Front-end circuit for band aggregation modes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9660687-B2
Application number	US-201114346622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2011
Priority date	Sep 22, 2011
Publication date	May 23, 2017
Grant date	May 23, 2017

Abstract

A front-end circuit for a wireless communication unit includes at least two antenna feeds. At least one of the antennas is coupled to an antenna switch. The circuit comprises filters and duplexers and is prepared to operate a number of FDD frequency bands. Each FDD band comprises an Rx band for receive signals and a Tx band for transmit signals. The circuit provides a single band operation mode for each frequency band and aggregated band operation modes. In an aggregated band operation mode Rx signals can be received in two different frequency bands at the same time as well as Tx signals can be transmitted in at least one of the two different frequency bands. In addition, TDD bands as well as GSM bands are covered.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A front-end circuit for a wireless communication unit, the front-end circuit comprising a plurality of antenna feeds, each antenna feed assigned to a separate frequency range comprising at least one frequency band;
an antenna switch coupled to one of the antenna feeds;
a plurality of duplexers corresponding to a number of frequency bands, each duplexer coupled to one of the antenna feeds directly or by the antenna switch, wherein an antenna feed is selected according to a duplexer's assignment to one of frequency ranges;
matching circuits to allow matching within an aggregated band operation mode where two aggregated frequency bands are lying within the same frequency range, each of the duplexers of the aggregated band operation mode being coupled to one of the matching circuits; and
a core front-end module comprising a fundamental set of Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD) frequency bands and related duplexers, filters, antenna feeds for different frequency ranges and at least one antenna switch,
wherein the front-end circuit is configured to operate a number of Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) frequency bands, each FDD frequency band comprising an Rx band for receive signals and a Tx band for transmit signals,
wherein the front-end circuit provides a single band operation mode for each frequency band and aggregated band operation ,
wherein, in the aggregated band operation mode, at the same time, Rx signals are receivable in two different frequency bands and Tx signals are transmittable in at least one of the two different frequency bands.

2. The front-end circuit according to claim 1 , wherein each antenna feed is coupled to a separate antenna.

3. The front-end circuit according to claim 2 , wherein one of the antennas is a multiple band antenna configured to process at minimum two different frequencies.

4. The front-end circuit according to claim 3 , wherein each of the minimum frequencies is assigned to a fundamental or a harmonic of the multiple band antenna.

5. The front-end circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the front-end circuit is configured to transmit and receive signals in a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) frequency band in a TDD operation mode within a selected one of the frequency ranges, the circuit comprising a Tx filter for the TDD frequency band, the Tx filter being coupled to one of the antenna feeds by the antenna switch, and wherein the antenna feed is selected as to be assigned to the selected frequency range.

6. The front-end circuit according claim 5 , wherein the circuit and the antenna switch are configured to select one of the duplexers for propagating TDD Rx signals.

7. The front-end circuit according to claim 1 , further comprising matching circuits to allow matching within the aggregated band operation mode where two aggregated frequency bands are lying within the same frequency range, each of the duplexers of the aggregated band operation mode being coupled to one of the matching circuits.

8. The front-end circuit according to claim 1 , wherein one antenna feed is assigned to a frequency range centered at a FDD frequency band, and wherein a first band duplexer is coupled to the antenna feed.

9. The front-end circuit according to claim 8 , wherein the first band duplexer and a second band duplexer are coupled to the same antenna feed via another antenna switch or a diplexer.

10. The front-end circuit according to claim 9 , wherein the first and second band duplexers, the diplexer or the other antenna switch and a power amplifier are exclusively integrated on a separate module.

11. The front-end circuit according to claim 8 , wherein the first band duplexer and a third band duplexer are coupled to the same antenna feed via another antenna switch or a diplexer.

12. The front-end circuit according to claim 11 , wherein the duplexers, the diplexer or the other antenna switch and a power amplifier are exclusively integrated on a separate module.

13. The front-end circuit according to claim 8 , wherein a band duplexer and a band duplexer are coupled to the same antenna feed via another antenna switch or a diplexer.

14. The front-end circuit according to claim 13 , wherein the duplexers, the diplexer or the other antenna switch and a power amplifier are exclusively integrated on a separate module.

15. The front-end circuit according to claim 4 , wherein a diplexer, a triplexer, a quadplexers or another multiplexer is coupled between the antenna feed of the multiple band antenna and one or two antenna switches to passively separate between two frequency ranges assigned to the multiple band antenna.

16. The front-end circuit according to claim , wherein one of the aggregated band operation modes comprises operating in a frequency band of the core front-end module and a frequency band of the external signal path.

17. The front-end circuit according to claim 16 , wherein the external signal path is implemented on an additional module including further components that are integrated within that external signal path and chosen from filters, duplexers, diplexers, antenna switches and amplifiers.

Assignees

• ELLä JUHA
• Ikonen Pekka
• Schmidhammer Edgar
• Tikka Pasi
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• ELLä JUHA
• Ikonen Pekka
• Schmidhammer Edgar
• Tikka Pasi

Classifications

• H04B7/04

  using two or more spaced independent antennas · CPC title

• H04B1/40 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04L5/14

  Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex · CPC title

• H04B1/0064

  with separate antennas for the more than one band (H04B1/0053 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04B1/006 Primary

  using switches for selecting the desired band (H04B1/0057 takes precedence) · CPC title