Over the last decade, the number of mobile wireless devices on the market has increased substantially. New “multi-carrier” modulation schemes, such as OFDM, WCDMA, and WiMAX, have been developed to accommodate the increasing number of wireless subscribers and the demand for faster data rates within the limited commercial frequency spectrum. These complex modulation schemes create signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), exhibiting rapid changes in the signal magnitude. To accommodate these high-PAPR signals, RF power amplifiers in mobile devices must operate under backed-off gain conditions, resulting in poor power efficiency. Various efficiency-enhancement solutions have been realized for backed-off devices to combat this issue.
A brief overview of one of the more extensively researched solutions, the Doherty amplifier, is given, and its inherent limitations are discussed. A recently proposed amplifier topology that provides the efficiency benefits of the Doherty amplifier, while overcoming some of the fundamental problems that plague the standard Doherty architecture, is investigated. A step-by-step design methodology is presented and confirmed by extensive simulation in Agilent ADS. A design example, tuned for maximum efficiency at peak output power, is implemented on a PCB and tested to verify the validity of the proposed circuit configuration.
","abstract_html":"<p>Over the last decade, the number of mobile wireless devices on the market has increased substantially. New “multi-carrier” modulation schemes, such as OFDM, WCDMA, and WiMAX, have been developed to accommodate the increasing number of wireless subscribers and the demand for faster data rates within the limited commercial frequency spectrum. These complex modulation schemes create signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), exhibiting rapid changes in the signal magnitude. To accommodate these high-PAPR signals, RF power amplifiers in mobile devices must operate under backed-off gain conditions, resulting in poor power efficiency. Various efficiency-enhancement solutions have been realized for backed-off devices to combat this issue.</p> <p>A brief overview of one of the more extensively researched solutions, the Doherty amplifier, is given, and its inherent limitations are discussed. A recently proposed amplifier topology that provides the efficiency benefits of the Doherty amplifier, while overcoming some of the fundamental problems that plague the standard Doherty architecture, is investigated. A step-by-step design methodology is presented and confirmed by extensive simulation in Agilent ADS. A design example, tuned for maximum efficiency at peak output power, is implemented on a PCB and tested to verify the validity of the proposed circuit configuration.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["King, Matthew E."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS in Electrical Engineering","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Electrical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Vladimir Prodanov"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:17Z","subjects":["RF power amplifier","OFDM","power efficiency","Doherty amplifier","peak to average power ratio","multi-carrier wireless systems","Electrical and Electronics","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Systems and Communications","VLSI and Circuits, Embedded and Hardware Systems"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2012.128"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2012.128","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2012.128","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/811","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Vladimir Prodanov"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["King, Matthew E."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-06-15T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS in Electrical Engineering"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["RF power amplifier","OFDM","power efficiency","Doherty amplifier","peak to average power ratio","multi-carrier wireless systems","Electrical and Electronics","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Systems and Communications","VLSI and Circuits, Embedded and Hardware Systems"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/811","10.15368/theses.2012.128"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Over the last decade, the number of mobile wireless devices on the market has increased substantially. New “multi-carrier” modulation schemes, such as OFDM, WCDMA, and WiMAX, have been developed to accommodate the increasing number of wireless subscribers and the demand for faster data rates within the limited commercial frequency spectrum. These complex modulation schemes create signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), exhibiting rapid changes in the signal magnitude. To accommodate these high-PAPR signals, RF power amplifiers in mobile devices must operate under backed-off gain conditions, resulting in poor power efficiency. Various efficiency-enhancement solutions have been realized for backed-off devices to combat this issue.
A brief overview of one of the more extensively researched solutions, the Doherty amplifier, is given, and its inherent limitations are discussed. A recently proposed amplifier topology that provides the efficiency benefits of the Doherty amplifier, while overcoming some of the fundamental problems that plague the standard Doherty architecture, is investigated. A step-by-step design methodology is presented and confirmed by extensive simulation in Agilent ADS. A design example, tuned for maximum efficiency at peak output power, is implemented on a PCB and tested to verify the validity of the proposed circuit configuration.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Linear Power-Efficient RF Amplifier with Partial Positive Feedback"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Vladimir Prodanov"],"dc:creator":["King, Matthew E."],"dc:date.available":["2014-06-15T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Over the last decade, the number of mobile wireless devices on the market has increased substantially. New “multi-carrier” modulation schemes, such as OFDM, WCDMA, and WiMAX, have been developed to accommodate the increasing number of wireless subscribers and the demand for faster data rates within the limited commercial frequency spectrum. These complex modulation schemes create signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), exhibiting rapid changes in the signal magnitude. To accommodate these high-PAPR signals, RF power amplifiers in mobile devices must operate under backed-off gain conditions, resulting in poor power efficiency. Various efficiency-enhancement solutions have been realized for backed-off devices to combat this issue.
A brief overview of one of the more extensively researched solutions, the Doherty amplifier, is given, and its inherent limitations are discussed. A recently proposed amplifier topology that provides the efficiency benefits of the Doherty amplifier, while overcoming some of the fundamental problems that plague the standard Doherty architecture, is investigated. A step-by-step design methodology is presented and confirmed by extensive simulation in Agilent ADS. A design example, tuned for maximum efficiency at peak output power, is implemented on a PCB and tested to verify the validity of the proposed circuit configuration.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/811","10.15368/theses.2012.128"],"dc:subject":["RF power amplifier","OFDM","power efficiency","Doherty amplifier","peak to average power ratio","multi-carrier wireless systems","Electrical and Electronics","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Systems and Communications","VLSI and Circuits, Embedded and Hardware Systems"],"dc:title":["Linear Power-Efficient RF Amplifier with Partial Positive Feedback"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Electrical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS in Electrical Engineering"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:17Z"}