Systems and methods for maximizing power efficiency of a digital power amplifier in a polar transmitter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10826738-B2
Application number	US-201916241842-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 7, 2019
Priority date	Jan 7, 2019
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A polar transmitter including a digital power amplifier cell that includes a first circuit and an amplifier circuit. The first circuit is configured to receive a phase modulated carrier signal and to generate a PMOS control signal and an NMOS control signal such that the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal have different duty cycles. The amplifier circuit is configured to receive the PMOS control signal at a PMOS transistor and the NMOS control signal at an NMOS transistor. The first circuit is configured to align the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal with respect to one another such that a time that the NMOS transistor and the PMOS transistor of the amplifier circuit are simultaneously conducting is minimized. The amplifier circuit is configured to generate an amplified modulated carrier signal in response to the PMOS and NMOS control signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A polar transmitter, comprising:
a digital power amplifier (DPA) cell, comprising:
a first circuit configured to receive a phase modulated carrier signal, wherein the phase modulated carrier signal comprises a first phase modulated carrier signal and a second phase modulated carrier signal, and the first circuit is further configured to generate a PMOS control signal and an NMOS control signal such that the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal have different duty cycles,
wherein the first circuit of the DPA cell comprises:
a logic circuit configured to receive the phase modulated carrier signal and configured to generate a first logic signal and a second logic signal such that the first logic signal and the second logic signal have different rise and fall times relative to one another and such that a rise time of the first logic signal exceeds a rise time of the second logic signal and a fall time of the second logic signal exceeds a fall time of the first logic signal, and,
wherein the logic circuit comprises a first logic PMOS transistor and a first logic NMOS transistor each configured to receive the first phase modulated carrier signal and wherein the logic circuit further comprises a second logic PMOS transistor and a second logic NMOS transistor each configured to receive the second phase modulated carrier signal;
and

an amplifier circuit having an output and comprising a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor, the amplifier circuit configured to receive the PMOS control signal at the PMOS transistor and the NMOS control signal at the NMOS transistor,
wherein the first circuit is configured to align the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal with respect to one another such that a time that the NMOS transistor and the PMOS transistor of the amplifier circuit are simultaneously conducting is minimized, and
wherein the amplifier circuit is further configured to generate an amplified modulated carrier signal at the output of the amplifier circuit in response to the PMOS and NMOS control signals from the first circuit.

2. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the amplified modulated carrier signal has a duty cycle of approximately 50 percent.

3. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the first circuit is configured to align the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal with respect to one another such that the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal are operative to prevent the PMOS transistor and the NMOS transistor from conducting at the same time.

4. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the PMOS control signal has a duty cycle greater than a duty cycle of the NMOS control signal.

5. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the logic circuit is configured such that the first logic PMOS transistor conducts more slowly in response to the first phase modulated carrier signal than the second logic PMOS transistor conducts in response to the second phase modulated carrier signal, causing the rise time of the first logic signal to exceed the rise time of the second logic signal.

6. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the logic circuit is configured such that the second logic NMOS transistor conducts more slowly in response to the second phase modulated carrier signal than the first logic NMOS transistor conducts in response to the first phase modulated carrier signal, causing the fall time of the second logic signal to exceed the fall time of the first logic signal.

7. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the logic circuit comprises MOSFET transistors, and the MOSFET transistors comprise at least the first logic PMOS transistor, the first logic NMOS transistor, the second logic PMOS transistor, and the second logic NMOS transistor, and wherein at least one MOSFET transistor of the MOSFET transistors is configured to, when conducting, present a series resistance to at least one other MOSFET transistor of the MOSFET transistors of the logic circuit, wherein the series resistance when present contributes to the first logic signal and the second logic signal having different rise and fall times relative to one another.

8. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the first circuit of the DPA cell further comprises:
a driver circuit coupled to the logic circuit and configured to receive the first logic signal and the second logic signal and configured to generate the PMOS control signal and the NMOS control signal having the different duty cycles, such that a duty cycle of the PMOS control signal exceeds a duty cycle of the NMOS control signal based on the different rise and fall times of the first logic signal and the second logic signal relative to one another.

9. The polar transmitter of claim 1 , further comprising:
a digital power amplifier (DPA), the DPA comprising:
a plurality of DPA cells configured to receive the phase modulated carrier signal, wherein the plurality of DPA cells comprises the DPA cell.

10. The polar transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the polar transmitter shares resources with a polar receiver and wherein the plurality of DPA cells are configured to receive an enable signal for the DPA that is operative to (a) activate the DPA on when the polar transmitter is operational and transmitting and to (b) turn the DPA off when the polar receiver is operational and receiving.

11. The polar transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of DPA cells are configured to receive an amplitude codeword signal that is operative to set a gain of the DPA by selectively engaging various DPA cells of the plurality of DPA cells.

12. The polar transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of DPA cells, including the DPA cell, are further configured to receive a respective bit of an amplitude codeword signal to selectively engage a subset of DPA cells of the plurality of DPA cells,
wherein the selectively engaged subset of DPA cells of the plurality of DPA cells is configured to contribute to a combined amplified modulated carrier signal that comprises, when the DPA cell is engaged by its respective bit of the amplitude codeword signal, the amplified modulated carrier signal generated by the amplifier circuit of the DPA cell.

13. The polar transmitter of claim 9 , wherein the digital power amplifier (DPA) further comprises:
a plurality of parallel DPA cells configured to receive another phase modulated carrier signal, wherein the another phase modulated carrier signal is 180 degrees out of phase with the phase modulated carrier signal.

14. The polar transmitter of claim 12 , wherein the combined amplified modulated carrier signal has a phase determined by the phase modulated carrier signal and has an amplitude determined by a size of the selectively engaged subset of DPA cells of the plurality of DPA cells.

15. The polar transmitter of claim 12 , wherein the combined amplified modulated carrier signal has a duty cycle of approximately 50 percent.

16. The polar transmitter of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of DPA cells are configured to generate a combined amplified modulated carrier signal and the plurality of parallel DPA cells are configured to generate a parallel combined amplified modulated carrier signal, and
wherein the combined amplified modulated carrier signal has a phase determined by the phase modulated carrier signal and the parallel combined amplified modulated carrier signal has a parallel phase determined by the another phase modulated carrier signal, such that the parallel combined amplified modulated carrier signal is 180 degrees out of phase with the combined amplified modulated carrier s

Assignees

• Innophase Inc

Inventors

• Pan Jun
• Xu Yang

Classifications

• H03F1/0277

  Selecting one or more amplifiers from a plurality of amplifiers · CPC title

• H03F2200/541

  Transformer coupled at the output of an amplifier · CPC title

• H03F2200/451

  the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier · CPC title

• H04L27/2017

  in which the phase changes are non-linear, e.g. generalized and Gaussian minimum shift keying, tamed frequency modulation (H04L27/201 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L27/3405

  Modifications of the signal space to increase the efficiency of transmission, e.g. reduction of the bit error rate, bandwidth, or average power · CPC title