Radio frequency front end module circuit incorporating an efficient high linearity power amplifier

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9608577-B2
Application number	US-201314033960-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 23, 2013
Priority date	Sep 23, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A novel and useful radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM) circuit that provides high linearity and power efficiency and meets the requirements of modern wireless communication standards such as 802.11 WLAN, 3G and 4G cellular standards, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc. The configuration of the FEM circuit permits the use of common, relatively low cost semiconductor fabrication techniques such as standard CMOS processes. The FEM circuit includes a power amplifier made up of one or more sub-amplifiers having high and low power circuits and whose outputs are combined to yield the total desired power gain. An integrated multi-tap transformer having primary and secondary windings arranged in a novel configuration provide efficient power combining and transfer to the antenna of the power generated by the individual sub-amplifiers.

First claim

We claim:

1. A radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM), comprising:
a TX/RX switch having a TX port, a RX port and an antenna port, said antenna port coupled to an external antenna;
a low noise amplifier (LNA) coupled to said RX port and adapted to amplify a signal received from said antenna; and
a power amplifier circuit including:
multiple sub-amplifier circuits that are coupled in parallel to each other, each sub-amplifier operative to provide a portion of the total power of said power amplifier;
wherein each sub-amplifier circuit comprises a high portion for handling peak signals and a low portion for handling average signals; wherein the high portion differs from the low portion by an amplification parameter;
a power combiner operative to combine the outputs of said high portions and low portions of each of said multiple sub-amplifier circuits to yield a single amplified output signal having a desired total power gain; and
wherein for each sub-amplifier, an output node of the high portion is coupled via a first path to the power combiner and an output node of the low portion is coupled to the power combiner via a second path; wherein the first path and the second paths do not include a one quarter wavelength transmission line and do not include a switch for disconnecting any of the high portion and the low portion from the power combiner.

2. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein said FEM is adapted to transmit and receive RF signals in a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

3. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein said FEM is adapted to transmit and receive RF signals in a 5 GHz frequency band.

4. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein said TX/RX switch, power amplifier and low noise amplifier circuits are fabricated using a semiconductor technology selected from the group consisting of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), Indium Gallium Phosphide (InGaP) and Gallium Nitride (GaN).

5. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein the outputs of said high portion and low portion of each sub-amplifier circuit are combined to yield a sub-amplifier output.

6. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein the power combiner comprises a transformer that comprises (a) high power windings that are coupled to high portions of the multiple sub-amplifier; and (b) low power windings that are coupled to low portions of the multiple sub-amplifier; wherein the low power windings are separated from the high power windings.

7. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein said FEM is adapted to transmit and receive modulated signals having relatively high peak to average ratios.

8. The RF front module according to claim 1 , wherein said FEM is adapted to transmit and receive signals conforming to a wireless standard selected from the group consisting of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11, third generation partnership project (3GPP) standard long term evaluation (LTE), IEEE standard 802.16, HDTV, 3G cellular, 4G cellular and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard EN 200 175-1.

9. The RF front end according to claim 1 wherein the high portion and the low portion differ from each other by amplifier class.

10. The RF front end according to claim 1 wherein the high portion is a class C amplifier and the low portion is either an A class amplifier or an AB class amplifier.

11. The RF front end according to claim 1 wherein high portion and the low portion differ from each other by backoff.

12. A radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM), comprising:
an RF switch coupled to one or more antennas and operative to receive and transmit RF signals in one or more frequency bands;
a power amplifier circuit adapted to receive a transmission (TX) RF input signal and generate an RF output signal input to said RF switch, said power amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of sub-amplifier circuits, each sub-amplifier circuit comprising a C class amplifier for handling peak signals and A or AB class amplifier for handling average signals; the outputs of said plurality of amplifiers of all sub-amplifier circuits being combined via paths that do not include a one quarter wave wavelength transmission line and do not include a switch for disconnecting any of the plurality of sub-amplifiers an output of the power amplifier to generate at least one power amplifier circuit output signal;
and
a low noise amplifier (LNA) adapted to receive an RF input signal from said RF switch and generate a reception/transmission (RX RF) input signal.

13. The RF front module according to claim 12 , wherein said RF switch, power amplifier and low noise amplifier circuits are fabricated using a semiconductor technology selected from the group consisting of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), Indium Gallium Phosphide (InGaP) and Gallium Nitride (GaN).

14. The RF front module according to claim 12 , wherein said FEM is adapted to transmit and receive signals conforming to a wireless standard selected from the group consisting of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11, third generation partnership project (3GPP) standard long term evaluation (LTE), IEEE standard 802.16, HDTV, 3G cellular, 4G cellular and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard EN 200 175-1.

15. The RF front module according to claim 12 , wherein said one or more frequency bands comprises 2.4 GHz.

16. The RF front module according to claim 12 , wherein said one or more frequency bands comprises 5 GHz.

17. A method of implementing a radio frequency (RF) front end module (FEM), comprising:
providing a transmission/reception (TX/RX) switch having a transmission (TX) port, a reception (RX) port and an antenna port, said antenna port coupled to an external antenna operative to receive and transmit signals in one or more frequency bands;
splitting a TX signal into a plurality of TX sub-signals;
amplifying each TX sub-signal individually utilizing a corresponding first amplifier operative to amplify low power portions of a sub-signal and a corresponding second amplifier operative to amplify high power portions of a sub-signal; wherein the first and second amplifier differ from each other by class;
combining, by a power combiner, the outputs of each first and second amplifiers for each sub-signal in said plurality of TX sub-signals to yield a single amplified signal having a desired total power gain;
wherein for each sub-amplifier, an output node of the high portion is coupled to the power combiner via a first path and an output node of the low portion is coupled to the power combiner via a second path; wherein the first path and the second paths do not include a one quarter wavelength transmission line and do not include a switch for disconnecting any of the high portion and the low portion from the power combiner;
and
providing a low noise amplifier (LNA) adapted to receive an RF input signal from said RF switch and generate an RX RF input signal for the PA.

18. The method according to claim 17 , further comprising fabricating said FEM entirely using an integrated circuit technology selected from the group consisting of complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), Indium Gallium Phosphide (InGaP) and Gallium Nitride (GaN).

19. The method according to claim 17 , wherein said FEM is adapte

Assignees

• Dsp Group Ltd
• Dsp Group Ltd

Inventors

• Mostov Alexander
• Anderson Sergey
• Suissa Udi
• Sima Ilya
• Bauer Avi

Classifications

• H10W72/5445

  being orthogonal to a side surface of the chip, e.g. parallel arrangements · CPC title

• H10W44/241

  for passive devices or passive elements · CPC title

• H10W44/234

  Arrangements for impedance matching · CPC title

• H10W44/206

  Wires · CPC title

• H10W44/501

  Inductive arrangements (H10W44/20 takes precedence) · CPC title