2276
9, SEPTEMBER 2009
Design of Highly Efficient Wideband RF Polar
Transmitters Using the Envelope-Tracking Technique
Jerry Lopez, Student Member, IEEE, Yan Li, Student Member, IEEE, Jeremy D. Popp,
Donald Y. C. Lie, Senior Member, IEEE, Chia-Chang Chuang, Kevin Chen, Stanley Wu, Tzu-Yin Yang, and
Gin-Kou Ma, Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper discusses the design issues of highly effi-
cient and monolithic wideband RF polar transmitters, especially
the ones that use the envelope-tracking (ET) technique. Besides
first reviewing the current state-of-the-art polar transmitters
in the literature, three focus topics will be discussed: 1) the
system-on-a-chip (SoC) design considerations of the monolithic
polar transmitter using ET versus EER (envelope elimination and
restoration); 2) the design of highly efficient envelope amplifier
capable of achieving the high efficiency, current, bandwidth, accu-
racy and noise specifications required for wideband signals; and
3) the design of high-efficiency monolithic Si-based class E power
amplifiers (PAs) suitable for ET-based RF polar transmitters. A
design prototype of a polar transmitter using ET and a monolithic
SiGe PA that passed the stringent low-band EDGE (Enhanced
Data rates for GSM Evolution) transmit mask with 45% overall
transmitter system efficiency will be given; the simulated data of
the entire polar transmitter system is also compared against the
measurement. Further investigations on how to solve the technical
challenges to successfully implement linear and high-efficiency
ET-based polar transmitter for broadband wireless applications
such as WiBro/WiMAX are also discussed.
Index Terms—DC-DC converter, envelope amplifier, envelope-
elimination-and-restoration (EER), envelope-tracking (ET),
monolithic RF SiGe power amplifier (PA), polar transmitters,
power-added efficiency (PAE), radio-frequency (RF), switch-mode
PA, system-on-a-chip (SoC), wideband transmitter.
I. INTRODUCTION
T IS critical to maximize the power-added efficiency (PAE)
I while minimizing the number of off-chip components for
any radio-frequency (RF) transmitter (TX) system, especially
for portable and space-borne wireless applications. Both the
peak and average PAE of a RF transmitter can heavily impact
the size of battery and heat dissipation, therefore playing the
dominate roles on the final product’s form factor miniaturiza-
tion, reliability, yield, and cost. The PAE of a RF TX system
can be significantly enhanced by using a highly efficient non-
linear RF power amplifier (PA), especially if novel linearization
techniques (such as digital predistortion) can be applied on the
saturated PA [1]–[3]. Nonlinear switch-mode or saturated PAs
Manuscript received January 09, 2009; revised March 18, 2009. Current ver-
sion published August 26, 2009.
J. Lopez, Y. Li, D. Y. C. Lie, and C.-C. Chuang are with the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
79409 USA (e-mail: donald.lie@ttu.edu).
J. D. Popp is with the Boeing Company, Seattle, WA, USA.
K. Chen, S. Wu, T.-Y. Yang, and G.-K. Ma are with the SoC Technology
Center, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2009.2022669
0018-9200/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO.
are more efficient than linear PAs, and they may be easier for
monolithic integration on silicon since the driver stages do not
have to be linear. These nonlinear PAs are also less noisy and
less sensitive to shifts in the operating point that might be caused
by process-voltage-temperature (PVT) variations [3]. A very at-
tractive TX architecture for PAE enhancement utilizes the polar
modulation architectures and nonlinear PAs, where the base-
band signal is modulated in the amplitude/phase domain rather
than the in-phase/quadrature (i.e., I/Q) domain. Polar modu-
lation can operate in either a closed-loop or open-loop mode,
and the resulting TX system is typically called as “polar trans-
mitter” [4]–[6]. When one restricts the polar operation to the
signal modulator only but not extending it to the high-power
PA, the transmitter is called a “small-signal polar transmitter”
or a “polar lite transmitter” [6]–[9]. In this case, the amplitude
modulation (AM) signal at the output of the I/Q modulator can
be read off from an AM detector or directly generated digitally
at the baseband and then fed into the voltage control input of a
variable gain amplifier (VGA). The VGA will recreate the am-
plitude modulation by varying the signal level to the input of
a linear PA. Therefore for the small-signal polar operation, the
AM and phase modulated (PM) signals are recombined at the
VGA. If, however, the AM and PM signals are recombined at
the high-power PA (often off-chip), the transmitter is called as
a “large-signal polar transmitter” or a “direct polar transmitter”
[4], [6], [9]–[11]. When a polar transmitter applies closed-loop
feedback control of both AM and PM portions of the signal from
the high-power PA output, this closed-loop transmitter is called
a “large-signal closed-loop polar transmitter” or simply a “polar
loop transmitter” [6], [11]. Strictly speaking, a polar loop TX
system can use either large-signal or small-signal polar modu-
lation and can have one or two feedback paths for AM and/or
PM signals.
In general, the advantages of a large-signal polar transmitter
include the improved PA efficiency, reduced wideband output
noise floor (leading to elimination of bulky off-chip filters), and
reduced sensitivity to PA oscillation with varying output load
impedance over those of a linear PA system. Large-signal polar
transmitters have recently demonstrated impressive results
using the 57-year-old Envelope-Elimination-and-Restoration
(EER; i.e., Kahn’s technique) where the output power is directly
modulated by the drain/collector voltage of the highly efficient
nonlinear PA (i.e., “plate modulation”) [1], [9]. In the past,
polar transmitters were mostly used for high-power base station
applications to effectively reduce heat dissipation; however,
they have recently become very successful for wireless handset
TX design in volume production due to their significant better
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 1. Block diagram of a typical direct-conversion transmitter using I/Q mod-
ulation. Note a SAW filter is required near the final stage of the transmitter [10].
efficiency and lower cost [4]–[12]. One latest development
is to apply the Envelope-Tracking (ET) technique to imple-
ment monolithic large-signal polar transmitters for wireless
applications, as excellent system efficiency and linearity has
been demonstrated, which shall be the focus of this paper
[13]–[18]. We would like to begin our discussions of ET-based
polar transmitters by briefly reviewing some state-of-the-art
monolithic RF polar transmitters for handset applications that
used EER-based polar TX architectures. Our ET-based polar
TX research reported here builds upon the foundation of these
EER-based polar transmitters with important modifications and
improvement, as will be described and explained next.
II. REVIEW OF SOME STATE-OF-THE-ART POLAR
TRANSMITTERS IN THE LITERATURE
Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a typical traditional di-
rect-conversion transmitter using I/Q modulation. The direct
quadrature conversion has the advantages of supporting high
data rates and it is very flexible with respect to different mod-
ulation formats, including non-constant envelope modulation
methods such as QPSK or QAM [19]. In this case, a RF-VGA
is typically required to amplify the modulated RF signal to
the desired output power. A RF SAW filter or a duplex filter
is always required to suppress the TX noise floor in the re-
ceiver (RX) band to filter out noise several MHz away from
the channel frequency to meet the strict ETSI requirement for
handsets. For a quad-band handset, since one SAW filter is
needed for each band in the TX path, it seriously adds cost and
size to the final product. Also, the traditional I/Q transmitter
requires the use of a linear PA, which suffers from lower PAE
than that of a saturated PA.
One major benefit for using the polar modulation approach
for handset operation is the elimination of the TX SAW filter.
Depending on where the SAW filter is placed (before or after
the high-power PA), it may not directly lower the PAE of the PA.
