A Dual-Mode Multi-Band Second Harmonic Controlled SOI LDMOS Power Amplifier

Abstract

This letter presents a dual-mode multi-band second harmonic controlled SOI LDMOS power amplifier (PA). A mode selection switch is designed to have better power handing capability than a conventional switch, which improves performance in low power mode (LPM). To improve the PA's linearity in high power mode (HPM), second harmonic is controlled with the aid of a path for LPM. The PA, implemented with a 0.13-m SOI LDMOS process, operates in triple bands (band 5, 8, and 20) with dual power modes. It is measured using a 16 QAM long-term evolution (LTE) signal with a 10 MHz bandwidth. At 850 MHz, the results show 27.7 dBm average output power (Pout), 31.4 dB gain, and 31.4% power-added efficiency (PAE) with 4% error-vector magnitude (EVM) in HPM and 10.4 dB gain, 15.5 dBm Pout, and 22.5% PAE with 4% EVM in LPM with the LTE signal.