A 2.

4 GHz GaAs-HBT Class-E MMIC Amplifier with 65% PAE

C. Meliani1, M. Rudolph1, P. Kurpas1, L. Schmidt2, C.N. Rheinfelder2, and W. Heinrich1
1

Ferdinand-Braun-Institut fr Hchstfrequenztechnik (FBH), 12489 Berlin / Germany

2
Ubidyne, 89081 Ulm, Germany
Email: [email protected]

Index Terms HBT, GaAs, class-E, power amplifier, PAE.

I. Introduction
In most power amplifier (PA) applications, it is required to
obtain maximum efficiency without sacrificing output power
and linearity. This is true for base stations in wireless communications as well as for measurement systems and instrumentation. Most promising in this regard are amplifier concepts
based on switch-mode operation (such as class E) or harmonic
tuning (like class F), which allow for maximizing efficiency
without compromising power handling significantly. These
concepts are receiving high attention presently, since they can
be employed as building blocks in highly linear amplifier systems, e.g. relying on the Kahn envelope-elimination-andrestoration (EER) architecture.
Most recently published work aims at improved PAs for
third generation handsets, with target frequencies in the range
of 0.7 to 2.4 GHz and power levels up to 0.5 W. Commonly,
these circuits are fabricated in low-cost technologies [1], and
yet not fully integrated. One reason for realizing the output
network off-chip is the high loss inherent to the integrated
inductors and transmission lines required. To overcome these
losses problems and propose multi-band operation class-E,
some new techniques have been proposed [2]. Infrastructure
applications, on the other hand, demand for higher power levels that are so far only within reach if high-performance technologies are employed. Recently, Class-E MMIC amplifiers
were published achieving 38.7 dBm of output power with 50%
PAE at 1.9 GHz. These PAs are realized in GaN-HEMT technology [3,4].
In this work, we present design considerations and results
of a fully integrated class-E amplifier operating at 2.4 GHz,
which delivers 37 dBm of output power to a 50- load with
65% PAE, at a supply voltage of 12 V. The PA is realized in a
GaAs-HBT process and compares well with recent results
reported in the literature based on GaN HEMT technology.

1-4244-0688-9/07/$20.00 2007 IEEE

The paper is organized as follows: Sec. II briefly describes

GaAs technology and the models used, Sec. III is devoted to
class-E circuit design, and Sec. IV then presents the measurement results.
II. HBT Technology and Modeling
The GaAs-HBT MMICs are realized using MOVPE epitaxy and the 4-inch process line at the Ferdinand-BraunInstitut (for details see [5,6]). This process is optimized for
power amplifiers in the 2 GHz band with a collector bias voltage around 26 V. Its two main features are a 2.8 m thick collector layer that increases breakdown voltage to 70 V and
thermal air bridges that serve as heat spreaders. The HBTs can
be flip-chip soldered on a heat-sink. In the present work, however, only results measured on-wafer are reported. For the
fabrication of MMICs, MIM capacitances, NiCr resistances,
and airbridges are available.
For circuit design, the HBTs are modeled using the FBH
HBT model [7]. The model accounts for self-heating and for
the bias-dependence of the cutoff frequencies. Fig. 1 compares
values of ft for a 3x30 m2 device as a function of bias, extracted from measurement (symbols) and from simulation
(lines). It should be noted that the corresponding extrapolated
values of fmax range from 40 100 GHz, which leads to the
high gain of 14 dB at 2 GHz measured in power amplification
mode [6]. The model parameters are first determined for basic
cells of 3x30 m2, and finally scaled up for power cells up to
20x(2x100) m2. The modeling approach for these HBTs is
described in [8]. Models for coplanar lines and passive elements complement the design environment.
15

ft (GHz)

Abstract A class-E amplifier in the 2 GHz band is presented. It

is realized as a coplanar MMIC using a high-voltage GaAs-HBT
process. At 37 dBm output power, a high PAE of 65% with 71%
collector efficiency are achieved. The gain of the amplifier in the
switch-mode region reaches 11 dB. These are very competitive
values for PAE, collector efficiency, and output power and the
highest ones using GaAs-HBT technology. The measured data is
supported by in-depth circuit simulation results highlighting the
special conditions and requirements of switch-mode operation.

