Design and prototyping of a power amplifier for an optimum trade-off of efficiency and linearity

This thesis presents the design of a Class-AB microwave power amplifier operating at approximately 2.6 GHz, with an optimized trade-off between efficiency and linearity. The objective of the proposed power amplifier is optimized to maximize performance for meeting the requirements of given minimum output power and gain. A major challenge in the design process lies in simultaneously satisfying the requirements for minimum output power, gain, efficiency, and linearity under two-tone testing, while achieving the best trade-off among these parameters. The prototype is implemented using a 10W packaged GaN device and final simulations demonstrate that the design fully meets the requirements of the SDC, achieving a PAE of 59% and 46% while maintaining the linearity target of better than –30 dBc.