Patent ID: 8554158

Claim:
A method of reducing power consumption in a wireless communication transmitter power amplifier, comprising: providing a phase-modulated radio frequency periodic signal to a plurality of power amplifier cells; receiving digital amplitude modulation data; thermometer coding a first plurality of the modulation data bits; selectively activating one or more equally weighted power amplifier cells based on the thermometer coded modulation data bits; binary coding a second plurality of the modulation data bits; selectively activating one or more binary weighted power amplifier cells based on the binary coded modulation data bits; receiving an output power requirement indication; if the output power requirement exceeds a predetermined threshold, enabling the phase-modulated radio frequency periodic signal to all of the power amplifier cells; and if the output power requirement is less than the threshold, selectively gating the phase-modulated radio frequency periodic signal upstream of one or more final buffers associated with inactive power amplifier cells, to eliminate switching current in the buffers.