Vce

10

0
0

6
8
Vce (V)

10

12

14

Fig. 1.
Transit frequency ft as a function of collector bias for
3x30m2 HBT, with VCE = 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 V; symbols: ft extracted
from S-parameter measurement; lines: extracted from simulation.

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power. This yields the following relation for the two efficiencies:

II. Circuit Design

A. Class-E operation

Collector eff. = Pout / Pdc

According to the principle of class-E operation, the transistor is considered simply as a switch, directing power from
source to load or to the tank, which is realized partly by the
output network (see Fig. 2). The basic idea is simply to minimize the overlap area of the time functions for current and
voltage at the transistor's output that represent the power
losses. This is achieved with the output network presented
below in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Ideal class-E amplifier diagram.

Applying this simplified description based on an ideal

switch, one can calculate the circuit elements according to the
class-E equations (e.g. [9]). For output power, we assume a
value of 8 W, which is given by the maximum power obtained
during load-pull measurements of 20x(2x100) m2 HBTs. The
table below provides the resulting element values in detail:
C1
0.8 pF

Cres
1 pF

Lres
6 nH

Lchoke
60 nH

Vdd
20 V

Pout
Rl
8 W 25

At 2.4 GHz, these values reach the theoretical PAE maximum for a resonator Q value of 5 and a load impedance of
25 . Under ideal conditions this is all one has to do. In reality, however, at GHz frequencies the transistors fall by far
short off an ideal switch behavior and one has to take into
account several other aspects that are absolutely not negligible.
B. Class-E operation using GaAs-HBT at 2 GHz
The first assumption that is not completely fulfilled in reality is that the switch does not need any power to be controlled.
This, of course, does not hold when using a transistor. Furthermore, our transistor shows an input impedance of a few
Ohms at 2 GHz, which can be approximated by a parallel input capacitance. Actually, this non-ideal input characteristic
has two consequences.
The first one directly affects PAE. In the case of the ideal
switch, no input RF power is needed, thus the PAE is simply
equal to the collector efficiency. In our case, PAE is smaller
than collector efficiency. If the transistor is perfectly impedance-matched at the input, the HBT has a power gain of about
10 dB, which means that the input power is 10% of the output

PAE = (Pout-Pin)/Pdc = 0.9 x (Pout/Pdc) = 0.9 Collector eff.

(1)

This is the first unavoidable reason for a decrease in PAE,

simply because transistor gain is not infinite.
The second effect of the low transistor input impedance is
that one needs a matching circuit. This will certainly introduce
losses. This is discussed in details in the implementation part
in subsection III.C and depends, of course, on the quality factor of the elements used, but one can already get an idea of the
decrease in PAE to be expected: Assuming a worst case of 3
dB losses for the matching circuit, one loses 50% of the input
power. For 10 dB transistor gain, this means the input power
delivered from the source will be 20% of the output power.
Using relation (1) : PAE = 0.8 x Collector eff. This means
PAE is reduced from 0.9 to 0.8 collector efficiency due to the
input matching losses.
The second unrealistic assumption in the case of the switch
is that it has zero output capacitance. Note that our transistor
has an effective output capacitance Cout of around 0.9 pF. indeed, this is one of the two main limitations most class-E designers face when operating at GHz frequencies. As calculated
above, the needed tank capacitor C1 is of around 0.8 pF, i.e.,
Cout is already slightly larger than C1. One can adjust the Q
values for the resonator a little bit in order to reduce C1, but at
the expense of increasing losses in the resonator and thus decreasing PAE. So, this is really the physical limit of ideal
class-E operation. For our transistor at these frequencies, one
can still expect a true class-E operation, as the values of Cout is
approximately equal to C1.
The third critical point in the ideal switch model is the assumption of a unilateral element. The transistor, of course, is
not unilateral and has a non-negligible base-to-collector capacitance Cgd that introduces a feedback from the output to the
input. This influences the class-E behavior significantly and
has to be carefully studied by means of large-signal simulations.
C. Layout implementation
One more aspect is encountered when implementing such
a circuit into a MMIC layout: The calculations above consider
the passive elements to be lossless. Therefore, when using
realistic elements one has to account for loss-related effects
both at input and output:
Input circuit: As described above the effects of the losses
at the input are transmitted through the gain, and thus their
effect at the output is divided by the gain. If one assumes 1 dB
losses for a matching circuit this reduces PAE by 3%.
Output circuit: The losses at the output have direct influence on the resulting power and thus PAE. A simple calculation illustrates the situation: In our case, the ideal class-E load
resistor is 25 . This means a series parasitic resistance of

