A CMOS Envelope Tracking Supply Converter for RF Power Amplifiers of 5G NR Mobile Terminals

An envelope tracking supply converter was presented for the RF power amplifiers of sub-6 GHz 5G NR mobile devices. The hybrid supply converter consisted of a linear, fast switching, and slow switching regulators connected in parallel. The two-phase hysteretic control was proposed for use in the fast switching regulator to track the fast-varying envelope of 40-MHz 5G NR signal. The 0.25-μm CMOS supply converter achieved a maximum efficiency of 79.1%. The power-added efficiency improvement of the RF power amplifier with the proposed supply converter was 3.1% when tested with a 40-MHz 256-QAM 5G NR signal.