constant power (APC) current driver design

Mar 19, 2010 5 Replies

Hi,



I am thinking over current source again in this year. Previously I did current source but I never got into the RF field.



I am wondering how to design a constant power current source with a modulation frequency from DC to 150 MHz?



I saw some circuits with fast DAC to control a line driver to provide up to 0 to 1A analogue current. But the limit is up to 30 MHz.



Right now suppose I need 0 to 1A with 0-150MHz analogue modulation, how to do it? Any design notes or journal paper talked about it? I found little.



To use a RF mosfet with simple feed back from some power sensing monitor or use a VxI chip? impossible since most of this type of chips have bandwidth in kHz level.



Really have no idea now.



Thanks, PB


and I suddenly realize that PID is not efficient as in power electronics, the type III bandwidth usually has bandwidth of 20khz, way too slow.

An emitter-coupled pair with current source on the emitters (an inductor, at high frequency) will steer current effectively, and 1A/150 MHz is not out of the question. You won't like the results if you insist on '0' in the range, that gets into hard base-drive requirements (but you could always leave the transistor turned ON and steal some current...).

Doesn't need to be bipolar, of course, a source-coupled pair of MOSFETs could do something similar.

I'm dubious that the output impedance will be high enough to be 'practically infinite', like a good DC current source.

it seems working on open loop only. the feedback is a big issue, at @150MHz need to do feedback to keep constant power output.

d
t

"constant power" and "current source" are contradictory. You can have one or the other but not both. Which do you want? Mark

did

ist

my misleading, this power is not V*I. current source could be constant power , this power is from the driven object like a laser diode, this power is from the light emission and detected by a photodiode.

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