Tuning Range and Power Handling Analysis of DTC-based Matching Networks for Reconfigurable High Power RF Circuits

This paper presents the analysis of tuning range and power handling of digitally tunable capacitors (DTCs) in reconfigurable high power RF circuits. The proposed scheme can be applied to reconfigurable RF system design e.g. smart antenna, Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Cognitive Radio (CR) systems. The power handling of the DTC can be enhanced by connecting the DTC in series with a fixed capacitor. The combination of a DTC and a fixed capacitors leads to modified tuning range of the total capacitance. Both the power handling and the tuning range are described in this paper by empirical equations in such a way, that a proper combination of DTCs and fixed capacitors can be determined for the design of any reconfigurable RF system. As an example of applications, a frequency band reconfigurable power amplifier was designed and fabricated. The reconfigurable input– and output matching networks utilize DTCs and fixed capacitors as tuning elements.

Keywords

DTC, power handling, reconfigurable RF circuits, matching network, Software Defined Radio

Citation

Radioengineering. 2017 vol. 26, č. 4, s. 1110-1117. ISSN 1210-2512
http://www.radioeng.cz/fulltexts/2017/17_01_1110_1117.pdf

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/