Apparatus and methods for bias switching of power amplifiers are provided herein. In certain configurations, a power amplifier system includes a power amplifier that provides amplification to a radio frequency (RF) signal, a power management circuit that controls a voltage level of a supply voltage of the power amplifier, and a bias control circuit that biases the power amplifier. The power management circuit is operable in multiple supply control modes, such as an average power tracking (APT) mode and an envelope tracking (ET) mode. The bias control circuit is configured to switch a bias of the power amplifier based on the supply control mode of the power management circuit.

A Doherty power amplifier having a main power amplification device and an auxiliary power amplification device arranged in parallel with the main power amplification device includes a load modulation circuit having a harmonic injection circuit connected with respective outputs of the main power amplification device and the auxiliary power amplification device. The harmonic injection circuit is arranged to provide a phase shift to simultaneously modulate transfer of second harmonic components generated at the main power amplification device to the auxiliary power amplification device and transfer of second harmonic components generated at the auxiliary power amplification device to the main power amplification device, when the main power amplification device and the auxiliary power amplification device are operated at saturation.

An apparatus and method for calibrating an envelope tracking (ET) lookup table (LUT) are provided. An ET power management apparatus includes a power amplifier configured to amplify a radio frequency (RF) signal from a time-variant input power to a time-variant output power linearly related to the time-variant input power. A calibration circuit is employed to receive a time-variant output power feedback nonlinearly related to the time-variant input power, determine a linear relationship between the time-variant input power and the time-variant output power based on the time-variant output power feedback, and calibrate the ET LUT based on the determined linear relationship. As a result, it is possible to improve accuracy of the ET LUT to thereby improve operating efficiency and linearity of the power amplifier.

The present disclosure is a novel utility of a software defined radio (SDR) based Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that is field reconfigurable and support multi-modulation schemes (modulation-independent), multi-carriers, multi-frequency bands and multi-channels. The present invention enables a high degree of flexibility to manage, control, enhance, facilitate the usage and performance of a distributed wireless network such as Flexible Simulcast, automatic traffic load-balancing, network and radio resource optimization, network calibration, autonomous/assisted commissioning, carrier pooling, automatic frequency selection, frequency carrier placement, traffic monitoring, traffic tagging, pilot beacon, etc. As a result, a DAS in accordance with the present invention can increase the efficiency and traffic capacity of the operators' wireless network.

A power amplifier system includes an input operable to receive an original value that reflects information to be communicated and an address data former operable to generate a digital lookup table key. The power amplifier system also includes a predistortion lookup table coupled to the address data former and a power amplifier having an output and coupled to the predistortion lookup table. The power amplifier system further includes a feedback loop providing a signal associated with the output of the power amplifier to the predistortion lookup table and a switch disposed in the feedback loop and operable to disconnect the predistortion lookup table from the output of the power amplifier.

Embodiments described herein relate to an envelope tracking system that uses a single-bit digital signal to encode an analog envelope tracking control signal, or envelope tracking signal for brevity. In certain embodiments, the envelope tracking system can estimate or measure the amplitude of the baseband signal. The envelope tracking system can further estimate the amplitude of the envelope of the RF signal. The system can convert the amplitude of the envelope signal to a single-bit digital signal, typically at a higher, oversample rate. The single-bit digital signal can be transmitted in, for example, a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) format, from a transceiver to an envelope tracker. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC or A/D) can convert the single-bit digital signal back to an analog envelope signal. Moreover, a driver can increase the power of the A/D output envelope signal to produce an envelope-tracking supply voltage for a power amplifier.

Circuits and methods for reducing the cost and/or power consumption of a user terminal and/or the gateway of a telecommunications system that may include a telecommunications satellite. Embodiments include “chained” feedback-regulated voltage supply circuits. These circuits substantially eliminate the need for separate regulator circuits for each regulated voltage. These circuits are designed to automatically maintain a substantially constant first voltage at a first node for a first load and maintain a substantially constant second voltage at a second node for a second load. Some disclosed configurations of these circuits may be useful to achieve greater current capability at the same voltage without requiring larger switches and higher inductor and capacitor sizes that may be needed in a single (conventional) stage voltage supply circuit.

Apparatus and methods for envelope tracking systems with automatic mode selection are provided herein. In certain configurations, a power amplifier system includes a power amplifier configured to provide amplification to a radio frequency signal and to receive power from a power amplifier supply voltage, and an envelope tracker including a signal bandwidth detection circuit configured to generate a detected bandwidth signal based on processing an envelope signal corresponding to an envelope of the radio frequency signal. The envelope tracker further includes a switch bank configured to receive a plurality of regulated voltages, a filter configured to filter an output of the switch bank to generate the power amplifier supply voltage, and a mode control circuit configured to control a filtering characteristic of the filter based on the detected bandwidth signal.

A multimode envelope tracking (ET) circuit and related apparatus is provided. The multimode ET circuit is configured to provide an ET voltage(s) to an amplifier circuit(s) for amplifying a radio frequency (RF) signal(s) that may correspond to a wider range of modulation bandwidth. In this regard, the multimode ET circuit is configured to switch dynamically and opportunistically between different operation modes based on the modulation bandwidth of the RF signal(s). In examples discussed herein, the multimode ET circuit is configured to support a single amplifier circuit in a high-modulation-bandwidth mode and an additional amplifier circuit(s) in a mid-modulation-bandwidth mode and a low-modulation-bandwidth mode. By switching dynamically and opportunistically between different operation modes, it may be possible to reduce undesired series resonance that may cause distortion in the ET voltage(s), thus helping to improve efficiency and performance of the amplifier circuit(s) supported by the multimode ET circuit.

In some embodiments, an amplifier system can include an amplifier circuit having first and second amplifiers configured to amplify respective first and second portions of an input signal. Each of the first and second amplifiers can include a cascode stage with input and output transistors arranged in a cascode configuration. The amplifier system can further include an envelope tracking bias circuit coupled to the amplifier circuit and configured to provide a bias signal to the output transistor of the cascode stage of at least one of the first and second amplifiers. The amplifier system can further include a supply circuit configured to provide a non-envelope tracking supply voltage to the output transistor of the cascode stage of the at least one of the first and second amplifiers.