Adaptive Power Control Using Current Adjustment for Watt-Level Power Amplifiers in CMOS SOI

This brief demonstrates the effectiveness of utilizing a 4-bit current steering digital to analog converter (DAC) as an adaptive power controller to adjust the dc quiescent current of a linear power amplifier as a function of the input signal power. A custom made metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET), which is used as the amplifying transistor, and a current steering DAC have been integrated on the same substrate to minimize the...