JP2012209757A - Amplification device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an amplification device that operates with higher efficiency.SOLUTION: The amplification device includes a carrier amplifier 1 for amplifying one of two branch signals of an input signal by class A, B or AB operation, and a plurality of peak amplifiers 2 and 3 disposed in parallel to the other of the two branch signals to amplify it by class C operation. A 90° hybrid coupler 5 is used to combine outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers 2 and 3. An output of the plurality of peak amplifiers 2 and 3 combined by the 90° hybrid coupler 5 and an output of the carrier amplifier 1 are supplied to a load 14.

Description

  The present invention relates to an amplifying apparatus, and more particularly to a Doherty amplifier that realizes a high-efficiency and high-power amplifier.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a basic circuit of a Doherty amplifier related to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 7, the high frequency signal supplied from the RF input terminal 111 is branched into two, and one is input to the carrier amplifier 101. The carrier amplifier 101 is an amplifier biased in class A, class AB or class B, and a signal amplified by the carrier amplifier 101 is supplied to the RF output terminal 112 via transmission lines 107 and 108. The other is input to the peak amplifier 102 via the transmission line 106. The peak amplifier 102 is an amplifier biased in class C, and the signal amplified by the peak amplifier 102 is supplied to the RF output terminal 112 via the transmission line 108.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a Doherty amplifier using a plurality of peak amplifiers.

JP 2008-199625 A

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the characteristics of the Doherty amplifier of FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, the maximum efficiency is obtained at an output level 6 dB lower than the saturated power. When a signal that requires a peak power to average power ratio of 6 dB or more is amplified, the back-off is larger than 6 dB with respect to the saturation power, so that the maximum efficiency cannot be obtained. For example, when a signal having a peak power to average power ratio of about 8 dB is amplified, such as a DVB-T signal, the theoretical efficiency decreases from 78.5% to 62.3%.

  Patent Document 1 describes that a high-efficiency Doherty amplifier is realized by using a plurality of peak amplifiers as described above. However, although Patent Document 1 uses a plurality of peak amplifiers, it does not disclose a configuration in which the outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers are first combined with the output of the carrier amplifier. It is also desired to realize a highly efficient Doherty amplifier with a configuration different from that of Patent Document 1.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and to provide an amplifying apparatus that can operate with higher efficiency.

  An amplifying apparatus according to the present invention includes a carrier amplifier that amplifies one signal obtained by bifurcating an input signal into a class A, B, or AB, and a plurality of peaks that are provided in parallel with the other signal that is bifurcated and perform class C amplification. A 90 ° hybrid coupler is used for combining the outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers, and the combined outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers and the outputs of the carrier amplifiers by the 90 ° hybrid coupler are supplied to a load. It is characterized by that.

  An amplifying apparatus according to the present invention includes a carrier amplifier that amplifies one of the two signals divided into two, class A, B, or AB, and a first 90 ° hybrid coupler that outputs the other two signals divided into two And first and second peak amplifiers that respectively amplify the outputs of the 90 ° hybrid couplers in class C, and second 90 ° hybrid couplers that combine and output the outputs of the first and second peak amplifiers. And the output of the second 90 ° hybrid coupler and the output of the carrier amplifier are supplied to a load.

  An amplifying apparatus according to the present invention includes a carrier amplifier that amplifies one of the two signals divided into two, class A, B, or AB, and a first 90 ° hybrid coupler that outputs the other two signals divided into two And second and third 90 ° hybrid couplers that respectively output the output of the first 90 ° hybrid coupler in two branches, and a first C amplifier that amplifies the outputs of the second 90 ° hybrid coupler, respectively. And the second peak amplifier, the third and fourth peak amplifiers for class C amplification of the output of the third 90 ° hybrid coupler, and the outputs of the first and second peak amplifiers, respectively, A fourth 90 ° hybrid coupler, a fifth 90 ° hybrid coupler that combines and outputs the outputs of the third and fourth peak amplifiers, and the fourth and fifth 90 °. And a sixth 90 ° hybrid coupler that synthesizes and outputs the output of the hybrid coupler, and supplies the output of the sixth 90 ° hybrid coupler and the output of the carrier amplifier to a load. To do.

