{"id":5852,"date":"2012-07-18T22:27:16","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtlsites.mit.edu\/annual_reports\/2012\/?p=5852"},"modified":"2012-07-18T22:27:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:27:16","slug":"lossless-multi-way-power-combining-and-outphasing-for-radio-frequency-power-amplifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtlsites.mit.edu\/annual_reports\/2012\/lossless-multi-way-power-combining-and-outphasing-for-radio-frequency-power-amplifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Lossless Multi-Way Power Combining and Outphasing for Radio-Frequency Power Amplifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

For applications requiring the use of power amplifiers (PAs) operating at high frequencies and power levels, it is often preferable to construct multiple low-power PAs and combine their output powers to form a high-power PA. Moreover, such PAs must often be able to provide dynamic control of their output power over a wide range and maintain high efficiency across their operating range. This research work introduces a new power combining and outphasing system that provides both high efficiency and dynamic output power control [1<\/a>] <\/sup>. The system combines power from four or more PAs (Figure 1) and overcomes the loss and reactive loading problems of previous outphasing systems [2<\/a>] <\/sup> [3<\/a>] <\/sup> [4<\/a>] <\/sup>. It provides ideally lossless power combining, along with nearly-resistive loading of the individual power amplifiers over a very wide output power range. The theoretical fundamentals underlying the behavior and operation of this new combining system were thoroughly developed. Additionally, a straight-forward combiner design methodology was provided. The prototype design of a 27.12 MHz, four-way power combining and outphasing system was presented and implemented (Figure 2), and its performance was experimentally validated over a 10W-100W (10:1) output power range [5<\/a>] <\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t