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A Class-RF Power Amplifier With A Flat-Top Transistor-Voltage Waveform
A Class-RF Power Amplifier With A Flat-Top Transistor-Voltage Waveform
I. INTRODUCTION
HE class-E amplifier [1]–[3] is one of the most important Fig. 2. Normalized nominal class-E voltage and current waveforms.
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5216 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2013
reduction [21], [22], and harmonic manipulation for filtering or Fig. 5. Normalized class-E flat-top HEPA screen.
efficiency purposes [23]. In this paper, a flat-top transistor volt-
age waveform is obtained with the aim to improve the output
power capability of the class E.
The advantage of a flat-top voltage waveform is that the tran- The basic strategy was to design for nominal class-E wave-
sistor peak voltage and peak current for a given output power forms with a quasi-ideal switch and to optimize that design to
are reduced from the values in nominal class E. Then, stress is deliver the specified output power from a transistor being driven
reduced, or more output power can be obtained with the same to a specified peak flat-top voltage and operating at the highest
amount of stress. Output power for a given product of peak possible efficiency. To optimize the nominal class-E design, the
voltage and peak current is 0.118 for the flat-top voltage, versus software adjusts the parameters C1 , C2 , L2 , C3 , L3 , and Rload .
0.098 in a nominal class E; flat top is better than nominal by a Minimum and maximum limit values for each of the param-
factor of 0.118/0.098 = 1.2. eters are set with ranges from 50% to 200% of the nominal
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. values. L3 and C3 values must resonate at 2fo , as explained
Section II presents the fundamentals of the proposed circuit, earlier. The goal for the optimizer was set to provide the desired
including a normalized design approach. Section III compares output power, while making the efficiency as high as possible.
the waveforms and spectra of the proposed and classical topol- The normalized values (see Fig. 4) are shown in (1)–(4), and the
ogy. Section IV includes a design example and experimental HEPA screen is shown in Fig. 5
results to verify the proposal. The conclusions of this paper are
drawn in Section V. ωn = 1 rad/s (1)
ωn
II. FLAT-TOP VERSION OF CLASS E fn = = 0.159 Hz (2)
2π
The proposed topology is analyzed from a normalized ver- Rload(n ) = 0.9 Ω (3)
sion, to obtain a general solution for any output power, at any
switching frequency and using any dc-voltage supply. Vdd(n ) = 1 V. (4)
The normalized power amplifier, depicted in Fig. 4, operates
from a 1-V dc supply and delivers 1 W of output power; fur-
thermore, the switching device has 0.01 Ω on-resistance Rdson , The normalized results for the class-E components are in-
and the switching frequency is 1 rad/s. cluded in (5)–(13). Note that inductor values are given in
The design of the amplifier was done with the HEPA PLUS Henries (H) and capacitor values are given in Farads (F)
[24]1 optimizer software.
L1(n) = 1 × 106 H (5)
Analytical analysis and optimization is challenging because
of the many complicated interactions among the seven passive L2(n ) = 0.49 H (6)
linear circuit elements that are being adjusted [25].
L3(n ) = 0.523 H (7)
The transistor has three major device parameters, which can-
not be adjusted independently because it would change the C1(n ) = 0.225 F (8)
transistor’s operating characteristics. If the user wishes to try
C2(n ) = 50.516 F (9)
multiple different transistors, to see which performs best, it can
be done by adding the parameters for these candidate transistors C3(n ) = 0.478 F (10)
and running the optimizer to adjust the seven passive circuit
Vsw pk
elements. This procedure can be repeated for any number of = 2.9765 (11)
transistors, and then simply choose the transistor that yields the Vdd
preferred results. Isw pk
= 2.8350 (12)
Idd
1 A 20 pages document with a tutorial about HEPA software is available
at no cost for interested readers requesting it to nathansokal@gmail.com or Pout
= 0.11832. (13)
amediano@unizar.es. (Vsw pk Isw pk )
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MEDIANO AND SOKAL: CLASS-E RF POWER AMPLIFIER WITH A FLAT-TOP TRANSISTOR-VOLTAGE WAVEFORM 5217
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5218 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2013
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MEDIANO AND SOKAL: CLASS-E RF POWER AMPLIFIER WITH A FLAT-TOP TRANSISTOR-VOLTAGE WAVEFORM 5219
TABLE II
THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL VALUES OF COMPONENTS
Fig. 12. Simulated waveforms for the 1-MHz class-E flat-top amplifier.
