Polar modulators for 1 and 2 GHz power amplifier correction

Modern RF power amplifiers face increasingly stringent demands on their distortion, cost and power consumption. The use of correction techniques can help, and many of these techniques require polar modulators. Polar modulators are described which operate at 1 GHz and 2 GHz, and allow 20 dB of magnitude variation and 360 deg of phase variation. Shutdown and phase swapping controls are also described. OIP3s are +20 dBm at 1 GHz and +17 dBm at 2 GHz, and group delays are below 2 ns. The parts are implemented in a 65 GHz f_T SiGe bipolar process