1015results about "Dc amplifiers with modulator-demodulator" patented technology

An amplifier system is provided that switches between a linear mode of operation, an envelope tracking mode of operation and a polar mode of operation. The amplifier system switches between modes of operation based upon a characteristic of an input signal relative to a first threshold level and a second threshold level. A mode selector selects the operation mode by transmitting an amplitude modulated signal plus a variable headroom voltage to a supply terminal of a power amplifier during the envelope tracking mode, an amplitude modulated signal to the supply terminal and phase modulated input signal during the polar mode and a substantially constant amplitude signal to the supply terminal during the linear mode.

An energy-efficient consumer device audio power output stage provides improved battery life and reduced power dissipation. A power supply having a selectable operating mode supplies the power supply rails to the power amplified output stage. The operating mode is controlled in conformity with the audio signal level, which may be determined from a volume control setting of the device and / or from a signal level detector that determines the amplitude of the signal being amplified. The power supply may be a charge pump in which the operating mode uses a capacitive divider to provide for selection of a power supply output voltage that is a rational fraction of the power supply output voltage in a full-voltage operating mode.

Methods and apparatus for amplifier AM and PM predistortion and autocalibration. AM and PM amplifier distortion can be corrected using predistortion. The AM and PM distortion characteristics of the amplifier are determined using an autocalibration technique. The amplifier characteristics can be stored in distinct look up tables. Alternatively, the inverse of the amplifier characteristics can be stored in distinct look up tables. Signals that are to be amplified are characterized in polar format having a phase component with a normalized magnitude and a magnitude component. The phase component can be predistorted by applying the inverse of the PM distortion characteristics to the signal. Similarly, the magnitude component can be predistorted by applying the inverse of the AM distortion characteristics to the signal. The predistorted phase component can be amplified using the previously characterized amplifier. The predistorted magnitude component can be used to set the gain of the previously characterized amplifier.

An amplifier system is provided that switches between a linear mode of operation, an envelope tracking mode of operation and a polar mode of operation. The amplifier system switches between modes of operation based upon a characteristic of an input signal relative to a first threshold level and a second threshold level. A mode selector selects the operation mode by transmitting an amplitude modulated signal plus a variable headroom voltage to a supply terminal of a power amplifier during the envelope tracking mode, an amplitude modulated signal to the supply terminal and phase modulated input signal during the polar mode and a substantially constant amplitude signal to the supply terminal during the linear mode.

Systems and methods are provided for determining and providing an appropriate variable voltage supply to a power amplifier. A power amplifier is operative to amplify an input signal. A digital buffer stores a copy of the input signal representing a predetermined interval of time. An envelope profiler analyzes the buffered interval of the input signal and determines an appropriate supply signal profile for the power amplifier over the predetermined time interval. A supply control provides a supply signal according to the determined profile.

Methods and systems for vector combining power amplification are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a plurality of signals are individually amplified, then summed to form a desired time-varying complex envelope signal. Phase and / or frequency characteristics of one or more of the signals are controlled to provide the desired phase, frequency, and / or amplitude characteristics of the desired time-varying complex envelope signal. In another embodiment, a time-varying complex envelope signal is decomposed into a plurality of constant envelope constituent signals. The constituent signals are amplified equally or substantially equally, and then summed to construct an amplified version of the original time-varying envelope signal. Embodiments also perform frequency up-conversion.

An amplifier circuit includes a power amplifier biased for saturated mode operation, and a controllable current source to provide supply current to the power amplifier. The controllable current source effects desired amplitude modulation of the output signal from the power amplifier by modulating the supply current it provides responsive to an amplitude information signal. In one or more embodiments, the current source includes a circuit that is configured to adjust one or more transmitter operating parameters responsive to detecting changes in the effective DC resistance of the power amplifier. For example, the circuit may generate a compensation signal that reduces the effective DC resistance responsive to detecting that the effective DC resistance has undesirably increased. By way of non-limiting examples, such compensation may be effected by changing a current mirror, an amplifier-to-antenna impedance matching, an amplifier bias or device size, or imposing some form of transmit signal back-off.

Power amplifier arrangements, methods, and software arranged to receive a power input which is voltage-modulated responsive to at least one control signal representative of the data signal. The data input to the power amplifier is pre-distorted and the resulting power amplification is substantially linear. The arrangement may be used in wireless base station transmitters, but is not limited to such applications. Improved data transmission services are also provided which make use of such power amplifiers.

