Automatic methodology for wideband power amplifier design

Abstract

This letter presents an automatic power amplifier (PA) design methodology that uses a multidimensional search algorithm to find the best compromise between fundamental and harmonic impedance terminations for a specified bandwidth. In conventional design methodologies, PA designers need to preselect the optimum impedances, which normally follow nonFoster trajectories, and are thus impossible to achieve with passive matching networks (MNs) for a wide frequency range. Instead, the proposed automatic design method directly synthesizes the MNs to achieve the desired output power, efficiency, and gain performance, without forcing any impedance profiles. For that, load-pull data are interpolated using artificial neural networks and an algorithm based on the simplified real frequency technique is used to obtain the MNs. Finally, the method is validated with a single-ended PA implementation.