A Load Insensitive High-Power Balanced Power Amplifier

A high-output-power balanced power amplifier is designed with power-combining architecture for satellite communication terminals. The power-combining architecture introduces a ±45° phase shift in the output matching network of two amplifiers, which makes the balanced power amplifier more tolerant to load mismatch and less sensitive to load variation. This balanced power amplifier is implemented with InGaP/GaAs HBT process. Under the band of 1.5 GHz to 1.7 GHz and the supply voltage of 5 V, the measured results show that 32 dB of the gain, 38 dBm of the saturated output power and 43% of power added efficiency (PAE) are achieved, and a good radio frequency performance can be maintained under load mismatch conditions.