CN113271113B

CN113271113B - Radio frequency system, radio frequency assembly and communication equipment

Info

Publication number: CN113271113B
Application number: CN202110620586.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李宏源
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-03
Filing date: 2021-06-03
Publication date: 2022-08-09
Anticipated expiration: 2041-06-03
Also published as: CN113271113A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application relates to a radio frequency system, a radio frequency assembly and communication equipment, wherein the radio frequency system comprises a processor, a radio frequency front end module, a channel switching module and M antennas, wherein the channel switching module is respectively connected with the radio frequency front end module and the M antennas and respectively conducts signal receiving and transmitting channels between the radio frequency front end module and the antennas; the processor is connected with the path switching module and is configured to: selecting N antennas from the M antennas to form a plurality of first antenna groups, and controlling a channel switching module to conduct a first receiving channel between a radio frequency front-end module and any one first antenna group to realize multi-channel receiving of a first radio frequency signal; j antennas are selected from the rest M-N antennas to form at least one second antenna group, the control path switching module conducts a second receiving path between the radio frequency front end module and any one second antenna group to realize downlink carrier aggregation, J is larger than or equal to 2 and smaller than or equal to N and smaller than or equal to 4 and smaller than or equal to M, and M, N, J are integers.

Description

Radio frequency system, radio frequency assembly and communication equipment

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of radio frequency communication, in particular to a radio frequency system, a radio frequency assembly and communication equipment.

Background

A Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) is a mobile signal access device for receiving and forwarding a mobile signal as a WIFI signal, and is also a device for converting a high-speed signal, such as a 4G or 5G signal, into a WIFI signal. The customer premises equipment is usually configured with a plurality of antennas, and better signal transceiving quality is achieved through antenna selection, however, this also results in lower utilization rate of the antennas in the customer premises equipment, thereby increasing the system overhead of the customer premises equipment.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a radio frequency system, a radio frequency assembly and communication equipment, which can optimize the utilization rate of an antenna in customer premises equipment.

A radio frequency system comprises a processor, a radio frequency front end module, a channel switching module and M antennas, wherein the channel switching module is respectively connected with the radio frequency front end module and the M antennas and respectively conducts signal receiving and transmitting channels between the radio frequency front end module and the antennas;

the processor is connected with the path switching module and is configured to:

selecting N antennas from the M antennas to form a plurality of first antenna groups, and controlling the path switching module to conduct a first receiving path between the radio frequency front-end module and any one first antenna group to realize multi-path receiving of a first radio frequency signal;

selecting J antennas from the remaining M-N antennas to form at least one second antenna group, controlling the path switching module to conduct a second receiving path between the radio frequency front end module and any one second antenna group to realize downlink carrier aggregation, wherein J is more than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to N and less than or equal to 4 and less than or equal to M, and M, N, J are integers.

A radio frequency assembly, comprising:

a radio frequency board and an antenna board electrically connected;

according to the radio frequency system, the radio frequency front-end module and the processor in the radio frequency system are arranged on the radio frequency board, and the plurality of antennas in the radio frequency system are respectively arranged on the antenna board.

A communication device comprising a radio frequency system as described above.

The radio frequency system comprises a processor, a radio frequency front end module, a channel switching module and M antennas, wherein the channel switching module is respectively connected with the radio frequency front end module and the M antennas and respectively conducts signal transceiving channels between the radio frequency front end module and the antennas; the processor is connected with the path switching module and is configured to: selecting N antennas from the M antennas to form a plurality of first antenna groups, and controlling the path switching module to conduct a first receiving path between the radio frequency front-end module and any one first antenna group to realize multi-path receiving of a first radio frequency signal; selecting J antennas from the remaining M-N antennas to form at least one second antenna group, controlling the path switching module to conduct a second receiving path between the radio frequency front end module and any one second antenna group to realize downlink carrier aggregation, wherein J is more than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to N and less than or equal to 4 and less than or equal to M, and M, N, J are integers. In the embodiment of the application, any first antenna group is selected first, and the reception of the first radio frequency signal is performed based on the N antennas in the first antenna group, so that the receiving speed and the receiving quality of the radio frequency system for the first radio frequency signal can be ensured, further, any second antenna group selected from the remaining M-N antennas is selected, and the downlink carrier aggregation signal is received based on the J antennas in the second antenna group, so that not only can the excessive antennas be prevented from being in an idle state, but also the radio frequency system can simultaneously receive the first radio frequency signal and the downlink carrier aggregation signal, thereby effectively expanding the signal receiving function of the radio frequency system and improving the signal transmission efficiency of the radio frequency system. Namely, the embodiment of the application provides a radio frequency system with a high antenna utilization rate.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or related technologies of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or related technologies are briefly introduced below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a radio frequency system;

