A 2.7-5.5 V, 0.2-1 W BiCMOS RF driver amplifier IC with closed-loop power control and biasing functions

A 800-900 MHz BiCMOS driver amplifier with 30 dB gain is integrated with various functions of a power control loop which includes a peak power detector, an integrator filter, gain control circuitry, and a voltage regulator for biasing a discrete power device. To add to its versatility, the IC is pad-programmable to deliver either 0.25 W/0.5 W/1.0 of RF power while maintaining a power added efficiency of 35 to 40% in each case. This has been shown to be useful in creating 1-4 W power amplifier solutions with over 50% efficiency. In closed-loop configuration, this IC provides better than 1 dB of output power control over a dynamic range of 25 dB.