Digital power amplifier with filtered output

Abstract

The present invention, a Digital Power Amplifier (DPA) with filtered output relates to the transmission circuitry of wireless communications systems and more particularly to high frequency power amplifier circuits using digital intensive techniques on cost efficient semiconductor technologies. Today, we experience an ever-increasing need for low cost, low power wireless transmitters in the millimeter wavelength region. Current solutions rely on analog PA circuits. The background art does not contain a solution for bridging the gap between the operation frequencies of the digital circuits on a cost-efficient technology such as CMOS and the millimeter wavelength transmission frequencies demanded in numerous applications. The DPA allowing the direct feeding of digital data to a high frequency amplifying circuit. In this way, design challenging and costly analog processing up-conversion stages are avoided. The DPA comprises a bank of switching amplifying elements, a switch capacitor trap filter taping on the bank of switching amplifying elements for shaping the frequency characteristic of the produced radio frequency (RF) waveform and an adaptive biasing circuit able of dynamically controlling the power consumption within the switching amplifying elements. It can have a wide spectrum of applications where low cost but high efficiency power amplifiers are needed, such as in the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi and 5G cellular communications.