Low voltage, high efficiency class E GaAs power amplifiers for mobile communications

In this paper a class E power amplifier for mobile communications is presented. The advantages of class E over class B and class C power amplifiers in a low voltage design is discussed. A fully integrated class E power amplifier operating at 835 MHz is designed, fabricated and tested. The circuit is implemented in a self-aligned-gate, depletion mode GaAs MESFET process. The amplifier delivers 24 dBm power to the load with a power added efficiency greater than 50% at a supply voltage of 2.5 V. The power dissipated in the integrated matching networks is 15 times the power dissipated in the transistors.