Integration of Device Measurements Under Complex Modulated Signals into the Standard PA Design Flow

Traditional Power Amplifier (PA) design relies on active device models from transistor manufacturers derived from continuous-wave (CW) measurements. After fabrication, PA measurements under modulated signals often show considerable degradation in efficiency, output power, or other key amplifier performance parameters compared to CW measurements. PA designers are often left with no effective way to compensate for these differences in the design process. This talk discusses the potential integration of device measurements under complex modulated signals into the standard PA design flow. This can be done by performing source- and load-pull measurements under application-specific signal modulation, resulting in reflection coefficients that show different performance relationships (eg gain and PAE contours) compared to traditional CW source- and load-pull measurements. We will then discuss assessing these updated reflection coefficients and integrating them into the design process using multi-objective visualization tools.