Design of a High Linearity 6-GHz Class-F Radio Frequency Power Amplifier

In this study, a high linearity class-F RF power amplifier is introduced. It is designed to operate at a frequency of 6 GHz with a bandwidth of 400MHz. The amplifier mixes between the characteristics of conventional switch mode class-F and class B amplifiers. It is biased at very low quiescent power, thus it dissipates negligible DC power in the absence of RF excitation. This makes it suitable for handset applications. The amplifier is designed and tested on Microwave Office Environments. It showed linear input/output characteristics for an input RF power range of -20 to 5d Bm. The amplifier collector efficiency is 80%, which is greater than that of ideal class-B power amplifier. In addition, it is sensitive to amplify low level RF signals, therefore it needs no preamplifier.