However, the non-negligible insertion loss, cost and bulkiness of
the off-chip SAW filters will most likely increase the total power
consumption, form factors and the Bill of Materials (BOM) of
the final products. Today’s polar transmitters successfully re-
moved these SAW filters with low TX noise in the RX band. For
example, over 100 million units of highly integrated large-signal
polar transmitters have been shipped for GSM/EDGE handsets
[20]. This open-loop polar transmitter is a two-chip solution that
includes a transceiver and a TX module, while the latter includes
an integrated PA, switch, filter, DC-DC converter, voltage ref-
erence and control circuitry, etc. The transceiver front-end in-
tegrates VCOs inside a fractional-N synthesizer based digital
2277
GMSK modulator with associated loop filters, system oscillator,
DSP based digital channel filters, auxiliary DACs and other cir-
cuits on-chip and with no IF and TX SAW filter [20].
One of the main challenges of implementing a polar trans-
mitter for EDGE/GSM handset is the tradeoff between the RF
spectrum and noise. The bandwidth of the circuits in the AM
and PM paths for a polar modulator is much wider than that
of the composite signal due to the nonlinear I/Q to polar trans-
formation [13]–[15]. For example, in the case of EDGE modu-
lated signals, system simulations show that the phase and ampli-
tude bandwidths need to be close to 3 MHz in order to meet the
RF spectrum and EVM specs [7]. For EDGE exhibiting typical
output power of 27 dBm, the output noise must be lower than
144 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz and 156 dBc/Hz at 20 MHz offset
(low band) to meet the RX band noise specs (for GSM mode,
150 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz and 162 dBc/Hz at 20 MHz
offset). To achieve low noise at these frequency offsets, narrow
bandwidths are required and tight control of the phase and en-
velope bandwidths are usually needed using calibrations prior
to each burst.
As shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b), open-loop polar transmitters
can use feed-forward pre-distortion to linearize the AM-AM and
AM-PM distortion in the PA. This enables elimination of power
detectors, couplers, feedback circuits and many other functions
required to support feedback loops. Power consumption is lower
in open loop systems due to reduced complexity and less inser-
tion loss after the PA. Fig. 2(b) shows the TX data from the
baseband is split into its AM and PM components. The PM
components are pre-distorted to compensate for the PLL loop
filter roll-off and are then combined with the channel selection
word of the fractional-N synthesizer, which provides the phase
modulation of the 8-PSK (Phase Shift Keying) signal for EDGE
modulation. The AM components are scaled according to the
PA ramping control signal applied to the PA controller to mod-
ulate the saturated PA output directly, which PA control block
offers a highly linear amplitude transfer function between the
input control signal voltage and the output RF voltage. Carrier
suppression is excellent as there is no upconversion in the TX
system. This complete GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio system solu-
tion achieves higher functionality at lower cost for cellular hand-
sets than one would obtain using the traditional I/Q transmitter
approach.
Another commercially successful GSM/EDGE handset
large-signal polar transmitter with a saturated GSM type PA
adopts the large-signal transmit polar loop architecture with
separate feedback control of the amplitude and the phase
of the PA output signal and it also meets all the GSM type
approval requirements for both EDGE and GMSK in quad
band as shown in Fig. 2(c) [6], [11]. The polar loop enables
the radio to transmit both constant and non-constant envelope
signals through the same TX path to minimize the number
of external components as no pre-PA filters are required for
noise filtering. The T/R front end module includes separate
GSM850/EGSM900 and DCS1800/PCS1900 PA blocks, a PA
control block, impedance-matching, an integrated coupler, a
PHEMT switch and a diplexer for excellent EVM (Error Vector
Magnitude) and phase error performance up to 6:1 VSWR
without external isolator. In general, systems with feedback
2278 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 2. The block diagrams of: (a) the TX module for a large-signal polar transmitter operated in open loop for GSM/EDGE transmitter. The PA controller block
can include a DC-DC converter and a low dropout regulator (LDO), etc.; (b) an open-loop large-signal polar transmitter (PM path shown in shaded blocks; adapted
from [10], [20]); and (c) a large-signal polar loop transmitter after Sowlati et. al. [6].

have increased complexity, and somewhat higher power con- noise and output spectrum [7]; in the other, the discrete-time
sumption but can do well with VSWR changes. Other work sampled system of all-digital PLL (ADPLL) handles the
using polar transmitter for handsets utilizes small-signal wideband PM path and the AM circuits are fully digital as
polar operation. In one case, the VGA is critical to both the well [8].
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 3. A simplified block diagram of a RF polar transmitter system using the ET technique, where
Amplifier and the RF-PA, respectively.
Polar modulation schemes can be used for efficiency en-
hancement only if the amplitude modulator is of very high
efficiency operation. One drawback of polar transmitter, how-
ever, is that the modulators will require higher bandwidth due
to I/Q to polar nonlinear transformation. Disadvantages also
include a need to fully characterize the PA in compressed
operation mode across the output dynamic range, control of
time alignment of the AM and PM signal component paths,
correction (generally through pre-distortion) of AM-AM and
AM-PM distortion effects, etc. With these in mind, we are
ready to discuss the system design considerations next for
implementing polar transmitters using ET.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF RF POLAR
TRANSMITTER USING ET/EER
In practice, there are some serious technical hurdles to over-
come to realize a RF polar transmitter, especially for portable
applications. For example, polar TX system is known to be sen-
sitive to timing mismatch between the AM and PM paths [24].
The group delay of the two signal paths must be matched to min-
imize PA distortion, which is difficult to control across all PVT
corners [2]. The other major obstacle to overcome is the larger
bandwidth required for the circuits in the polar TX system. To
begin, the I-Q to polar transformation in the baseband is non-
linear, which inevitably expands the bandwidth of both AM and
PM output signals [21], [22]. Depending on the specific mod-
ulation scheme and system specs, for EER-based polar TX the
constant-amplitude phase signal path may need to have roughly
ten times larger bandwidth than the modulation input signal to
pass the TX transmission mask requirement and/or the Error-
Vector-Magnitude (EVM) specs [15], [22], [23]. These issues
have been painfully resolved in the cellular industry by applying
careful calibrations and predistortions to the PAs and driver am-
plifiers, albeit with compromised transmitter efficiency as the
higher circuit bandwidth required for EER implementation will
inevitably consume more power, offsetting the PAE improve-
ment one can gain from using saturated PAs. We will, therefore,
present in this paper that the major issues mentioned above can
be significantly relieved by using an ET-based polar TX archi-
tecture (also known as hybrid-EER or H-EER architecture), as
shown in Fig. 3 [15]–[17].
Compared to EER-based large-signal polar TX system, it
is found that an ET-based polar TX system has the following
benefits:
2279
A(t) and A (t) representing the inputs to the Envelope
1) Higher gain at low output power. This is because the PA is
“nearly saturated” but not always fully saturated as in the
case of EER;
2) Lower sensitivity to timing mismatch between the RF
versus amplitude paths than EER [13], [17];
3) Lower bandwidth requirement for the envelope amplifier
than that in the case of EER [15]. This can be critical as
the efficiency of the envelope amplifier can be the limiting
factor for an ET/EER system;
4) Relaxed bandwidth requirement for the circuits used in the
RF path versus that in the case of EER. Since this ET-based
polar TX architecture uses the RF modulation signal as the
input to the saturated PA (instead of the PM signal), the
PA needs to cover only the modulation signal bandwidth,
making ET more suitable for broadband wireless applica-
tions than EER [23]. The high bandwidth RF limiter re-
quired for EER can also be power hungry, while it is not
needed for ET;
5) ET will have less RF feed-through signal that can appear as
distortion in the TX output. Since the drive signal is hard-
limited for the case of EER, it has sidebands that can cause
intermodulation distortion (IMD) by the large gate-drain or
base-collector capacitance in the final RF power device to
couple to the output to cause EVM issues [27]; ET is better
in this.
