24 May 2011

Mesuro demos first-pass design success for multi-harmonically matched MMIC PA

Mesuro Ltd of Cardiff, UK, which is commercializing RF test & measurement technologies from Cardiff University’s Centre for High Frequency Engineering, says that it has again proved how its waveform engineering approach to power amplifier (PA) design yields major reductions in design costs and improves product time to market, through ‘right-first-time’ design.

Using the commercially available TQPED 0.5µm gallium arsenide pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (GaAs pHEMT) foundry process of TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA with data from characterization performed on Mesuro’s active harmonic load-pull solution, the completed design produced a first-pass MMIC power amplifier with an efficiency performance of >80%.

Figure 1: Measured PA power sweep at the designed frequency of 900MHz.

The use of the original device measurement data meant that the designer was able to produce the design without the need for a nonlinear I-Q device model.

For this reason it is often necessary for the designer to rely on experimental investigations. This build and test approach is often frustrating, since it can be very time consuming and does not usually allow the flexibility or the quantity of investigations to be undertaken, says Mesuro.

The firm says that the multi-harmonically matched MMIC PA design process allowed the designer to understand accurately how component sensitivities would affect the proposed performance of the amplifier at the investigation phase prior to any expensive fabrication being undertaken. This means that the designer could better understand the trade-offs that could be made in the impedance matches to increase the probability of a first-time success after fabrication.

Figure 2: Layout of the 900MHz, class-F, MMIC power amplifier.

Mesuro says that the ability to get close to the optimum performance first time provides designers with the opportunity to hugely reduce design costs by reducing the number of design iterations required, allowing them to get a product to market quicker, it is claimed.

See related items:

Record 90% efficiency achieved using commercial GaAs RF devices

Tags: Mesuro MMIC PA TriQuint GaAs pHEMT

Visit: www.mesuro.com