FIG. 2 is a second block diagram of the RF system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a third block diagram of an exemplary RF system;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a RF system;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a radio frequency system;

FIG. 6 is a sixth block diagram illustrating an exemplary RF system;

FIG. 7 is a seventh block diagram illustrating the structure of the RF system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is an eighth block diagram illustrating the architecture of an exemplary RF system;

FIG. 9 is a ninth block diagram illustrating an exemplary RF system;

fig. 10 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a radio frequency assembly.

Element number description:

a processor: 100, respectively; a radio frequency transceiver: 110; a switching control module: 120 of a solvent; a baseband processor: 130, 130; a radio frequency front end module: 200 of a carrier; the radio frequency transceiving unit: 210; the first receiving circuit: 211; a frequency division receiving circuit: 212; a first filter: 2121; a second filter: 2122; a second radio frequency switch: 213; the aggregation transmitting circuit: 220, 220; a path switching module: 300, respectively; a first radio frequency switch: 301; a radio frequency board: 11; an antenna plate: 12.

Detailed Description

To facilitate an understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the embodiments of the present application will be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present application are shown in the drawings. The embodiments of the present application may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments of this application belong. The terminology used herein in the description of the embodiments of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the embodiments of the present application. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, it is to be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on methods or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only used for convenience in describing the embodiments of the present application and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have specific orientations, be constructed in specific orientations, and be operated, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

It will be understood that, as used herein, the terms "first," "second," and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, but these elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, the first target state information may be referred to as second target state information, and similarly, the second target state information may be referred to as first target state information, without departing from the scope of the present application. Both the first target state information and the second target state information are target state information, but they are not the same target state information.

Furthermore, the terms "first", "second" and "first" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In the description of the present application, "a plurality" means at least two, e.g., two, three, etc., unless expressly specified otherwise. In the description of the present application, "a number" means at least one, such as one, two, etc., unless expressly defined otherwise.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an rf system according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 1, in the embodiment, the rf system includes a processor 100, an rf front-end module 200, a path switching module 300, and M antennas.

The path switching module 300 is connected to the rf front-end module 200 and the M antennas, and the path switching module 300 is configured to respectively connect signal transceiving paths between the rf front-end module 200 and the antennas. Specifically, the path switching module 300 may be configured with a plurality of signal transmission ports for connecting the rf front-end module 200 and a plurality of antenna ports for connecting antennas, and the number of the antenna ports is the same as the number of the antennas, and the M antenna ports are connected to the M antennas in a one-to-one correspondence. In this embodiment, the specific structure of the path switching module 300 is not limited, and the path switching module 300 may include a plurality of devices having a path switching function, such as a radio frequency switch, a multiplexer, and the like.

The rf front-end module 200 may include various devices for performing receive processing on rf signals, such as filters, Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs), power dividers, and so on. In this embodiment, the rf front-end module 200 may perform receiving processing on at least the first rf signal and the downlink carrier aggregation signal. Carrier Aggregation (CA) refers to a signal transmission mode between a User Equipment (UE) and an antenna array of a base station, and Carrier Aggregation technology can aggregate 2 to 5 Component carriers (Component carriers, CCs) together, thereby effectively widening the transmission bandwidth of a signal receiving path and increasing the transmission rate of signals. The downlink carrier aggregation refers to a transmission mode in which a base station sends a carrier aggregation signal to the user equipment, and after receiving the downlink carrier aggregation signal, the user equipment can split the downlink carrier aggregation signal based on a hardware structure in the radio frequency front-end module 200 to obtain signals of each member carrier frequency band respectively. The split signals of the multiple component carrier frequency bands are transmitted to the rf transceiver 110, so as to implement the downlink carrier aggregation receiving function. It is understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the user equipment refers to a client front-end device.