For reasons listed above, this ET architecture can be very at-
tractive for implementing low power portable RF transmitter
with excellent PAE [14], [23]. In this section, we will focus our
discussions on the system timing mismatch analysis between the
RF versus amplitude paths to compare an ET-based large-signal
polar system against an EER-based system. To analyze the in-
fluence of timing mismatch distortion for both ET and EER
system, we would first consider that the excitation is the tra-
ditional two-tone, described by its complex envelope:
(1)
where is the baseband modulation frequency and is
a square-wave with the same period as the modulation frequency
and an amplitude level of 1 [24]. If the PA is assumed ideal, the
resulting output signal from the EER system will be a delayed
version of the input signal. Therefore in that case,
(2)
2280 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 5. ET-based polar transmit system block diagram with the linearized
Fig. 4. Simulation of a two-tone RF signal input to an EER system with time- Cann’s model.
mismatch between amplitude and RF phase (! = 20 MHz, time delay  =
3 ns).

Fig. 4 shows the simulation of EER delayed amplitude signal,

phase (RF) signal and distorted output signal for a two-tone
input with a timing mismatch of 3 ns for an ideal PA, indicating
this small timing misalignment produces significant errors for
an EER system.
Next, we will use a linearized modified Cann’s model to an-
alyze the influence of timing mismatch distortion for an ET
system. The RF output amplitude signal of an ET system using
the modified Cann’s model on a class E SiGe PA can be ex-
pressed as [25]:

(3)

where is the dynamic collector voltage and it is a linear

time delayed function of the input envelope signal, i.e.

(4) Fig. 6. Simulated time-mismatch distortion of an ET-based polar system be-

tween amplitue and RF signal versus an EER system V ( = 06 : V;  =
3 ;
ns ! = 20 MHz .)
We assume an ideal pre-distortion is introduced to the PA
such that it can eliminate any intermodulation and harmonic
products generated by the nonlinearity in (3), the only distortion
left in the ET system will be caused by timing mismatch of the
We have used this modified Cann’s model with coefficients
amplitude delay versus that of the RF signal path. As a result
extracted from our monolithic SiGe PA measurement data and
of the assumed ideal pre-distortion, approaches infinity, and
plotted the simulated distortion in Fig. 6 for an ET-based polar
the denominator of (3) becomes a “hard limiter” (i.e., linearized
TX system with a two-tone input signal. One can see clearly that
Cann’s model). Fig. 5 shows the ET system block diagram with
ET is considerably less sensitive to timing misalignment than
linearized Cann’s model. To only focus on the distortion caused
EER. This is because the “ ” term is greater than one for the
by timing mismatch, we neglect all DC components and assume
case of ET and that decreases the timing mismatch , while the
the saturation value is always bigger than amplitude and can get
value of for an EER system is always unity as expressed by
the delayed amplitude as [13]:
(2). Please note that is dependent of the PA bias voltage
in our modified Cann’s model, which indicates that careful de-
(5)
termination of optimum can achieve best timing alignment
for ET [13].
where Besides investigating the timing mismatch issue mathemati-
cally, detailed system simulations of the overall ET/EER-based
(6) polar TX system (including digital DSP blocks and RF/analog
circuits) were performed in Agilent’s ADS environment for
(7)
both EDGE and WiBro applications. The system simulation
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE 2281

Fig. 7. System simulation block diagram that enables RF/analog and digital circuits co-design for the overall ET/EER-based polar TX system.

schematic consists of baseband waveform generator, modula-

tors, envelope amplifier and our SiGe class E PA (SPICE circuit
models based on measurement data), etc., as shown in Fig. 7(c).
These simulation schematics enable powerful co-designing
of the RF/analog and digital circuits for the optimal system
performance. Note that to focus on the comparisons of ET
versus EER, no pre-distortion was applied in the simulation
results presented in this paper.
Two principal sources of nonlinear distortion for ET/EER
systems are the finite envelope bandwidth and the differential
delay between amplitude and RF/phase signal paths, as pointed
out by Raab [26]. To compare ET and EER on the effects of
timing mismatch for EDGE signals, we used a delay line in-
stead of realistic envelope amplifier in simulation to mimic the
static timing mismatch between amplitude and RF/phase paths,
as shown in Fig. 7(a). Fig. 8 presents the simulated TX output
spectrums for ET and EER with different static delays. As can be
seen here, the ET topology is less sensitive to timing mismatch
than EER for a difference of 1/128 symbol time ( 25 ns). How-
ever, when a timing mismatch of 1/64 symbol time ( 50 ns) is
applied, both ET and EER polar transmitters fail the EDGE TX
spectral mask with this switch-mode PA. It is, however, impor-
tant to notice that the EER output spectrum has a higher spec-
tral growth than that of ET at the first knee of the EDGE TX
mask (200 kHz to 400 kHz offset from the center frequency;
i.e., from 880.6 MHz to 880.8 MHz in Fig. 8) and also with a
higher noise floor, making it more prominent to EDGE TX mask
failure. These results of complete RF/Analog/Digital system
simulations corroborate with the mathematical derivations that
we showed earlier. An ET-based polar system, therefore, does
have higher resilience against static timing mismatches between Fig. 8. Simulated EDGE TX output spectrums using (A) ET and (B) EER from
the amplitude and the RF/phase paths. ADS system simulations on polar transmitters with different static timing mis-
matches between the amplitude path versus the RF/phase path. Note a realistic
Aside from the static delay mismatch, finite bandwidth of class E SiGe PA SPICE model based on measured results was used in the system
the envelope amplifier can also cause non-negligible group de- simulations.
2282 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 9. Simulated EDGE ET-based polar TX spectrums with a 600 kHz first-
order envelope filter at the amplitude path, with and without the filter having the
same group delay mismatch at the RF path. The PA is modeled in SPICE using
measured class E SiGe PA data.

lays, which will further hamper the ability to combine phase and
amplitude signals correctly in a polar TX system, resulting in
out-of-band spectral growth [21], [27]. To investigate the effects
of differential group delays in an ET/EER system, a first-order
Butterworth low-pass filter (LPF) was used in system simula-
tion to model the finite bandwidth of the envelope amplifier
[Fig. 7(a)], which mainly accounts for the group delay in the
amplitude path. Fig. 9 shows the simulated output spectrum of
an ET-based polar TX system for EDGE, when the envelope
signal is filtered by this first-order LPF with a bandwidth of
600 kHz. Once an additional filter with the same group delay
response is added into the RF path as well [see Fig. 7(b)], the
results are plotted in Fig. 9 and they indicate that the TX output
spectral distortions can be reduced. These findings suggest that
in practice, a timing alignment algorithm should compensate
both static delay and group delay in an ET/EER based polar TX
system. Predistortion techniques can further reduce the group
delay mismatch to meet the EDGE TX spectrum mask, which
is outside the scope of discussions for this paper [21].
IV. DESIGN OF ENVELOPE AMPLIFIERS FOR ET-BASED
POLAR TRANSMITTERS
The design of high-efficiency envelope amplifier is critical
to the overall system efficiency for any large-signal polar TX
system using either EER or ET techniques. This is because the
total TX system efficiency is determined by the product of the
envelope amplifier efficiency and the PAE of the RF PA [16].
