Hybrid Power Supply for High Linearity Amplification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing power amplification systems for wireless communication, such as cellular phones and wireless LANs, face inefficiencies and waveform distortion when amplifying signals with high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), especially in high power applications like cellular phone base stations, due to difficulties in achieving high-speed, low-loss switching of large amplitude signals.
Innovation Solution
A power supply device comprising a linear amplifier unit and a switching amplification control unit that outputs a combination of electric currents to generate an output voltage based on the input signal's waveform, allowing for efficient and linear amplification by adjusting the number and operation of switching amplifying units based on the signal's slew rate, thereby minimizing unnecessary power consumption and maintaining high linearity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a linear amplifier operates with sufficient power supply to maintain high linearity for signals with large PAPR, then waveform distortion is reduced, but power efficiency deteriorates due to operation in large back-off region
Solution Approach 1:
The power supply voltage is dynamically adjusted to track the envelope of the input signal, changing from a fixed voltage to a time-varying voltage that matches signal characteristics. This allows the amplifier to operate efficiently across different power levels while maintaining linearity when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The power supply voltage parameter is changed from constant to variable, modulating it according to the signal envelope. This parameter change enables the amplifier to achieve high efficiency by operating near saturation more often while still maintaining linearity through controlled voltage variation.
2Speed
If high-speed switching amplification is implemented to achieve wide bandwidth in modulation power supply, then bandwidth is improved, but switching losses increase making high-speed switching difficult for large amplitude signals
Solution Approach 1:
The power supply modulation function is segmented into two parts: a linear amplifier handles the wide bandwidth requirement while a switching converter handles the high efficiency requirement. This segmentation allows each component to operate in its optimal regime without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The linear amplifier and switching converter are merged into a hybrid architecture where the linear amplifier's output controls the switching converter's operation. This combination leverages the bandwidth capability of the linear amplifier and the efficiency of the switching converter.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are a highly efficient, low waveform distortion power supply device and a power amplifying apparatus with high efficiency and high linearity using the device as a power supply.A power supply device of the present invention comprises a linear amplifier unit 400 which linearly amplifies an input signal and outputs it as an electric current Ic, and a switching amplification control unit 500, which outputs an electric current Im using a plurality of switching amplifying units 601, 602, . . . 60n for outputting respective predetermined voltages on the basis of the magnitude of the electric current Ic outputted from said linear amplifier unit 400; and it generates an output voltage Vout according to the waveform of the input signal, and outputs an electric current Iout which is a combination of the electric currents Ic and Im.