Patent ID: 7792505

Claim:
An apparatus for wirelessly transmitting data, comprising: a source of data to produce an input signal having an associated data rate; a variable bias circuit to generate a bias voltage; a power amplifier connected to the source and the variable bias circuit to amplify the input signal based on the bias voltage to produce an output signal; a power detector to generate a power measure of the output signal; and a processor connected to the power detector and the variable bias circuit to selectively control the variable bias circuit to lower the bias voltage based on the power measure and the data rate of the input signal, wherein the processor is arranged to estimate a transmission error measure from the power measure and wherein the processor is further arranged to compare the transmission error measure with a maximum allowable error that is associated with the data rate of the input signal, and to control the variable bias circuit to lower the bias voltage if the transmission error measure is lower than the maximum allowable error.