While the design principle of ET-based large-signal polar trans-
mitter has been known for many years, it has not been com-
mercialized until recently, partly because of the difficulty in de-
signing this envelope amplifier capable of tracking the rapidly
varying envelope signal with high accuracy, wide bandwidth,
large current, low noise, and yet still with excellent efficiency
[28]. As an example, the envelope amplifier (i.e., sometimes just
a DC/DC converter) in a GSM/EDGE large-signal polar handset
transmitter must be able to handle the non-constant envelopes
of EDGE transmit bursts. Since the 8-PSK signal envelope has
larger than 17 dB peak-to-minimum ratio (i.e., PMR), currents
Fig. 10. Normalized envelope spectrums from simulations from (A) EDGE
and (B) WiBro input signals. Over 99% of the envelope power resides within
200 kHz for EDGE, and within 8 MHz for WiBro.
of the envelope amplifier will vary with the envelope signal, re-
sulting in the output voltage to have overshoots and undershoots.
During an EDGE burst, currents of the envelope amplifier can
ramp up and down from a few 100 mA to 2 A, causing signifi-
cant load transient ripples and distortions of the amplitude signal
that can degrade system EVM [29].
Another difficulty in designing this circuit block for large-
signal polar transmitter is that the switching frequency of a tradi-
tional envelope amplifier (i.e., a DC-DC converter) is required to
be at least several times of the signal bandwidth, therefore chal-
lenging to realize high efficiency for a broadband system. For
example, to achieve low EVM for the WLAN 802.11a system
that uses OFDM modulation with 20 MHz envelope bandwidth,
the required switching frequency of a traditional DC-DC con-
verter for an EER-based large-signal polar modulator will need
to be 60–100 MHz to achieve acceptable EVM [15]. This
high switching frequency will introduce significant switching
loss for the envelope amplifier and therefore degrade the effi-
ciency of the wideband TX system. Fig. 10 shows our simu-
lated data for an EDGE and a WiBro system, respectively, which
indicates that over 99% of the envelope power resides within
200 kHz bandwidth for EDGE while within 8 MHz for WiBro.
The exact peak-to-average-ratio (PAR) has some dependency on
the number of carriers for an OFDM modulated system [30];
the WiBro signal we used has 1024 and a PAR 10–12 dB.
To meet the stringent requirements for high efficiency, band-
width, and slew rate with low ripples and large current handling
capability, many groups have reported different approaches for
the envelope amplifier design, including buck converters using
pulse-width modulation (PWM) and delta–sigma modulation
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 11. A split-band linear-assisted switch-mode envelope amplifier design
used in this work [13]–[15], [37].
[31]–[33], multiphase converters [34], cascade of buck and
boost converters [35], linear-assisted switch-mode converters
[36], [37], etc. We show here a promising linear-assisted
switch-mode converter using split-band design in Fig. 11,
which was recently detailed by Wang et al. [14], [15], [37]. The
envelope amplifier consists of a wideband linear stage using an
op-amp (PAE 30%) and a narrowband bulk converter with
a large PMOS as the switcher stage (PAE 80%–90%). The
wideband high PAE envelope amplifier uses hysteretic current
feedback control to realize the smooth power split between the
switcher stage and the linear stage. This split-band design al-
leviates the switching requirements of the bulk converter since
the fast transients of the envelope signal will be taken care of by
the fast op-amp, while the bulk converter will handle DC and
the slow moving transients. The feedback gain of the op-amp
in our design is 2 with feedback resistors of 1000 ohm each.
The 3 dB bandwidth of the op-amp is 190 MHz; hysteresis
value of the comparator is 7 mV. The equivalent load resistor
that mimics the PA collector is obtained from measurement
(roughly from 33–47 ohms), as it varies depending on the
operating regions of the switch-mode PA.
The envelope amplifier circuit in Fig. 11 has three different
modes of operation [15]:
1) Linear Operation for Small-Signal Envelope (i.e., Small-
signal operation): this is when the average slew rate of
switcher current is much larger than the average slew rate
of load current. In this case, the buck converter can fully
support the load current; i.e., the switcher stage can provide
both DC and AC components of envelope signal.
2) Large-signal operation: this is when the average slew rate
of the switcher current is much smaller than the average
slew rate of load current. The switcher stage can only pro-
vide the DC component of envelope, while the AC com-
ponent will be provided by the linear stage. The average
switching frequency of the buck converter is the same as
the signal frequency which the current sensor can detect.
3) Matched slew-rate point: this is when the average slew rate
of switcher current is equal to the average slew rate of the
load current.
2283
Fig. 12. The input, output and switching waveforms (V ) of the envelope
amplifier with EDGE envelope signal (a) and WiBro envelope signal (b) with
ADS SPICE simulation. EDGE average output envelope = 2:1 V, WiBro av-
erage output envelope = 2:5 V; switching inductor values: 56 H (EDGE) and
15 H (WiBro); V = 3:6 V (EDGE) and 5.5 V (WiBro).
Fig. 12 plots the input, output and switching waveforms of the
envelope amplifier with both EDGE and WiBro envelope signals
from SPICE simulations in ADS. Notice the differences in the
time-scale and supply voltage for EDGE versus WiBro designs.
This difference is primarily due to the much higher bandwidth
and PAR of WiBro signals compared to those of EDGE, there-
fore dictating a higher supply voltage to prevent clipping for
WiBro. Fig. 13 is a picture of our discrete board design of the
linear-assisted envelope amplifier as shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 14
shows the measured input, output, and switching voltage at the
drain of PMOS of this envelope amplifier with the EDGE enve-
lope signal as input.
For both SPICE simulation and lab measurement of the split-
band envelope amplifier design, we swept the inductance values
with EDGE input signal (Fig. 15). The simulation results match
quite well against the measurement data, validating our ampli-
fier design methodology. The efficiency of the envelope am-
plifier for EDGE, however, is significantly higher than that of
WiBro (i.e., 60%–65% versus 45%–50%). The lower efficiency
of the WiBro envelope amplifier is expected, as the WiBro en-
velope signal has a considerably higher PAR and signal band-
width. This in turn demands a higher supply voltage than EDGE
(i.e., 5.5 V versus 3.6 V) to balance the efficiency versus signal
fidelity. Therefore, the overall power consumption of the WiBro
envelope amplifier is significantly higher than that for the EDGE
application. We also found that the efficiency of this envelope
2284
Fig. 13. A picture of our discrete board design of the linear-assisted envelope
amplifier as shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 14. Measured input (top), output (middle) and switching waveforms
(bottom) of the envelope amplifier (shown in Fig. 11) with an EDGE envelope
input signal. EDGE average output envelope = 2.1 V, V = 3.8 V.
amplifier becomes insensitive to the inductance values once it is
higher than 33 H for EDGE, while only 8 H for WiBro.
Fig. 16 plots the measured efficiency versus the supply
voltage at several load resistances for the split-band envelope
amplifiers designed for both EDGE and WiBro envelope sig-
nals. An interesting trend can be seen from Fig. 16 that as
the supply voltage decreases, the efficiency always increases.
This suggests that if clipping can be avoided by some smart
de-cresting algorithms or novel circuitry, one can successfully
lower the operating supply voltage of the envelope amplifier to
considerably increase its efficiency [14], [38]
Note that the switching stage does generate noise. This
noise will make the voltage across bigger than the
hysteresis value, which will false trigger the switcher. In order
to avoid this from happening, the value of should be
very small. However, switching noise will be present at output
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009
Fig. 15. (a) Simulated and measured efficiency of envelope amplifier with
EDGE envelope signal versus different inductance values at different load
V =36
resistances; : V. (b) Measured efficiency of envelope amplifier with
WiBro-like envelope signal;V =55: V.
and selecting an op-amp with large bandwidth can help to
reduce it (see Fig 14; our measured “Env. Output” waveform
appears to be rather clean). Therefore, careful system-level
measurements must be conducted to verify if the split-band
design can meet the very tough spec of TX-induced switching
noise in the RX band for handset operations. However, due
to the reported much more relaxed spec on TX noise in the
RX band for WiMAX-like broadband wireless applications,
we believe that the adoption of linear-assisted switch-mode
envelope amplifiers in the polar TX SoC implementation should
be justified and can be potentially integrated with commercial
chipsets for WiMAX-like modulations.
