Tunable inductor arrangement, transceiver, method and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11456102-B2
Application number	US-202117144289-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 8, 2021
Priority date	Oct 16, 2013
Publication date	Sep 27, 2022
Grant date	Sep 27, 2022

Abstract

A tunable inductor arrangement includes a first winding part connected at one end to a first input of the inductor arrangement, a second winding part connected at one end to the other end of the first winding part, a third winding part connected at one end to a second input of the inductor arrangement, and a fourth winding part connected at one end to the other end of the third winding part. For tuning, the inductor arrangement includes a switch arrangement switchable between a first setting series-connecting the first and third winding parts between the inputs, and a second setting series-connecting the first, second, fourth and third winding parts between the inputs. The first and third winding parts are arranged on a chip or substrate with essentially common magnetic fields, and the second and fourth winding parts are arranged to cancel electro-magnetic coupling with the first and third winding parts.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tunable inductor arrangement comprising:
a plurality of winding parts in a series arrangement between first and second inputs of the tunable inductor arrangement, the plurality of winding parts comprising:
a first end winding part connected to the first input;
a second end winding part connected to the second input; and
a plurality of further winding parts disposed in series between the first and second end winding parts; and

a switch arrangement configured to selectively short, as shorted winding parts, the plurality of further winding parts, for selecting between a first effective inductor having a first inductance and a second effective inductor having a second inductance that is reduced in comparison to the first inductance; and
wherein a spatial arrangement of the plurality of winding parts cancels electromagnetic coupling between the plurality of further winding parts and the first and second end winding parts, and wherein the spatial arrangement makes magnetic fields of the plurality of further winding parts cancel.

2. The tunable inductor arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the switch arrangement comprises a first switch connected such that the first switch shorts the plurality of further winding parts when closed, such that the second effective inductor comprises the first end winding part in series with the second end winding part.

3. A radio frequency transceiver comprising a resonator, wherein the resonator comprises the tunable inductor arrangement of claim 1 , wherein tuning of the tunable inductor arrangement by selecting the first effective inductor or the second effective inductor enables the resonator to selectably work at one of a plurality of resonating frequencies.

4. A communication device comprising the radio frequency transceiver of claim 3 , and a processor arranged to interact with the radio frequency transceiver, wherein the processor is arranged to control to the switch arrangement to select a tuning mode of the tunable inductor arrangement by controlling whether the first effective inductor or the second effective inductor is selected.

5. A multiband radio frequency receiver comprising:
a first receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a first frequency band; and
a second receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a second frequency band;
wherein the first frequency band operates at a higher frequency than the second frequency band; and
wherein each of the first and second receiver paths is arranged to selectively operate at a selected frequency band among a plurality of frequency bands and comprises a resonator comprising the tunable inductor arrangement of claim 1 , which resonator is arranged to be tuned for the selected frequency band.

6. A communication device comprising the multiband radio frequency receiver of claim 5 , and a processor arranged to interact with the multiband radio frequency receiver, wherein the processor is arranged to control to the switch arrangement to select a tuning mode of the tunable inductor arrangement by controlling whether the first effective inductor or the second effective inductor is selected.

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Mattsson Thomas

Classifications

• H10W20/497 Primary

  Inductive arrangements or effects of, or between, wiring layers · CPC title

• H10W20/40

  Interconnections external to wafers or substrates, e.g. back-end-of-line [BEOL] metallisations or vias connecting to gate electrodes · CPC title

• H01F27/2804

  Printed windings · CPC title

• H01F2021/125

  Printed variable inductor with taps, e.g. for VCO · CPC title

• H03J5/00

  Discontinuous tuning; Selecting predetermined frequencies; Selecting frequency bands with or without continuous tuning in one or more of the bands, e.g. push-button tuning, turret tuner (H03J7/00, H03J9/00 take precedence; for bandspreading H03J3/10) · CPC title