A review of audio Class D amplifiers

Class D amplifiers (CDAs) are increasingly ubiquitous as the audio power amplifier (loudspeaker driver) in audio devices due to their significantly higher power-efficiency compared to their linear counterparts. In this paper, a comprehensive review on the design of audio Class D amplifiers is provided, including a comparison of commonly used design architectures/modulation schemes. The key design parameters, including Total Harmonic Distortion, Power Supply Rejection Ratio, Intermodulation Distortion, are discussed and the design tradeoffs between these parameters delineated.