The M antennas may be directional antennas or non-directional antennas. Illustratively, each antenna may be formed using any suitable type of antenna. For example, each antenna may include an antenna having a resonating element formed from the following antenna structure: at least one of an array antenna structure, a loop antenna structure, a patch antenna structure, a slot antenna structure, a helical antenna structure, a strip antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, and the like. For example, the M antennas may be a 5G antenna, a 4G antenna, a WiFi antenna, a bluetooth antenna, and the like, and are used for correspondingly transceiving radio frequency signals in corresponding frequency bands. The number M of the antennas may be 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. to meet the communication requirement of the customer premises equipment.

The processor 100 is connected to the path switching module 300, and the processor 100 is configured to select an antenna group and control the path switching module 300 to conduct a corresponding signal receiving path according to the selected antenna group.

In particular, the processor 100 is configured to: selecting N antennas from the M antennas to form a plurality of first antenna groups, and controlling the path switching module 300 to turn on a first receiving path between the rf front-end module 200 and any one of the first antenna groups, so as to implement multi-path reception of a first rf signal. Since the first antenna group includes N antennas, each antenna can be understood as a receiving path through the path switching module 300, the rf front-end module 200, and the path to the rf transceiver 110. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, for simplicity of description, a plurality of receiving paths corresponding to N antennas in one first antenna group are collectively referred to as one first receiving path.

Taking 4 antennas shown in fig. 1 as an example, if 3 of the 4 antennas need to be selected to form the first antenna group, four first antenna groups may be formed: ANT1+ ANT2+ ANTM-1, ANT1+ ANT2+ ANTM, ANT1+ ANTM-1+ ANTM and ANT2+ ANTM-1+ ANTM. After the four first antenna groups are formed, one of the first antenna groups may be selected according to a preset rule to receive multiple paths of first radio frequency signals. It should be noted that the number of N may be set according to a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology that needs to be supported by the radio frequency component. For example, if the client front-end device needs to support 2 × 2MIMO, 2 antennas from M antennas need to be selected as a target antenna group to implement transmission and reception of radio frequency signals. If the client front-end device needs to support 4 × 4MIMO, four antennas from the M antennas need to be selected as a target antenna group to implement transmission and reception of radio frequency signals.

The processor 100 is further configured to: selecting J antennas from the remaining M-N antennas to form at least one second antenna group, and controlling the path switching module 300 to conduct a second receiving path between the radio frequency front-end module 200 and any one of the second antenna groups to implement downlink carrier aggregation, where J is greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to N and less than or equal to 4 and less than or equal to M, and M, N, J are integers. That is, all of the remaining M-N antennas may be selected to form one second antenna group, or some of the remaining M-N antennas may be selected to form a plurality of second antenna groups. It should be noted that a corresponding number of antennas may be selected to form the second antenna group according to the number of component carriers in the downlink carrier aggregation signal. For example, if three component carriers are included in the carrier aggregation signal, three antennas may be selected to form the second antenna group.

In this embodiment, any one of the first antenna groups is selected first, and the reception of the first radio frequency signal is performed based on the N antennas in the first antenna group, so that the reception speed and the reception quality of the radio frequency system for the first radio frequency signal can be ensured. Further, any second antenna group selected from the remaining M-N antennas receives the downlink carrier aggregation signal based on J antennas in the second antenna group. The method can avoid excessive antennas in idle states, and can enable the radio frequency system to receive the first radio frequency signal and the downlink carrier aggregation signal at the same time. Therefore, the signal receiving function of the radio frequency system is effectively expanded, and the signal transmission efficiency of the radio frequency system is improved. That is, the present embodiment provides a radio frequency system with a high antenna utilization ratio.

Fig. 2 is a second block diagram of the structure of the radio frequency system according to an embodiment, referring to fig. 2, in this embodiment, the processor 100 includes a radio frequency transceiver 110 and a switching control module 120 connected, and the radio frequency transceiver 110 is connected to the path switching module 300.