  According to the present invention, an effect of being able to operate with higher efficiency is obtained.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the amplifier by the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the characteristic of the amplifier of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the amplifier by the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. Is a Smith chart showing the trajectory of Z _P that varies depending on the stub of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the amplifier by the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the characteristic of the amplifier of FIG. It is a figure which shows the basic circuit of the Doherty amplifier relevant to this invention. It is a figure which shows the characteristic of the Doherty amplifier of FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an outline of an amplifying apparatus according to the present invention will be described. An amplifying apparatus according to the present invention includes a carrier amplifier that amplifies one of two signals from an input signal by class A, B, or AB, and a plurality of peak amplifiers that are provided in parallel to the other two signals and that perform class C amplification The 90 ° hybrid coupler is used for combining the outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers, and the combined output of the plurality of peak amplifiers and the output of the carrier amplifier by the 90 ° hybrid coupler are supplied to the load.

  The amplifying apparatus according to the present invention can operate with higher efficiency because a plurality of peak amplifiers behave like one peak amplifier through a 90 ° hybrid coupler and the saturation power can be increased.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an amplifying device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing characteristics of the amplifying device of FIG. The circuit shown in FIG. 1 is a one-to-two Doherty amplifier, which is provided in a power amplifier and plays a role of amplifying an input RF signal. In FIG. 1, a carrier amplifier 1 is an amplifier biased in class A, class AB or class B, and its output is connected to a transmission line 9 via a transmission line 8. The transmission lines 8 and 9 are transmission lines having a length of ¼ wavelength of the signal, and play the role of impedance transformers in the Doherty amplifier.

  The peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are class C biased amplifiers, and their outputs are connected to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5. The output of the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is connected to the transmission lines 8 and 9 through the contact 10. No absorption resistor is connected to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5. The inputs of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are connected to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 4. The 90 ° hybrid coupler 4 plays a role of distributing signals with a phase difference such that the outputs of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 can be combined by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5.

  The RF input terminal 11 is connected to the input of the carrier amplifier 1 via the transmission line 7, and is connected to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 4 via the transmission line 6. The lengths of the transmission lines 6 and 7 are adjusted so that the signal passing through the carrier amplifier 1 and the signal passing through the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are in phase at the contact 10. The absorption resistor 13 plays a role of absorbing when the RF signal distributed by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 4 is reflected by the peak amplifiers 2 and 3.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the operation of the carrier amplifier 1 will be described. An RF signal input from the RF input terminal 11 is input to the carrier amplifier 1 via the transmission line 7 and amplified. The amplified signal is output to the RF output terminal 12 through the transmission lines 8 and 9. The load of the carrier amplifier 1 is determined by the characteristic impedance of the transmission lines 8 and 9 and the impedance Z _{P that} allows the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10. When operating as a Doherty amplifier, in a region where the level of the input RF signal is low and the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are off (region A in FIG. 2), Z _P is high impedance, the level of the input RF signal is high, and the peak amplifier 2 and In the region where 3 is turned on and operating near the saturation level (region B in FIG. 2), Z _P transitions from high impedance to 50Ω, and Z _P becomes 50Ω when operating at the saturation level. It is common.

  Next, the operation of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 will be described. The RF signal input from the RF input terminal 11 and input to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 4 via the transmission line 6 is equally distributed to the peak amplifiers 2 and 3. The phase of the RF signal distributed to the peak amplifier 3 side is −90 ° with respect to the signal distributed to the peak amplifier 2 side. The RF signals amplified by the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are synthesized by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 and output to the contact 10 side due to the phase relationship.

