Qorvo Us, Inc.

Rf Micro Devices, Inc.

Hamhee Jeon

Kevin Wesley Kobayashi

An RF power amplifier includes a quadrature coupler, an in-phase amplifier, a quadrature amplifier, and a feed-forward signal path. The quadrature coupler includes an in-phase input node, a quadrature input node, an isolated node, and an RF signal output node. The in-phase amplifier includes an in-phase amplifier output node coupled to the in-phase input node. The quadrature amplifier includes a quadrature amplifier output node coupled to the quadrature input node. The feed-forward signal path is configured to couple and condition a signal from one of the in-phase amplifier and the quadrature amplifier in order to provide a feed-forward output signal that when provided at the feed-forward output node cancels one or more harmonic signals.

Radio frequency power amplifier with feed-forward signal path

A reconfigurable load modulation amplifier having a first power amplifier (PA) configured to be supplied by a first drain voltage and a second PA coupled in parallel with the first PA, wherein the second PA is configured to be supplied by a second drain voltage is disclosed. The reconfigurable load modulation amplifier includes a quadrature coupler configured to combine power from both the first PA and the second PA for output through an output port. Also included is control circuitry configured to set at least one of the first drain voltage and the second drain voltage such that the first drain voltage is different than the second drain voltage. In at least one embodiment, the control circuitry is further configured to dynamically adjust at least one of the first drain voltage and the second drain voltage such that the first drain voltage is different than the second drain voltage.

Reconfigurable load modulation amplifier

A reconfigurable load modulation amplifier having a carrier amplifier and a peak amplifier that are coupled in parallel is disclosed. The peak amplifier provides additional power amplification when the carrier amplifier is driven into saturation. A quadrature coupler coupled between the carrier amplifier and the peak amplifier is configured to combine power from both the carrier amplifier and the peak amplifier for output through an output load terminal. The reconfigurable load modulation amplifier further includes control circuitry coupled to an isolation port of the quadrature coupler and configured to provide adjustable impedance at the isolation port of the quadrature coupler. As such, impedance at the isolation port of the quadrature coupler is tunable such that at least a carrier or peak amplifier is presented with a quadrature coupler load impedance that ranges from around about half an output load termination impedance to around about twice the output load termination impedance.

Radio frequency (RF) amplification devices are disclosed that include Doherty amplification circuits and methods of operating the same. In one embodiment, a Doherty amplification circuit includes a main carrier RF amplifier, a peaking RF amplifier, and a periodic quadrature coupler. To provide Doherty amplification, the peaking RF amplifier is configured to be deactivated while an RF signal is below a threshold level and is configured to be activated while the RF signal is above the threshold level. The periodic quadrature coupler is configured to combine a first RF split signal from the main carrier RF amplifier and a second RF split signal from the peaking RF amplifier into the RF signal, such that the RF signal is output from an output port while the peaking RF amplifier is activated. The periodic quadrature coupler allows the Doherty amplification circuit to provide broadband amplification in various RF communication bands.

Multi-broadband doherty power amplifier

Radio frequency (RF) amplification devices are disclosed that include Doherty amplification circuits and control circuits along with methods of operating the same. In one embodiment, the Doherty amplification circuit includes a quadrature coupler having an isolation port and a tunable impedance load coupled to the isolation port and configured to provide a tunable impedance. The control circuit is configured to tune the tunable impedance of the tunable impedance load at the isolation port dynamically as a function of the RF power of the Doherty amplification circuit. In this manner, the control circuit can provide dynamic load modulation, thereby increasing the power efficiency of the Doherty amplification circuit, particularly at backed-off power levels. The load modulation provided by the control circuit also allows the Doherty amplification circuit to provide broadband amplification in various RF communication bands.

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Long Beach, CA, United States of America

Hamhee Jeon