An intelligently controlled RF power amplifier with a reconfigurable MEMS-varactor tuner

This paper presents an intelligently controlled RF power amplifier with a reconfigurable output tuner using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches and a varactor. By switching on/off the MEMS switches and varying the bias voltage of the varactor, the performance of the amplifier is optimized for input signals with known or unknown frequencies in a range of 8-12 GHz. Fabrication-related unit-to-unit variations of the amplifier are overcome by the reconfigurable tuner. Directed algorithms based on a characterization table and on black-box genetic algorithms are developed for optimization and search.