Simplified extraction method for broadband power amplifier’s behavioral model

Abstract

The fundamental active load-pull behavioral model, K-parameter, can be used to model the power amplifier (PA) quickly and accurately. When extracting the K-parameter model of a PA, both forward and reverse excitation signals are used in the same time for the PA to establish the large-signal operating point (LSOP). Because of system impedance mismatch and limited isolation of the couplers, the recorded signal is the product of the superposition of forward and reverse excitation vectors. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a data processing method to recover the true forward and reverse excitations on the PA’s ports, while introduces an extraction setup for broadband PA. Finally, a 2-6 GHz 3W PA is used for validation of proposed extraction method.