The radio frequency transceiver 110 is configured to: the path switching module 300 is controlled to switch to a preset state. Through the above operation of switching the path switching module 300 to the preset state, accurate basic state information of the path switching module 300 can be provided each time the antenna is switched, thereby ensuring accuracy of path switching and ensuring a good communication state.

The handover control module 120 is configured to: if the path switching module 300 is in a preset state, the path switching module 300 is controlled to conduct any one of the first receiving paths, so as to respectively obtain the test result of the communication quality of each first antenna group. By detecting the communication quality of each first antenna group, one first antenna group with the best communication quality can be selected for receiving, so that the receiving quality of the radio frequency system for the first radio frequency signal is improved. It can be understood that the communication quality of the first antenna group may be tested by any way of corner selection, edge selection, and the like, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit a specific way of testing the communication quality of the first antenna group. Any test method capable of obtaining the communication quality of each first antenna group respectively may be applied to the embodiments of the present application.

The handover control module 120 is further configured to: controlling the path switching module 300 to turn on a first target receiving path corresponding to a first target antenna group, where the first target antenna group is one of the plurality of first antenna groups determined according to the test result. The first target antenna group and the corresponding first target receiving path may be determined by the radio frequency transceiver 110, or the first target antenna group and the corresponding first target receiving path may be determined by another device (e.g., a baseband processor) having a data analysis processing function. The handover control module 120 is further configured to: controlling the path switching module 300 to turn on a second target receiving path corresponding to a second target antenna group, where the second target antenna group is one of the at least one second antenna group. Similarly to determining the first target antenna group, the second target antenna group may also be determined by the radio frequency transceiver 110 or other devices with data analysis processing functions. It should be noted that the device for determining the first target antenna group and the device for determining the second target antenna group may be the same or different, and this embodiment is not particularly limited.

In the present embodiment, the radio frequency transceiver 110 first sets an initial preset state of the path switching module 300 to select a preset antenna combination. The switching control module 120 can obtain the preset state and control the path switching module 300 based on the preset state, so that the accuracy and reliability of the subsequent path switching operation can be effectively improved. Moreover, the first target antenna group with better communication quality can be determined by testing and selecting the first antenna group, so that the receiving quality of the radio frequency system for the first radio frequency signal is greatly improved.

In one embodiment, the path switching module 300 may include a plurality of interfaces, and a plurality of pins of each interface may be connected to a plurality of antennas in a one-to-one correspondence. Illustratively, the plurality of interfaces may be Mobile Industry Processor 100 (MIPI) interfaces, and the corresponding control units thereof may be MIPI control units and/or GPIO control units. When the radio frequency path between the antenna group and the radio frequency front-end module 200 needs to be conducted, the MIPI control unit may correspondingly output clock and data signals to corresponding pins connected to each antenna in the antenna group. For another example, the plurality of interfaces may also be General-purpose input/output (GPIO) interfaces, and the corresponding control units thereof may be GPIO control units. When the radio frequency path between the antenna group and the radio frequency front end module 200 needs to be conducted, the GPIO control unit can correspondingly output a high level signal to the corresponding pin connected to each antenna in the antenna group.

In one embodiment, the switching control module 120 may be entirely virtual. Specifically, the control logic in the switching control module 120 may be migrated to the protocol layer, and the corresponding control function of the path switching module 300 may be completely performed by the protocol layer. Based on the above arrangement, the number of devices in the processor 100 can be reduced without sacrificing the control function, so that the integration level of the radio frequency system is improved, and a small-sized customer premises equipment can be provided.

Fig. 3 is a third block diagram of an embodiment of a radio frequency system, and referring to fig. 3, in this embodiment, the processor 100 further includes a baseband processor 130. The baseband processor 130 is connected to the switching control module 120. The baseband processor 130 is configured to: respectively obtaining the test result of the communication quality of each first antenna group; the first target antenna group is determined according to the test result, the first target state information of the path switching module 300 is determined according to the first target antenna group, and the first target state information is output to the switching control module 120. The baseband processor 130 is further configured to: determining the second target antenna group from the remaining M-N antennas, determining second target state information of the path switching module 300 according to the second target antenna group, and outputting the second target state information to the switching control module 120.

