Output impedance compensation of a pseudo-envelope follower power management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9401678-B2
Application number	US-201414151167-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2014
Priority date	Apr 19, 2010
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A switch mode power supply converter, a parallel amplifier, and a parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit are disclosed. The switch mode power supply converter provides a switching voltage and generates an estimated switching voltage output, which is indicative of the switching voltage. The parallel amplifier generates a power amplifier supply voltage at a power amplifier supply output based on a combination of a V RAMP signal and a high frequency ripple compensation signal. The parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit provides the high frequency ripple compensation signal based on a difference between the V RAMP signal and the estimated switching voltage output.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. Circuitry comprising:
a switch mode power supply converter configured to generate an estimated switching voltage output, which is indicative of a switching voltage;
a parallel amplifier configured to generate a power amplifier supply voltage at a power amplifier supply output based on a combination of a V RAMP signal and a high frequency ripple compensation signal; and
a parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit configured to provide the high frequency ripple compensation signal based on a difference between the V RAMP signal and the estimated switching voltage output.

2. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the estimated switching voltage output is a delayed estimated switching voltage output and a controller is configured to temporally align the delayed estimated switching voltage output with respect to the V RAMP signal.

3. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the switch mode power supply converter comprises programmable delay circuitry configured to delay generation of the estimated switching voltage output by an alignment period to temporally align the estimated switching voltage output with the V RAMP signal.

4. The circuitry of claim 3 wherein the alignment period is set to minimize a peak-to-peak ripple voltage on the power amplifier supply voltage.

5. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit comprises a subtracting circuit configured to provide an expected difference signal based on the difference between the V RAMP signal and the estimated switching voltage output.

6. The circuitry of claim 5 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises:
a Z OUT compensation high pass filter configured to high pass filter the expected difference signal to generate an estimated high frequency ripple signal; and
a scalar circuit configured to scale the estimated high frequency ripple signal based on a scaling factor to generate the high frequency ripple compensation signal.

7. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit comprises a scalar circuit configured to scale an estimated high frequency ripple signal based on a scaling factor to generate the high frequency ripple compensation signal, wherein the estimated high frequency ripple signal is based on the difference between the V RAMP signal and the estimated switching voltage output.

8. The circuitry of claim 7 wherein the scaling factor is based on a band of operation of a radio frequency power amplifier.

9. The circuitry of claim 7 wherein the scaling factor is based on an estimated inductance associated with the parallel amplifier between frequencies of 10 MHz and 30 MHz.

10. The circuitry of claim 7 wherein the scaling factor is based on a scaled parallel amplifier output current estimate associated with the parallel amplifier.

11. The circuitry of claim 7 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a tune circuit configured to provide the scaling factor based on a difference between the V RAMP signal and the power amplifier supply voltage.

12. The circuitry of claim 11 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a subtracting circuit configured to subtract the power amplifier supply voltage from the combination of the V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal to provide a feedback signal, wherein the scaling factor is further based on the feedback signal.

13. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a V RAMP pre-distortion filter circuit configured to pre-distort the V RAMP signal to provide a pre-filtered V RAMP signal, wherein the combination of the V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal is based on a combination of the pre-filtered V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal.

14. The circuitry of claim 13 wherein the V RAMP pre-distortion filter circuit is further configured to pre-distort the V RAMP signal to provide a frequency response that is substantially flattened through a desired frequency range.

15. The circuitry of claim 13 wherein the V RAMP pre-distortion filter circuit is further configured to pre-distort the V RAMP signal to provide frequency peaking to compensate for a low pass filter effect of a combination of a power amplifier associated inductance and a power amplifier associated capacitance.

16. The circuitry of claim 13 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a summing circuit configured to add the pre-filtered V RAMP signal to the high frequency ripple compensation signal to provide the combination of the V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal.

17. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a pre-distortion subtraction circuit configured to subtract the high frequency ripple compensation signal from the V RAMP signal to provide a non-filtered parallel amplifier output impedance compensation signal, such that the combination of the V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal is based on the non-filtered parallel amplifier output impedance compensation signal.

18. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the parallel amplifier output impedance compensation circuit further comprises a V RAMP post-distortion filter circuit configured to filter a non-filtered parallel amplifier output impedance compensation signal, such that the non-filtered parallel amplifier output impedance compensation signal is based on the combination of the V RAMP signal and the high frequency ripple compensation signal.

19. The circuitry of claim 1 further comprising a coupling circuit coupled between the parallel amplifier and the power amplifier supply output.

20. The circuitry of claim 1 wherein the switch mode power supply converter is configured as a multi-level charge pump buck converter.

21. A method comprising:
generating an estimated switching voltage output, which is indicative of a switching voltage;
generating a power amplifier supply voltage at a power amplifier supply output based on a combination of a V RAMP signal and a high frequency ripple compensation signal; and
providing the high frequency ripple compensation signal based on a difference between the V RAMP signal and the estimated switching voltage output.

Assignees

• Rf Micro Devices Inc

Inventors

• Kay Michael R
• Khlat Nadim

Classifications

• H03F2200/102

  A non-specified detector of a signal envelope being used in an amplifying circuit · CPC title

• H03F2203/45544

  the IC comprising one or more capacitors, e.g. coupling capacitors · CPC title

• H02M3/07

  using capacitors charged and discharged alternately by semiconductor devices with control electrode {, e.g. charge pumps} · CPC title

• H03F2200/36

  the amplifier comprising means for increasing the bandwidth · CPC title

• H03F2203/45718

  the LC comprising a resistor as shunt · CPC title