V. DESIGN OF MONOLITHIC SATURATED PA FOR ET-BASED
POLAR TRANSMITTERS
A traditional class AB PA can offer good PAE at the peak
RF output power, and with careful design this high PAE can be
achieved over a wideband. However, with high PAR RF input
signals, most of the time the PA output is well below its peak
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 16. (a) Measured efficiency versus supply voltage V of the split-band
envelope amplifier with EDGE envelope signal (inductor = 56 H); and
(b) WiBro envelope signal (inductor = 15 H). The measurement was done at
several different load resistances as well.
output power and therefore mostly operating in the low PAE re-
gions. For high PAR input signals, the PA also has to operate in
a “back-off” mode to maintain good linearity, therefore further
degrading its efficiency. The average PAE for class AB PA with
high PAR signals, therefore, is quite poor and this is a major bar-
rier for battery size reduction. It is possible, however, to achieve
a significant efficiency improvement using monolithic switch-
mode PA with envelope tracking [16], [17]. For base station ap-
plications, this ET technique has proven to offer considerable
reduction in heat dissipation for 3G, WiMAX and DVB trans-
mitters [28], [39], [40]. Specifically, in ET-based large-signal
polar transmitter, the voltage supplied to the final stage of the
RF PA is changed dynamically, synchronized with the RF signal
passing through the device to ensure that the PA remains satu-
rated and efficient.
As an example, it is well-known that the EDGE waveform
occupies 200 kHz TX channels (within 880–910 MHz) with a
moderate PAR of 3.3 dB and a PMR of 17 dB but it has strin-
gent TX spectral mask specs as GSM at 54 dBc (400 kHz)
and 60 dBc (600 kHz), and a worst case rms EVM of 9%
2285
Fig. 17. Schematic of a single-stage monolithic class E SiGe PA at 900 MHz.
[27]. Typically, the EDGE linearity requirement is achieved by
using traditional current-mode PA typologies (class AB) and op-
erating the amplifier several dB “back-off” from its point,
which inevitably degrades its PAE significantly. Switch-mode
PAs (i.e., class D/E/S) can provide the highest possible PAE by
operating the devices as switches to minimize the overlapping
of current and voltage waveforms. A class E PA is easier for
integration compared with a class F PA, and it is arguably the
most efficient class of PA; if the optimal switching conditions
that minimize power dissipation in the device are achieved, its
PAE can be theoretically 100% [41]–[43]. In reality, non-ideal-
ities such as finite switching speed, switch resistive loss, pas-
sive component loss, device breakdown and voltage rail limita-
tions, etc. have kept the PAE of the best Si-based class E PAs
below 70% at RF frequencies of 2 GHz and above [44]–[51].
These measured low PAE values strongly suggest that it is ex-
tremely challenging, if not impossible, to meet all of the optimal
class E switching conditions to achieve ideal I-V waveforms
for Si-based monolithic PAs at the high-GHz range. The broad-
band nature of low-Q on-chip lumped components and their
low self-resonant frequency values definitely limit their use in
harmonic controlled applications above a few gigahertz. There-
fore, a fully integrated Si-based high-efficient class E PA would
likely be in a “quasi-class E” or “near-class E” mode in actual
operations. For example, Negra and Bächtold have recently re-
ported a lumped-element load-coupling circuit design method
for class E approximation to provide improved second harmonic
termination and simultaneous fundamental load transformation
on Si [52]. They used the IBM 6HP technology for the mono-
lithic SiGe PA design and achieved an impressive PAE 51%
at 5 GHz for the sub-optimal class E SiGe PA. We have used
somewhat similar design methodology and achieve 66% PAE
at 900 MHz and 62% at 2.4 GHz for our monolithic SiGe PAs
[17], [53]–[56].
A simplified schematic for our monolithic one-stage sub-op-
timal class E PA for 900 MHz operation is shown in Fig. 17.
We purposely left the RF choke (RFC) inductors off-chip be-
cause of the available low Q and large size on-chip inductors
at 900 MHz. SPICE simulations using IBM SiGe7HP design
kit with Cadence Spectre RF were performed on high-break-
down SiGe HBTs for monolithic quasi-class E PA design to ob-
tain best PAE targeted for 900 and 2300/2400 MHz wireless
applications [53]–[55]. This technology offers typical high-
2286 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 18. Die pictures of monolithic class E SiGe PAs designs for (a) 900 MHz
2 2
(1.1 1.7 mm with pads), and (b) 2.3 GHz (1.3 1.5 mm with pads).

breakdown devices with 25/57 GHz,

4.2 V, 12.5 V. Our fabricated SiGe PA dies were
Fig. 19. Single-tone measurement of 900 MHz SiGe class E PA: (a) P
bonded onto PC boards by bondwires for testing, as shown in versus V (P = 10 dBm, V = 3.6 V); and (b) P and PAE versus
Fig. 18. V (P = 10.9 dBm, V = 0.65 V). All matching on-chip except for the
Fig. 19 shows the measured and simulated single-tone test choke inductor placed off-chip.
data on our 900 MHz single-stage class E SiGe PA at different
base bias voltages and supply voltage . The simulated
output power is within 1 dB of the measured results, and they
both increase with higher base bias voltage. The measured
PAE values are quite high at 10 dBm where the PA is
saturated (i.e., 61%–64% at 3.6 V), while no external
I/O matching was used and the only off-chip inductor is the
choke inductor. Fig. 19(b) shows that the PAE of our 900 MHz
SiGe PA continues to increase with higher supply voltage ,
where a peak PAE of 63% is achieved at 3–3.5 V.
Fig. 20 also presents the data of PAE and versus of
our 900 MHz class E SiGe PA.
Fig. 21 plots the measured single-tone test data on our
2.3 GHz single-stage class E SiGe PA at different base bias
and supply voltages . Similar to our 900 MHz PA
Fig. 20. Single-tone measurement of PAE versus P for our 900 MHz mono-
design, no external I/O matching was used. The best PAE in lithic SiGe class E PA (V = 0.65 V). All matching on-chip except for the
measurement is achieved at of 0.68–0.72 V [Fig. 21(a)], choke inductor placed off-chip.
while the measured PAE values are high at 2.3 GHz [i.e.,
63% at 2.5 V, Fig. 21(b)]. The lower supply voltage VI. MEASURED AND SIMULATED SYSTEM RESULTS FOR
provides higher PAE in the case of our 2.3 GHz SiGe PA, while ET-BASED POLAR TRANSMITTERS
its PAE improves with higher input power at 0.65 V Switch-mode PAs are highly efficient but intrinsically non-
(Fig. 22). linear so they need to be somehow linearized for non-constant
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 21. Single-tone measurement of 2.3 GHz SiGe class E PA: (a) PAE versus
V (P = 5 dBm) and (b) P , Gain and PAE versus V (V = 0.65 V,
P = 7 dBm).
