Differential power combining technique for general power amplifiers using lumped component network

Abstract

A differential power combining method for general power amplifiers (PAs) with combining and matching network using lumped components is proposed for the first time. The proposed power combining technique greatly reduces board area at 1.95 GHz as compared to the traditional in-phase power combining method using transmission line, such as Wilkinson power combiners. The output matching is achieved with smaller impedance transformation ratio and the matching loss is reduced. The proposed SiGe PA with power combining technique achieves 28 dBm output power, 14 dB gain and 22.6% power-added efficiency (PAE) at 1.95 GHz with 1dB output power enhancement as compared to the single PA.