Date of Graduation

5-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Homer A. Mantooth

Committee Member

Randy Brown

Second Committee Member

Scott Smith

Keywords

Applied sciences, Low power, Nonlinear, Power amplifiers, RF, Sensor

Abstract

The Power Amplifier (PA) is the last Radio Frequency (RF) building block in a transmitter, directly driving an antenna. The low power RF input signal of the PA is amplified to a significant power RF output signal by converting DC power into RF power. Since the PA consumes a majority of the power, efficiency plays one of the most important roles in a PA design. Designing an efficient, fully integrated RF PA that can operate at low supply voltage (1.2V), low power, and low RF frequency (433MHz) is a major challenge. The class E Power Amplifier, which is one type of switch mode PA, is preferred in such a scenario because of its higher theoretical efficiency compared to linear power amplifiers. A controllable class E RF power amplifier design implemented in 0.13 µm CMOS process is presented. The circuit was designed, simulated, laid out, fabricated, and tested. The PA will be integrated as a part of a complete wireless transceiver system using the same process.

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