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US 7,859,338 B2Granted
Compact low-power class AB amplifier
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsOvidiu Bajdechi, Christopher Michael Ward
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A compact low-power class AB power amplifier design is provided. In an embodiment, the amplifier design eliminates an intermediate stage that couples an input stage and a biasing mesh of the amplifier. In another embodiment, the amplifier design reuses a tail current from the input stage to bias the biasing mesh. Accordingly, a much higher power efficiency can be achieved using the proposed amplifier design compared to conventional class AB amplifiers. Further, the proposed amplifier design is extremely compact and occupies a small silicon area.
Claims20
An amplifier, comprising:
- an input stage, including first and second transistors, that receives a differential input signal and generates first and second current signals;
- a current minor circuit, coupled to said input stage circuit, that inverts the phase of said first current signal;
- and
- a biasing mesh circuit, having first and second terminals, that receives said inverted-phase first current signal and said second current signal directly at said first and second terminals respectively and biases an output stage of said amplifier;
- wherein said biasing mesh circuit is coupled to said input stage and to said output stage, without intervening circuitry.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.