The present invention discloses an audio processing circuit, wherein when the audio processing circuit determines that a signal being processed is a small signal, an output stage uses a regulated supply voltage provided by a voltage regulator, and the output stage uses an open-loop structure to reduce noise of an output audio signal; and when the audio processing circuit determines that the signal being processed is a large signal, the output stage directly uses the supply voltage without using the regulated supply voltage, and the output stage uses a closed-loop structure to reduce the total harmonic distortion of the output audio signal. By using the present invention, the audio processing circuit can have a good performance indicator with a small chip area design.

Circuits and methods for using in parallel amplification and signal combining are described herein. A circuit uses a digitally controlled multistage cascade combiner, a digital phase and drive signal amplifier controller and a digital combiner controller circuit with N parallel signals with constant amplitudes belonging to an alphabet with M discrete values and discrete phases feeding it. The signals resulting from N power amplifiers (PAs) have also constant amplitudes belonging to an alphabet with N discrete values and discrete phases prior to being fed to the multistage combiner. A digital combiner controller circuit generates digital control information to activate, or deactivate, the outputs of the PAs, where a set of digital control signals generated in digital combiner controller are used to control sets of switches, where the signals can be activated at the combiner's inputs, according to their power and phase values. The digital control information ensures that only in-phase signals are combined in the active combiner stage and any difference among the inputs of the combiners is always minimized. Both digital combiner controller and digital drive signal amplifier controller, share information about the signals not to be fed to the multistage combiner, so that PAs drive signals can also be powered off under these circumstances. In provide high efficiency amplification the signal amplifiers employed before the combining stage may be of switched or current source type.

Circuits and methods for using in parallel amplification and signal combining are described herein. A circuit uses a digitally controlled multistage cascade combiner, a digital phase and drive signal amplifier controller and a digital combiner controller circuit with N parallel signals with constant amplitudes belonging to an alphabet with M discrete values and discrete phases feeding it. The signals resulting from N power amplifiers (PAs) have also constant amplitudes belonging to an alphabet with N discrete values and discrete phases prior to being fed to the multistage combiner. A digital combiner controller circuit generates digital control information to activate, or deactivate, the outputs of the PAs, where a set of digital control signals generated in digital combiner controller are used to control sets of switches, where the signals can be activated at the combiner's inputs, according to their power and phase values. The digital control information ensures that only in-phase signals are combined in the active combiner stage and any difference among the inputs of the combiners is always minimized. Both digital combiner controller and digital drive signal amplifier controller, share information about the signals not to be fed to the multistage combiner, so that PAs drive signals can also be powered off under these circumstances. In provide high efficiency amplification the signal amplifiers employed before the combining stage may be of switched or current source type.

The present invention discloses an audio processing circuit, wherein when the audio processing circuit determines that a signal being processed is a small signal, an output stage uses a regulated supply voltage provided by a voltage regulator, and the output stage uses an open-loop structure to reduce noise of an output audio signal; and when the audio processing circuit determines that the signal being processed is a large signal, the output stage directly uses the supply voltage without using the regulated supply voltage, and the output stage uses a closed-loop structure to reduce the total harmonic distortion of the output audio signal. By using the present invention, the audio processing circuit can have a good performance indicator with a small chip area design.