Seminar - Dr. Johannes Benedikt

Speaker

Dr. Johannes Benedikt, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Topic

On How the development of active harmonic load-pull is driving the development of RFPAs

Abstract

The development of efficient RFPA designs has been often evaluated through employment of active harmonic load-pull, which allow to emulate suitable input and output matching network during the design of RFPAs. However, it has been far more than just a verification tool for confirming theoretical PA concepts. It was actually the insight obtained from searching ideal PA modes of operation within a real power device that triggered new ideas and concepts such as the new continuous class-J, class-F or the harmonic injection PA modes. The presentation will provide an overview of active load-pull systems, how its application stimulated new research on RFPAs and explore some new developments in this field.

Speaker's biography

Johannes Benedikt received the Dipl.-Ing Degree in electrical engineering from the University of Ulm, Germany in 1997 and shortly after he started with his PhD degree at Cardiff University in 1998. During his PhD project he developed a £0.5M research project with Nokia on RF power amplifiers and took on the position of senior research associate at Cardiff University starting at October 2000. He was awarded a PhD degree in 2002 and was appointed as a Lecturer in 2004 and a Senior Lecturer from May 2009. In 2009 – 15 he took on the position of a CTO at Mesuro Ltd, leading the commercial introduction of new measurement solutions that enable systematic waveform engineering at RF and microwave frequencies. His main research focus is on the development of systems for the measurement and engineering of RF current and voltage waveforms and their application in complex power amplifier designs. He has been involved in the development of a number of time-domain characterisation and active harmonic load pull systems

Invited by Professor Slim Boumaiza.