MULTI-BAND/MULTI-MODE POWER AMPLIFIER WITH SIGNAL PATH HARDWARE SHARING
First Claim
1. A power amplifier (PA) comprising:
- a first signal path for signals in a first frequency band, the first signal path comprising a plurality of amplification stages;
a second signal path for signals in a second frequency band, the second signal path comprising a plurality of amplification stages; and
at least one bias circuit coupled to bias at least an amplification stage of the first signal path and a corresponding amplification stage of the second signal path;
such that the at least one bias circuit is shared between the first signal path and the second signal path;
the PA being operative in at least one of;
multi-band and multi-mode.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Existing multi-band/multi-mode (MB/MM) power amplifiers (PAs) use separate signal paths for the different covered frequency bands. This results in a large degree of hardware duplication and to a large die size and cost. Solutions that achieve hardware sharing between the different signal paths of MB/MM PAs are shown. Such sharing includes bias circuit and bypass capacitors sharing, as well as sharing front-end stages and the output stage of the PA. Signal multiplexing may be realized in the transmitter or at the PA front-end while the signal de-multiplexing can be realized either in the PA output stage or at the front-end of the output stage. Such circuits can be applied with saturated and linear MB/MM PAs with adjacent or non-adjacent bands.
1 Citation
3 Claims
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1. A power amplifier (PA) comprising:
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a first signal path for signals in a first frequency band, the first signal path comprising a plurality of amplification stages; a second signal path for signals in a second frequency band, the second signal path comprising a plurality of amplification stages; and at least one bias circuit coupled to bias at least an amplification stage of the first signal path and a corresponding amplification stage of the second signal path; such that the at least one bias circuit is shared between the first signal path and the second signal path; the PA being operative in at least one of;
multi-band and multi-mode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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Specification