Patent ID: 7466670

Claim:
A transmit system comprising: two receive inputs for receiving input power distributed between two weakly correlated signals, wherein a first signal of the weakly correlated signals is received on a first input of the two receive inputs and a second signal of the weakly correlated signals is received on a second input of the two receive inputs; a balanced amplifier system for dividing, amplifying, and recombining the two weakly correlated signals, the balanced amplifier comprises: a splitter having a first input for receiving the first signal and a second input for receiving the second signal, and first and second outputs, wherein the splitter is configured to provide one half the power of the first signal to the first output and one half the power of the first signal to the second output, wherein the splitter is further configured to provide one half the power of the second signal to the first output and one half the power of the second signal to the second output; a first amplifier having an input and an output, wherein the input is coupled to the first output of the splitter a second amplifier having an input and an output, wherein the input of the second amplifier is coupled to the second output of the splitter a combining circuit having first and second inputs coupled to the outputs of the first and second amplifiers respectively, and first and second outputs, wherein the combining circuit is configured to recombine the first signal from the outputs of the first and second amplifiers and to recombine the second signal from the outputs of the first and second amplifiers, wherein a recombined, amplified, first signal is provided at the first output of recombining circuit and a recombined, amplified second signal is provided at the second output of the recombining circuit; and a two antenna array having a first antenna element coupled to the first output of the combining circuit and a second antenna element coupled to the second output of the combining circuit for radiating the amplified signals; wherein the transmit system capable of switched operation between unicast and multicast transmissions; wherein the input power is distributed to the first signal is a·Pin and the input power distributed to the second signal is (1−a)·Pin; wherein in unicast mode a is greater than 0 and less than 1; wherein in multicast mode a is equal to 1; and wherein Pin is the total input power.