US20010016016A1 - Power amplification using a direct-upconverting quadrature mixer topology - Google Patents
Power amplification using a direct-upconverting quadrature mixer topology Download PDFInfo
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- US20010016016A1 US20010016016A1 US09/318,482 US31848299A US2001016016A1 US 20010016016 A1 US20010016016 A1 US 20010016016A1 US 31848299 A US31848299 A US 31848299A US 2001016016 A1 US2001016016 A1 US 2001016016A1
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L27/00—Modulated-carrier systems
- H04L27/18—Phase-modulated carrier systems, i.e. using phase-shift keying
- H04L27/20—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits
- H04L27/2032—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits for discrete phase modulation, e.g. in which the phase of the carrier is modulated in a nominally instantaneous manner
- H04L27/2053—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits for discrete phase modulation, e.g. in which the phase of the carrier is modulated in a nominally instantaneous manner using more than one carrier, e.g. carriers with different phases
- H04L27/206—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits for discrete phase modulation, e.g. in which the phase of the carrier is modulated in a nominally instantaneous manner using more than one carrier, e.g. carriers with different phases using a pair of orthogonal carriers, e.g. quadrature carriers
- H04L27/2067—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits for discrete phase modulation, e.g. in which the phase of the carrier is modulated in a nominally instantaneous manner using more than one carrier, e.g. carriers with different phases using a pair of orthogonal carriers, e.g. quadrature carriers with more than two phase states
- H04L27/2071—Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits for discrete phase modulation, e.g. in which the phase of the carrier is modulated in a nominally instantaneous manner using more than one carrier, e.g. carriers with different phases using a pair of orthogonal carriers, e.g. quadrature carriers with more than two phase states in which the data are represented by the carrier phase, e.g. systems with differential coding
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03C—MODULATION
- H03C3/00—Angle modulation
- H03C3/38—Angle modulation by converting amplitude modulation to angle modulation
- H03C3/40—Angle modulation by converting amplitude modulation to angle modulation using two signal paths the outputs of which have a predetermined phase difference and at least one output being amplitude-modulated
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03D—DEMODULATION OR TRANSFERENCE OF MODULATION FROM ONE CARRIER TO ANOTHER
- H03D7/00—Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing
- H03D7/14—Balanced arrangements
- H03D7/1425—Balanced arrangements with transistors
- H03D7/1433—Balanced arrangements with transistors using bipolar transistors
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03D—DEMODULATION OR TRANSFERENCE OF MODULATION FROM ONE CARRIER TO ANOTHER
- H03D7/00—Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing
- H03D7/14—Balanced arrangements
- H03D7/1425—Balanced arrangements with transistors
- H03D7/1441—Balanced arrangements with transistors using field-effect transistors
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03D—DEMODULATION OR TRANSFERENCE OF MODULATION FROM ONE CARRIER TO ANOTHER
- H03D7/00—Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing
- H03D7/14—Balanced arrangements
- H03D7/1425—Balanced arrangements with transistors
- H03D7/1458—Double balanced arrangements, i.e. where both input signals are differential
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03D—DEMODULATION OR TRANSFERENCE OF MODULATION FROM ONE CARRIER TO ANOTHER
- H03D7/00—Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing
- H03D7/16—Multiple-frequency-changing
- H03D7/165—Multiple-frequency-changing at least two frequency changers being located in different paths, e.g. in two paths with carriers in quadrature
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
- H03F3/20—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers
- H03F3/21—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
- H03F3/211—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only using a combination of several amplifiers
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03D—DEMODULATION OR TRANSFERENCE OF MODULATION FROM ONE CARRIER TO ANOTHER
- H03D2200/00—Indexing scheme relating to details of demodulation or transference of modulation from one carrier to another covered by H03D
- H03D2200/0001—Circuit elements of demodulators
- H03D2200/0007—Dual gate field effect transistors
Definitions
- This invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, to power amplification using a direct-upconverting quadrature mixer topology.
- a conventional power amplifier (PA) in a digital wireless transceiver receives and then amplifies a radio frequency (RF) signal.
- RF radio frequency
- the RF signal has a non-constant envelope, which requires the power amplifier to operate with a high degree of linearity over a large dynamic range.
- the conventional power amplifier usually is biased for operation between the Class A and Class B modes.
- the best case (asymptotic) efficiency of a PA operating in this manner usually lies between 50% and 78% for constant envelope signals; the efficiency is even lower for non-constant envelope signals.
