Energy efficient power amplifiers (PA) are the key building blocks for low energy consumption, environment friendly wireless infrastructures. Switch mode power amplifiers (SMPA) can provide very high efficiency however requires driving the transistor with a fixed amplitude square wave signal creating inherent non-linearity.  Modern communication signals employ both amplitude and phase modulated signals meaning that PA has to be linear for a distortion-free transmission.

Objective of this master thesis is to study feasibility of a novel, dynamic load modulation based linearization technique for Class-E PAs.  Our recent analysis and simulations have shown that varying the imaginary load impedance of Class-E PAs yields amplitude modulation and does not cause any degradation in the drain efficiency. A successful implementation of this technique may therefore provide linear amplification with highly efficient Class-E PAs.    The main tasks include:

1)    Development of a systematic design procedure based on the analytical design equations of Class-E PAs.
2)    Design of tunable imaginary load impedance RF Class-E PA using the developed design procedure.
3)    Characterization of the fabricated PA with realistic communication signals.