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III. Experimental Results

only 2.5 (which is a realistic value) will absorb already 10%

of the output power, which means directly 10% less collector
efficiency.
D. Optimization procedure
During the first simulations the transistor is driven by an
ideal voltage source in order to isolate output and input effects
on PAE. A power of e.g. 30 dBm is injected. The element
values according to the ideal model in Fig. 2 are taken as starting point for the output resonator circuit. Then, the PAE is
optimized considering ideal elements. C1 is not used, as it is
completely absorbed in the output capacitance of the transistor. These simulations are performed using first the ideal
class-E load resistor (25 according to II.A) and, in a second
step, introducing an LC matching circuit to 50 .

A. Small-signal measurements
In a first step, small-signal measurements were performed
in order to check the functionality of the amplifier and to
characterize the input and output matching. Fig. 4 presents the
S-parameter data. A gain of 14 dB is obtained around 2.4
GHz, with acceptable input and output match. S11 is 10 dB at
the target frequency while S22 is somewhat shifted but still
reaches -6 dB at 2.4 GHz. One has to bear in mind, however,
that this data refers to the small-signal regime and cannot be
directly used to characterize class-E operation, which is inherently non-linear.
20

When high PAE values are obtained, the ideal elements are
replaced by realistic elements and the circuit is optimized
again. Fig 3 presents the final circuit diagram, using an output
resonator consisting of a coplanar line in series with a 5 pF
capacitor. The choke at the collector is implemented as a line,
too. The advantage of using transmission lines instead of onchip lumped elements is that they exhibit lower losses. In order to further reduce the losses of these lines, coplanar lines
with 125 m center conductor width and 70 m gap width are
applied. The final length values for the resonator and the
choke line are 7 mm and 8 mm, respectively. Thus, the losses
of each line are reduced to about 2.5 .

S21

S [dB]

10
S11

0
-10

S22

-20
-30
0

Fig. 4:

2
3
Frequency [GHz]

S-parameters of the class-E amplifier as a function of

frequency.

B. Large-signal measurements
Large-signal measurements were performed at 2.4 GHz
within an on-wafer load-pull set-up with 50 input and output impedance. A collector voltage of 20 V gave the best PAE
and output power values. Input power was swept from 0 dBm
to 30 dBm.
Fig. 5 presents the measured data for output power, gain,
and PAE as well as collector efficiency. The curves differ
from the classical class-A/B ones and, therefore, will be discussed in detail in the following.
Fig. 3.

Circuit diagram of the class-E MMIC.

After designing the output resonator circuit, the input

matching circuit was optimized using two LC cells (see
Fig. 3). This has the advantage of being slightly less sensitive
to technology variations than a one-stage LC matching circuit.
After all, circuit simulation predicted an output power of
38 dBm with a PAE of 67% at 20 V collector bias voltage and
for 29 dBm input power at the source at 2.4 GHz. The measured results are presented in the following section.

Starting with low input power levels in the range of up to

15 dBm, the behavior can be considered as a class A or AB like mode, where PAE is increasing because of self-biasing
but not reaching really high values because the transistor is
still operated in class AB. A further reason for the relatively
low PAE is that the input impedance matching is only partly
functional at these power levels because it is designed for the
large-signal case. At 15 dBm input power, for instance, the
input matching circuit delivers only 7 dBm to the base of the
transistor, so gain is low and input power is too small to induce any switching behavior.
At an input power of about 18 dBm, the behavior of the
circuit suddenly changes. PAE increases very rapidly to 50%
and then, after increasing input power by further 5 dBm, PAE

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80

40

70

35

60

30

50

25

40

20

30

15

20

10

10

Pout [dBm], Gain [dB]

PAE, Collector eff. [%]

grows to 65%. This maximum value is obtained at 25 dBm

input power, the corresponding output power reaches 37 dBm
with a large-signal gain of 11 dB. This is the class-E operating
mode the circuit is designed for.