- U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/108,628, filed on Jul. 1, 1998, by Donald Brian Eidson and Robert Edmund Grange, and titled “Envelope Feedforward Technique with Power Control for Efficient Linear RF Power Amplification,” discloses a power amplification technique that allows operation in high efficiency modes (such as Class D or Class E), in some cases producing asymptotic efficiencies for constant envelope signals that approach 100%.
- a dual-gate field effect transistor acts in a manner similar to a conventional RF mixer, receiving at one dual-gate input a constant envelope RF signal containing phase component information, and receiving at the other dual-gate input an unmodulated signal containing the envelope component.
- the constant envelope RF signal and the unmodulated envelope signal are derived from the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components provided by a baseband device.
- the invention features a power amplifier having a quadrature mixer and an oscillator circuit.
- the oscillator circuit generates two reference signals that are 90° out of phase with respect to each other.
- the quadrature mixer has two mixer elements that each receive one of the reference signals. Each mixer element receives a signal containing either the in-phase or the quadrature component of a baseband signal to be transmitted and uses the reference signal to upconvert and amplify the I or Q component of the baseband signal.
- the quadrature mixer also includes circuitry that combines the upconverted and amplified I and Q components to form an output signal.
- the invention features a wireless transmitter that includes a baseband encoder, an oscillator circuit, and a quadrature mixer.
- the baseband encoder produces signals representing the in-phase and quadrature components of a baseband signal to be transmitted.
- the oscillator generates two reference signals that are 90° out of phase with respect to each other.
- the quadrature mixer uses each of the reference signals to upconvert and amplify one of the in-phase and quadrature components of the baseband signal.
- the reference signals have power levels much greater than the power levels of the I and Q components of the baseband signal.
- the mixer elements include power elements, such as Gilbert cells or dual-gate FETs.
- the reference signal often drives a modulating port of the mixer, and the in-phase or quadrature component of the baseband signal often drives the reference port.
- the reference port is biased to act as an ON/OFF switch, and the modulating port is biased to act as a current source.
- the ON/OFF switch is usually implemented as a power device.
- Other embodiments include four mixer elements, each of which receives one of a group of signals representing the in-phase, negative in-phase, quadrature, and negative quadrature components of the baseband signal.
- the oscillator circuit produces four reference signals, three of which are 90°, 180°, and 270° out of phase with respect to the other.
- a four-phase, ⁇ fraction (1/4) ⁇ -wavelength branch tap is one tool for producing the four reference signals.
- inventions include a low-loss combiner coupled to the quadrature mixer elements.
- the low-loss combiner includes a ceramic substrate.
- FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a power amplifier that uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a baseband signal.
- FIG. 2 is block diagram of an alternative power amplifier that uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a baseband signal.
- FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a pair of dual-gate field effect transistors (FETs) used to implement the quadrature mixer topology of FIG. 2.
- FETs field effect transistors
- FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the dual-gate FETs in the arrangement of FIG. 3.
- the power amplification technique described here uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase and quadrature components of a signal to be transmitted. This technique allows operation in high efficiency modes, which leads to improvements in efficiency over Class A amplifiers by a factor of two and over Class B amplifiers by a factor of 4/ ⁇ . Because the envelope and phase information need not be derived from the in-phase and quadrature components, this technique can be used with virtually any manufacturer's baseband circuitry for virtually any communication standard.
- this technique eliminates intermediate frequency (IF) and radio frequency (RF) circuitry in the transmit chain, which reduces the overall cost and complexity of a transmitter solution.
- This technique also facilitates factory tuning, since only the power amplifier (PA), and not an IF quadrature mixer, need be tuned.
- PA power amplifier
- this technique differs from conventional IF mixing techniques in several ways. For example, this technique allows harmonic matching of the combiner output, as one does with a power amplifier and not a conventional mixer. This reduces the square-wave-to-sinusoidal output conversion loss associated with the mixer. Also, this technique allows cascaded gain stages where only one of the stages (e.g., the last stage) performs the mixing function.
- This technique also combines high-power inputs with low-power I and Q inputs.
- the input impedance of an IF power amplifier at high frequencies is relatively low (typically 50 ⁇ ) and thus requires a large drive current to operate.
- the impedance seen by the I and Q inputs is relatively high because, in general, the I and Q signals contain only low frequency content. Therefore, the I and Q inputs do not require as much drive current to operate the devices that they drive.
- conventional mixers tend to have IF and I-Q input impedances that are much more comparable to each other (often on the order of 1 k ⁇ ).
- FIG. 1 shows a wireless transceiver 10 having a power amplifier (PA) 12 arranged in a quadrature mixer, or I-Q modulator, configuration.
