Device Level Characterisation of Outphasing Amplifiers

Amplifiers are currently built in a systematic way by cascading three key parts of amplifier design. They are the matching network, bias T structure and power combiner.

However each part has its own limitations which rarely complement each other when cascaded. The outphasing amplifier is currently built in a similar fashion resulting in a structure that has more limitations than benefits. Although these benefits have the potential to outperform currently available amplifier products, a radical change in designing outphasing amplifiers is required. Rather than designing each part of an amplifier structure independently and cascading them into the complete system, the work proposed here will utilise Cardiff University's Waveform Engineering test setup to probe inside the transistor such that the characteristics can be observed which are not possible with current techniques. This will provide greater insight into the outphasing phenomena on the device level from which a holistic design can be developed encompassing the matching, biasing and power combining into a single structure.

The Waveform Engineering test setup is unique to Cardiff University and is part of an ongoing project to better understand device physic. The PhD project does not concern the development of this test setup, it regards it as a tool to further the research into outphasing amplifiers.