Modular and scalable power amplifier system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10116265-B2
Application number	US-201615102808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2016
Priority date	Apr 11, 2016
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A modular power amplifier system and an electronic device comprising the modular power amplifier system in which, the modular power amplifier system comprises a plurality of amplifier modules. The plurality of amplifier modules are arranged into a number of sections comprising a first section which comprises a first amplifier module configured to receive the input signal within a first amplitude range and provide an output signal having a first output power; a second section which comprises a second amplifier module configured to receive the input signal within a second amplitude range and provide an output signal having a second output power; and an i-th section which comprises multiple amplifier modules, each being configured to receive the input signal within a certain amplitude range and provide an output signal having a certain output power. The output signals of the amplifier modules are combined to provide output signals with scalable output power.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A modular power amplifier system for receiving an input signal and providing output signals with scalable output power, wherein the modular power amplifier system comprises:
a plurality of amplifier modules, each amplifier module comprises an input port and an output port, and wherein the plurality of amplifier modules are arranged into a number of sections comprising:
a first section which comprises a first amplifier module, among the plurality of amplifier modules, configured to receive the input signal within a first amplitude range and provide an output signal having a first output power;
a second section which comprises a second amplifier module, among the plurality of amplifier modules, configured to receive the input signal within a second amplitude range and provide an output signal having a second output power; and
an i-th section which comprises multiple amplifier modules, among the plurality of amplifier modules, each being configured to receive the input signal within a certain amplitude range and provide an output signal having a certain output power, and wherein
the output signal of the first amplifier module is combined with the output signal of the second amplifier module and the output signal of each amplifier module in the -th section is split and each split output signal is combined with the respective output signal of the amplifier modules in the i-th section, wherein i=3, 4, . . . .

2. The modular power amplifier according to claim 1 , wherein the second amplifier module in the second section is of a same type as the first amplifier module in the first section.

3. The modular power amplifier according to claim 1 , wherein the amplifier module in the i-th section is of a same type as the amplifier module in a previous section.

4. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein each amplifier module in different sections is a unity module which has same characteristic and output power and is implemented on a chip for operating in a certain frequency range.

5. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein amplifier modules in different sections are of a same type of power amplifier module.

6. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein the amplifier module in the first section is a first type of power amplifier chip and amplifier modules in other sections are a second type of power amplifier chip.

7. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein the amplifier module in different sections are different type of power amplifier chips.

8. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein the first amplifier module in the first section is any one of power amplifier chips available on the market.

9. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein the first amplifier module in the first section is inactivated.

10. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 , wherein any one of the plurality of amplifier modules comprises:
a power amplifier having an input port for receiving the input signal and an output port for providing an output signal; and wherein the power amplifier comprises:
an output transmission line coupled to the output port of the power amplifier; and
multiple sets of sub-amplifiers distributed along the output transmission line, wherein inputs of the multiple sets of sub-amplifiers are coupled to the input port, and outputs of the multiple sets sub-amplifiers are coupled to the output transmission line.

11. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 10 , wherein the output transmission line has higher impedance at the beginning and decreased impedance towards the output port.

12. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 10 , wherein the power amplifier comprises:
two sets of sub-amplifiers distributed along the output transmission line; and wherein
a first set of sub-amplifiers comprises one or more sub-amplifiers and distributed along a first part of the output transmission line having uniform impedance;
a second set of sub-amplifiers comprises at least two sub-amplifiers distributed along a second part of the output transmission line having higher impedance at the beginning and decreased impedance towards the output port; and wherein
supply voltages to the sub-amplifiers in the first set are configured to be increased gradually along the first part of the output transmission line towards the output port to be a same value as a supply voltage to the second set of sub-amplifiers.

13. The modular power amplifier system according to claim 12 , wherein the first set of sub-amplifiers are configured to be inactivated and their supply voltages are set to the same as the supply voltage to the second set of sub-amplifiers.

14. An electronic device comprising a modular power amplifier system according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Hellberg Richard

Classifications

• H03F2200/516

  Some amplifier stages of an amplifier use supply voltages of different value · CPC title

• H03F2200/432

  Two or more amplifiers of different type are coupled in parallel at the input or output, e.g. a class D and a linear amplifier, a class B and a class A amplifier · CPC title

• H03F2200/255

  Amplifier input adaptation especially for transmission line coupling purposes, e.g. impedance adaptation · CPC title

• H03F3/605

  Distributed amplifiers · CPC title

• H03F3/245

  with semiconductor devices only · CPC title