A scalable periphery tunable matching power amplifier is presented. Varying power levels can be accommodated by selectively activating or deactivating unit cells of which the scalable periphery tunable matching power amplifier is comprised. Tunable matching allows individual unit cells to see a constant output impedance, reducing need for transforming a low impedance up to a system impedance and attendant power loss. The scalable periphery tunable matching power amplifier can also be tuned for different operating conditions such as different frequencies of operation or different modes.

An apparatus for detecting difference in operating characteristics of a main circuit by using a replica circuit is presented. In one exemplary case, a sensed difference in operating characteristics of the two circuits is used to drive a tuning control loop to minimize the sensed difference. In another exemplary case, several replica circuits of the main circuit are used, where each is isolated from one or more operating variables that affect the operating characteristic of the main circuit. Each replica circuit can be used for sensing a different operating characteristic, or, two replica circuits can be combined to sense a same operating characteristic.

Examples of an amplifier includes an input divider section having a first path and a second path for branching of an input signal, wherein a passing phase at the first path and a passing phase at the second path are different; a first amplifying element that amplifies a signal input to the first path; a second amplifying element that amplifies a signal input to the second path; an output synthesizing section that performs synthesis of an output of the first amplifying element and an output of the second amplifying element with a third path for transmitting the output of the first amplifying element and a fourth path for transmitting the output of the second amplifying element, wherein a passing phase at the third path and a passing phase at the fourth path are different; and an electromagnetic coupling section that establishes electromagnetic coupling of two signals.

A Class-D amplifier includes a plurality of power rails, a quantizer, and a driver stage. The quantizer and the driver stage have a combined gain. For each power rail of the plurality of power rails, the Class-D amplifier senses a voltage value for the power rail and determines a ramp amplitude based on the sensed voltage value. The Class-D amplifier concurrently switches from the driver stage using a first power rail to a second power rail of the plurality of power rails and switches from the quantizer using the ramp amplitude associated with the first power rail to using the ramp amplitude associated with the second power rail so that the combined gain is constant.

A Class-D amplifier that includes a driver stage operable in a plurality of modes having different respective output impedances, a loop filter having an output, and a circuit configured to sense a current at a load of the Class-D amplifier, determine, based on the sensed current, an IR drop for a respective output impedance of the driver stage, and add the IR drop to the loop filter output to compensate for the respective output impedance of the driver stage to reduce distortion.

Circuits, devices and methods related to amplification with active gain bypass. In some embodiments, an amplifier can include a first amplification path implemented to amplify a signal, and having a cascode arrangement of a first input transistor and a cascode transistor to provide a first gain for the signal when in a first mode. The amplifier can further include a second amplification path implemented to provide a second gain for the signal while bypassing at least a portion of the first amplification path when in a second mode. The second amplification path can include a cascode arrangement of a second input transistor and the cascode transistor shared with the first amplification path. The amplifier can further include a switch configured to allow routing of the signal through the first amplification path in the first mode or the second amplification path in the second mode.

An amplifier with two parallel coupled amplifier units with inverse characteristics and in particular to the parallel coupling of a sourcing limited amplifier unit and a sinking limited amplifier unit.

Power amplifiers and related methods are disclosed having configurable switched mode operation in a high-power mode of operation and a low-power mode of operation. The power amplifiers have a first cascode amplifier coupled to receive a positive differential input and a second cascode amplifier coupled to receive a negative differential input. The first and second cascode amplifiers include output stages and first/second input stages. The first input stages and the second input stages are enabled in a high-power mode of operation. The first input stages are disabled and the second input stages are enabled during a low-power mode of operation. For further embodiments, a switchable clamp operates in the low-power mode to clamp a voltage output for the second input stages. For further embodiments, the output stages are provided a variable voltage bias or are coupled to tunable capacitances that are varied between the low-power and high-power modes.

An amplifier includes a first coil coupled to at least one input node. The amplifier further includes second and third coils. A first terminal of the second coil is coupled to a source terminal of a first transistor, while a second terminal of the second coil is coupled to a source terminal of a second transistor. A third coil includes first and second terminals coupled to gate terminals of the first and second transistors, respectively. Responsive to receiving an input signal, the first coil electromagnetically conveys the signal to the second and third coils.

An apparatus is disclosed for bidirectional variable gain amplification. In an example aspect, an apparatus comprises an antenna element of an antenna array and a wireless transceiver. The wireless transceiver comprises a transmit path coupled to the antenna element, a receive path coupled to the antenna element, and a phase shifter disposed in both the transmit path and the receive path. The phase shifter is configured to operate in an active mode and comprises a first bidirectional variable gain amplifier and a second bidirectional variable gain amplifier.