ICT for Energy Efficiency

The purpose of this short course is to provide some insights into two different applications that deal with the maximization of energy efficiency in high-frequency electronic circuits: Wireless Power Transfer and Microwave Power Amplifiers. The first part of the course will describe the fundamental concepts for the design of near field inductive resonant wireless power transfer links in the MHz range, focusing on the optimization of the efficiency of the transmitter (RF inverter), the wireless link (TX/RX coils) and the receiver (RF rectifier). The second part of the course aims to provide some details about circuit topologies and design techniques for the development of microwave power amplifiers/transmitters for telecommunications and radar applications, with a special focus on efficiency enhancement techniques. For both applications, it will be shown how the exploitation of GaN HEMT technology gives a clear advantage in terms of efficiency and power density with respect to the use of silicon or GaAs based technologies.