Specifically, the baseband processor 130 may obtain network information of each antenna group (including the first antenna group and the second antenna group), and analyze the network to determine a target antenna group. The network information may include, among other things, raw and processed information associated with wireless performance metrics of the received radio frequency signal, such as received power, reference signal received quality, received signal strength indication, signal-to-noise ratio, and so on. Illustratively, the network information is taken as the received power for illustration. The baseband processor 130 may rank the magnitudes of the signal-to-noise ratios Si of the radio frequency signals received by each antenna group, where i identifies the identification information of the antenna group, e.g., the signal-to-noise ratio of the first antenna group is S1, and the antenna group with the largest signal-to-noise ratio is taken as the target antenna group. After the baseband processor 130 determines the target antenna group, it may control multiple antennas in the target antenna group to be in a working state, so as to implement receiving control on the radio frequency signal.

Accordingly, the handover control module 120 is further configured to: after controlling the path switching module 300 to perform state switching each time, saving the current state information of the path switching module 300; and generating a signal carrying switching mode information according to the current state information and the received first target state information or second target state information to control the access switching module 300 to perform state switching.

In particular, the state information of the path switching module 300 may be used to identify the switch state of the path switching module 300. For example, the description will be given by taking two antennas of the radio frequency system, and the SPDT switch connected to the two antennas in the path switching module 300 as an example. The SPDT switch includes a single terminal, a first selection terminal and a second selection terminal, wherein the single terminal is connected to the rf front end module 200, the first selection terminal is connected to the ANT1, and the second selection terminal is connected to the ANT 2. The switch state of the path switching module 300 may be used to indicate the conduction state of the single terminal and the first selection terminal or the second selection terminal. Specifically, the state information of the path switching module 300 may be represented by a register value D, wherein the register value may be identified by 0 and 1. Exemplarily, when the register value is 1, it indicates that the single terminal of the current SPDT switch is conducted with the first selection terminal, that is, the receiving path of the ANT1 is turned on; when the register value is 0, it indicates that the single terminal of the current SPDT switch is turned on from the second selection terminal, i.e., the receiving path of ANT2 is turned on. Correspondingly, the register value 0 may be used to identify that the single terminal of the current SPDT switch is conductive to the first selection terminal, and the register value 1 may be used to identify that the single terminal of the current SPDT switch is conductive to the second selection terminal. It should be emphasized that the above-described SPDT switch is merely used for exemplary purposes and is not used to limit the scope of the present application.

The handover control module 120 may control the path switching module 300 to perform a corresponding handover according to the current state information of the path switching module 300 and the first target state information or the second target state information to be handed over. For example, if the current state information is the same as the target state information, the antenna before switching and the antenna after switching are determined to be the same antenna, and the switching control module 120 may not perform corresponding switching control on the path switching module 300, that is, maintain the current state of the path switching module 300. If the current state information is different from the target state information, it is determined that the antenna before switching and the antenna after switching are not the same antenna, and the switching control module 120 may control the path switching module 300 to conduct the path between the single terminal and the other selection terminal, so as to conduct the corresponding receiving path. Based on the control method, the accuracy of the conducted signal receiving channel can be ensured, and the switching frequency of the channel switching module 300 is greatly reduced, so that the overall power consumption of the radio frequency system is effectively reduced.

With continued reference to fig. 3, the handover control module 120 is configured to: outputting a switching indication signal carrying the switching mode information to the rf transceiver 110. The radio frequency transceiver 110 is configured to: outputting a switching control signal to the path switching module 300 according to the switching indication signal to control the path switching module 300 to turn on the first target receiving path and/or the second target receiving path. Alternatively, the rf transceiver 110 may perform certain signal processing on the received handover indication signal to generate the handover control signal. The signal processing may be, for example, adding another switching control instruction to the switching indication signal to implement a more complex control function. The rf transceiver 110 may also only forward the received handover indication signal, i.e. the handover control signal is the same signal as the handover indication signal. In this embodiment, the switching control module 120 controls the path switching module 300 through the rf transceiver 110, so that a control signal line does not need to be disposed between the switching control module 120 and the path switching module 300, thereby reducing the number of control signal lines in the rf system and further reducing the probability of interference between different control signal lines.

