An embodiment of a module (e.g., an amplifier module) includes a substrate, a transmission line, and a ground plane height variation structure. The substrate is formed from a plurality of dielectric material layers, and has a mounting surface and a second surface opposite the mounting surface. A plurality of non-overlapping zones is defined at the mounting surface. The transmission line is coupled to the substrate and is located within a first zone of the plurality of non-overlapping zones. The ground plane height variation structure extends from the second surface into the substrate within the first zone. The ground plane height variation structure underlies the transmission line, a portion of the substrate is present between the upper boundary and the transmission line, and the ground plane height variation structure includes a conductive path between an upper boundary of the ground plane height variation structure and the second surface.

The embodiments described herein include amplifiers that are typically used in radio frequency (RF) applications. Specifically, the amplifiers described herein include a phase distortion compensation circuit that can compensate for input impedance variations that could otherwise lead to reduced efficiency and power performance. In one specific embodiment, the phase distortion compensation circuit is used to compensate for input impedance variations in the peaking amplifiers of a Doherty amplifier. In such embodiments, the phase distortion compensation circuit can absorb the non-linear input impedances of the peaking amplifiers in a way that may facilitate improved phase maintenance between the carrier and peaking stages of the Doherty amplifier.

System and method for efficient operation of power amplifiers in dynamic carrier systems. In one example, the method includes determining a composite RMS power and peak power for a carrier configuration of an RF transmitter, determining a number of active banks of power amplifiers as a function of composite RMS power and peak power, and determining a number of active power amplifiers within a bank of power amplifiers as a function of composite RMS power and peak power. The method also includes activating a first bank of power amplifiers and/or a second bank of power amplifiers based on the determined number of active banks of power amplifiers and activating a subset of a one or more first power amplifiers of the first bank of power amplifiers and a one or more second power amplifiers of the second bank of power amplifiers based on the determined number of active power amplifiers.

Embodiments of RF amplifiers and RF amplifier devices include a transistor, a multiple-section bandpass filter circuit, and a harmonic termination circuit. The bandpass filter circuit includes a first connection node coupled to the amplifier input, a first inductive element coupled between the first connection node and a ground reference node, a first capacitance coupled between the first connection node and a second connection node, a second capacitance coupled between the second connection node and the ground reference node, and a second inductive element coupled between the second connection node and the transistor input. The harmonic termination circuit includes a third inductive element and a third capacitance connected in series between the transistor input and the ground reference node. The harmonic termination circuit resonates at a harmonic frequency of a fundamental frequency of operation of the RF amplifier.

The present disclosure is to improve the power added efficiency of a power amplifier at high output power. The power amplifier includes: a first capacitor with a radio frequency signal input to one end thereof; a first transistor whose base is connected to the other end of the first capacitor to amplify the radio frequency signal; a bias circuit for supplying bias to the base of the first transistor; and a second capacitor with one end connected to the base of the first transistor and the other end connected to the emitter of the first transistor.

Power amplification units and methods are provided, which use a combiner and an auxiliary signal to feed the power amplifier (PA) with a signal that prevents or reduces operation of higher amplification stages during off periods of the received RF signal. The PA output is delivered through an output matching circuit configured to pass the RF signal and attenuate the auxiliary signal; and the combiner combines the RF signal and the auxiliary signal through respective filters to generate the RF input signal to the PA. An auxiliary signal generator may be configured to generate the auxiliary signal with relation to the RF signal as having a frequency spectrum lower than a cutoff RF frequency. Resulting lower power consumption, particularly in case of low duty cycle RF signals, reduces heating, enables longer battery use and increases reliability performance.

A transmit/receive switching circuit implementation reduces transmitting/receiving switching losses in a transceiver during different modes of operation. The implementation includes connecting a low noise amplifier and a power amplifier in accordance with a shunt configuration in the transceiver. The implementation also includes disabling the power amplifier to achieve a high impedance state by grounding an output stage bias and enabling the low noise amplifier and disabling one or more transistors connected to a path between the low noise amplifier and the power amplifier during a receive mode.

Wideband power combiners and splitters are provided herein. In certain embodiments, a power combiner/splitter is implemented with a first coil connecting a first port and a second port, and a second coil connecting a third port and a fourth port. The first coil and the second coil are inductively coupled to one another. For example, the first coil and the second coil can be formed using adjacent conductive layers of a semiconductor chip, an integrated passive device, or a laminate. The power combiner/splitter further includes a fifth port tapping a center of the first coil and a sixth port tapping a center of the second coil. The fifth port and the sixth port serve to connect capacitors and/or other impedance to the center of the coils to thereby provide wideband operation.

A power amplifying apparatus includes a first bias circuit configured to generate a first bias current, a first amplification circuit, configured to receive the first bias current, amplify a signal input to the first amplification circuit through a first node, and output a first amplified signal to a second node, a second bias circuit, configured to generate a second bias current which has a magnitude different from a magnitude of the first bias current, and a second amplification circuit, connected in parallel with the first amplification, configured to receive the second bias current, amplify the signal input through the first node, and output a second amplified signal to the second node. The second amplification circuit is configured to output the second amplified signal with a third-harmonic component that has a phase offsetting a third-order intermodulation distortion (IM3) component included in the first amplified signal, based on the second bias current.

A multi-band power amplifier module includes at least one transmission input terminal, at least one power amplifier circuit that receives a first transmission signal and a second transmission signal through the at least one transmission input terminal, a first filter circuit that allows the first transmission signal to pass therethrough, a second filter circuit that allows the second transmission signal to pass therethrough, at least one transmission output terminal through which the first and second transmission signals output from the first and second filter circuits are output, a transmission output switch that outputs each of the first and second transmission signals output from the at least one power amplifier circuit to the first filter circuit or the second filter circuit, and a first tuning circuit that adjusts impedance matching between the at least one power amplifier circuit and the at least one transmission output terminal.