Design of a High-Efficiency Outphasing Power Amplifier With Enhancing Back-Off Range for 5G Applications

In 5G wireless communications, the more bandwidth efficient modulated signals with higher peak-to-average ratios (PAPR) are used. Efficiency is a critical part of the transmitter, which is dominated by the power amplifier (PA). As it will operate at the back-off region far from saturation where high efficiency is difficult to maintain. A novel Outphasing power amplifier operating at 3.5 GHz is proposed to enhance the back-off range with high efficiency for 5G applications. The results demonstrate that the proposed 3.5-GHz Outphasing PA can obtain a drain efficiency of 58% and 51% at a saturated output power of 43.4-dBm and at 10-dB back-off, respectively.