Fig. 4 is a fourth of the structural block diagram of the radio frequency system of an embodiment, referring to fig. 4, in this embodiment, the switching control module 120 is connected to the path switching module 300, and the switching control module 120 is configured to: outputting a switching control signal carrying the switching mode information to the path switching module 300 to control the path switching module 300 to turn on the first target receiving path and/or the second target receiving path. Wherein, when the rf switching module includes a plurality of devices, at least one of the plurality of devices is connected to the switching control module 120. In this embodiment, the switching control module 120 is directly connected to the path switching module 300 and performs corresponding control directly, so as to effectively reduce the signal transceiving pressure of the rf transceiver 110. It is understood that either one of the connection modes of fig. 3 and fig. 4 may be selected for setting according to the processing capability of the rf transceiver 110. It should be noted that, because the embodiment of fig. 4 has more corresponding signal traces, in order to present the drawings of the clearer embodiment, in the following embodiments, the embodiment of fig. 3 is taken as a basis to provide a more specific embodiment for description.

Fig. 5 is a fifth structural block diagram of the radio frequency system according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 5, in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, the radio frequency system is described by taking an example in which the radio frequency system includes 8 antennas. The path switching module 300 includes K first rf switches 301, where K is M/2 and K is an integer. In this embodiment, the path switching module 300 includes 4 first rf switches 301. Each of the first rf switches 301 includes two first ends and two second ends, the two first ends of each of the first rf switches 301 are connected to the rf front-end module 200, and the 2K second ends are connected to the M antennas in a one-to-one correspondence manner. That is, the 4 first rf switches 301 include 8 second terminals, and the 8 second terminals are respectively connected to the 8 antennas in a one-to-one correspondence manner. In this embodiment, by selecting the first rf switch 301 with the DPDT structure, only one stage of switch is needed to realize the required channel switching function, thereby reducing the insertion loss of the rf system and reducing the manufacturing cost of the rf system.

Fig. 6 is a sixth structural block diagram of an rf system according to an embodiment, referring to fig. 6, in this embodiment, the rf front-end module 200 includes K rf transceiver units 210, the K rf transceiver units 210 are respectively arranged in one-to-one correspondence with K first rf switches 301, and each of the rf transceiver units 210 respectively includes a frequency division receiving circuit 212, a second rf switch 213, and two first receiving circuits 211.

Specifically, the second rf switch 213 includes at least three first ends and two second ends, the two first ends of the second rf switch 213 are respectively connected to the two first receiving circuits 211 in a one-to-one correspondence manner, the remaining at least one first end of the second rf switch 213 is respectively connected to the input end of the frequency division receiving circuit 212, and the two second ends of the K second rf switches 213 are respectively connected to the two first ends of the K first rf switches 301 in a one-to-one correspondence manner. The output end of each first receiving circuit 211 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the first receiving circuit 211 is configured to receive the first rf signal. The output end of the frequency division receiving circuit 212 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the plurality of frequency division receiving circuits 212 in the rf front-end module 200 are configured to allow signals of at least two carrier frequency bands in the downlink carrier aggregation signal to be output respectively, so as to support downlink carrier aggregation of the rf system together.

For example, four antennas may be selected by the first rf switch 301 to form a first target antenna group, for example, ANT1, ANT2, ANT3, and ANT4 are selected, and then the second rf switches 213 in the rf transceiving units 210 corresponding to the four antennas are all turned on to the first receiving circuit 211. Correspondingly, the remaining ANT5, ANT6, ANT7, and ANT8 may be configured to support downlink carrier aggregation, at this time, two of them may be selected to form a second target antenna group, for example, ANT5 and ANT7 are selected, and then the second rf switches 213 in the rf transceiving units 210 corresponding to the two antennas are both turned on to the frequency division receiving circuit 212. Therefore, ANT5 and ANT7 may receive the same downlink carrier aggregation signal at the same time and perform processing by the corresponding frequency division receiving circuits 212, respectively. That is, if the downlink carrier aggregation signal includes two component carrier frequency bands, which are respectively referred to as a first carrier frequency band and a second carrier frequency band, a signal output by one of the frequency division receiving circuits 212 is a second radio frequency signal, and a signal output by the other frequency division receiving circuit 212 is a third radio frequency signal, where the frequency band of the second radio frequency signal is the first carrier frequency band, and the frequency band of the third radio frequency signal is the second carrier frequency band. Based on the connection mode and the processing mode, the processing of the downlink carrier aggregation signal can be realized without setting a power divider. It can be understood that the insertion loss of the power divider is relatively large, and therefore, by using the receiving circuit with the structure of the passive power divider, the overall loss of the radio frequency system can be greatly reduced.

