Digital multi-level envelope tracking for wide-bandwidth signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9438172-B2
Application number	US-201414499548-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2014
Priority date	Sep 29, 2014
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

Digital envelope tracking with multilevel supply voltages is performed for wide-bandwidth signals. A digital control component generates a digital control code that facilitates switching of resistor values of one or more resistors coupled between a power amplifier and a supply voltage of plurality of supply voltages. A driver component supplies an envelope voltage of the plurality of supply voltages for the power amplifier as a function of the digital control code.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for envelope tracking comprising:
a digital control component configured to generate a digital control code to switch resistances between a power amplifier and one of a plurality of supply voltages to generate an envelope voltage to the power amplifier;
a driver component configured to selectively supply the one of the plurality of supply voltages to generate the envelope voltage to the power amplifier based on the digital control code; and
a transition component configured to mitigate transitional noise that results from a transition between the plurality of supply voltages as a function of the digital control code by generating at least one additional transition step to the transition by digitally operating a switch from a first set of switches and another switch from a second set of switches concurrently.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital control component is further configured to switch from a first supply voltage to a second supply voltage of the plurality of supply voltages as a function of the digital control code, wherein the first and second supply voltages are different from one another.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of transistors configured to define the resistances based on one or more activated transistor combinations selected as a function of the digital control code.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital control component is further configured to generate the digital control code to indicate a difference in power signal levels from a previous level to a current level and facilitate a change in the envelope voltage to the power amplifier based on the difference by configuring a combination of parallel switches in a first plurality of switches or a second plurality of switches based on the digital control code.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first plurality of switches are coupled to a first supply voltage of the plurality of supply voltages and the second plurality of switches are coupled to a second supply voltage of the plurality of supply voltages that is different from the first supply voltage.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a mapping component configured to generate a set of tracking data to generate a code tracking map based on a sweep of an input power to the power amplifier for different digital control codes that control the resistances respectively and further based on a set of output data related to an output of the power amplifier.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the mapping component is further configured to determine at least one of an amplitude modulation behavior or a phase modulation behavior of the power amplifier and provide the at least one of the amplitude modulation behavior or the phase modulation behavior to a pre-distortion component that is configured to mitigate non-linearity of the power amplifier based on the at least one of the amplitude modulation behavior or the phase modulation behavior.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the digital control component is further configured to generate the digital control code based on an envelope tracking map to increase a linearity and an efficiency of the power amplifier, and is integrated on a same chip as other components of the system, including the driver component, without any external capacitors or inductors coupled thereto.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a non-linear correction component configured to determine a digital code differential based on a change between voltage samples of the power amplifier and reduce nonlinearity introduced in a sampling of a supply voltage with respect to a change of an power amplifier input signal by providing at least a portion of the digital code differential to a previous sample.

10. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the transition component is further configured to mitigate transitional noise that results from the transition between the plurality of supply voltages as the function of the digital control code by generating a pre-charging of the first set of switches that generate a first set of resistances of the resistances with a first supply voltage concurrently to an operation of a second set of switches that generate a second set of resistances from a second supply voltage.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a quantization component configured to maintain a set number of bits for quantization levels associated with switching of the resistances in the generation of the digital control code by the digital control component by assigning binary weighted cells to sets of transistor switches associated with the resistances and assigning at least a portion of the set number of bits to a thermometric decoding of a thermometric decoder.

12. A method for envelope tracking comprising:
generating, via a digital control component, a digital control code based on an envelope input signal;
generating a transition between a plurality of supply voltages for a power amplifier from a first supply voltage to a second supply voltage as a function of the digital control code;
generating an envelope voltage to the power amplifier from the second supply voltage; and
reducing a transitional noise that results from a transition among the plurality of supply voltages as a function of the digital control code by generating an additional transition step to the transition by digitally operating a switch concurrently from a first set of switches and another switch from a second set of switches.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
defining a resistor value of a set of resistors coupled between the first supply voltage or the second supply voltage and the power amplifier by combining a first set of parallel transistors or a second set of parallel transistors respectively as a function of the digital control code.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the generating the digital control code comprises generating a difference between a first code and a second code to facilitate a change in the envelope voltage.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
reducing the transitional noise that results from the transition among the plurality of supply voltages as the function of the digital control code by generating a pre-charging of the first set of switches coupled to the first supply voltage and the second set of switches coupled to the second supply voltage before the transition.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining whether to reduce the transitional noise that results from the transition among the plurality of supply voltages as the function of the digital control code by the generating of the pre-charging or the generating of the additional transition step based on a satisfaction of an inductance threshold.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein generating the envelope voltages to the power amplifier further comprises generating a switching loss that is more dependent upon a change in a bandwidth of the envelope input signal than a switching frequency of the transition.

18. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
predefining one or more transitions between the plurality of supply voltages based on an envelope tracking map, wherein the generating of the digital control code comprises generating a difference between digital control codes corresponding to the plurality of supply voltages.

19. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
generating an envelope tracking map with a set of tracking data to generate digital control codes that control resis

Assignees

• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Cohen Emanuel

Classifications

• H03F3/21

  with semiconductor devices only {(H03F3/245 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H03F1/0233 Primary

  by using a signal derived from the output signal, e.g. bootstrapping the voltage supply · CPC title

• H03F2200/102

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

• H03F1/025 Primary

  by using a signal derived from the input signal · CPC title