Efficient power amplifier
View Patent ↗A technique for efficient power amplification includes providing multiple baseband signals to an amplifier. The signals may be converted to RF and combined through one or more impedance inverters.
1. A system power amplifier comprising:
a first frequency converter coupled at an input to a first baseband (BB) signal to upconvert the first BB signal to Radio Frequency (RF) at an output thereof;
a power amplifier (PA) coupled at an input to the output of the first frequency converter to amplify the first BB signal at an output thereof;
an impedance inverter coupled at an input to the output of the PA and configured to couple at an output Vout to a load
a second frequency converter coupled at an input to a second baseband (BB) signal to upconvert the second BB signal to RF at an output thereof;
a radio frequency (RF) signal modifier coupled at an input to the output of the second frequency converter and directly coupled at an output to the output Vout of the impedance inverter; and
a signal processing module having an input coupled to an original baseband signal source and a first and second output coupled to the input of the first frequency converter and the input of the second frequency converter respectively, and the signal processing module splitting the original baseband signal into a main or first BB signal and an auxiliary or second BB signal adjusted at least in a phase shift with respect to one another at the first and second outputs, thereby avoiding a requirement of a tunable phase adjustment in the RF domain when making a Doherty type power amplifier.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal processor module optimizes the first BB signal and the second BB signal in accordance with a transfer function associated with the first frequency converter, the PA, the impedance inverter, the second frequency converter, and the RF signal modifier.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the RF signal modifier includes one of the group of components consisting of an auxiliary PA, an RF power generator, an RF current generator, some other component capable of modifying RF signals.