Fig. 22. Single-tone measurement data of our 2.3 GHz class E SiGe PA
(V = 0.65 V).
envelope modulated systems. Classical ET techniques have
been applied mainly to current-mode PAs [13]–[15], however
recent work indicates that ET can be extended to class E PAs
and provide better linearization than EER without even the need
for pre-distortion for low PAR signals such as EDGE [16], [17],
[54]. We will, therefore, present in this section the measured
2287
Fig. 23. (a) Simulated AM-AM and (b) measured AM-AM performance of a
low-band EDGE modulated ET-based polar TX system with our switch-mode
SiGe PA (V = 0.6 V; P = 12 dBm; P = 19.9 dBm; V =
2.25 V). No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
versus simulation results from a complete ET-based polar TX
system using our SiGe class E PA described in Section V,
and the split-band envelope amplifier detailed in Section IV.
The measurements are carried out as shown in Fig. 7 with the
PA output downconverted for AM-AM, AM-PM and EVM
analysis.
As we have described earlier, both the static and group de-
lays mismatches will produce system distortions for an ET/EER
polar TX, often caused by the finite bandwidth of the envelope
amplifier circuitry. Since a saturated nonlinear class E PA is
used in our system to recombine both phase and amplitude sig-
nals, this PA will introduce major nonlinearities in the system
that can be described in terms of the AM-AM and AM-PM
distortions [21], [39]. In our experimental setup, we adopted
an open-loop polar TX architecture where the output of the
PA is downconverted and sampled for analysis only [39], [54].
AM-AM distortion is measured by the presence of unwanted
amplitude signals at the output due to variation of the input am-
plitude to the system. In our case, we measure the input ampli-
tude to the PA and compare that with its output amplitude (after
2288
Fig. 24. (a) Simulated AM-AM and (b) measured AM-AM performance of
a low-band EDGE modulated EER-based polar TX system with our switch-
mode SiGe PA (V = 0.6 V; P = 12 dBm; P = 19.7 dBm; V
2.25 V). No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
downconversion to baseband). AM-PM conversion of an ampli-
fier is the measurement of unwanted phase changes at the output
caused by the variation of input amplitudes to the system. In our
case, we assess the AM-PM conversion by measuring the ampli-
tude input to the PA and compare it with the output phase signal
of the PA. The measured and simulated AM-AM and AM-PM
characterizations of both the ET and EER polar TX systems are
presented in Figs. 23–26 for direct comparisons.
Fig. 23 shows the AM-AM performance for our modulated
ET-base polar TX system. Both simulated and measured data
presents great fidelity across the entire dynamic range, even for
very low input amplitude levels. This data indicates that our non-
linear class E PA used in an ET-based TX should be able to
achieve the necessary amplitude fidelity for EDGE modulated
systems. Furthermore, our SiGe PA is also used for an EER-
based TX polar system with low-band EDGE modulation for a
clear comparison versus the ET architecture. Fig. 24(a) and (b)
show the simulated and measured AM-AM performance for
our EER system, respectively. For an EDGE-modulated EER
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009
Fig. 25. (a) Simulated and (b) measured AM-PM performance of the
ET-based polar TX system with our switch-mode SiGe PA (V = 0.6 V,
P = 12 dBm, V = 2.25 V; P = 19.9 dBm, low-band EDGE
modulation). No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
= system, a slight increase of nonlinear behavior at high ampli-
tudes is observed (for normalized input of 0.6 to 1). Further-
more, a more pronounced distortion is clearly present at small
input amplitudes, especially when it is close to zero. This unde-
sired behavior can be seen in the simulation results and then cor-
roborated in the measured data. This is an unacceptable leakage
behavior not present in the ET system, probably caused by the
RF signal feedthrough from the input as a feed-forward cur-
rent [27]. Further pre-distortion would be needed to alleviate
this unwanted AM-AM distortion for EER. Note in our EER
system using the switch-mode PA, this AM-AM behavior shown
in Fig. 24 is the best one obtained as we swept the bias
for optimal PA linearity. Comparing Fig. 23 with Fig. 24, the
ET-based system presents a clear immunity in term of AM-AM
distortion, thus making it a better choice for implementing polar
TX SoC using our switch-mode PAs.
In addition to AM-AM measurement and simulations,
phase behavior is of great interest when dealing with EDGE
modulated signals. Fig. 25 presents the AM-PM character-
istics of an EDGE-modulated ET-based polar TX system.
Fig. 25(a) and (b) show the simulated and measured cases,
respectively, exhibiting good agreement between the two.
Please note that initial phase values at zero input amplitude
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
Fig. 26. (a) Simulated and (b) measured AM-PM performance of the EER-
based polar TX system with our switch-mode SiGe PA (V = 0.6 V, P =
12 dBm, V = 2.25 V; P = 19.7 dBm, low-band EDGE modulation).
No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
are arbitrary. Also, the cluster-like outputs in Fig. 25(b) are
not replicated on the simulated results in Fig. 25(a) since the
simulated values are done by means of a fixed set of SPICE
models (we were not using the Monte Carlos method), while
the measurement is done by means of a set of statistically
averaged measurements. The relative phase settlement of ET
system is within 5 at 0.3 (normalized input amplitude), but
simulated results [Fig. 25(a)] exhibit a slightly faster phase
distortion settling than the measurement data [Fig. 25(b)].
Likewise, an EER-based polar TX system was also tested under
low-band EDGE modulation for AM-PM characterization. The
simulated and measured results of the EER system are shown
in Fig. 26(a) and (b), respectively. A phase settling of 5 can
be seen between the normalized input amplitudes of 0.3 and 0.4
for both the simulated and the measured case. Therefore, the
AM-PM conversion of the EER system is comparable to that of
the ET system. In short, aside from the similar behavior found
between the two systems, the significantly better performance
in AM-AM behaviors highly suggest the ET architecture as the
system of choice for polar TX SoC design.
To see how this ET-architecture can provide higher PAE at
a given output power, Fig. 27 shows the single-tone simulation
of our switch-mode SiGe PA at different collector voltage for
2289
Fig. 27. Simulation data of the PAE of our switch-mode SiGe PA at 900 MHz
obtained by sweeping input power at different collector voltages of the PA (range
of V = 0.7 to 3.9 V; single-tone input, V = 0.65 V).
the 900 MHz case. Fig. 27 indicates that optimal system PAE
can be selected at a required by varying the PA collector
voltage , where the simulated PAE of the PA is mostly
above 50%. The measurement results of versus PAE at dif-
ferent collector voltage are not available, however the measured
PAE at 3.3 V is 5%–10% higher than the simulated data
according to our previous publication [16], [17]. Additionally,
these PAE versus curves can be tabulated to be potentially
used in real time for an ET-based polar system to reach max-
imum system PAE [15], [57]. An ET-based large-signal polar
transmitter with a saturated PA can operate with good PAE at
all envelope signal levels, therefore significantly improved the
average efficiency for high PAR wideband envelope signals.
This ET-based polar TX system with the split-band enve-
lope amplifier and switch-mode SiGe PA has exhibited good
AM-AM and AM-PM behaviors, and is therefore expected to
provide low values of EVM and spectral re-growth at the TX
system output. This is indeed the case, as we will show the mea-
sured system testing results next. The measurement data of the
complete low-band EDGE ET-based polar TX system are pre-
sented in Figs. 28–31, where our split-band envelope amplifier
and switch-mode class E PA are used. The supply voltages of the
op-amp and the switcher are 3.8 V and 3.4 V, respectively. This
is because if supply voltages of the op-amp and the switcher
are both 3.4 V, we will see a degradation of the system linearity
and EVM as certain clipping at the op-amp output is observed
in both simulation and measurement. Fig. 28(a) shows the TX
system output power versus the base bias voltage of our class
E SiGe PA, where and system PAE reaches 20.5 dBm and
41%, respectively. Fig. 28(b) plots the versus curve
for the polar TX system. All of the data shown in Fig. 28 passed
both the EDGE low-band TX mask and EVM specs.