An envelope tracking radio frequency (RF) power amplifier having an adaptive envelope signal processing circuit is disclosed. An RF input voltage is sampled by the adaptive envelope signal processing circuit which provides control signals to the power supply which supplies voltages to RF power devices in order to simultaneously satisfy two operating conditions: a) provide best possible efficiency of the power amplifier stages depending on the input signal characteristics and b) provide compensation for RF transistor AM-AM and AM-PM distortion compensation across the power range. In particular, the voltage control provides for constant power amplifier gain across the input signal dynamic range, thus minimizing power amplifier amplitude distortions and extending the useful power amplifier linear dynamic range up to saturation point. The power amplifier thus exhibits better linearity and efficiency than offered by conventional techniques and topologies.

The amplitude modulator comprises: an angle modulator for angle-modulating a phase signal to be inputted; a waveform shaping means in which, (1) when the magnitude of an amplitude signal to be inputted becomes smaller than a first prescribed value, a waveform of the amplitude signal is shaped so that the magnitude of the amplitude signal of the portion which becomes small becomes the first prescribed value; and / or (2) the waveform shaping means in which, when the magnitude of the amplitude signal to be inputted becomes larger than the second prescribed value which is larger than the first prescribed value, the waveform of the amplitude signal is shaped so that the magnitude of the amplitude signal of the portion which becomes larger becomes the second prescribed value; and an amplitude modulator for amplitude modulating the signal of the output of the angle modulator by the signal of the output of the waveform shaping means.

Systems and methods for detecting the impedance of an output load coupled to a digital amplifier and compensating for changes in the response of the amplifier. One embodiment of the invention is implemented in a Class D pulse width modulated (PWM) amplifier. In this embodiment, a digital PCM test signal is generated. This test signal is processed by the amplifier to produce a corresponding analog audio output signal that is used to drive a speaker. A sense resistor placed in series with the speaker is used to generate a test voltage that is compared to a reference voltage. When the test voltage reaches the reference voltage, the current through the sense resistor (hence the speaker) is at a known level, so the value of the digital test signal is noted. The impedance of the speaker is then determined from the test signal value and the speaker current.

A pulse modulator generates a pulse-modulated signal by pulse-modulating and amplifying the amplitude component of an input signal. A low-pass filter filters the pulse-modulated signal from the pulse modulator, and generates an amplified amplitude signal which is obtained by amplifying the amplitude component. An error corrector generates a corrected amplitude signal by correcting an error of the amplified amplitude signal from the low-pass filter by using the amplitude component of the input signal. A mixing unit generates the output signal by mixing the corrected amplitude signal from the error corrector and the phase component of the input signal.

The present invention, generally speaking, provides methods and apparatus for producing an amplitude modulated communications signal, in which a constant-envelope carrier signal is modified in response to a power control signal to produce a modified constant-envelope carrier signal. The modified constant-envelope carrier signal is amplified in response to an amplitude modulation signal to produce a communications signal having amplitude modulation and having an average output power proportional to a signal level of the modified constant-envelope carrier signal. This manner of operation allows wide dynamic range of average output power to be achieved. Because amplitude modulation is applied after amplitude varying circuitry used to produce the modified constant-envelope carrier signal, the amplitude modulation is unaffected by possible non-linearities of such circuitry. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, operation in the foregoing manner at comparatively low average output power levels is combined with switch mode operation at comparatively high average output power levels, enabling high overall efficiency to be achieved. Hence, the disclosed modulator and amplifier combination, in addition to supporting very low power signals, also supports high power signals.

A DC-DC converter switches a semiconductor switch device for converting a DC voltage to a certain level and supplies the converted DC voltage to a load. The DC-DC converter is configured to be able to switch between a first feedback control mode and a second feedback control mode. The DC-DC converter selects the second feedback control mode when a load current flowing through the load is below a predetermined value. The DC-DC converter selects the first feedback control mode when a level of the DC voltage supplied to the load changes irrespective of a value of the load current.

Introduce a pulse length control mechanism to generate virtual multi-level output pulses for a Class-D Amplifier, which has only 2 physical output levels. Typically a Sigma-Delta-Modulator converts the input signal into high frequency low bit rate. The disclosed invention adds functions to transform the SDM signal into pulses with equivalent multi-level time-voltage areas and adds a pulse-length-control mechanism to produce various output pulse patterns, where the summations of the positive and negative pulses, within one sampling period, result in time-voltage area values, corresponding to 3 or more digital levels. Thus the invention produces higher signal quality at lower sampling rates.

A circuit for use with a power amplifier that amplifies an input signal. The circuit may comprise an amplitude correction circuit and an open-loop switching regulator. The amplitude correction circuit may be configured to generate a corrected envelope signal from an input envelope signal that represents an envelope of the input signal. The open-loop switching regulator may be connected to the amplitude correction circuit and may be for powering the power amplifier based on the corrected envelope signal. According to various embodiments, the corrected envelope signal generated by the amplitude correction circuit is a function of the input envelope signal and an error voltage of the open-loop switching regulator.

