Patent ID: 8258866

Claim:
A transmission system, comprising: a first power splitter having an input, a first output, and a second output, wherein the power splitter is configured to split the power of a radio frequency (RF) signal received at the input between the first and second outputs; a first amplifier block configured to amplify the RF signal from the first output of the power splitter; a second amplifier block configured to amplify the RF signal from the second output of the power splitter; and a first output power combiner configured to sum the powers of the amplified RF signals outputted by the first and second amplifier blocks; wherein each of the first and second amplifier blocks comprises: a first power amplifier configured to amplify the RF signal from the respective output of the first power splitter; a Wilkinson power splitter having an input coupled to an output of the first power amplifier, a first output, and a second output, wherein the Wilkinson power splitter is configured to split the power of the amplified RF signal outputted by the first power amplifier between the first and second outputs; a second power amplifier configured to amplify the RF signal from the first output of the Wilkinson power splitter; a third power amplifier configured to amplify the RF signal from the second output of the Wilkinson power splitter; and a Wilkinson power combiner having a first input coupled to an output of the second power amplifier and a second input coupled to an output of the third power amplifier, wherein the Wilkinson power combiner is configured to sum the powers of the amplified RF signals outputted by the second and third power amplifiers and to output the resulting RF signal to the first power combiner.