- this transceiver 10 includes a baseband encoder 14 that receives digital information and produces signals representing the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of the baseband signal to be transmitted.
- the in-phase and quadrature signals pass through digital-to-analog converters 16 , 18 and gain control elements 20 , 22 , as they would in a conventional transceiver, in arriving at the power amplifier 12 .
- a local oscillator 28 generates a reference signal that serves as one component (cos ⁇ c t) of a carrier signal at a frequency ⁇ c .
- a phase delay element 30 such as a ⁇ /4 branch tap, provides another reference signal that is 90° out of phase with the first reference signal.
- the second reference signal serves as another component (sin ⁇ c t) of the carrier signal.
- the power amplifier 12 includes cascaded gain elements 25 A, 25 B, 35 A, 35 B that amplify the reference signals before providing the reference signals to mixer elements 24 , 26 (described below). These cascaded gain elements provide additional gain to the power amplifier 12 . For example, many mixer configurations provide only 10 dB of gain. Adding two cascaded gain elements 25 A, 25 B, 35 A, 35 B in the path of each reference signal produces additional gain on the order of 20 dB.
- the power amplifier 12 includes two mixer elements 24 , 26 and a signal combiner 32 that receive the in-phase and quadrature components of the baseband signal and the carrier signal and form an amplified RF signal.
- each of the mixer elements 24 , 26 is implemented as a dual-gate field effect transistor (FET), one gate of which (the upper gate) receives either the in-phase or the quadrature component of the baseband signal as input, and the other gate of which (the lower gate) receives the corresponding component of the carrier signal.
- FET field effect transistor
- each dual-gate FET is biased to operate in the same manner as a conventional single-ended quadrature mixer with conversion gain.
- the lower gate of the dual-gate FET is biased to operate as a “+1/ ⁇ 1 switch,” and the upper gate receives either the I or Q input.
- the top gate of each dual-gate FET is biased to support both positive and negative voltage swings of the in-phase or quadrature component of the data signal.
- the lower gate is biased to operate as an ON/OFF switch and the upper gate receives a bipolar I or Q input. A harmonic circuit on the output then recreates the waveform components which ordinarily would result from the now nonexistent “ ⁇ 1 swing” of the lower gate.
- each mixer stage would behave like Class A amplifiers if both negative and positive (bipolar) I and Q values were supported.
- each mixer supports only positive voltages.
- the signal combiner 32 combines the modulated and amplified I and Q signals to form an output signal.
- the signal combiner 32 delivers the output signal to a PA matching network 38 .
- FIGS. 2 and 3 show a more efficient implementation of the power amplifier 12 , in which the quadrature mixer topology is carried out by four dual-gate FETs 40 , 42 , 44 , 46 arranged in a push-pull configuration.
- two digital-to-analog converters (DACs) 45 , 47 produce four differential inputs (I + , I ⁇ , Q + , Q ⁇ ) representing direct and inverted versions of the in-phase and quadrature components of the baseband signal.
- a local oscillator 48 produces a reference signal representing the in-phase component (cos ⁇ c t) of the carrier waveform.
- a multiple phase delay element 49 such as a four-phase ⁇ /4 branch tap, produces an inverted version of the reference signal ( ⁇ cos ⁇ c t), as well as two other signals representing the direct and inverted quadrature components (sin ⁇ c t and ⁇ sin ⁇ c t) of the carrier waveform.
- gain control elements 50 , 52 , 54 , 56 are used to amplify the differential baseband signals before they reach the power amplifier.
- One or more cascaded gain elements 43 also can be used to amplify the reference signals.
- Each dual-gate FET 40 , 42 , 44 , 46 receives one of the baseband signal components (I + , I ⁇ , Q + , Q ⁇ ) at its upper dual-gate port and the corresponding component of the carrier waveform at its lower dual-gate port.
- each dual-gate FET 40 , 42 , 44 , 46 handles only positive voltages, which allows the use of n-channel devices in implementing the dual-gate FETs.
- a low-loss combiner 55 combines the output signals from the dual-gate FETs 40 , 42 , 44 , 46 . Implementing the combiner with a ceramic substrate improves the performance of the PA.
- FIG. 4 shows an implementation in which each of the dual-gate FETs operates as a controlled current source 60 coupled to a single-pole, single-throw (SPST) switch 62 .
- the sinusoidal waveform at the lower gate drives the switch, closing the switch and thus driving the output line 54 only when the waveform has a positive value.
- the value of the differential baseband signal at the upper gate governs the amount of current flowing through the current source 60 .
