
2) Fig. 3(b) corresponds to the tuned case, where
2.2. Phase Shift Analysis the collector-emitter voltage and the collector current
are out-of-phase by 180" in Fig. 2. However, despite
In order to achieve the desired negative collector the matching conditions, this case offers a lower
current values, and hence the dissipated power output power than case 1)
reduction, a proper phase relationship between the
fundamental components of the currents is and
'
zcce
must be satisfied. The normalized collector
current and the normalized output power versus the 3) Fig. 3(c) shows untuned case and corresponds
phase shift ( A p ) between those currents are depicted to the phase shifts below 90' in Fig. 2.
Since the dc power is the same for all these
in Fig. 2. It can be seen that the maximum output cases, the maximum efficiency can be achieved
power occurs at A p = 90'. using parallel resonance circuit, where capacitance
C,, is absorbed into the overall capacitance.

v - 34
 J I I
I '-0.10
0 I 2
I (periods)

Fig. 4. High-frequency BJT amplifier.

Fig. 5 . Collector current and voltage waveforms.

2.3. Output Network Requirements From (1 1)-(13), one obtains

The resonant circuit parameters can be written in

terms of the loaded quality factor
Q = R/(woL)= RwoCce as follows: Therefore,

Thus, in order to achieve the dissipated

power PD = 0 , the quality factor should satisfy the
condition:
2uoCceVCc . YO
e= Im
2
.Y I
(16)

tgPzL = Q * (8) However, the voltage VcE should not be greater

The power dissipated in a transistor can be expressed than Vcc .Thus, from (1 l), one obtains the maximum
as allowable value of the quality factor

PD = I c C v C C - Pl. (9)
Since the capacitance current does not contain the dc and the corresponding maximum reachable
component for steady-state operation, the dc collector efficiency
component of the collector current is equal to the dc
component of the dependent current source Is(o)

ICC = I m Y O . (10) 3. AMPLIFIER SIMULATION

Using (6)--(0 VCE, I c ( I ), and C O S V ) ~ , are
A high-frequency amplifier circuit is shown in
Fig. 4.The physically-based BJT model [5] was used
for simulation. The amplifier input network was
optimized for the maximum power gain at the
fundamental frequencyfo = 10 GHz. The transistor
input power was 5.54 mW at vi,=1.5 V and R L = 50
'a. The power added efficiency was 58% at the
loaded quality factor Q = 3.8 . It can be seen in Fig. 5
that the collector current ic takes on substantial

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 -~ 5 8 %(P6.0.021 W)
30-
- 60

- 50
25-

- 40
20-
- 30
15-
- 20
10-
1 I10
8 9 10 1; GHz l2

Fig. 6. Instantaneous powe dissipated in the transistor. Fig. 7. Output power and efficiency of high-efficiency PA
versus frequency.

negative values during a part of the ac cycle, as National Science Foundation, nor does mention of
shown in Fig. 6 . Therefore, the average power trade names, commercial products or organizations
dissipated in the transistor is reduced, yielding high imply endorsement by the National Academy of
efficiency. The amplifier output power and Sciences or the National Science Foundation.
efficiency versus frequency are shown in Fig. 7.
REFERENCES
4. CONCLUSIONS
[ l ] N. 0. Sokal and A. D.Sokal, “Class-E - A new class
A high-efficiency power amplifier was simulated of high-efficiency tuned single-ended switching power
using a “first-order” BJT model. The effect of amplifiers,” IEEE J. Solid-state Circuits, vol. SC- 10,
efficiency increase was achieved by tuning the pp. 168-176, June 1975.
output network in order to obtain a parallel [2] B. Mader, E. Bryerton, M. Markovic, M. Fonnan, and
resonance with the transistor output capacitance. In Z. Popovic, “Switched-mode high-efficiency
this case, the collector current takes on negative microwave power amplifiers in a free-space power-
values during a part of the ac cycle. Therefore, combined array,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theoly and
instantaneous power dissipated in a transistor takes Techniques, vol. 46, pp. 1391-1398, Oct. 1998.
on substantial negative values as well, reducing the
average dissipated power and hence improving the [3] H. Krauss, C. Bostian, and F. H. Raab, Solid State
amplifier efficiency. Radio Engineering. New-York: Wiley, 1980.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [4] F. H. Raab, “Class F power amplifiers with maximally

flat wavefonns,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and
Techniques, vol. 45, pp. 2007-2013, Nov. 1997.
This project has been funded in part by the National
Academy of Sciences under the Twinning Program [5] I. T. Arkhangelskaya and A. Ya. Arkhangelskii, “First-
supported by Contract No. INT-0002341 from the order model of charge transfer and accumulation and a
National Science Foundation. The contents of this bipolar transistor model based on it,” I . . Vuzov
publication do not necessarily reflect the views or Rudioelektroniku, vol. XVII, no. 6, pp. 104-1 11, June
policies of the National Academy of Sciences or the 1974 (in Russian).

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