Hardware-Efficient Signal-Component Separator for Outphasing Power Amplifiers

Described herein is a fixed-point piece-wise linear (FP PWL) approximation technique for computations of nonlinear functions. The technique results in circuit designs having relatively few and simple arithmetic operations, short arithmetic operands and small-sized look-up tables and the circuits resultant there from can be efficiently pipelined to run at multi-GSamples/s throughputs. In one exemplary embodiment, the FP PWL approximation technique was used in the design of an energy-efficient high-throughput and high-precision signal component separator (SCS) for use with in an asymmetric-multilevel-outphasing (AMO) power amplifier. The FP PWL approximation technique is appropriate for use in any application requiring high-throughput, area and power constrained hardware implementations of nonlinear functions.