  If the phase is adjusted by the transmission lines 6 and 7, the signals amplified by the carrier amplifier 1 and the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are combined at the contact 10 and supplied to the load 14 through the transmission line 9.

Here, the impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 is considered. The impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 varies depending on the operation levels of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3. When the amplitude of the input RF signal is small and the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are turned off, the impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 appears to be high impedance. When the amplitude of the input RF signal is large and the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are on and operating at the saturation level, the impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 is 50Ω. As described above, the impedance Z _{P in view} of the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10 satisfies the requirements for a Doherty amplifier.

  Since the total output of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 is equivalent to two amplifiers, this circuit operates as a one-to-two Doherty amplifier and can increase the saturation power by 1.8 dB. For this reason, the curve of the efficiency with respect to the output level is as shown in FIG. 2, and the maximum efficiency can be obtained with a backoff of 7.8 dB with respect to the saturated power.

  As shown in FIG. 2, since the highest efficiency can be obtained with a backoff of 7.8 dB with respect to the saturated power, a signal having a large difference between the peak power and the average power, such as a DVB-T signal or an ISDB-T signal. The power efficiency when amplifying is improved. By improving the power efficiency, the amplifier cooling system can be simplified and the power consumption can be reduced.

  Further, in this embodiment, unlike Patent Document 1, first, the outputs of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are combined by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 and then combined with the output of the carrier amplifier 1 and supplied to the load 14. A high-efficiency Doherty amplifier is realized.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an amplifying device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a Smith chart showing a Z _P trajectory that changes in accordance with the stub 15 of FIG. In the configuration shown in FIG. 3, a stub 15 is added to the configuration shown in FIG. By adjusting the length of the stub 15, there is an advantage that the value of the impedance Z _P allowing the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10 can be easily controlled as shown in FIG. 4.

The reason why the impedance Z _{P in view} of the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10 can be controlled by the stub 15 will be described below. When the RF signal is input from the contact 10 to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 with the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 turned off, the distributed signal proceeds to the peak amplifier 2 and the peak amplifier 3, both of which are off and have high impedance. Therefore, the RF signal is reflected toward the stub 15 side. Since the stub 15 is open at one end, the RF signal is reflected at the open end of the stub 15 and returns to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 again, but is reflected by the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 and returns to the contact 10 side.

In order to take such a reflection path, the phase of the reflected wave changes depending on the length of the stub 15. That is, the impedance Z _{P in} which the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is seen from the contact 10 appears to change. In an actual design, the phase rotates around the line connecting the contact 10 and the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5, so that the impedance Z _P that anticipates the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10 does not necessarily become a high impedance, and Smith of FIG. Take a value somewhere along the trajectory shown in the chart. In order to make this high impedance, it is necessary to adjust the length of the line connecting the contact 10 and the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5, but it is difficult to adjust the length of the line to which both ends are connected. If the line is open like the stub 15, adjustment is easy because the line is only attached or cut.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of an amplifying device according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing characteristics of the amplifying device of FIG. The configuration shown in FIG. 5 is a configuration aimed at improving efficiency when a signal having a larger ratio of peak power to average power, for example, a signal such as ISDB-T, is amplified.

  In FIG. 5, the RF signal input from the RF input terminal 11 and input to the 90 ° hybrid coupler 4 via the transmission line 6 is equally distributed to the 90 ° hybrid couplers 20 and 24. The 90 ° hybrid coupler 20 equally distributes the input signal to the peak amplifiers 2 and 3, and the 90 ° hybrid coupler 24 equally distributes the input signal to the peak amplifiers 22 and 23. The outputs of the peak amplifiers 2 and 3 are synthesized by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 21, and the outputs of the peak amplifiers 22 and 23 are synthesized by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 25.

