MULTI-STANDARD TRANSMITTER ARCHITECTURE WITH DIGITAL UPCONVERT STAGE AND GALLIUM NITRIDE (GAN) AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT

摘要

A multi-standard transmitter architecture with digitally upconverted intermediate frequency (IF) outphased signals is disclosed. The transmitter architecture includes a Gallium Nitride (GaN) power amplifier (PA) circuit having a Current Mode Class-D (CMCD) configuration. The GaN PA circuit includes a lower switching device electrically coupled to an input to receive an input RF signal and an upper switching device to switchably electrically couple the first switching device to a power supply to drive an antenna circuit based on the input RF signal. Thus, a reconfigurable transmitter architecture is disclosed that utilizes a high-speed Gallium Nitride (GaN) driver to achieve a peak drain efficiency of at least 85% while delivering output power of 10 W at 1 GHz frequency, for example.