In a first aspect the present invention provides a compact high efficiency driver suitable for driving a loudspeaker, such as a miniature loudspeaker for mobile phones or hearing aids. The driver comprising an interface for receiving an input signal, a three-level modulator, and a three-level H-bridge. The interface may be adapted to receive a digital input signal. In a preferred embodiment of the driver the H-bridge is controlled by a correction circuit which is operated by a Return-To-Zero scheme. In a further preferred embodiment the driver comprises a supply voltage step-up circuit for increasing a voltage supplied to the H-bridge. In a second aspect the present invention provides a miniature loudspeaker assembly having a built-in driver. In a third aspect the present invention provides a mobile device with a built-in miniature loudspeaker assembly.

A digital switching power amplifier with Multivariable Enhanced Cascade Controlled (MECC) includes a modulator, a switching power stage and a low pass filter. In the first preferred embodiment an enhanced cascade control structure local to the switching power stage is added, characterised by having a single local feedback path A (7) with a lowpass characteristic and local forward blocks B1 or B (3, 4). The leads to a much improved system with a very low sensitivity to errors in the switching power stage. In the second preferred embodiment of the invention the control structure is extended with a global structure composed of a single feed-back path C (8) and forward paths blocks D1 or D (1, 2). This provides further improvements and a very low sensitivity to load variations and filter errors. Both MECC embodiments are characterised by being simple in implementation, stable and extendible by adding / removing simple local (3) or global (1) forward path blocks. A third embodiment of the invention is a controlled self-oscillating pulse modulator, characterised by first a non-hysteresis comparator as modulator and second by a higher order oscillating loop realized in both forward path B1 and feedback path A to determine stable self-oscillating conditions. An implemented 250W example MECC digital power amplifier has proven superior performance in terms of audio performance (0.005% distortion, 115 dB dynamic range) and efficiency (92%).

A DC—DC converter switches a semiconductor switch device for converting a DC voltage to a certain level and supplies the converted DC voltage to a load. The DC—DC converter is configured to be able to switch between a first feedback control mode and a second feedback control mode. The DC—DC converter selects the second feedback control mode when a load current flowing through the load is below a predetermined value. The DC—DC converter selects the first feedback control mode when a level of the DC voltage supplied to the load changes irrespective of a value of the load current.

A monolithic integrated circuit (IC), and method of manufacturing same, that includes all RF front end or transceiver elements for a portable communication device, including a power amplifier (PA), a matching, coupling and filtering network, and an antenna switch to couple the conditioned PA signal to an antenna. An output signal sensor senses at least a voltage amplitude of the signal switched by the antenna switch, and signals a PA control circuit to limit PA output power in response to excessive values of sensed output. Preferred fabrication techniques include stacking multiple FETs to form switching devices. An iClass PA architecture is described that dissipatively terminates unwanted harmonics of the PA output signal. A preferred embodiment of the RF transceiver IC includes two distinct PA circuits, two distinct receive signal amplifier circuits, and a four-way antenna switch to selectably couple a single antenna connection to any one of the four circuits.

A navigation system displays a route guidance list on a monitor screen in an intuitive and organized manner so that a user can easily understand information regarding the maneuvering locations and actions associated with the route to the destination. The route guidance list is structured in a layered manner so that the information regarding the maneuvering actions at the locations closer to the current user position will be prioritized. For example, in the route guidance list, the information regarding the immediate maneuvering location and action is more detailed, enlarged, and highlighted than the others. The navigation system displays the route guidance list in which the information regarding the maneuvering locations and actions will be dynamically changed in response to the changes of the current location of the user.

A method and apparatus to control output power of a digital amplifier capable of automatically determining an impedance of an earphone or headphone connected to a portable audio device and outputting a power that is optimized according to the impedance. The apparatus is usable with a digital amplification device and includes a signal processing unit to convert a pulse signal into a direct current (DC) voltage by power-amplifying the pulse signal, an impedance measuring unit to connect a resistance device between the signal processing unit and a speaker unit and to detect a voltage value applied to the resistance device and the speaker unit, and a micom unit to generate a pulse signal having a predetermined duty cycle in the signal processing unit if the speaker unit is connected to the device, to determine an impedance of the speaker unit based on the voltage value detected by the impedance measuring unit, to control a power amplification by providing a voltage level control signal to the signal processing unit according to the determined impedance, and to control an audio level in an audio reproduction mode accordingly.

