Following years of research from the industry’s key players, it’s widely expected that the first millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G systems will soon be rolled out. A focus of this research has geared toward the power amplifier (PA), which poses a number of technical challenges.
In addition to having adequate gain and output power capability, a PA for mmWave 5G must linearly amplify waveforms with very high peak-to-average ratios—and do it with a high degree of efficiency. This is particularly important as 5G terminals are expected to adopt a phased-array or switched-antenna topology, requiring the use of multiple PAs. Such architectures also demand that the PA be compact, low cost, and easy to control and monitor.