A distributed power amplifier includes radio frequency (RF) input and output terminals. A first field effect transistor (FET) is coupled at a first gate terminal to the RF input terminal and at a first drain terminal to the RF output terminal. The first FET has a first periphery and a first source terminal electrically connected to ground potential. A second FET has a second periphery smaller than the first periphery. The second FET has a second gate terminal electrically coupled to the first gate terminal through a first inductor, a second drain terminal electrically coupled to the first drain terminal through a second inductor, and a second source terminal electrically connected to the ground potential. A drain voltage terminal, which excludes a resistive element, is electrically coupled to a drain bias network through which a drain bias voltage is applied to the first drain terminal and the second drain terminal.

The present disclosure relates to an integrated wideband Radio Frequency (RF) amplifier, based on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In an embodiment the amplifier addresses the shortcomings of conventional wideband amplifiers and is based on a distributed amplifier (DA) topology which typically exhibit severe performance degradation when externally loaded with parasitic circuit elements. In an embodiment of the present invention a buffer amplifier at the output of a conventional DA is able to compensate the impact of parasitic elements. The disclosed circuit can be implemented by fabricating the wideband RF amplifier integrated circuit (IC) on a 130 nm CMOS technology or other comparable CMOS technologies.

A power amplifier arrangement (200) for amplifying an input signal to produce an output signal comprises a plurality N of amplifier sections (212, 213), a first input transmission line (221) comprising multiple segments and a first output transmission line (231) comprising multiple segments. Each amplifier section comprises one or more first transistors (T1) distributed along the first input transmission line (221) and the first output transmission line (231). Each amplifier section is configured to amplify a portion of the input signal to produce a portion of the output signal. A portion of the input signal is one of N portions of the input signal partitioned on any one or a combination of an amplitude basis and a time basis. The output signal is produced at an end of the first output transmission line (231) by building up N potions of the output signal from each amplifier section.

A distributed amplifier system constituted of: an input transmission line exhibit a plurality of sections; an output transmission line; an amplifier stage, an output of the amplifier stage coupled to the output transmission line and an input of the amplifier stage coupled to the input transmission line between a respective pair of the plurality of sections; a PIN diode coupled between a first end of the input transmission line and a common potential; and a circuitry coupled between a second end of the input transmission line and the common potential, the second end opposing the first end, such that there is a direct current (DC) flow through the first unidirectional electronic valve, the input transmission line and the circuitry.

A power amplifier includes a two-dimensional matrix of NM active cells formed by stacking main terminals of multiple active cells in series. The stacks are coupled in parallel to form the two-dimensional matrix. The power amplifier includes a driver structure to coordinate the driving of the active cells so that the effective output power of the two-dimensional matrix is approximately NM the output power of each of the active cells.

A power amplifier (100, 200, 500, 800, 1100) for amplifying an input signal into an output signal is disclosed. The power amplifier (100, 200, 500, 800, 1100) comprises an input port (110) for receiving the input signal and an output port (130) coupled to an output transmission line (140) for providing the output signal. The power amplifier (100, 200, 500, 800, 1100) further comprises multiple sets of sub-amplifiers (150, 160, 170, 180) distributed along the output transmission line, and inputs of the subamplifiers are coupled to the input port, outputs of the sub-amplifiers are coupled to the output transmission line. At least two different supply voltages are provided for the sub-amplifiers in the multiple sets of sub-amplifiers (150, 160, 170, 180).

A new method for amplifying signals having higher bandwidth, lower T.H.D., higher efficiency, smaller circuit size and lower costs in design, has been developed. A clipped signal is amplified to smaller pieces and each smaller part is amplified. Adding clipped amplified signals to each other, the main amplified signal is generated.

A power amplifier includes a two-dimensional matrix of NM active cells formed by stacking main terminals of multiple active cells in series. The stacks are coupled in parallel to form the two-dimensional matrix. The power amplifier includes a driver structure to coordinate the driving of the active cells so that the effective output power of the two-dimensional matrix is approximately NM the output power of each of the active cells.

Aspects of a distributed Darlington pair amplifier are described. In one example, a distributed amplifier device includes a number of distributed amplifier cells. The distributed amplifier cells can each include an input coupled to an input line and an output coupled to an output line. The amplifier device also includes a radio frequency input coupled to the input line and a radio frequency output coupled to the output line. One or more of the distributed amplifier cells can include a Darlington transistor pair rather than a common source transistor. The Darlington transistor pair can have a smaller gate-source capacitance than the common source transistor. This results in the ability to omit a series capacitor used with the common source transistor, improving the noise figure and gain over a range of operating frequencies for the distributed Darlington pair amplifier.

A distributed amplifier system constituted of: an input transmission line exhibit a plurality of sections; an output transmission line; an amplifier stage, an output of the amplifier stage coupled to the output transmission line and an input of the amplifier stage coupled to the input transmission line between a respective pair of the plurality of sections; a PIN diode coupled between a first end of the input transmission line and a common potential; and a circuitry coupled between a second end of the input transmission line and the common potential, the second end opposing the first end, such that there is a direct current (DC) flow through the first unidirectional electronic valve, the input transmission line and the circuitry.