An EER amplifier for amplifying an RF signal includes: (II) a first RF amplifier for amplifying the phase portion of the signal; (III) an EER modulator for amplifying the envelope or baseband portion of the signal, including: A) a high frequency operational amplifier; B) a power amplifier; C) a feedback control loop including: (1) a current-to-voltage conversion amplifier having an input coupled to a current monitoring output of the power amplifier and an output, (2) an input buffer amplifier having an input coupled to receive the envelope signal and an output; (3) a summing amplifier having: (a) an input coupled to the outputs of: (a) the current-to-voltage conversion amplifier and (b) the input buffer amplifier, and (b) an output coupled to the current control input of the power amplifier.

RF amplifier control circuits for transmitters in mobile communication devices, combinations thereof and methods therefor. The control circuits include generally proportional and integral control circuits having an output coupled to a control input of an amplifier. An initial control signal is applied to the amplifier before a vector modulator output coupled an input thereof is at full output power. The vector modulator output is ramped to full output after applying the initial control signal. Thereafter, the initial control signal applied to the amplifier during ramping is corrected by integrating an output of the amplifier relative to a second reference signal with an integral control circuit coupled to the control input of the amplifier, the second reference signal is proportional to the ramping vector modulator output.

Systems and methods for controlling amplification of a pair of pulse width modulated signals. In one embodiment, a system comprises an audio amplifier which is configured to receive a pulse code modulated (PCM) input signal, convert this signal to a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal in a controller, and amplify the PWM signal in an output stage. The controller separates the PWM signal into a high-side signal and a low-side signal. The controller incorporates digitally programmable delays into the processing paths for each of the high-side and low-side signals. The high-side and low-side signals are separately provided to the output stage. The separate high-side and low-side signals can be used to individually control (e.g., turn off) the high-side and low-side transistors. Circuitry is included to generate a short low-side pulse when both transistors are turned off in order to drain the gate charge from the high-side transistor.

A navigation system displays a route guidance list on a monitor screen in an intuitive and organized manner so that a user can easily understand information regarding the maneuvering locations and actions associated with the route to the destination. The route guidance list is structured in a layered manner so that the information regarding the maneuvering actions at the locations closer to the current user position will be prioritized. For example, in the route guidance list, the information regarding the immediate maneuvering location and action is more detailed, enlarged, and highlighted than the others. The navigation system displays the route guidance list in which the information regarding the maneuvering locations and actions will be dynamically changed in response to the changes of the current location of the user.

An aspect of a power amplifier according to the present invention is a power amplifier that amplifies a modulated signal including amplitude modulated components and phase modulated components, the power amplifier including a first voltage source 21 that amplifies low-frequency components of the amplitude modulated components of the modulated signal to output a first voltage VC_L, a second voltage source 22 that amplifies high-frequency components of the amplitude modulated components of the modulated signal to output a second voltage VC_H, a current source 24 that amplifies amplitude components of the modulated signal to output a current, a combiner circuit 23 that combines the first voltage VC_L, the second voltage VC_H, and a current IM to generate a modulated power supply signal VOUT, and an RF amplifier 30 that amplifies a signal obtained by up-converting the modulated signal to a carrier frequency and outputs the amplified signal after modulating amplitude of the amplified signal by the modulated power supply signal VOUT. In this way, power efficiency of a circuit that generates a modulated power supply can be improved.

A transmitter circuit means is arranged to provide linear amplification of non-constant envelope modulated RF signals by directly amplitude modulating the transmitter power amplifier with the amplitude component of the baseband signal. In addition, the signal to be transmitted is phase modulated by the In-phase and quadrature components of the baseband signal, and synchronization means arc provided in order to correct any time slippage between the directly applied amplitude modulation and the phase modulation. The modulation synchronisation correction contributes significantly to the linearity of the transmitter.

The invention relates to a switching amplifier comprising at least one pulse modulator arranged for modulating at least one input utility signal into at least one pulse modulated signal and at least one switching power stage arranged to establish at least one amplified utility signal on the basis of said at least one pulse modulated signal and a power signal, said power signal being delivered by a tracking power supply at least partly controlled by said at least one input utility signal, characterized in that said switching amplifier is arranged to process said at least one input utility signal according to a correction signal established by a correction signal estimator on the basis of a supply information signal derived from said tracking power supply.According to the present invention an advantageous switching amplifier enabling use of a tracking power supply is provided. Thereby the many benefits of switching amplifiers can now be obtained together with the benefits of utilizing a tracking power supply. Among many things, this reduces power consumption, reduces EMI noise and enables using more of the dynamic range available for the utility signal during the pulse modulation. The last advantage further renders noise introduced by the power supply and the switching output stage less significant, as the signal-to-noise ratio in the power stage is greatly improved due to the utilization of the full dynamic range enabled by using a tracking power supply.