Patent ID: 7859337

Claim:
A Class-D amplifier, comprising: a) a wideband driver circuit, comprising: i) a first transmission line transformer; and, ii) a second transmission line transformer, an input of said first transmission line transformer being approximately 180 degrees out of phase from an input of said second transformer, the inputs of each of the transformers being derived from the same source; b) a first transistor (Q 1 ) having an input operatively connected to said first transmission line transformer; c) a second transistor (Q 2 ) having an input being operatively connected to said second transmission line transformer, wherein said first and said second transmission line transformers cooperate to provide a signal of sufficient magnitude to saturate their associated power transistors in the ON mode and to cut them off in the OFF mode with very small rise and fall transit times, thus providing high efficiency, and wherein i) said first transmission line transformer comprises a wideband Balanced-to-Unbalanced transmission line transformer (BALUN); and, ii) said second transmission line transformer comprises a wideband Unbalanced-to-Unbalanced transmission line transformer (UNUN); and, d) a differential amplifier connected to said first transmission line transformer and to said second transmission line transformer for providing said inputs of said first and second transmission line transformers.