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5220 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2013
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MEDIANO AND SOKAL: CLASS-E RF POWER AMPLIFIER WITH A FLAT-TOP TRANSISTOR-VOLTAGE WAVEFORM 5221
Arturo Mediano (M’98–SM’06) received the M.Sc. Nathan O. Sokal (M’56–SM’56–F’89–LF’94) re-
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the ceived the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in elec-
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain, in 1990 and trical engineering in 1950 from the Massachusetts
1997, respectively. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Since 1990, he has been involved in R&D and From 1950 to 1965, he held engineering and su-
troubleshooting projects with companies in electro- pervisory positions with Holmes and Narver, Inc.,
magnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC) and RF fields M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory, Mack Electronics Divi-
for communications, industry, scientific, and medical sion of Mack Trucks, Inc., Di/An Controls, Inc.,
applications. Since 1992, he has held a teaching pro- and Sylvania Electronic Systems Division. He was
fessorship with special interest in EMI/EMC and RF involved with design, manufacturing, and field in-
(HF/VHF/UHF) design for Telecom and Electrical stallation and operation of a wide variety of analog
Engineers with the Group of Power Electronics and Microelectronics, Univer- and digital equipment for instrumentation, control, communications, computa-
sity of Zaragoza. He is the author/coauthor for many publications and patents tion, and signal and data processing. In 1965, he founded Design Automation,
as result of activity in research activities. He has substantial experience in col- Auburndale, MA, USA, an electronics consulting company doing product de-
laboration with industries with a focus on training and consulting in RF design sign, design review and needed redesign, and technology development for
and EMI/EMC design and troubleshooting. Usually, the result was directly used equipment manufacturers and government agencies, and technical consulting on
in a marketed product. He has taught more than 40 courses and seminars for legal matters for attorneys. Much of that work was focused on high-efficiency
industries and institutions in the fields of RF/EMI/EMC in Spain, the U.S., switching-mode power conversion and power amplification, at frequencies from
Switzerland, France, U.K., Italy, and The Netherlands. His research interest dc to 3 GHz. He contributed to the technology of high-efficiency power conver-
include high-efficiency switching-mode RF power amplifiers with experience sion and RF power amplification.
in applications like mobile communication radios, broadcasting, through-earth Mr. Sokal received the Microwave Pioneer Award of the IEEE Microwave
communication systems, induction heating, medical equipment, plasmas for in- Theory and Techniques Society, in recognition of a major, lasting contribution,
dustrial applications, and radio-frequency identification. for development of the class-E RF power amplifier in 2007. In 2011, he re-
Dr. Mediano has been a Speaker in paper sessions and tutorials of some ceived the Doctoral Degree “Doctor Honoris Causa” by the Polytechnic Univer-
of the most important symposiums and conferences related to RF and EMC sity of Madrid, Spain, for inventing and developing the class-E high-efficiency
(RF EXPO, IEEE IMS, and IEEE International Symposium EMC, URSI, EPE, switching-mode RF power amplifier. He is a Technical Adviser to the American
ARFTG, EUROEM, IEEE RWS, EuMW, etc.). He is one of the Instructors Radio Relay League, on RF power amplification and dc power conversion. He is
of Besser Associates, one of the world’s more important providers of contin- a member of the honorary professional societies Eta Kappa Nu, The Electromag-
uing education for RF and microwave professionals. He is an active member netics Academy, and Sigma Xi. He reviews technical manuscripts submitted for
from 1999 of the MTT-17 (HF/VHF/UHF technology) Technical Committee of publications and conferences: IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, IEEE
the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society and a member of the Electro- TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELEC-
magnetic Compatibility Society (member of the directive of the EMC Spanish TRON DEVICES, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYS-
Chapter) and a member of the Education Society. TEMS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS,
Power Electronics Specialists Conference, International Symposium on Circuits
and Systems, Applied Power Electronics Conference, International Conference
on Power Electronics, Drives, and Energy Systems for Industrial Growth, and
Design Automation Conference; and Transactions on South African Institute
of Electrical Engineers, European Power Electronics (EPE) Journal, and EPE
Conference.
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