- the power amplifier operates in a high efficiency mode.
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Abstract
Description
- This invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, to power amplification using a direct-upconverting quadrature mixer topology.
- A conventional power amplifier (PA) in a digital wireless transceiver receives and then amplifies a radio frequency (RF) signal. For many modulation schemes, including those that comply with the IS-95, PDC, PHS, DCT and certain CDMA standards, the RF signal has a non-constant envelope, which requires the power amplifier to operate with a high degree of linearity over a large dynamic range. As a result, the conventional power amplifier usually is biased for operation between the Class A and Class B modes. The best case (asymptotic) efficiency of a PA operating in this manner usually lies between 50% and 78% for constant envelope signals; the efficiency is even lower for non-constant envelope signals.
- U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/108,628, filed on Jul. 1, 1998, by Donald Brian Eidson and Robert Edmund Grange, and titled “Envelope Feedforward Technique with Power Control for Efficient Linear RF Power Amplification,” discloses a power amplification technique that allows operation in high efficiency modes (such as Class D or Class E), in some cases producing asymptotic efficiencies for constant envelope signals that approach 100%. In one implementation of this technique, a dual-gate field effect transistor (FET) acts in a manner similar to a conventional RF mixer, receiving at one dual-gate input a constant envelope RF signal containing phase component information, and receiving at the other dual-gate input an unmodulated signal containing the envelope component. In a digital system, the constant envelope RF signal and the unmodulated envelope signal are derived from the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components provided by a baseband device.
- In one aspect, the invention features a power amplifier having a quadrature mixer and an oscillator circuit. The oscillator circuit generates two reference signals that are 90° out of phase with respect to each other. The quadrature mixer has two mixer elements that each receive one of the reference signals. Each mixer element receives a signal containing either the in-phase or the quadrature component of a baseband signal to be transmitted and uses the reference signal to upconvert and amplify the I or Q component of the baseband signal. The quadrature mixer also includes circuitry that combines the upconverted and amplified I and Q components to form an output signal.
- In another aspect, the invention features a wireless transmitter that includes a baseband encoder, an oscillator circuit, and a quadrature mixer. The baseband encoder produces signals representing the in-phase and quadrature components of a baseband signal to be transmitted. The oscillator generates two reference signals that are 90° out of phase with respect to each other. The quadrature mixer uses each of the reference signals to upconvert and amplify one of the in-phase and quadrature components of the baseband signal.
- In some embodiments, the reference signals have power levels much greater than the power levels of the I and Q components of the baseband signal. In these cases, the mixer elements include power elements, such as Gilbert cells or dual-gate FETs. The reference signal often drives a modulating port of the mixer, and the in-phase or quadrature component of the baseband signal often drives the reference port. In some cases, the reference port is biased to act as an ON/OFF switch, and the modulating port is biased to act as a current source. The ON/OFF switch is usually implemented as a power device.
- Other embodiments include four mixer elements, each of which receives one of a group of signals representing the in-phase, negative in-phase, quadrature, and negative quadrature components of the baseband signal. In some of these embodiments, the oscillator circuit produces four reference signals, three of which are 90°, 180°, and 270° out of phase with respect to the other. A four-phase, {fraction (1/4)}-wavelength branch tap is one tool for producing the four reference signals.
- Other embodiments include a low-loss combiner coupled to the quadrature mixer elements. In some of these embodiments, the low-loss combiner includes a ceramic substrate.
- The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
- FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a power amplifier that uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a baseband signal.
- FIG. 2 is block diagram of an alternative power amplifier that uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of a baseband signal.
- FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a pair of dual-gate field effect transistors (FETs) used to implement the quadrature mixer topology of FIG. 2.
- FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the dual-gate FETs in the arrangement of FIG. 3.
- Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.
- The power amplification technique described here uses a quadrature mixer topology to amplify the in-phase and quadrature components of a signal to be transmitted. This technique allows operation in high efficiency modes, which leads to improvements in efficiency over Class A amplifiers by a factor of two and over Class B amplifiers by a factor of 4/π. Because the envelope and phase information need not be derived from the in-phase and quadrature components, this technique can be used with virtually any manufacturer's baseband circuitry for virtually any communication standard.
