Patent ID: 7079818

Claim:
A transmitter having a programmable amplifier comprises: up-conversion module operably coupled to produce a radio frequency (RF) signal from an I component of a low intermediate frequency (IF) signal, Q component of the low IF signal, an I component of a local oscillation, and a Q component of a local oscillation; programmable multistage amplifier, which includes a first programmable amplifier and a second programmable amplifier, to receive the RF signal and produce an outbound RF signal, wherein the first programmable amplifier is operably coupled to produce an amplified RF signal by amplifying the RF signal in accordance with a first gain control signal of a distributed gain control signal and the second programmable amplifier is operably coupled to amplify the amplified RF signal from the first programmable amplifier in accordance with a second gain control signal of the distributed gain control signal; and control module operably coupled to generate the distributed gain control signal by generating test signals to determine gain settings for the first and second gain control signals to optimize a power level, to optimize a noise level and to optimize a linearity of the outbound RF signal from the multistage amplifier, the control module to then combine the optimized gain settings from the test signals to obtain an operating gain setting for the distributed gain control signal based on preference over one of power level, noise level and linearity of the outbound RF signal from the multistage amplifier.