Amplification using amplitude reconstruction of amplitude and/or angle modulated carrier

Claim 3

The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein said each switch and phase modulator are used separately or in combination depending on dynamic range to extend the dynamic range beyond that attainable by each used alone.

Claim 4

The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein amplitude modulation of the amplified output of the combiner matches amplitude modulation of the input signal.

Claim 5

The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the signal separator comprises: a limiter to generate the phase modulated component in response to the input signal; and a detector to generate the amplitude component in response to the input signal.

Claim 6

The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the detector comprises an envelope detector.

Claim 7

The apparatus defined in claim 1 further comprising an calibration unit coupled to the output and the amplitude reconstruction modulator to generate at least one calibration signal in response to the output, wherein the amplitude reconstruction modulator controls said each switch and phase modulator based on said at least one calibration signal.

Claim 8

The apparatus defined in claim 6 wherein the calibration unit generates said at least one calibration signal based on a comparison between the amplified output and a delayed version of the input signal, said at least one calibration signal causing the amplitude reconstruction modulator to compensate for amplitude and phase imbalances in the plurality of paths.

Claim 9

The apparatus defined in claim 7 wherein said at least one calibration signal causes a fixed amplitude and phase correction to be applied to each of the plurality of parallel paths.

Claim 10

The apparatus defined in claim 1 further comprising an isolator coupled to the amplified output and a filter coupled to the isolator to absorb distortion products and out of band harmonics at the combiner output.

Claim 11

The apparatus defined in claim 1 further comprising a phase modulation combining module having a pair of adders to add and subtract phase modulation generated by the amplitude reconstruction controller to the phase modulation component first and second half channels respectively.

Claim 12

The apparatus defined in claim 10 further comprising a calibration module to generate phase calibration signals, and wherein the phase modulation combining module further comprises a plurality of adders to add the phase calibration signals to the outputs of the pair of adders.

Claim 15

The method defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of amplifying signals in the plurality of paths in a constant amplitude mode.

Claim 16

The method defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of applying phase modulation before amplifiers in the plurality of paths.

Claim 17

The method defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of modulating signals on all the plurality of paths with the same duty cycle modulation.

Claim 18

The method defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of applying amplifier channel switching differently for amplifiers of at least two of the plurality of paths.

Claim 19

The method defined in claim 12 wherein the amplitude modulation induced to appear at the output signal matches the amplitude modulation of the input signal.

Claim 20

The method defined in claim 12 wherein the phase modulation induced to appear at the output signal matches the phase modulation of the input signal.

Claim 21

The method defined in claim 12 further comprising the step of feeding back the output to provide calibration to compensate for mismatch of the plurality of paths.

Claim 24

The method defined in claim 20 wherein the amplitude modulation induced to appear at the output signal matches the amplitude modulation of the input signal.

Claim 25

The method defined in claim 20 further means for feeding back the output to provide calibration to compensate for mismatch of the plurality of paths.

Claim 26

An amplifier to amplify an input signal to high power levels with low distortion, said amplifier comprising: means for separating the input signal into its envelope and phase modulated components; means for providing replicas of the phase modulated component to each of a plurality of parallel channels; means for imparting pulse and/or phase modulation in each of the plurality of parallel channels; means for generating switch and phase modulation for amplitude reconstruction based on a function of the signal envelope, wherein the means for generating supplies signals to each of the plurality of parallel channels; means for controlling amplitude reconstruction based on a combination switched amplifier, pulse duty cycle, and differential phase modulation; a plurality of amplifier means for amplifying the phase modulated component in each or any combination of the plurality of parallel channels; and combining means for summing the output of the plurality of amplifiers means.

Claim 27

An amplifier to amplify an input signal to high power levels with low distortion, said amplifier comprising: means for separating the input signal into its envelope and phase modulated components; means for providing replicas of the phase modulated component to each of a plurality of parallel channels; means for imparting pulse and/or phase modulation in each of the plurality of parallel channels; means for generating switch and phase modulation for amplitude reconstruction based on a function of the signal envelope, wherein the means for generating supplies signals to each of the plurality of parallel channels; means for controlling amplitude reconstruction based on a combination switched amplifier, pulse duty cycle, and differential phase modulation; a plurality of amplifier means for amplifying the phase modulated component in each or any combination of the plurality of parallel channels; and combining means for summing the output of the plurality of amplifiers means.

