Patent ID: 11967983
Assignee: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Field: Basic communication processes (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 13:
14. An ultra wideband (UWB) communication apparatus for generating a UWB transmission (TX) signal, the UWB communication apparatus, comprising:
a TX pulse generation module having a data input and a plurality of pulse sample outputs, wherein the plurality of pulse sample outputs are configured to output a plurality of parallel TX pulse sample data streams comprising values associated with a TX signal amplitude at a corresponding sample time;
a serializer having a data output, a clock output, and a plurality of inputs coupled to the plurality of pulse sample outputs, wherein the serializer is configured to serialize the plurality of parallel TX pulse sample data streams into a serialized stream of sample data comprising the values output from the serializer at a selected signal sampling rate;
gating circuitry having inputs coupled to the data output and the clock output, and a plurality of gating outputs clocked at the selected signal sampling rate, wherein gating signals at each of the plurality of gating outputs corresponds to a digit of a corresponding value;
a plurality of power amplifier (PA) cells, each PA cell of the plurality of PA cells comprising:
a PA cell output;
amplifier circuitry having an output coupled to the PA cell output;
a current source coupled to the amplifier circuitry; and
power gating circuitry coupled to the current source, the power gating circuitry having an input coupled to a corresponding gating output of the plurality of gating outputs, wherein the digit of the corresponding value associated with the corresponding gating output selects between an on configuration for the current source and an off configuration for the current source as gated at the selected signal sampling rate; and

an output balun having a TX output and a plurality of inputs coupled to the PA cell output of each of the plurality of PA cells, wherein the TX signal amplitude at the TX output is determined by a number of the plurality of PA cells configured in the on configuration by the values at each sample period of the selected signal sampling rate.