Low-Cost Versatile Power Management Unit for 6G Heterogeneous Phased Array Systems

Many dc supply and bias voltages are needed in heterogeneous phased array systems, due to the high component count. We present a low-cost versatile power management unit for the supply of such a system. From a single dc input voltage it generates six fixed voltage levels, four adjustable low-voltage bias voltages, two adjustable negative bias voltages, and two adjustable high-voltage outputs. The adjustable voltages are controllable via SPI communication, for which a Teensy microcontroller was used in combination with Matlab to create a simple to use graphical user interface. Furthermore, to cater to the needs of gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifiers, a protection circuit is added to ensure that the high-voltage outputs can only be switched on as long as a negative bias output is present.