In our system measurement, higher envelope amplifier effi-
ciency can be achieved by slightly overdriving the envelope am-
plifier, resulting some clipping on the output voltage [16]. How-
ever, excessive clipping will degrade EVM and fail the EDGE
TX spectral mask requirements. Fig. 29 shows the measured
output power, PAE and EVM of the ET-based polar TX system.
As can be seen from Fig. 29, when the rms PA collector voltage
2290
Fig. 28. System measurement data of the entire low-band EDGE ET-based
polar TX: (a) P versus the bias V of the switch-mode SiGe PA (P =
10 dBm); (b) P versus P (PA V = 0.6 V). For the measurement setup
of the split-band envelope amplifier, the supply voltage of the op-amp is 3.8 V,
while that of the PMOS switcher is 3.4 V. All of the data shown passed both
the EDGE low-band TX mask and EVM specs. No PA predistortion algorithms
applied.
Fig. 29. System measurement data of the entire low-band EDGE ET-based
polar TX (V = 0.6 V, V of op-amp = 3.8 V; V of PMOS switcher =
3.4 V, P = 12 dBm). No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
(i.e., output of the envelope amplifier) is at 2.6 V, the ET system
has a high EVM of 8% that barely passed the ETSI spec; how-
ever, the system noticeably failed to meet the EDGE TX trans-
mission mask (not shown).
Fig. 30 plots the simulated and measured spectrums of our
EDGE ET-based polar TX system. One can see the ADS sim-
ulation of the entire polar TX system matches quite well with
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009
Fig. 30. (a) Measured and (b) simulated output spectrum for our ET-based
entire polar TX system versus EDGE mask; P = 12 dBm, V = 0.6 V,
PA collector voltage (rms) = 2.47 V. Overall measured system efficiency =
44.4%. No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
Fig. 31. Measured large-signal polar TX system output spectrum before and
after ET/EER linearization versus the EDGE TX mask using our split-band en-
velope amplifier and class E monolithic SiGe PA (P = 12 dBm; V =
3 V; V = 0.6 V). No PA predistortion algorithms applied.
the measurement data, which demonstrates the usefulness and
the powerful predictive capability of our system design method-
ology that includes the co-design and optimization of all RF,
analog and digital circuits used in the polar TX system. Fig. 31
shows the experimental results of our highly efficient large-
signal polar transmitter using both ET and EER architectures
with the low-band EDGE modulated input signals. One can see
that ET easily outperforms EER in terms of TX output distor-
tion. Table I summarizes the performance of the ET and EER
PA systems for comparison. On can clearly see that ET outper-
forms EER for implementing polar TX systems, with superior
LOPEZ et al.: DESIGN OF HIGHLY EFFICIENT WIDEBAND RF POLAR TRANSMITTERS USING THE ENVELOPE-TRACKING TECHNIQUE
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF ET VERSUS EER SYSTEM USING OUR SIGE CLASS E PA WITH
LOW-BAND EDGE MODULATED SIGNALS (V = 0:6 V; P = 12 dBm)
Note: The required EVM is 9% by EDGE specs.
Overall System PAE = (RF modulated output power- RF input power)/overall
DC power.
Overall System CE = RF modulated output power/overall DC power.
No PA predistortion algorithms were applied in ET or EER.
Fig. 32. Simulated ET-based TX polar system output spectrums using our split-
band envelope amplifier and switch-mode class E SiGe PA versus the 802.16e
TX mask (P = 18.5 dBm, PA V = 3.6 V, V = 0.73 V). The supply
voltage of the split-band envelope amplifier is 5.5 V. No PA predistortion algo-
rithms applied.
EVM performance, improved PAE, and significantly lower dis-
tortion in the TX output spectrum (note no predistortion is ap-
plied in the systems). We also compared the distortion caused by
timing misalignment between the amplitude and RF paths, and
investigated experimentally their dependence on the PA biasing
point. Note that according to our bias-dependent Cann’s model
discussed in Section III, the best timing alignment for ET is pre-
dicted to be at a base bias of 0.55–0.6 V for the SiGe PA,
which is again consistent with our measurement findings.
In addition to investigating and proving the usability of our
design under an EDGE ET-based polar TX system, we expect
that our class E SiGe PA can perform well in OFDM mod-
ulation systems with high PAR for WiMAX/WiBro applica-
tions. Fig. 32 shows the simulated system output spectrum of
our ET-based polar TX system for WiBro application. When
dealing with broadband signals such as WiMAX/WiBro, their
inherent wideband envelope signals will require the envelope
amplifier to have a much wider bandwidth to meet the linearity
requirement. Such high requirement makes these systems more
susceptible not only to static but also group delays. To fur-
ther explore these effects when dealing with broadband wireless
systems, we made use of either an ideal op-amp or a realistic
split-band envelope amplifier to illuminate/isolate the distortion
2291
caused by the switching modulator. As seen from Fig. 32, when
no additional delay is applied in the RF path, the ET TX output
spectrum using our linear-assisted switch-mode envelope am-
plifier shows 3–8 dB higher spectral distortion than the case
using an ideal op-amp, resulting in the output spectrum slightly
failing the stringent 802.16e mask (say, at above 2.365 GHz).
This failure is mainly due to the group delay of the realistic enve-
lope amplifier caused by high bandwidth requirement, together
with the envelope output clipping and possible switching noise.
To compensate the group delay caused by the envelope ampli-
fier, we inserted a 3 ns static delay line in the RF path [as shown
in Fig. 7(b)], which reduced the spectral growth by 2–3 dB and
the TX output then successfully passed the 802.16e TX mask
(see Fig. 32). Since we have demonstrated excellent agreement
between measured versus simulated results for our ET-based
polar TX system using EDGE signals, we expect somewhat sim-
ilar agreement between the measured versus simulated data will
be seen as well for WiBro input signals. However, PA predistor-
tion and PAR de-cresting algorithms may be necessary in the
WiBro polar TX system to further reduce the distortions and
the high supply voltage of the envelope amplifier (now at 5.5 V)
to improve the overall TX system efficiency and its usefulness
for mobile wireless applications. Test bench characterization is
currently in development of WiBro polar TX system to asses
the agreement between the simulation data presented here to
the upcoming bench results. The robustness of the switch-mode
PA (i.e., mismatched under several VSWR conditions) needs
to be carefully examined in measurement as well. The esti-
mated system PAE of the WiBro/WiMAX ET-based polar TX
system using our class E PA and split-band envelope amplifier
can reach 30%, showing a great promise for future highly ef-
ficient broadband wireless TX SoC design.
VII. CONCLUSION
We discussed the design issues of highly efficient and mono-
lithic wideband RF polar transmitters, especially the ones that
use the envelope-tracking (ET) technique. Some state-of-the-art
polar transmitters are reviewed, and the SoC design considera-
tions especially for highly efficient envelope amplifiers and PAs
for ET-based RF large-signal polar transmitters are also dis-
cussed. Very good agreement has been found between the sim-
ulation and measurement results on our entire polar TX system
for low-band EDGE input, including AM-AM, AM-PM, TX
output spectrum, etc. This powerful TX system simulation plat-
form enables the co-design of the RF, analog, and digital cir-
cuits to achieve the optimal system performance, applicable for
broadband wireless applications such as WiBro/WiMAX ap-
plications as well. We believe, therefore, that ET-based large-
signal polar transmitter architecture is very attractive for re-
alizing highly efficient wideband monolithic transmitters for
mobile wireless communications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are indebted to Mr. D. Kimball, Prof. L. E.
