Amplifier circuit for compensating an output signal from a circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10469034-B2
Application number	US-201515767384-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2015
Priority date	Nov 9, 2015
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

An amplifier circuit ( 200 ) for compensating an output signal provided at an output ( 212 ) of a circuit ( 210 ) is disclosed. The amplifier circuit ( 200 ) comprises an output transmission line ( 230 ) connected between the output ( 212 ) of the circuit ( 210 ) and an output port ( 240 ) and an amplifier ( 220 ). The amplifier ( 220 ) comprises multiple sub-amplifiers ( 221, 222, 223, 224 ), inputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers ( 221, 222, 223, 224 ) are coupled to an input transmission line ( 250 ) for receiving an error signal; and outputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers ( 221, 222, 223, 224 ) are coupled at respective places along the output transmission line ( 230 ) to inject a compensation signal to the output port ( 240 ). The error signal is derived from a reference input signal and the output signal of the circuit ( 210 ), and is amplified in the amplifier ( 220 ) into the compensation signal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An amplifier circuit for compensating an output signal provided at an output of a circuit, the amplifier circuit comprising:
an output transmission line connected between the output of the circuit and an output port;
an amplifier comprising multiple sub-amplifiers for amplifying an error signal into compensation signals;
wherein inputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers are coupled to an input transmission line at different places with a distance between the different places along the input transmission line for receiving the error signal derived from a reference input signal and the output signal of the circuit; and
wherein outputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers are coupled to the output transmission line at different places with a distance between the different places along the output transmission line to inject the compensation signals to the output port.

2. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 , wherein the multiple sub-amplifiers are further configured to reduce backwards traveling of the compensation signal to the output of the circuit by configuring the number of sub-amplifiers, output currents from the multiple sub-amplifiers, and the distance between the different places along the output transmission line.

3. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 , wherein the distance between the different places along the output transmission line is a quarter wavelength at a center frequency of operating frequency band of the circuit.

4. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 , wherein the outputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers are connected directly to the output transmission line.

5. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 , wherein output currents from the multiple sub-amplifiers are bell-shape weighted according to a window function.

6. The amplifier circuit of claim 5 , wherein the window function is any one of Dolph-Chebyshev, Gaussian, Binomial, Hamming, or Blackman functions, or a combination thereof.

7. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 :
wherein segments of the output transmission line between the sub-amplifiers have the same characteristic impedance; and
wherein supply voltages for the sub-amplifiers are increased along the output transmission line towards the output port.

8. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 :
wherein the sub-amplifiers have same supply voltage; and
wherein characteristic impedance of segments of the output transmission line between the sub-amplifiers decreases along the output transmission line towards the output port.

9. The amplifier circuit of claim 1 , wherein the sub-amplifiers are unit-sized sub-amplifiers with same output current, or have discrete, small-integer sizes.

10. An electronic device, comprising:
an amplifier circuit for compensating an output signal provided at an output of a circuit, the amplifier circuit comprising:
an output transmission line connected between the output of the circuit and an output port;
an amplifier comprising multiple sub-amplifiers for amplifying an error signal into compensation signals;
wherein inputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers are coupled to an input transmission line at different places with a distance between the different places along the input transmission line for receiving the error signal derived from a reference input signal and the output signal of the circuit; and
wherein outputs of the multiple sub-amplifiers are coupled to the output transmission line at different places with a distance between the different places along the output transmission line to inject the compensation signals to the output port.

11. The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the electronic device is a radio frequency transceiver, a wireless communication device, a user equipment, a mobile device, a base station, or a radio network node.

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Hellberg Richard

Classifications

• H03F3/245

  with semiconductor devices only · CPC title

• H03F3/602

  Combinations of several amplifiers · CPC title

• H03F2200/451

  the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier · CPC title

• H03F2200/423

  Amplifier output adaptation especially for transmission line coupling purposes, e.g. impedance adaptation · CPC title

• H03F2200/195

  A hybrid coupler being used as power measuring circuit at the input of an amplifier circuit · CPC title