A GSM Power Amplifier Directly-Powered From a DC-DC Power Converter

A commercial off-the-shelf GSM PA powered directly from a DC-DC converter is presented. The converter is implemented in 0.35 μm CMOS and employs frequency hopping with phase chopping to eliminate spurious noise. Measurement results demonstrate elimination of spurs, allowing an incompliant GSM PA that is violating the limits of the GSM spectral mask by 9.3 dB to be brought back to compliance without additional filtering or linear regulation between the converter and the PA.