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—Environmental monitoring is an important application for wireless sensing devices. Battery power requires in-the-field replacement, and the chemicals involved are environmentally harmful, so harvested energy is a useful alternative. Previous research has shown the feasibility of powering LoRaWAN sensors using high-energy ambient or wireless transfer power sources. This article extends this work by exploring the boundaries of using low-energy radio-frequency (RF) ambient sources. Ambient RF energy harvesting is an attractive option, but it is more challenging due to the low levels of energy density typically available. Using an analytical LoRaWAN device model and RF energy data collected from around the world, a systematic investigation of the design and environmental space is performed. The main contribution of this article is to identify the boundaries of feasibility for powering LoRaWAN sensor nodes from ambient RF energy. These boundaries include design and environmental factors.

Behavioral models are intended as high level mathematical descriptions which require less computational effort to simulate behavior compared to physical or circuit level equivalent models. When designed and dimensioned properly they are well suited to concise characterization of power amplifiers under different operating conditions. In this paper we compare the relative performance of several behavioral models for modelling an asymmetric Doherty power amplifier for their use in distributed arrays.

The design of wireless power transfer (WPT) and energy harvesting (EH) solutions poses different challenges towards achieving maximum RF-DC conversion efficiency in these systems. This paper covers several selected challenges when developing WPT and electromagnetic EH solutions, such as the design of multiband and broadband rectifiers, the minimization of the effect that load and input power variations may have on the system performance and finally the most optimum power combining mechanisms that can be used when dealing with multi-element rectifiers.

This work presents the design and implementation of a stand-alone linear power amplifier at 2.4 GHz with high output power. A GaN HEMT transistor is selected for the design and implementation of the power amplifier. The device exhibits a gain of 11.7 dB and a drain efficiency of 39% for an output power of 36.7 dBm at 2.4 GHz for an input power of 25dBm. The carrier to intermodulation ratio is better than 25 dB for a two tone input signal of 25 dBm of total power and a spacing of 5 MHz. The fabricated device is also tested with LTE input signals of different bandwidths (5MHz to 20MHz).

In the future communication systems, it is of key importance that the transceivers are capable of operating in multiple frequency bands and with complex signals. In this context, the power amplifier is a critical component of the transceiver, since it is responsible for most of the total power consumption in base stations and portable devices. Apart from the power consumption, the design of power amplifier systems must account for multi-band/broadband capabilities, high peak-toaverage power ratio signals and the mismatch effect caused by the various operating conditions. Hence, the design of power amplifier topologies that enhance the total system efficiency and reliability is a challenging task. This PhD dissertation introduces novel power amplifier architectures and solutions for modern communication systems. The contributions of this thesis can be divided in two parts. The first part deals with the study and design of power amplifier systems. It is of major importance that these designs provide linear amplification and operation at multiple frequency bands, which will permit the reduction of the cost and size of the devices. Additionally, we investigate the possibility to harvest the dissipated power from the power amplification process. For the development of the prototypes, lumped-element topologies, transmission line implementation and Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology are adopted. In the second part of the thesis, novel matching networks are introduced and their properties are studied. In particular, resistance compression topologies are proposed to overcome the performance degradation associated with the sensitivity of nonlinear devices to environmental changes. These networks can be adopted in modern power amplifier architectures, such as envelope tracking and outphasing energy recovery power amplifier topologies, in order to provide improved performance over a wide range of operating conditions., Es primordial que los transceptores de los futuros sistemas de comunicación sean capaces de operar en múltiples bandas de frecuencia y con señales complejas. En este contexto, el amplificador de potencia es un componente crítico del transceptor dado que su consumo energético supone la mayor parte del consumo tanto de las estaciones base como de los dispositivos móviles. Aparte del consumo energético, los nuevos diseños de sistemas de amplificación de potencia deben considerar aspectos como la capacidad de operar en múltiples bandas o en banda ancha, el uso de señales con alta relación de potencia pico a potencia media (PAPR) y el efecto de desadaptación que aparece bajo las diferentes condiciones de funcionamiento. Por lo tanto, el diseño de nuevas topologías para amplificadores de potencia que mejoren la eficiencia total del sistema y la fiabilidad es una tarea compleja. Esta tesis doctoral presenta nuevas arquitecturas de amplificadores de potencia y soluciones para los sistemas de comunicación modernos. Las contribuciones de esta tesis se pueden dividir en dos partes. La primera parte se centra en el estudio y diseño de sistemas de amplificación de potencia con el fin de proporcionar amplificación lineal y funcionamiento en múltiples bandas de frecuencia, lo que permitirá reducir el coste y tamaño de los dispositivos. Además, se investiga la posibilidad de reutilizar la energía disipada en el proceso de amplificación de potencia. Para el desarrollo de los prototipos, se utilizan topologías hibridas, implementaciones con líneas de transmisión y tecnología de guía de onda integrada en sustrato (SIW). En la segunda parte de la tesis, se proponen redes de adaptación y se estudian sus propiedades. En particular, se proponen topologías de compresión de resistencia para minimizar el efecto que producen en el rendimiento la sensibilidad de los dispositivos no lineales a los cambios ambientales. Estas redes pueden ser utilizadas en arquitecturas modernas de amplificadores, Postprint (published version)