A −121.5-dB THD Class-D Audio Amplifier With 49-dB LC Filter Nonlinearity Suppression

Class-D audio amplifiers produce electromagnetic interference (EMI), which often needs to be suppressed by an external LC filter. However, due to component nonlinearity, this filter can itself cause significant distortion. This article presents a class-D amplifier that suppresses LC filter nonlinearity by 49 dB and is robust to ±30% variations in its cutoff frequency. This is achieved by a dual-loop architecture, in which an inner loop provides stability, while an outer loop provides the high gain needed to suppress the LC filter and output-stage nonlinearity. A prototype, implemented in a 180-nm BCD process, achieves −121.5-dB total harmonic distortion (THD) and −107.1-dB THD+N, which is maintained to within 3 dB even as the LC filter cutoff frequency is varied from 62 to 106 kHz. It can deliver a maximum of 21 W into a 4- $\Omega $ load with 87% efficiency and 12 W into an 8- $\Omega $ load with 91% efficiency, measured at 10% THD.