10

15

20

25

30

Input power [dBm]

Fig. 5.

Measured PAE (red line), collector efficiency (blue line),

output power (green line), and gain (black line) at
2.4 GHz for 20 V collector voltage.

The difference between PAE and collector efficiency

amounts 6%. As already calculated in the sections before, one
can find this number simply by deducting the input power
from the collector efficiency relation and input matching
losses. At 25 dBm input power, 37 dBm output power is
measured with a collector efficiency of 71%. For a gain of
approximately 10 dB, using relation (1), one can expect a PAE
value of 0.9 x 71% = 64 %, which is in good agreement with
the measured value of 65%.

References
[1] E.A. Jrvinen, M.J. Alanen, GaAs HBT class-E amplifiers for
2-GHz mobile applications,. in: RF Integrated Circ. Symp.
(RFIC) Dig., 2005, pp. 421 424.
[2] Seung Hun Ji, Gyu Seok Hwang , Choon Sik Cho, Jae W. Lee
and Jaeheung Kim, 836 MHz/1.95GHz Dual-Band Class-E
Power Amplifier Using Composite Right/Left-Handed Transmission Lines, in Proc. Europ. Microwave Conf., Manchester,
UK, 2006, 356 359.
[3] S. Gao, H. Xu, S. Heikman, U. Mishra, R.A. York, Microwave
Class-E GaN Power Amplifiers, in Proc. Asia-Pacific Microwave Conf. (APMC), 2005.
[4] H. Xu, S. Gao, S. Heikman, S.I. Long, U.K. Mishra, R.A. York,
A High-Efficiency Class-E GaN HEMT Power Amplifier at
1.9 GHz, IEEE Microwave Wireless Comp. Lett., Vol. 16, Jan.
2006, pp. 22 24.
[5] P. Kurpas, F. Brunner, W. Doser, A. Maadorf, R. Doerner, M.
Rudolph, H. Blanck, W. Heinrich, J. Wrfl, Development and
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(GaAs MANTECH), Las Vegas, USA, 21. 24. May 2001.
[6] P. Kurpas, A. Maadorf, M. Neuner, W. Doser, P. Heymann, B.
Janke, F. Schnieder, T. Bergunde, T. Grahoff, H. Blanck, Ph.
Auxemery, W. Heinrich, J. Wrfl, Flip-Chip Mounted 26 V
GaInP/GaAs Power HBTs, in: IEEE IEDM Dig., 2004, pp. 561
564.
[7] M. Rudolph, Introduction to Modeling HBTs, Boston, London:
Artech House 2006, Chapter 6.
[8] M. Rudolph, R. Doerner, Large-Signal Modeling of HighVoltage GaAs Power HBTs, in: IEEE MTT-S Intl. Microwave
Symp. Dig., 2005, 457 460.
[9] N.O. Sokal, Class-E switching-mode high-efficiency tuned
RF/microwave power amplifier: improved design equations, in:
IEEE MTT-S Intl. Microwave Symp. Dig., 2000, 779 782.

III. Conclusions
Design and realization of a class-E amplifier at 2.4 GHz is
presented providing detailed information on the design procedure and the limitations due to the transistor parasitics. This
enables one to quantify the differences between theoretically
expected output power and PAE and the values possible in
practice. This provides an immediate overview of the potential
of a given technology for switch-mode operation.
The design procedure was verified using a GaAs-HBT
process with increased breakdown voltage. The resulting coplanar class-E MMIC achieves a PAE of 65% and a collector
efficiency of 71% at 37 dBm output power. Gain in the
switch-mode region is 11 dB. We find that the large-signal
simulations correctly describe the switch-mode characteristics
and yield good quantitative agreement with measurements.
The high PAE and collector efficiency values in the 5 W
output power range prove usefulness of the GaAs-HBT technology as well as the design approach. They are record values
for GaAs-HBT microwave E-class amplifiers and very competitive to published GaN realizations.

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