A simplified methodology to evaluate circuit complexity : doherty power amplifier as a case study

• Main Authors: Tan, Aaron, Lim, Alfred, Li, Yongfu, Toh, Rui Tze, Kong, Zhi Hui
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Complexity Analysis; Silicon CMOS; DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/79722; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49058
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper analyzes the circuit complexity using Doherty power amplifier (DPA) as a case study and proposes a simplistic model to characterize the design complexity of a DPA circuit. Various fundamental building blocks of the DPA circuit are discussed and modeled to formulate the model. In one of our experiments, it is observed that a reduction of up to 400% in the normalized complexity factor (NCF) could enhance the gain performance by approximately up to 40% for UHF applications. This work can be used as a common benchmarking tool to compare various types of DPA architecture and allow design teams to optimize their building blocks in the DPA circuit. This model can also potentially become a platform for the improvement of many integrated circuit design components, allowing ready integration on a wide range of next generation applications, not only limited to DPA circuits.