State change stabilization in a phase shifter/attenuator circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9634650-B2
Application number	US-201514752353-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

An electronic system that includes a digitally selectable phase shifter circuit and an insertion loss fine adjustment circuit such that the system as a whole exhibits little or no change in insertion loss when changing phase state, and/or a digitally selectable attenuator circuit and a phase fine adjustment circuit such that the system as a whole exhibits little or no effect on phase when changing attenuation state. Included are methods for selecting adjustment control words for such circuits.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A radio frequency electronic circuit, including:
(a) a phase shifter circuit for modifying the phase of an applied radio frequency signal in response to applied phase state control words; and
(b) a fine adjustment circuit coupled to the phase shifter circuit, the fine adjustment circuit including an attenuator circuit for providing selectable attenuation as a function of the applied phase state control words to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words.

2. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the attenuation of the attenuator circuit is selected by adjustment control words applied to the fine adjustment circuit.

3. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 2 , further including an adjustment control circuit coupled to the fine adjustment circuit for applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit.

4. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 3 , wherein the adjustment control circuit includes a look-up table that maps the applied phase state control words to at least one set of adjustment control words.

5. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 4 , wherein the adjustment control circuit is coupled to an external source of adjustment control words, and further includes a multiplexer for selectably applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit from one of the look-up table or the external source of adjustment control words.

6. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein providing selectable attenuation to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words includes applying a level of attenuation to those phase states having better insertion loss that is greater than the level of attenuation applied to those phase states having worse insertion loss.

7. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the step size of the attenuation provided by the attenuator circuit is less than about 0.5 dB.

8. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 1 , wherein the attenuator circuit includes a plurality of selectable attenuators.

9. A radio frequency electronic circuit, including:
(a) an attenuator circuit for selectively attenuating an applied radio frequency signal in response to applied attenuation state control words; and
(b) a fine adjustment circuit coupled to the attenuator circuit, the fine adjustment circuit including a phase shifter circuit for providing a selectable phase shift adjustment as a function of the applied attenuation state control words to substantially equalize phase variations between attenuation states selected by the applied attenuation control words.

10. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 9 , wherein the phase shift adjustment of the phase shifter circuit is selected by adjustment control words applied to the fine adjustment circuit.

11. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 10 , further including an adjustment control circuit coupled to the fine adjustment circuit for applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit.

12. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 11 , wherein the adjustment control circuit includes a look-up table that maps the applied attenuation state control words to at least one set of adjustment control words.

13. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 12 , wherein the adjustment control circuit is coupled to an external source of adjustment control words, and further includes a multiplexer for selectably applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit from one of the look-up table or the external source of adjustment control words.

14. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 9 , wherein the step size of the phase shift provided by the phase shifter circuit is less than or equal to about 2.5 degrees of phase.

15. A radio frequency electronic circuit, including:
(a) a phase shifter circuit for modifying the phase of an applied radio frequency signal in response to applied phase state control words; and
(b) a fine adjustment circuit coupled to the phase shifter circuit, the fine adjustment circuit including a plurality of selectable attenuators for providing attenuation to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words;
wherein providing attenuation to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words includes applying a level of attenuation to those phase states having better insertion loss that is greater than the level of attenuation applied to those phase states having worse insertion loss.

16. The radio frequency electronic circuit of claim 15 , wherein the step size of the attenuation provided by the plurality of selectable attenuators is less than about 0.5 dB.

17. An electronic circuit for modifying an applied radio frequency, including:
(a) at least one of (1) a phase shifter circuit for modifying the phase of the applied radio frequency signal in response to applied phase state control words, and (2) an attenuator circuit for selectively attenuating the applied radio frequency signal in response to applied attenuation state control words; and
(b) a fine adjustment circuit coupled to at least one of the phase shifter circuit and the attenuator circuit, the fine adjustment circuit including at least one of (1) an adjustment attenuator circuit for providing selectable attenuation as a function of the applied phase state control words to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words, and (2) an adjustment phase shifter circuit for providing a selectable phase shift adjustment as a function of the applied attenuation state control words to substantially equalize phase variations between attenuation states selected by the applied attenuation control words.

18. The electronic circuit of claim 17 , wherein the selectable attenuation or selectable phase shift adjustment provided by the fine adjustment circuit is selected by adjustment control words applied to the fine adjustment circuit.

19. The electronic circuit of claim 18 , further including an adjustment control circuit coupled to the fine adjustment circuit for applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit.

20. The electronic circuit of claim 19 , wherein the adjustment control circuit includes a look-up table that maps at least one of the applied phase state control words or the applied attenuation state control words to at least one set of adjustment control words.

21. The electronic circuit of claim 20 , wherein the adjustment control circuit is coupled to an external source of adjustment control words, and further includes a multiplexer for selectably applying adjustment control words to the fine adjustment circuit from one of the look-up table or the external source of adjustment control words.

22. The electronic circuit of claim 17 , wherein providing selectable attenuation to substantially equalize insertion loss variations between phase states selected by the applied phase state control words includes applying a level of attenuation to those phase states having better insertion loss that is greater than the level of attenuation applied to those phase states having worse insertion loss.

Assignees

• Peregrine Semiconductor Corp

Inventors

• Allison Matt
• Shapiro Eric S

Classifications

• H03H7/25

  comprising an element controlled by an electric or magnetic variable (H03H7/27 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H03K5/08 Primary

  by limiting; by thresholding; by slicing, i.e. combined limiting and thresholding (H03K5/07 takes precedence; comparing one pulse with another H03K5/22; providing a determined threshold for switching H03K17/30) · CPC title

• H03H11/20 Primary

  Two-port phase shifters providing an adjustable phase shift · CPC title

• H03K2005/00286

  Phase shifter, i.e. the delay between the output and input pulse is dependent on the frequency, and such that a phase difference is obtained independent of the frequency · CPC title

• H03H11/24

  Frequency-independent attenuators · CPC title