Optimizing RF Power Amplifier System Efficiency Using DC-DC Converters

摘要

RF power amplifiers used in CDMA / WCDMA cellular standards have been traditionally powered directly from the battery. This makes system implementation easy but the requirement for linear power amplifiers in such standards have intrinsic inefficiencies throughout the transmit power spectrum. Cellular standards have been evolving with transmission speeds that started from 14.4 kbps in CDMA-1 to 2 Mbps in CDMA2000/WCDMA. Apart from this, cellular providers have increased the services bundled with the 3G phones in order to increase the average revenue per subscriber. At the same time, the talk time and battery life is expected to be improved with the same or slighdy higher capacity batteries.