Power detection circuit and RF signal amplification circuit having the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9479133-B2
Application number	US-201414452138-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2014
Priority date	Aug 6, 2013
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

The present invention relates to a power detection circuit and an RF signal amplification circuit having the same. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a power detection circuit including a coupling unit adjacent to an RF matching inductor to extract induced power; a rectification unit for rectifying the signal output from the coupling unit to output the rectified signal; a slope adjustment unit connected between an output terminal of the rectification unit and a ground and adjusting a voltage slope for power detection by changing the output signal of the output terminal of the rectification unit according to changes in internal impedance; and a smoothing unit for receiving the output signal of the output terminal of the rectification unit to smooth the received signal into a DC voltage for power detection using the voltage slope is provided. Further, an RF signal amplification circuit having the same is provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A power detection circuit comprising:
a coupling unit adjacent to an RF matching inductor to extract induced power;
a rectification unit for rectifying a signal output from the coupling unit to output the rectified signal;
a slope adjustment unit connected between an output terminal of the rectification unit and a ground and adjusting a voltage slope for power detection by changing the output signal of the output terminal of the rectification unit according to changes in internal impedance; and
a smoothing unit for receiving the output signal of the output terminal of the rectification unit to smooth the received signal into a DC voltage for power detection using the voltage slope.

2. The power detection circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the slope adjustment unit has a variable resistor structure.

3. The power detection circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the slope adjustment unit comprises a resistor group consisting of a plurality of resistors connected in series and a MOS transistor(s) connected in parallel to each of at least some resistors of the resistor group to vary a resistance of the resistor group.

4. The power detection circuit according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a biasing unit for biasing the signal output from the coupling unit to provide the biased signal to the rectification unit.

5. The power detection circuit according to claim 4 , wherein the biasing unit comprises:
a voltage division unit for dividing a reference voltage; and
a voltage drop unit for generating a bias voltage by dropping the voltage divided by the voltage division unit, wherein the voltage drop unit drops an RF minimum input signal extracted by the coupling unit so that the smoothing unit output a predetermined DC voltage.

6. The power detection circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the coupling unit comprises a coil adjacent to the RF matching inductor to extract the power induced from the RF matching inductor and a termination resistor connected to a termination of the coil to adjust a coupling impedance.

7. The power detection circuit according to claim 6 , wherein the coil is formed to overlap in a vertical direction while being separated from an outer eddy conductive line of the RF matching inductor having an eddy structure.

8. The power detection circuit according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a blocking capacitor formed between the coupling unit and the rectification unit to block a DC component of a signal extracted by the coil.

9. The power detection circuit according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller for detecting the smoothed DC voltage and detecting power according to the voltage slope using the detected DC voltage.

10. The power detection circuit according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a controller for detecting the smoothed DC voltage and detecting power according to the voltage slope using the detected DC voltage.

11. The power detection circuit according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a controller for detecting the smoothed DC voltage and detecting power according to the voltage slope using the detected DC voltage.

12. The power detection circuit according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a controller for detecting the smoothed DC voltage and detecting power according to the voltage slope using the detected DC voltage.

13. An RF signal amplification circuit, having a power detection circuit, comprising:
an amplification block for receiving an RF signal to amplify the RF signal;
a matching block comprising an RF matching inductor and performing impedance matching of the RF signal amplified by the amplification block to output the impedance-matched signal; and
the power detection circuit according to claim 1 , which forms a coupling circuit with the RF matching inductor of the matching block the coupling unit and detects power by extracting power induced from the RF matching inductor.

14. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the slope adjustment unit of the power detection circuit has a variable resistor structure.

15. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the power detection circuit further comprises a biasing unit for biasing the signal output from the coupling unit to provide the biased signal to the rectification unit.

16. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the coupling unit of the power detection circuit comprises a coil adjacent to the RF matching inductor to extract the power induced from the RF matching inductor and a termination resistor connected to a termination of the coil to adjust a coupling impedance.

17. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the power detection circuit further comprises the controller for detecting a smoothed DC voltage and detecting power according to a voltage slope using the detected DC voltage.

18. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the matching block comprises:
a first matching inductor connected to an output terminal of the amplification block;
a second matching inductor as an RF matching inductor connected to the first matching inductor and coupled to the coupling unit of the power detection circuit; and
a matching capacitor connected between a ground and a node between the first and second matching inductors.

19. The RF signal amplification circuit according to claim 18 , further comprising:
a filter block comprising a noise removal capacitor for removing high-frequency noise included in the RF signal output from the matching block and a DC removal capacitor for removing a DC component included in the RF signal to output the DC component removed signal.

Assignees

• Samsung Electro Mech

Inventors

• Kim Ki Joong
• Kim Nam Heung
• Song Young Jean
• Han Myeong Woo
• Won Jun Goo
• Shinichi Iizuka
• Kim Youn Suk

Classifications

• H03F2200/105

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

• H03F3/21

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

• H03F2200/99

  A diode as rectifier being used as a detecting circuit in an amplifying circuit · CPC title

• H03G3/20

  Automatic control ({H03G3/005 takes precedence;} combined with volume compression or expansion H03G7/00) · CPC title

• H03F2200/465

  Power sensing · CPC title