Larson, and Prof. P. Asbeck (all from UCSD) for their guid-
ance on the ET system measurement. The authors also deeply
appreciate the help from Mr. D. Meng (at TTU), and thank
IBM for IC fabrication.
2292
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Jerry Lopez (S’09) received the B.S. and M.E.
degrees at the University of California at San Diego
(UCSD) in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He is
currently working towards the Ph.D. degree in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.
Previously, he worked for Northrop Grumman
Corp. in research and development involving the
design of highly efficient power amplifiers and polar
modulators including custom RFICs design. He
has also worked at the US Navy where he was a
member of the RFIC design group. He has been the recipient of the Northrop
Grumman Fellowship and NSF Educational Fellowship. His research interests
include the design of analog/RF integrated circuits such as highly integrated
highly efficient CMOS PA/transmitter and circuits and systems that are highly
nonlinear.
Yan Li (S’09) received the B.S.E.E. degree from
Southwest Jiaotong University, China, in 2007. He
is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. He has been
the recipient of the AT&T Chancellor’s Endowed
Fellowship from Texas Tech University.
His current research is on the design of highly effi-
cient and linear wideband polar transmitters with in-
tegrated power amplifiers for WiMAX-like wireless
applications.
2293
Jeremy D. Popp received the B.S.E.E. degree from
Portland State University and the M.Eng. degree from
the University of California at San Diego.
He is currently the Mixed Signal ASIC De-
sign Leader at the Boeing Company’s Solid State
Electronics Development group and manages the
development of high-speed PLLs and SerDes prod-
ucts for space-based applications. Previously, he
was a Senior Member of Technical Staff and Lead
Circuit Designer at Orora Design Technologies,
where he led Orora’s PLL IP development in DSM
CMOS. He also worked as a program technical leader for the US Navy where
he successfully lead several high profile defense electronic system design and
advanced technology programs. He has twelve technical publications, holds
two patents, and has received several awards for his exceptional contributions.
Donald Y. C. Lie (S’86–M’87–SM’00) received
the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
(minor in applied physics) from the California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, in 1990 and
1995, respectively.
He has held technical and managerial positions at
companies such as Rockwell International, Silicon-
Wave/RFMD, IBM, Microtune Inc., SYS Technolo-
gies, and Dynamic Research Corporation (DRC). He
is currently the Keh-Shew Lu Regents Chair Asso-
ciate Professor (tenured) in the Department of Elec-
trical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. He is
also an Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Texas Tech Uni-
versity Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC). He is instrumental in bringing in
multimillion dollars research funding and has also designed real-world com-
mercial communication products sold internationally. He has been a Visiting
Lecturer to the ECE Department, University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
since 2002 where he taught upper-division and graduate-level classes and af-
filiated with UCSD’s Center of Wireless Communications and co-supervised
Ph.D. students. He has authored and co-authored over 75 peer-reviewed tech-
nical papers and book chapters and holds several US patents.
Dr. Lie has been serving on the Executive and RF Design committee of
the IEEE Bipolar/BICMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), the
Technical Program co-chair for IEEE SiRF, and also serving on various IEEE
VLSI-DAT, SoCC and DCAS committees. He has received numerous awards
from DRC, IBM, Rockwell, and has given many invited talks and short
courses at IEEE conferences and workshops. Dr. Lie and his students have
won several Best Graduate Student Paper Awards in international conferences
and also various prestigious scholarships. He was a Rotary International
Scholar 1989–1990, and awarded with internships at Motorola Inc. sponsored
by SRC (Semiconductor Research Corporation) at 1993–1994, and also at
the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 1992–1993. Dr. Lie has served
as the Area Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal on Wireless and
Optical Communications and also as reviewer for various IEEE journals. He
is working on a book on SiGe BiCMOS RFIC design with the Cambridge
University Press and articles on the history of modern science versus Christian
Faith and Chinese Culture. His professional research interests are low-power
RF/analog integrated circuits and system-on-a-chip (SoC) design and test, and
interdisciplinary research on medical electronics, biosensors and biosignal
processing.
Chia-Chang Chuang received the B.S. degree in
electrical engineering from the National Yunlin
University of Science and Technology in 2002. He is
currently working towards the M.S.E.E. degree in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
at Texas Tech University.
From 2005 to 2007, he worked as a Power De-
sign Engineer with Universal Microelectronics Ltd.,
Taichung, Taiwan, where he designed high-frequency
switching power supplies. He holds one U.S. patent
on a solar energy pulse charge device.
2294
Kevin Chen received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical and electronic engineering from Univer-
sity of Bristol, UK, in 2006. His doctoral research
concerned with the high-efficiency power amplifier
design for wideband applications.
In June 2006, he joined the Industrial Tech-
nology Research Institute (ITRI), a top research
center in Taiwan, where he was involved in the
digital RF receiver design. He is currently leading
a research team towards the development of
high-efficiency and high-linearity polar transmit-
ters for WiMAX application.
Stanley Wu was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Jan-
uary 8, 1969. He received the M.S. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the National Taiwan Univer-
sity (NTU) in 1996.
Since 2001 he has been a design engineer with
the SoC Technology Center (STC)/Industrial Tech-
nology Research Institute (ITRI), involved in RF and
analog integrated circuit design.
Tzu-Yin Yang was born in Taichung, Taiwan, in
1973. He received the B.S. degree in electronics
engineering from National Chiao-Tung University,
Taiwan, in 1995, and the M.S. degree in electrical
engineering from National Taiwan University,
Taipei, in 1997.
After graduation, he worked for the Electronic
Research and Service Organization (ERSO), Indus-
trial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu,
Taiwan, on RF integrated circuit design. Since 2001,
he has been with SoC Technology Center (STC),
ITRI, Taiwan. His research interests are integrated circuits and systems for
wireless communications.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 44, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009
Gin-Kou Ma (S’85–M’90) received the Ph.D. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University of
Florida, Gainesville, in 1989.
He was with The Athena Group Inc. USA, during
1985–1989, where he was responsible for the
MONARCH-DSP CAD tool project. From 1990
to 1998, he was working as an R&D Manager of
High-speed Broad-band Information Networks:
Communication Technologies and Services for the
Computer Communication Research Laboratories
(CCL) of Industrial Technology Research Institute
(ITRI), Taiwan, R.O.C. During 1998 to 2000, he was the R&D Manager of
Advanced Microelectronics System Technologies for Electronics Research and
Service Organization (ERSO) of ITRI. During 2000 to 2006, he was the Senior
Leader Researcher of Advanced RFIC and AMS Circuit and DSP Designs,
and worked on CMOS SoCs including low-power TDS-CDMA, WCDMA,
WLAN, Bluetooth RF transceiver, DVB-T/H tuner, 3.1–10.6 GHz UWB RFIC,
various low-power high-bandwidth high-resolution ADC, reconfigurable radio
processor, 10 Gbps optical transceiver, low-power high-performance PAC-DSP
for multimedia CODEC, advanced hearing aid system, as well as others. He
is currently the Deputy General Director of SoC Technology Center (STC),
ITRI, and is responsible for broadband wireless (WiMAX/4G) communication
system and chip designs and portable better-life CPE projects.
Dr. Ma received the 1997 National Outstanding Information Engineer Award,
MOEA, Taiwan, the 2002 Outstanding Engineer Award, IEC, Taiwan, for his
achievements and contributions to multimedia, broadband and wireless com-
munications, and the 2003 Outstanding MOEA Project and 2006 Best MOEA
Project Awards. He has published over 90 conference and journal papers and
has twelve US patents. He is interested in research in broadband wireless com-
munication and digital signal processing technologies. He was the secretary of
IEEE Taipei Section from 2005 through 2006.