High-performance receiver architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11233536-B2
Application number	US-201816956738-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2018
Priority date	Mar 28, 2018
Publication date	Jan 25, 2022
Grant date	Jan 25, 2022

Abstract

A wireless communication device can include an antenna array configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals, RF circuitry, and digital baseband receive circuitry. The RF circuitry is configured to process the plurality of RF signals received via the antenna array to generate a single RF signal. The digital baseband receive circuitry is coupled to the RF circuitry and is configured to generate a downconverted signal based on the single RF signal, amplify the downconverted signal to generate an amplified downconverted signal, and convert the amplified downconverted signal to generate a digital output signal for processing by a wireless modem. The digital baseband receive circuitry further includes at least a first filtering system configured to filter the downconverted signal prior to amplification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communication device, comprising:
an antenna array configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals;
RF circuitry configured to amplify and combine the plurality of RF signals received via the antenna array to generate a single RF signal; and
digital baseband receive circuitry coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to:
generate a downconverted signal based on the single RF signal and a plurality of impedance values;
amplify the downconverted signal to generate an amplified downconverted signal; and
convert the amplified downconverted signal to generate a digital output signal for processing by a wireless modem,
wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry comprises at least one filtering system with a filtering pole, the filtering system configured to filter the downconverted signal using a variable capacitor of the filtering pole, prior to amplification, a frequency response of the filtering pole based on the plurality of impedance values.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry further comprises:
a downconversion mixer configured to receive the single RF signal via a first mixer input and generate the downconverted signal based on a local oscillator (LO) signal, the filtering pole coupled between outputs of the downconversion mixer.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one filtering system is configured to perform translational filtering of the single RF signal, the translational filtering based on a frequency of the LO signal.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 2 , wherein the RF circuitry comprises:
a plurality of low noise amplifiers (LNAs), each of the plurality of LNAs configured to receive one of the plurality of RF signals; and
one or more RF transmission lines (T-lines) electrically coupled to the plurality of LNAs and configured to combine one or more of the plurality of RF signals to generate the single RF signal.

5. The wireless communication device of claim 4 , wherein the downconversion mixer is configured to receive the single RF signal via a single RF T-line of the one or more RF T-lines.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 5 , wherein the single RF T-line is alternating current (AC) coupled to the first mixer input of the downconversion mixer.

7. A wireless communication device, comprising:
an antenna array configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals;
RF circuitry configured to process the plurality of RF signals received via the antenna array to generate a single RF signal; and
digital baseband receive circuitry coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to:
receive the single RF signal via a first mixer input of a downconversion mixer and generate a downconverted signal based on a local oscillator (LO) signal;
amplify the downconverted signal to generate an amplified downconverted signal; and
convert the amplified downconverted signal to generate a digital output signal for processing by a wireless modem,
wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry comprises at least a first filtering system configured to filter the downconverted signal prior to amplification, and

wherein the at least first filtering system comprises:
a variable capacitor electrically coupled to outputs of the downconversion mixer; and
an impedance device electrically coupled to a second mixer input of the downconversion mixer.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 7 , wherein the impedance device comprises a variable resistor.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 7 , wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry further comprises:
an amplifier configured to generate the amplified downconverted signal; and
at least a second filtering system electrically coupled to an output of the amplifier, the first and second filtering systems configured to filter out-of-band signals.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 9 , wherein the amplifier is a transconductance amplifier.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 9 , wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry further comprises:
a digital control circuit configured to receive the digital output signal and configure at least one filtering characteristic of the first and second filtering systems based on the digital output signal.

12. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the digital control circuit is configured to generate filter trim to adjust variable capacitance associated with the first and second filtering systems.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 9 , wherein the digital baseband receive circuitry further comprises:
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) electrically coupled to the second filtering system and configured to convert a filtered representation of the amplified downconverted signal to generate the digital output signal for processing by the wireless modem.

14. A method for processing radio frequency (RF) signals, the method comprising:
receiving at a plurality of low noise amplifiers (LNAs) of a wireless receiver, a corresponding plurality of RF signals;
combining, by a plurality of RF transmission lines, the plurality of RF signals at an output of the plurality of LNAs to generate a single RF signal;
downconverting, by a double-balanced mixer including a first input receiving the single RF signal and a second input coupled to an impedance device, the single RF signal to generate a downconverted signal based on a local oscillator (LO) signal;
filtering, by a filtering pole coupled between outputs of the double-balanced mixer, the downconverted signal to generate a filtered downconverted signal, based at least on an impedance associated with the impedance device; and
amplifying, by a baseband amplifier, the filtered downconverted signal to generate an amplified baseband signal.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the filtering is further based on a capacitance of a variable capacitor of the filtering pole.

16. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
filtering the amplified baseband signal using a second filtering pole coupled between outputs of the baseband amplifier, to generate a filtered amplified signal.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
converting, by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the filtered amplified signal to a digital signal for processing by a wireless modem.

18. The method according to claim 17 , further comprising:
adjusting one or more filtering characteristics of the filtering pole and the second filtering pole based on the digital signal.

19. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
amplifying at least one of the plurality of RF signals by an LNA of the plurality of LNAs to generate an amplified RF signal, wherein the amplified RF signal is output via an output impedance compensation path of the LNA.

20. A wireless device for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communications, comprising:
an antenna array; and
a plurality of baseband communication paths configured to receive a corresponding plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals via the antenna array, wherein each of the baseband communication paths comprises:
RF circuitry configured to amplify and combine a subset of the plurality of RF signals received via the antenna array to generate a single RF signal;
a downconversion mixer configured to generate a downconverted signal based on the single RF signal, a plurality of im

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Alam Mohammed
• Chen Yiwen
• Fernandez Ricardo
• Parkes Jr John J
• Riches James
• Schelmbauer Werner
• Schwartz Daniel
• Vicker Michael David
• Yang Dong-Jun

Classifications

• H04B7/0413 Primary

  MIMO systems · CPC title

• H04B1/26 Primary

  for superheterodyne receivers (multiple frequency-changing H03D7/16) · CPC title

• H04L25/0272

  Arrangements for coupling to multiple lines, e.g. for differential transmission · CPC title

• H04B7/0837

  using pre-detection combining (H04B7/0868 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04B1/18

  Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line (coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H) · CPC title