- Through direct upconversion, this technique eliminates intermediate frequency (IF) and radio frequency (RF) circuitry in the transmit chain, which reduces the overall cost and complexity of a transmitter solution. This technique also facilitates factory tuning, since only the power amplifier (PA), and not an IF quadrature mixer, need be tuned. However, this technique differs from conventional IF mixing techniques in several ways. For example, this technique allows harmonic matching of the combiner output, as one does with a power amplifier and not a conventional mixer. This reduces the square-wave-to-sinusoidal output conversion loss associated with the mixer. Also, this technique allows cascaded gain stages where only one of the stages (e.g., the last stage) performs the mixing function.
- This technique also combines high-power inputs with low-power I and Q inputs. The input impedance of an IF power amplifier at high frequencies is relatively low (typically 50 Ω) and thus requires a large drive current to operate. In contrast, the impedance seen by the I and Q inputs is relatively high because, in general, the I and Q signals contain only low frequency content. Therefore, the I and Q inputs do not require as much drive current to operate the devices that they drive. In contrast, conventional mixers tend to have IF and I-Q input impedances that are much more comparable to each other (often on the order of 1 kΩ).
- FIG. 1 shows a
wireless transceiver 10 having a power amplifier (PA) 12 arranged in a quadrature mixer, or I-Q modulator, configuration. Like a conventional transceiver, thistransceiver 10 includes abaseband encoder 14 that receives digital information and produces signals representing the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of the baseband signal to be transmitted. The in-phase and quadrature signals pass through digital-to-analog converters gain control elements power amplifier 12. Alocal oscillator 28 generates a reference signal that serves as one component (cos ωct) of a carrier signal at a frequency ωc. Aphase delay element 30, such as a λ/4 branch tap, provides another reference signal that is 90° out of phase with the first reference signal. The second reference signal serves as another component (sin ωct) of the carrier signal. In most cases, thepower amplifier 12 includescascaded gain elements mixer elements 24, 26 (described below). These cascaded gain elements provide additional gain to thepower amplifier 12. For example, many mixer configurations provide only 10 dB of gain. Adding twocascaded gain elements - The
power amplifier 12 includes twomixer elements mixer elements - In one implementation, each dual-gate FET is biased to operate in the same manner as a conventional single-ended quadrature mixer with conversion gain. The lower gate of the dual-gate FET is biased to operate as a “+1/−1 switch,” and the upper gate receives either the I or Q input. The top gate of each dual-gate FET is biased to support both positive and negative voltage swings of the in-phase or quadrature component of the data signal. In another implementation, the lower gate is biased to operate as an ON/OFF switch and the upper gate receives a bipolar I or Q input. A harmonic circuit on the output then recreates the waveform components which ordinarily would result from the now nonexistent “−1 swing” of the lower gate. In both of these implementations, the individual mixer stages would behave like Class A amplifiers if both negative and positive (bipolar) I and Q values were supported. In order to obtain true high efficiency operation (e.g., Class D, E, or F operation), each mixer supports only positive voltages.
- The
signal combiner 32 combines the modulated and amplified I and Q signals to form an output signal. Thesignal combiner 32 delivers the output signal to aPA matching network 38. - FIGS. 2 and 3 show a more efficient implementation of the
power amplifier 12, in which the quadrature mixer topology is carried out by fourdual-gate FETs local oscillator 48 produces a reference signal representing the in-phase component (cos ωct) of the carrier waveform. A multiplephase delay element 49, such as a four-phase λ/4 branch tap, produces an inverted version of the reference signal (−cos ωct), as well as two other signals representing the direct and inverted quadrature components (sin ωct and −sin ωct) of the carrier waveform. In many cases, gaincontrol elements cascaded gain elements 43 also can be used to amplify the reference signals. - Each
dual-gate FET dual-gate FET loss combiner 55 combines the output signals from thedual-gate FETs - FIG. 4 shows an implementation in which each of the dual-gate FETs operates as a controlled current source60 coupled to a single-pole, single-throw (SPST)
switch 62. The sinusoidal waveform at the lower gate drives the switch, closing the switch and thus driving theoutput line 54 only when the waveform has a positive value. The value of the differential baseband signal at the upper gate governs the amount of current flowing through the current source 60. In this configuration, the power amplifier operates in a high efficiency mode. - A number of embodiments of the invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, while the invention has been described in terms of dual-gate FETs arranged in a quadrature mixer topology, other embodiments use devices such as bipolar transistors and HEMTs arranged in push-pull configurations and modeled with equivalent circuits like that shown in FIG. 4. Gilbert cell mixers with RF inputs optimized for power (i.e., with low input impedances) are used in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the gain control elements are used to amplify signals other than the baseband signals, such as the carrier signal produced by the local oscillator. Many embodiments include cascaded gain control elements to further increase power control. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
Claims (38)
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