Broadband high power amplifier
AssigneeRohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG
InventorsThomas Witt, Florian Ohnimus, Uwe Dalisda, Wolfram Titze, Andreas Andrei, Raimon Göritz
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Abstract
The invention relates to a broadband high power amplifier that comprises a signal input adapted to receive an input signal, at least one amplifier stage adapted to amplify the received input signal, a signal output adapted to output the signal amplified by the at least one amplifier stage as an output signal, a monitoring unit adapted to monitor signal characteristics of the input signal and the output signal and a control unit adapted to operate the at least one amplifier stage at an optimal operating point depending on the current signal characteristics monitored by said monitoring unit.
Claims16
A broadband high power amplifier, the broadband high power amplifier comprising:
- a signal input adapted to receive an input signal;
- at least one amplifier stage adapted to amplify the received input signal, wherein the amplifier stage comprise amplifier stages of different classes selected from at least one of switching amplifier stages such as class D amplifier stages and/or non-switching conduction angle amplifiers such as class A, B, AB and class C amplifier stages;
- a signal output adapted to output the signal amplified by the at least one amplifier stage as an output signal;
- a monitoring unit adapted to monitor signal characteristics of the input signal and the output signal;
- and
- a control unit adapted to operate the at least one amplifier stage at an optimal operating point depending on the current signal characteristics monitored by said monitoring unit, wherein the control unit is adapted to operate the at least one amplifier stage at an optimal operating point which achieves at least one predefined or selected optimization criterion, and wherein the control unit is adapted to take into account the selected optimization criterion, the amplifier class of the respective stage, and the current signal characteristics of the respective amplifier stages received from the monitoring of the broadband high power amplifier.
An electromagnetic compatibility, EMC, test setup, the EMC test setup comprising:
- at least one broadband high power amplifier used to amplify a continuous wave or pulsed RF test signal, the broadband high power amplifier comprising:
- a signal input adapted to receive an input signal;
- at least one amplifier stage adapted to amplify the received input signal, wherein the amplifier stage comprise amplifier stages of different classes selected from at least one of switching amplifier stages such as class D amplifier stages and/or non-switching conduction angle amplifiers such as class A, B, AB and class C amplifier stages;
- a signal output adapted to output the signal amplified by the at least one amplifier stage as an output signal;
- a monitoring unit adapted to monitor signal characteristics of the input signal and the output signal;
- and
- a control unit adapted to operate the at least one amplifier stage at an optimal operating point depending on the current signal characteristics monitored by said monitoring unit, wherein the control unit is adapted to operate the at least one amplifier stage at an optimal operating point which achieves at least one predefined or selected optimization criterion, and wherein the control unit is adapted to take into account the selected optimization criterion, the amplifier class of the respective stage, and the current signal characteristics of the respective amplifier stages received from the monitoring of the broadband high power amplifier.
A method for operating a broadband high power amplifier having one or more amplifier stages, wherein the amplifier stage comprise amplifiers stages of different classes selected from at least one of switching amplifier stages such as class D amplifier stages and/or non-switching conduction angle amplifiers such as class A, B, AB and class C amplifier stages, the method comprising the steps of:
- monitoring, by a monitoring unit, signal characteristics of an input signal received at a signal input of an amplifier stage of said broadband high power amplifier and signal characteristics of an output signal output at a signal output of the amplifier stage of said broad band high power amplifier;
- and
- controlling the at least one amplifier stage of said broadband high power amplifier to operate at an optimal operation point depending on the monitored signal characteristics which achieves at least one predefined or selected optimization criterion, wherein the step of controlling takes into account the selected optimization criterion, the amplifier class of the respective stage, and the current signal characteristics of the respective amplifier stage received from the monitoring unit of the broadband high power amplifier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.