the embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustrate the best mode of practicing the invention . upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures , those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the invention and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein . it should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims . the present invention is designed to prevent burnout of power amplifiers . the most common implementation will be in wireless transmitters such as those used by mobile terminals or wireless modems ; however , any power amplifier may be protected from burnout through the teachings of the present invention . the present invention modifies a power amplifier into a power amplifier circuit 10 , such as illustrated schematically in fig1 . the power amplifier circuit 10 comprises a power amplifier ( pa ) 12 , a sensing circuit 14 , a processing circuit 16 , and a bias circuit 18 . the power amplifier 12 receives an rf in signal , amplifies it , and produces an rf out signal . the power amplifier 12 also receives a bias signal from the bias circuit 18 . in some embodiments , the bias circuit 18 may be incorporated into the semiconductor having the power amplifier 12 , but need not be . given the current desire to minimize extra components , it is possible that the power amplifier 12 , the sensing circuit 14 , the processing circuit 16 , and the bias circuit 18 are all printed as a single monolithic integrated circuit , but again , need not be . the power amplifier 12 may be a transistor cell array comparable to those illustrated in u . s . patent applications ser . no . 09 / 878 , 461 , filed jun . 11 , 2001 ; and ser . no . 09 / 952 , 524 , filed sep . 14 , 2001 ; and u . s . pat . nos . 6 , 265 , 943 ; 5 , 608 , 353 , and 5 , 629 , 648 , which are all hereby incorporated by reference . alternatively , the power amplifier 12 may be a single transistor , and will be represented as such in the subsequent figures . it is to be understood , however , that despite its representation as a single transistor , the power amplifier 12 may in fact be a transistor array as described in the previously incorporated applications and patents or any other transistor amplifier configuration available to those skilled in the art . the sensing circuit 14 is coupled to the rf out signal and detects whether the rf out signal has risen above a predetermined threshold . the predetermined threshold is , in an exemplary embodiment , set below a voltage at which extended operation would cause burnout of the power amplifier 12 . the sensing circuit 14 outputs a sensed signal to the processing circuit 16 when the predetermined threshold has been exceeded . the processing circuit 16 receives the sensed signal from the sensing circuit 14 and modifies the bias point provided by the bias circuit 18 so as to reduce the bias provided to the power amplifier 12 . this causes the power amplifier 12 to have a lower output , thus reducing the chance of burnout . the precise details of the sensing circuit 14 and the processing circuit 16 depend on the embodiment and will be explored further below . the bias circuit 18 may be of a number of different types as illustrated below . fig2 a illustrates a circuit level diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention with a first bias circuit 18 a . the rf in signal is coupled to the power amplifier 12 by a capacitor 20 . the rf out signal is generated by the power amplifier 12 . in the embodiment shown , the collector of a transistor q 1 , provides the rf out signal . a transistor q 3 , particularly the base - emitter junction of the transistor q 3 , is used as an avalanche diode to form the sensing circuit 14 . the base - emitter junction begins to pass current when the applied reverse voltage exceeds a predetermined threshold . in an exemplary embodiment , the predetermined threshold comprises approximately 8 v . the current rapidly increases from the microampere range to the milliampere range with a small increase in applied voltage above the conduction threshold . a resistor r 3 controls the magnitude of the current produced by the transistor q 3 . resistors r 3 and r 4 , along with capacitor c 2 , form a low pass filter for filtering the current pulses produced by the transistor q 3 . the filtered current is then applied to the current mirror 26 comprised of transistors q 4 and q 5 . the current flowing through q 4 is mirrored across to the transistor q 5 as a function of the respective sizes of the two transistors . to create the mirrored current , the output of the current mirror 26 ( transistor q 5 ) sinks bias current from bias circuit 18 a to ground that was destined for the power amplifier 12 . in particular , as current flows through the transistor q 5 , less current is presented to diode connected transistor q 2 . thus , less current passes through resistor r 1 for use by the power amplifier 12 . this reduces the bias on the power amplifier 12 when peak rf voltages start approaching the destruction limits of the power amplifier 12 . capacitor c 2 , along with resistors r 3 and r 4 , sets the loop response time . resistor r 3 is determined by the need to limit current spikes through transistor q 3 . the value of r 4 determines the rate at which current passes into the current mirror 26 . in an exemplary embodiment , the resistances of resistors r 3 and r 4 is 500 ω . the capacitor c 2 sets the loop time constant . in an exemplary embodiment , the capacitance of capacitor c 2 is 1000 pf for loop stability . where processing circuit 16 is integrated into the monolithic chip that contains the sensing circuit 14 and the power amplifier 12 , it may be desirable to split the capacitor c 2 such that a portion of the capacitance of the capacitor is off the semiconductor . it may be preferable to have a relatively long loop time constant . for example , if the loop time constant is short , an inductive pulse may be generated at the rf out port from the bias and / or matching network . this passes more current through the transistor q 3 , causing a regenerative oscillation . a longer loop time constant reduces the rate of change in the collector current of the power amplifier 12 and increases stability . a second bias circuit 18 b is illustrated in fig2 b . in this embodiment of the bias circuit 18 , as current increases in the transistor q 5 , the transistor q 6 turns off because no current flows in r 2 . as a result , the collector of the transistor q 2 has little or no current , and the power amplifier 12 has no bias input . thus , instead of shunting the current to ground , this embodiment significantly reduces or turns off the bias current entirely . for further information about the bias circuit 18 b , reference is made to commonly owned u . s . patent application ser . no . 09 / 467 , 415 , filed dec . 20 , 1999 , which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety . bias circuit 18 b is sometimes referred to as a buffered passive bias network . as would be appreciated , processing circuit 16 may be modified as needed to accommodate differing bias circuits 18 . in an alternate embodiment , the sensing circuit 14 may be formed by a string of diodes 28 a - 28 e as illustrated in fig3 . the number of diodes 28 is determined by the desired threshold voltage above which the feedback loop should be operative . as with the previous embodiment , in this embodiment , this value may be approximately 8 volts . fig4 illustrates yet another alternate embodiment of the sensing circuit 14 . in this embodiment , the diodes 28 of fig3 are replaced with diode connected transistors q 7 - q 9 . again , the number of diode connected transistors is determined by the desired threshold voltage above which the feedback loop should be operative . fig5 illustrates still another embodiment of sensing circuit 14 . in this embodiment , the transistor q 3 of fig2 a is replaced with a series of transistors that operate as diodes , much like in fig4 . however , a first transistor q 10 cooperates with resistors 54 , 56 to form a base to emitter multiplier circuit as is well understood . the resistors 54 , 56 act to increase the current that is available when the transistor q 10 does in fact turn on . transistors q 11 - q 13 act to increase the threshold voltage of the sensing circuit 14 so normal operation does not actuate the feedback . those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the preferred embodiments of the present invention . all such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow .