When you think of power, you think
of watts. It’s a different story with RF PAs,
though. Not only is the gain of the amplifier
given in dB, but the power output
also is normally quoted in dBm. Get used
to it. Just as a reminder, the gain is computed
with the familiar formula:
dB = 10 log (Po/Pi)
Power output is computed with a
1-mW reference:
dBm = 10 log (Po/0.001)
Po = 0.001 log–1(dBm/10)
So you don’t have to get out the calculator,
you can find a few reference points
for your convenience in the table included
with the online version of this article at
www.electronicdesign.com.
See associated table