Envelope tracking in connection with simultaneous transmission in one or more frequency bands

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9461590-B2
Application number	US-201414568313-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2014
Priority date	Dec 12, 2014
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

Envelope tracking (ET) is enabled in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission. One example system includes two or more power amplification components associated with distinct frequency bands, with at least one including a first power amplifier (PA) configured to operate in an ET mode, and at least one including a second PA configured to operate in an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation. A first DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide a first supply voltage according to the ET mode to each first PA, and a second DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide a second supply voltage according to the APT mode to each second PA. A control component is configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select on that basis one or more PAs, wherein the control component selects at most one of the first PAs and at most one of the second PAs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for envelope tracking (ET) in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission, comprising:
a plurality of power amplification components, wherein each power amplification component of the plurality of power amplification components is associated with a distinct frequency band, wherein each power amplification component of a first subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a first power amplifier (PA) configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to an ET mode of operation, wherein each power amplification component of a second subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a second PA configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation;
a first DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a first supply voltage according to the ET mode and coupled to each of the first PAs;
a second DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a second supply voltage according to the APT mode and coupled to each of the second PAs; and
a control component configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one or more PAs of the plurality of power amplification components.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more PAs comprise at most one of the first PAs and at most one of the second PAs.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least two of the plurality of power amplification components comprise both a first PA and a second PA.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control component is further configured to determine a set of predefined criteria, and wherein the control component selects the one or more PAs based at least in part on the set of predefined criteria.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise, for each of the one or more PAs, a first projected net current consumption associated with the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage to the first PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs and a second projected net current consumption associated with the second DC-to-DC converter providing the second supply voltage to the second PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first projected net current consumption is determined based at least in part on a first projected output power of the first PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs and on a second projected output power of the second PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the first and second projected net current consumptions are determined based at least in part on a comparison between the distinct frequency bands associated with each of the one or more PAs.

8. The system of claim 4 , wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to transmit a distinct input signal, wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise, for each of the one or more PAs, a set of signal characteristics associated with the distinct input signal, wherein the set of signal characteristics comprise one or more of a spectrum of the distinct input signal, a bandwidth of the distinct input signal, a contiguity of the distinct input signal, a number of spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, one or more distances between spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, or a modulation scheme associated with the distinct input signal.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the present transmission mode comprises an intra-band CA mode.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more PAs comprises a second PA of the set of second PAs when the bandwidth of the distinct input signal associated with the second PA exceeds a maximum supported bandwidth associated with the first DC-to-DC converter.

11. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first DC-to-DC converter is further configured to provide the first supply voltage according to the APT mode, wherein the control component is further configured to select, based at least in part on the set of predefined criteria, between the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage according to the ET mode and the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage according to the APT mode.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the present transmission mode comprises a single carrier mode, wherein the one or more PAs is a single PA, wherein the single PA is one of the first PAs when a projected output power of the single PA is above a threshold value, and wherein the single PA is one of the second PAs when a projected output power of the single PA is below a threshold value.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the present transmission mode comprises an inter-band CA mode, and wherein the one or more PAs comprise one of the first PAs and one of the second PAs, and wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to simultaneously transmit in the distinct frequency band associated with that PA.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the present transmission mode comprises a dual subscriber identity module (SIM) dual active mode, and wherein the one or more PAs comprise one of the first PAs and one of the second PAs, and wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to simultaneously transmit in the distinct frequency band associated with that PA.

15. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a third DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a third supply voltage according to a mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter, wherein the mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter is one of the APT mode or the ET mode, wherein each power amplification component of a third subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a third PA configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to the mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter, wherein the third DC-to-DC converter is coupled to each of the third PAs, and wherein the control component selects at most one of the third PAs.

16. A system for envelope tracking (ET) in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission, comprising:
a plurality of power amplifiers (PAs) configured to transmit in distinct frequency bands;
a first DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a first supply voltage according to an ET mode of operation;
a second DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a second supply voltage according to an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation;
a control component configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one of the plurality of PAs, and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one of the first DC-to-DC converter and the second DC-to-DC converter and an associated supply voltage; and
one or more switching elements configured to couple the selected DC-to-DC converter to the selected PA,
wherein the selected DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide the selected supply voltage to the selected PA.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the control component is further configured to determine a set of predefined criteria, and wherein the control component selects the selected DC-to-DC converter based at least in part on the predefined criteria.

18. The sy

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Langer Andreas

Classifications

• H03F3/211

  using a combination of several amplifiers (H03F3/60 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H03F1/0205 Primary

  in transistor amplifiers · CPC title

• H03F2200/111

  the amplifier being a dual or triple band amplifier, e.g. 900 and 1800 MHz, e.g. switched or not switched, simultaneously or not · CPC title

• H03F2200/336

  A I/Q, i.e. phase quadrature, modulator or demodulator being used in an amplifying circuit · CPC title

• H03F3/189

  High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers · CPC title