Patent ID: 7894546

Claim:
A power amplifier, comprising: a power amplifier core in which a transmit signal having an amplitude-modulated (AM) component and a phase-modulated (PM) component is passed and amplified, the power amplifier comprising a forward path; a feedback loop comprising an additional amplification device and an error amplifier, where no input of the feedback loop is connected to any output of the power amplifier, where the additional amplification device is a replica of the power amplifier core and generates a feedback signal that is provided as an input to the error amplifier, and where the error amplifier receives a power control signal as a second input, and where the error amplifier generates a power amplifier control signal; and wherein the feedback signal is proportional to an output of the power amplifier core, and wherein the power amplifier control signal generated by the error amplifier is provided to an amplification control input of the power amplifier core and an amplification control input of the additional amplification device to simultaneously control the power amplifier core and the additional amplification device such that the output of the additional amplification device indirectly and linearly controls the output of the power amplifier core in which an electrical quantity of the power amplifier core is a radio frequency (RF) voltage signal that is controlled using a current provided by the additional amplification device.