Minimization of Switching Power Converter Ripples in RF Power Amplifier Circuits
Investigators
Team
- Tohid Rahimi
- Mohsen Asgarimoghaddam
Ericsson partners
Research project
One of the most pressing areas when designing power solutions for radio applications is the radio system dealing with voltage and current ripples as well as handling of HF noise generated by operation of a power converter switching devices. The effort towards minimizing the ripples and noise may lead to expensive designs in terms of component cost and board real estate.
The problem of ripples becomes even more challenging as the number of switching power converters in the power solution grows. Converters mutually interact which has significant impact on the system ripples. Thus, the mode of interaction among power converters is important. Although synchronization of switching instants among converters may introduce benefits, the synchronization is not always easily possible, so the power converters may operate in asynchronous mode. Unfortunately, asynchronous operation of switching converters makes both circuit analysis and design complex and substantially challenging.
Analysis of the above-mentioned problems can be solved by commercial simulators. However, inaccuracies of device models, convergence issues, simulation speed, etc. makes this approach less efficient. Alternatively, use of specialized algorithms based on simplified models of switching devices seems to be significantly more promising. In this project, the team will explore the area of circuit analysis of networks with “internal switches”, i.e. switches with unknown switching times.
The network equation formulation and the system steady-state determination is difficult to solve while the networks include multiple switching converters operating asynchronously which directs the research to the area of systems with multi tone excitation. Since significant theoretical challenges are associated with developing algorithms for networks with multiple converters operating in asynchronous mode, this essentially would be an introduction of a new research area in the circuit theory.