It is to be understood that although only circuits related to supporting the receiving function are shown in the embodiment of fig. 6, at least one transmitting circuit may be disposed in the rf front-end module to support the transmitting function of the first rf signal. Alternatively, the transmitting circuit may be disposed in any one of the rf transceiver units 210, and the rf switch is used to control the transceiver path. For example, the transmitting circuit of the first rf signal may be disposed in the rf transceiving unit 210 corresponding to ANT1 and ANT2, and accordingly, the second rf switch 213 is set as a DP4T switch, and 4 first terminals of the second rf switch 213 are respectively connected to the two first receiving circuits 211, the frequency-dividing receiving circuit 212, and the transmitting circuit in a one-to-one correspondence manner, thereby implementing a required switching function. The transmitting circuit may include devices such as a power amplifier and a filter, which is not limited in this embodiment. In addition, in other embodiments, a transmitting circuit of the first radio frequency signal may also be provided, and details are not repeated in other embodiments.

Fig. 7 is a seventh structural block diagram of a radio frequency system according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 7, in this embodiment, each of the frequency division receiving circuits 212 includes a first filter 2121 and a second filter 2122, respectively. Wherein the second rf switch 213 comprises four first terminals. The second rf switch 213 is configured to connect two first ends of the frequency division receiving circuit 212 to the input end of the first filter 2121 and the input end of the second filter 2122 in a one-to-one correspondence manner. The output of the first filter 2121 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the first filter 2121 is configured to allow signals in the first carrier band to be output. The output of the second filter 2122 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the second filter 2122 is configured to allow signals in the second carrier band to be output. It is understood that the number of filter types in the frequency division receiving circuit 212 corresponds to the number of component carriers in the downlink carrier aggregation signal, and the filtering frequency band corresponds to the frequency band of the component carriers. For example, if the downlink carrier aggregation signal includes three component carriers, the frequency division receiving circuit 212 may further include a third filter to implement a more comprehensive downlink carrier aggregation function.

For example, the downlink carrier aggregation signal includes two component carriers, and the downlink carrier aggregation signal is generally divided into a Primary carrier (Primary cell, Pcell) and a Secondary carrier (Secondary cell, Scell) during aggregation. The primary carrier is used for carrying signaling and managing other aggregated carriers, the secondary carrier is used for expanding the bandwidth enhancement rate, and the primary carrier can determine when to add or delete. Based on the frequency division receiving circuit 212 of this embodiment, an antenna supporting the downlink carrier aggregation function can be selected, so as to further improve the signal reception quality. Specifically, taking ANT5, ANT6, ANT7, and ANT8 as candidate antennas of the second target antenna group, and taking the main carrier as the first carrier frequency band as an example, antenna selection may be performed on the first carrier frequency band. That is, by the switching control of each first rf switch 301 and each second rf switch 213, a path of the ANT5 connected to the rf transceiver 110 through the corresponding first filter, a path of the ANT6 connected to the rf transceiver 110 through the corresponding first filter, a path of the ANT7 connected to the rf transceiver 110 through the corresponding first filter, and a path of the ANT8 connected to the rf transceiver 110 through the corresponding first filter may be turned on, respectively, so that the reception quality of the signal of the first carrier band by the ANT5, the ANT6, the ANT7, and the ANT8 may be detected, respectively. Further, one antenna with the best reception quality is selected, and at least one of the remaining three antennas jointly constitutes a second target antenna group.

