Class-D amplifiers have gained significant importance in automotive applications due to its high efficiency. However, to meet strict electromagnetic interference (EMI) requirements, an LC filter is necessary, which, unfortunately, introduces nonlinearity to the system. This project proposes an architecture by implementing a dual voltage/current feedback loop to suppress the nonlinearity of the LC filter. The voltage feedback is put after the LC filter to suppress its nonlinearity. The current feedback splits the complex poles from the LC filter to stabilize the system.
By implementing current feedback as the inner loop, this design achieves a significant reduction in the LC filter’s bulk and cost in comparison to state-of-the-art, while maintaining a good total harmonic distortion (THD) level of around -110 dB. This architecture is also robust to +/-30% variations in LC filter cut-off frequency. The chip is fabricated using a 180-nm BCD process, with a die size of 3 mm × 2.28 mm.

Class D audio amplifier is widely used in many electronic applications such as automobiles, laptops, and mobile phones. However, electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by Class-D audio amplifiers frequently requires an external LC filter for suppression. The LC filter itself causes significant nonlinearity. Hence, feedback after LC is widely used to suppress this nonlinearity. Nevertheless, component tolerance in practical LC components causes instability problems in the feedback-after-LC Class-D amplifier. This thesis presents a class-D amplifier that suppresses LC filter nonlinearity by 40 dB at least and calibrates the variation of the cut-off frequency (f_LC) of the LC filter between 70kHz and 200kHz. This is implemented in a differential architecture, where the inner loop and outer loop ensure high in-band loop gain and stability, and the unity gain frequency is calibrated by a variable gain amplifier (VGA). This circuit is built in the 180-nm BCD process, achieving -108dB~-126dB total harmonic distortion (THD) after compensating for different LC cut-off frequencies.