A 72% PAE, 10-watt, CMOS-LDMOS switch-mode power amplifier for sub-1GHz application

A low-cost silicon-based high efficiency CMOS-LDMOS switch-mode power amplifier (SMPA) line-up operating for sub-1GHz application is presented. The switch-mode operated LDMOS device is driven by high-speed, high voltage driver, implemented in a standard 0.14µm CMOS process technology. The CMOS driver uses high voltage extended-drain devices and delivers a 5.0V
PP
output voltage swing up to 1GHz. The power stage is formed by the latest LDMOS transistor designed for base station applications. The load-pull measurement results show that the proposed SMPA line-up achieves a drain efficiency (η) >80.5% and a power-added efficiency >72.6% from 450MHz to 1000MHz with an output power Pout >10W and a power gain > 26.5dB.