  The outputs of the 90 ° hybrid couplers 21 and 25 are synthesized by the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5. The output of the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 and the output of the carrier amplifier 1 are combined at the contact 10 and supplied to the load 14 through the transmission line 9. No absorption resistor is connected to the 90 ° hybrid couplers 5, 21 and 25.

Similar to the example of FIG. 1, when the peak amplifiers 2, 3, 22 and 23 are off, the impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 appears to be high impedance. Similarly to the example of FIG. 1, when the peak amplifiers 2, 3, 22 and 23 are turned on and operating at the saturation level, the impedance Z _P when the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 is viewed from the contact 10 appears to be 50Ω. As described above, since the impedance Z _{P in view} of the 90 ° hybrid coupler 5 from the contact 10 satisfies the requirements necessary for a Doherty amplifier, it can be seen that this circuit operates as a Doherty amplifier.

  Since the total output of the peak amplifiers 2, 3, 22 and 23 is equivalent to four amplifiers, this circuit operates as a one-to-four Doherty amplifier and can increase the saturation power by 4.0 dB. Therefore, the efficiency curve with respect to the output level is as shown in FIG. 6, and the maximum efficiency can be obtained at a level 10 dB lower than the saturation power.

  If the number of parallel rows of peak amplifiers is changed in accordance with the ratio of peak power to average power of the signal to be amplified, a Doherty amplifier that can obtain the highest efficiency for a desired signal can be configured. Further, similarly to the example of FIG. 3, stubs may be connected to the 90 ° hybrid couplers 5, 21 and 25 of FIG.

1,101 Carrier amplifier 2,3,22,23,102 Peak amplifier 4,5,20,21,24,25 90 ° hybrid coupler
6-9, 106-108 Transmission line
10,110 contacts
11, 111 RF input terminal
12,112 RF output terminal
13, 26, 27 Absorption resistance
14 Load
15 Stub

Claims (5)

A carrier amplifier that amplifies one of the two signals divided into A, B, or AB,
A plurality of peak amplifiers that are provided in parallel with the other two-branched signals and perform class C amplification,
A 90 ° hybrid coupler is used for combining the outputs of the plurality of peak amplifiers, and a combined output of the plurality of peak amplifiers by the 90 ° hybrid coupler and an output of the carrier amplifier are supplied to a load. Amplifying device. A carrier amplifier that amplifies one of the two signals divided into A, B, or AB,
A first 90 ° hybrid coupler for branching and outputting the other branched signal;
First and second peak amplifiers that respectively amplify the outputs of the 90 ° hybrid couplers in class C;
A second 90 ° hybrid coupler that combines and outputs the outputs of the first and second peak amplifiers;
An amplifying apparatus characterized in that the output of the second 90 ° hybrid coupler and the output of the carrier amplifier are supplied to a load. A carrier amplifier that amplifies one of the two signals divided into A, B, or AB,
A first 90 ° hybrid coupler for branching and outputting the other branched signal;
Second and third 90 ° hybrid couplers for outputting the output of the first 90 ° hybrid coupler in two branches respectively;
First and second peak amplifiers for respectively class-C amplifying the output of the second 90 ° hybrid coupler;
Third and fourth peak amplifiers for class C amplification of the output of the third 90 ° hybrid coupler, respectively;
A fourth 90 ° hybrid coupler that combines and outputs the outputs of the first and second peak amplifiers;
A fifth 90 ° hybrid coupler for combining and outputting the outputs of the third and fourth peak amplifiers;
A sixth 90 ° hybrid coupler that combines and outputs the outputs of the fourth and fifth 90 ° hybrid couplers;
An amplifying apparatus characterized in that the output of the sixth 90 ° hybrid coupler and the output of the carrier amplifier are supplied to a load.   The amplification device according to claim 1, wherein an isolation terminal of the 90 ° hybrid coupler that performs the synthesis is in an open state.   The amplification device according to claim 1, wherein an open stub is connected to an isolation terminal of the 90 ° hybrid coupler that performs the synthesis.

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