Up-converter and mobile terminal having the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11223322-B2
Application number	US-201815999316-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2018
Priority date	Feb 22, 2018
Publication date	Jan 11, 2022
Grant date	Jan 11, 2022

Abstract

A mobile terminal including an up-converter converting a baseband (BB) signal into a radio frequency (RF) signal and a controller controlling a voltage applied to the up-converter is provided. The up-converter includes a first transistor and a second transistor each having a gate to which a baseband voltage is applied, a third transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the first transistor, and a fourth transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the second transistor, and the up-converter and the mobile terminal with improved phase linearity characteristics may be provided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A mobile terminal comprising:
an up-converter converting a baseband (BB) signal into a radio frequency (RF) signal; and
a controller controlling a voltage applied to the up-converter; and
a first power amplifier and an nth power amplifier,
wherein the up-converter includes:
a first transistor and a second transistor each having a gate to which a baseband voltage is applied; a third transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the first transistor;

and a fourth transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the second transistor,
wherein the up-converter includes a first up-converter to an nth up-converter connected to the first power amplifier to the nth power amplifier, respectively and
the controller controls to remove charges during an OFF cycle of an LO pulse signal in the first up-converter and the nth up-converter.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , further comprising:
a fifth transistor having a source connected in series to the drain of the first transistor and outputting a first RF signal through a drain; and
a sixth transistor having a source connected in series to the drain of the second transistor and outputting a second RF signal through a drain.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 2 , further comprising:
a seventh transistor having a source connected to the drain of the third transistor and a drain connected to the drain of the sixth transistor; and
an eighth transistor having a source connected to the drain of the fourth transistor and a drain connected to the drain of the fifth transistor.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3 , wherein the controller controls the up-converter to apply
VBB+ and VBB− voltages to the gate of the first transistor and the gate of the second transistor, respectively,
a V2LO voltage to the gates of the third transistor and the fourth transistor,
a VLO+ voltage to the gates of the fifth transistor and the sixth transistor, and
a VLO− voltage to the gates of the seventh transistor and the eighth transistor.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 4 , wherein
the VLO+ voltage is applied in the form of an LO pulse signal, and
before the LO pulse signal is generated and applied to the gates of the fifth transistor and the sixth transistor, the V2LO voltage is pulled low to below a threshold value to perform charge removal during an OFF cycle of the LO pulse signal.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 4 , further comprising:
a buffer circuit providing the V2LO voltage to the gates of the third and fourth transistors,
wherein the buffer circuit includes:
a logical circuit performing NOR operation on logical inputs LO and Lox; and
first to fourth transition transistors connected in parallel to outputs of the logical circuit,
an output of the buffer circuit corresponding to the V2LO voltage is provided to the up-converter, and
the first to fourth transition transistors enable fast transition of the V2LO voltage from a high state to a low state.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 2 , wherein
the first RF signal is an in-phase (I) channel signal, the second RF signal is a quadrature-phase (Q) channel signal, and
the first RF signal and the second RF signal are applied to a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier, respectively, and a signal amplified and combined through the first power amplifier and the second power amplifier is transmitted through an antenna.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 1 , wherein
the controller controls ON/OFF of an electrical connection between the third transistor and the fourth transistor and a first transistor and a second transistor of each of first to nth up-converters.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 4 , wherein
the third transistor and the fourth transistor are disposed outside of the first up-converter to the nth up-converter, and
the controller selects an up-converter required to quickly transition from a high state of the V2LO voltage to a low state during an OFF cycle of the LO pulse signal, among the first up-converter to the nth up-converter, and
control an electrical connection of the third transistor and the fourth transistor and the first transistor and the second transistor of the selected up-converter, to an ON state.

10. An up-converter for converting a baseband signal into a radio frequency (RF) signal, the up-converter comprising:
a first transistor and a second transistor each having a gate to which a baseband voltage is applied;
a third transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the first transistor;
a fourth transistor having a drain connected in parallel to a drain of the second transistor;
a fifth transistor having a source connected in series to the drain of the first transistor and outputting a first RF signal through a drain; and
a sixth transistor having a source connected in series to the drain of the second transistor and outputting a second RF signal through a drain, wherein a V2LO voltage is applied to gates of the third transistor and the fourth transistor, and a VLO+ voltage is applied to gates of the fifth transistor and the sixth transistor,
wherein the drain of the first transistor and the drain of the second transistor output a first RF signal and a second RF signal through a transistor connected in series, respectively,
wherein the VLO+ voltage is applied in the form of an LO pulse signal, and
before the LO pulse signal is generated and applied to the gates of the fifth transistor and the sixth transistor, the V2LO voltage is pulled low to below a threshold value to perform charge removal during an OFF cycle of the LO pulse signal.

11. The up-converter of claim 10 , further comprising:
a seventh transistor having a source connected in parallel to the drain of the third transistor and a drain connected in parallel to the drain of the sixth transistor; and
an eighth transistor having a source connected in parallel to the drain of the fourth transistor and a drain connected in parallel to the drain of the fifth transistor.

12. The up-converter of claim 11 , wherein
VBB+ and VBB− voltages are applied to the gate of the first transistor and the gate of the second transistor, respectively,
a VLO− voltage is applied to the gates of the seventh transistor and the eighth transistor.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Toivonen Ossi
• Vilhonen Sami

Classifications

• H03C3/08 Primary

  Modifications of modulator to linearise modulation, e.g. by feedback, and clearly applicable to more than one type of modulator · CPC title

• H03D7/1466

  Passive mixer arrangements · CPC title

• H03D7/16

  Multiple-frequency-changing · CPC title

• H03D7/165

  at least two frequency changers being located in different paths, e.g. in two paths with carriers in quadrature (combined with amplitude demodulation H03D1/2245, combined with angle demodulation H03D3/007; N-path filters H03H19/002) · CPC title

• H04B1/30

  for homodyne or synchrodyne receivers (demodulator circuits H03D1/22) · CPC title