Claim 28

The amplifier defined in claim 23 wherein the combining means comprises a power combiner.

Claim 29

The amplifier defined in claim 23 further comprising means for absorbing out of band harmonics and distortion products at the output of the means for combining.

Claim 30

The amplifier defined in claim 25 wherein the means for absorbing comprises an isolator and a filter.

Claim 31

The amplifier defined in claim 20 wherein the means for absorbing approximately minimizes the out of band harmonics and distortion products.

Claim 32

The amplifier defined in claim 18 further comprising a calibration module having: means for selecting samples of both the input and output signals; means for generating AM/AM and AM/PM response data from the samples; means for generating fixed phase and amplitude calibration signals for each of a plurality of parallel amplifier channels based on analysis of the AM/AM and AM/PM response data; means for imparting phase, amplitude and/or pulse width correction into one or more of the plurality of parallel amplifier channels; means for performing calibration to null residual phase and amplitude imbalances that exist in the plurality of parallel amplifier channels.

Claim 33

The amplifier defined in claim 23 wherein the plurality of parallel amplifier channels comprise fully saturated RF amplifiers.

Claim 34

The amplifier defined in claim 29 wherein the fully saturated RF amplifiers comprise Class C amplifiers.

Claim 35

An amplifier comprising: means for performing analog to digital conversion to sample an analog input and calibration signals centered at an intermediate frequency (IF); means for converting sampled the signals into complex baseband signals; means for performing rectangular to polar conversion on the complex baseband signals to generate amplitude and phase modulated components; means for computing pulse and/or phase modulation for reconstituting amplitude modulation based on vector recombination of multiple amplifier outputs; means for generating and combining amplitude and phase calibration signals with amplitude reconstruction modulation signals to generate signals to drive a plurality of amplifier channels; means for performing polar to rectangular conversion on signals from each of the amplifier channels to reconstitute I and Q signals; means for converting complex baseband signals on each of the signals from the amplifier channels into real signals; and means for converting the digital signal on each of the amplifier channel signals into analog signals centered at the IF.

Claim 36

An amplifier comprising: means for performing analog to digital conversion to sample an analog input and calibration signals centered at an intermediate frequency (IF); means for converting sampled the signals into complex baseband signals; means for performing rectangular to polar conversion on the complex baseband signals to generate amplitude and phase modulated components; means for computing pulse and/or phase modulation for reconstituting amplitude modulation based on vector recombination of multiple amplifier outputs; means for generating and combining amplitude and phase calibration signals with amplitude reconstruction modulation signals to generate signals to drive a plurality of amplifier channels; means for performing polar to rectangular conversion on signals from each of the amplifier channels to reconstitute I and Q signals; means for converting complex baseband signals on each of the signals from the amplifier channels into real signals; and means for converting the digital signal on each of the amplifier channel signals into analog signals centered at the IF.

Claim 37

The amplifier defined in claim 31 further comprising means for decimating the complex baseband signals prior to rectangular to polar conversion.

Claim 38

The amplifier defined in claim 31 further comprising means for interpolating data corresponding to the real signals prior to conversion of the digital signals of the amplifier channels into analog signals.

Claim 41

The apparatus defined in claim 34 wherein each of the amplifier modules comprises a digital analog converter (DAC) coupled to an output of one of the plurality of polar to rectangular converters, and an amplifier coupled to the output of the DAC.

Claim 42

The apparatus defined in claim 34 wherein each of the channel amplifier modules further comprise: a mixer coupled to the output of the DAC to mix a signal output from the DAC with a local oscillator frequency; and a filter coupled to the output of the mixer, wherein the output of the filter is coupled to the input of the amplifier of said each of channel amplifier modules.

Claim 43

The apparatus defined in claim 34 further comprising a digital down converter coupled to the input signal; a plurality of digital up converters coupled to the plurality of polar to rectangular converters to upconvert signals received from the polar to rectangular converters.

Claim 44

The apparatus defined in claim 34 further comprising a plurality of output equalizers coupled between the plurality of polar to rectangular converters and the plurality of digital up converters.

Claim 45

The apparatus defined in claim 27 further comprising an input equalizer coupled between the digital down converter and the rectangular to polar converter.