Load-Pull Techniques with Applications to Power Amplifier Design

This first book on load-pull systems is intended for readers with a broad knowledge of high frequency transistor device characterization, nonlinear and linear microwave measurements, RF power amplifiers and transmitters. Load-Pull Techniques with Applications to Power Amplifier Design fulfills the demands of users, designers, and researchers both from industry and academia who have felt the need of a book on this topic. It presents a comprehensive reference spanning different load-pull measurement systems, waveform measurement and engineering systems, and associated calibration procedures for accurate large signal characterization. Besides, this book also provides in-depth practical considerations required in the realization and usage of load-pull and waveform engineering systems. In addition, it also provides procedure to design application specific load-pull setup and includes several case studies where the user can customize architecture of load-pull setups to meet any specific measurement requirements. Furthermore, the materials covered in this book can be part of a full semester graduate course on microwave device characterization and power amplifier design.

Fadhel M. Ghannouchi is professor and AITF/CRC Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada, and Director of the Intelligent RF Radio Laboratory. He has held numerous invited positions at several academic and research institutions in Europe, North America and Japan. He has provided consulting services to a number of microwave and wireless communications companies. His research interests are in the areas of microwave instrumentation and measurements, nonlinear modeling of microwave devices and communications systems, design of power and spectrum efficient microwave amplification systems and design of intelligent RF transceivers and software-defined radio systems for wireless and satellite communications. His research activities have led to over 500 publications and 14 US patents (6 pending) and two books. He is Fellow of IEEE and he has been a distinguished microwave lecturer of IEEE MTT-S since 2009.Mohammad S. Hashmi received MS degree from Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany and PhD degree from Cardiff University, UK. He is now an adjunct researcher at the iRadio Lab, University of Calgary, Canada and Assistant Professor at IIIT Delhi, India. He was previously associated with Philips Semiconductors and Thales Electronics in Germany during which time he was involved in the field of RF circuits and systems. His current research interests are related to nonlinear microwave instrumentation, microwave device characterization, and linearization of power amplifiers for mobile and satellite applications. He was the recipient of 2008 Automatic Radio Frequency Techniques Group (ARFTG) Microwave Measurement Fellowship, and 3rd place winner in the novel and creative instrument design competition organized by IEEE MTT-11 for the year 2008. His research has led to over 40 publications and 3 US patents (pending).