Diode peak voltage clamping of class E amplifier

In this paper, a diode clamp circuit, which reduces the transient peak switch voltage of the class E amplifier, is proposed. This clamp circuit clamps the output voltage of the class E amplifier when the amplitude of output voltage becomes much larger than the designed value. Such a situation happens when the load resistance is open-circuited. A rough estimation of the amplitude of the output current when output voltage is clamped is described. Experimental results showed that the proposed diode clamp circuit successfully reduces the transient peak switch voltage.