Feed forward amplifier with amplifier stage failure detection using pilot tones
AssigneePowerwave Technologies, Inc.
InventorRichard Posner
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Abstract
An RF power amplifier with amplifier stage failure detection comprises an amplifier input for receiving an RF signal to be amplified, an amplifier output for outputting an amplified RF signal, a plurality of separate amplifier stages coupled between the amplifier input and amplifier output so as to cumulatively provide a desired amplifier gain to the input RF signal, and means for detecting amplifier stage failure by providing a pilot tone separately to the amplifier stages based on a separate timing for each stage and detecting pilot tones output from the stages based on the timing.
Claims20
An RF power amplifier, comprising:
- an amplifier input for receiving an RF signal to be amplified;
- an amplifier output for outputting an amplified RF signal;
- a multi-stage amplifier comprising a plurality of separate amplifier stages coupled between said amplifier input and amplifier output so as to cumulatively provide a desired amplifier gain to the input RF signal, each of said plurality of amplifier stages having an input and an output;
- a pilot tone generation circuit separately coupled to said amplifier stage inputs and injecting a pilot tone into said amplifier stage inputs;
- a timing control circuit coupled to said plurality of separate amplifier stages and to said pilot tone generation circuit and controlling said injecting of a pilot tone into said amplifier stage inputs;
- and
- a failure detection circuit coupled to detect the pilot tone output from said multi-stage amplifier and detecting individual amplifier stage failure based on said detected pilot tone.
An RF power amplifier, comprising:
- an amplifier input for receiving an RF signal to be amplified;
- an amplifier output for outputting an amplified RF signal;
- a plurality of separate amplifier stages coupled between said amplifier input and amplifier output so as to cumulatively provide a desired amplifier gain to the input RF signal, each of said plurality of amplifier stages having an input and an output;
- and
- means for detecting amplifier stage failure by providing a pilot tone separately to said amplifier stages based on a separate timing for each stage and detecting the pilot tone output from said stages based on said timing.
A feed forward amplifier, comprising:
- an RF input for receiving an RF signal;
- a main amplifier signal path coupled to the input and comprising:
- a main amplifier having a plurality of separate amplifier stages, each stage
- receiving said RF input at a corresponding amplifier stage input;
- a pilot tone generator generating a pilot tone separately coupled into each amplifier stage input;
- a failure detection monitoring circuit coupled to the main amplifier output;
- a pilot tone control circuit controlling the provision of the pilot tones to the separate amplifier stages on separate time slots;
- and
- a first delay circuit coupled to the output of the main amplifier;
- an error amplifier signal path coupled to the RF input and receiving a gain reduced output from the main amplifier, comprising:
- a second delay circuit coupled to the RF input,
- a combiner coupling the delay circuit output to the gain reduced output from the main amplifier so as to be out of phase therewith;
- and
- an error amplifier for amplifying the output of the combiner;
- a second combiner combining the output from the error amplifier and the first delay circuit so as to be out of phase therewith;
- and
- an output coupled to the second combiner and providing an amplified RF output.
A method for detecting amplifier stage failure in an RF amplifier having a main amplifier with a plurality of amplifier stages, comprising:
- providing a pilot tone separately to said amplifier stages in a unique time slot for each amplifier stage;
- detecting the pilot tone output from the main amplifier;
- and
- providing an amplifier stage failure signal if a pilot tone is missing in a time slot corresponding to an amplifier stage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.