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Adaptive RF Front-Ends for Hand-held Applications pp 107–128Cite as

Adaptive Power Control

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Part of the book series: Analog Circuits and Signal Processing ((ACSP))

Abstract

Cellular phone power amplifiers usually operate in strongly fluctuating environments. The output power varies over a wide range to compensate for fluctuations in propagation path loss. The collector load impedance varies due to fluctuations in antenna body-effects [14, 15] and it varies as a function of the transmitting frequency due to the narrow bandwidth of miniaturized antennas. In addition, the supply voltage changes due to charging and de-charging of the battery. At high output power and extreme operating conditions the power transistor suffers from avalanche, self-heating and distortion due to saturation. Usually, large margins are built-in, by design and technology, in order to prevent the transistor from avalanche breakdown, thermal run-away, and severe clipping. Inevitably, these large margins deteriorate RF performance and come with additional costs in packaging, chip area, and IC-technology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To control mobile phone output power two different methods are commonly used. In high-efficiency GSM power amplifiers usually the amplifier gain is made variable by controlling the bias currents of the power transistor driver stages. The input power P IN to the power amplifier is kept constant by the transceiver.

    In highly linear EDGE and W-CDMA power amplifiers the gain is usually kept fixed in order to meet linearity requirements. Therefore, power control of phones in linear mode is done by changing the input power P IN of the amplifier by the transceiver.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EPCOS Netherlands, Bijsterhuizen 11-22, 6546 AS, Nijmegen, Netherlands

    André van Bezooijen

  2. Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Reza Mahmoudi & Arthur van Roermund

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  1. André van Bezooijen
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van Bezooijen, A., Mahmoudi, R., van Roermund, A. (2011). Adaptive Power Control. In: Adaptive RF Front-Ends for Hand-held Applications. Analog Circuits and Signal Processing. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9935-8_4

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