Apparatus and method for multilevel lossless outphasing power amplifier

摘要

System and method embodiments are provided for a multilevel outphasing amplifier architecture with a non-isolating or lossless combiner. The multilevel outphasing amplifier with lossless combiner improves power efficiency in comparison to outphasing amplifiers with lossless combiners. The multilevel outphasing amplifier applies different voltage levels to the power amplifiers (PAs) of the circuit according to the input signal power range. Additionally, tunable reactive compensation is applied to the compensation components (capacitor and inductor) of the lossless combiner as a function of the multilevel voltage setting of the PAs. The efficiency at the back-off region is improved by varying the compensation elements of the lossless combiner along with the drain voltage to the PAs as a function of the input signal power or amplitude.

主权项

1. A multilevel outphasing power amplifier comprising:
a signal decomposer configured to decompose an input signal with varying amplitude into two constant amplitude signals with varying outphasing angle; two power amplifiers (PAs) coupled to the signal decomposer and configured to amplify the two constant amplitude signals; a non-isolating combiner comprising tunable reactive compensation elements coupled to the two PAs and configured to combine the two amplified constant amplitude signals to provide an amplified output signal with varying amplitude, the amplified output signal is proportional to the input signal; and a switchable voltage supply coupled the signal decomposer and the two PAs and configured to select one of a plurality of voltage levels for the two PAs according to an amplitude of the input signal.