Fig. 8 is an eighth structural block diagram of the rf system according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 8, in this embodiment, the second rf switch 213 includes three first terminals, and the second rf switch 213 is configured to connect one first terminal of the dividing-frequency receiving circuit 212 to the input terminal of the first filter 2121 or the input terminal of the second filter 2122. One of the frequency dividing receiving circuits 212 includes a first filter 2121, an output terminal of the first filter 2121 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the first filter 2121 is configured to allow signals in the first carrier frequency band to be output. The other of the frequency dividing receiving circuits 212 includes a second filter 2122, an output terminal of the second filter 2122 is connected to the rf transceiver 110, and the second filter 2122 is configured to allow signals in the second carrier band to be output.

Illustratively, ANT1 and ANT3 may be selected to constitute a second target antenna group. By switching the first rf switch 301 and the second rf switch 213, the ANT1 may be turned on to the receiving path of the rf transceiver 110 through the first filter 2121, and the ANT3 may be turned on to the receiving path of the rf transceiver 110 through the second filter 2122. Therefore, ANT1 and ANT3 may receive the same downlink carrier aggregation signal at the same time and process the same downlink carrier aggregation signal through corresponding filters, respectively. That is, if the downlink carrier aggregation signal includes two component carrier bands, the first filter 2121 on the receiving path corresponding to the ANT1 outputs a signal of the first carrier band, and the second filter 2122 on the receiving path corresponding to the ANT3 outputs a signal of the second carrier band. It can be understood that, although the radio frequency system of this embodiment cannot optimize the antenna in the second target antenna group, the number of devices in the radio frequency system of this embodiment is relatively small, so that the overall size of the radio frequency system can be greatly reduced.

Fig. 9 is a ninth block diagram of a structure of an rf system according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 9, in this embodiment, the rf transceiver unit 210 further includes an aggregation transmitter circuit 220. The aggregation transmission circuit 220 includes two input terminals and an output terminal, the two input terminals of the aggregation transmission circuit 220 are respectively connected to the radio frequency transceiver 110, the two input terminals of the aggregation transmission circuit 220 are respectively used for receiving a second radio frequency signal and a third radio frequency signal in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the aggregation transmission circuit 220 is used for synthesizing the second radio frequency signal and the third radio frequency signal into an uplink carrier aggregation signal. The first rf switch 301 in the path switching module 300 further includes a first end, and the first end is connected to the output end of the aggregation transmitting circuit 220 to receive the uplink carrier aggregation signal. It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific structure of the aggregation transmitting circuit 220, and any circuit capable of implementing the aggregation function described above falls within the scope of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of a radio frequency component according to an embodiment, and referring to fig. 10, in this embodiment, the radio frequency component includes a radio frequency board 11, an antenna board 12 and a radio frequency system as described above. The rf front-end module 200 and the processor 100 in the rf system are disposed on the rf board 11, and the plurality of antennas in the rf system are disposed on the antenna board 12, respectively. The different structures are respectively arranged on different single boards, so that the arrangement flexibility of the radio frequency assembly can be greatly improved, for example, the radio frequency board 11 and the antenna board 12 can be stacked to reduce the occupied area of the radio frequency assembly on a single plane.

The rf board 11 may also be referred to as an rf board. The radio frequency board 11 may be a multilayer PCB board. The PCB can select Rogers RO5880 with a small dielectric constant as a dielectric substrate so as to reduce interference of the dielectric substrate on the antenna. Furthermore, glass fiber and other substances can be doped in the Rogers RO5880, and the hardness of the dielectric substrate is increased on the basis of not changing the original electrical property. A plurality of first inter-board connection points are provided on the radio frequency board 11. The first inter-board connection point may be understood as an electrical connection point, for example, a solder joint, a mounting point of a patch connector, or the like. The connection points between the first boards may be connected to the rf circuit 110 disposed on the rf board 11 through rf traces and microstrip traces. Specifically, the connection point between the first board and the rf trace may be connected by welding or by an rf connection socket. In the embodiments of the present application, the specific topography of the first interplate connection point is not limited to the above-mentioned illustration.

The antenna board 12 may be a multi-layer PCB board, and the material thereof may be the same as the rf board 11, or may be different from the material of the rf board 11. The number of the antenna boards 12 may be one or more. When the number of the antenna board 12 is plural, the number of the devices provided on the antenna board 12 can be adaptively adjusted. The antenna board 12 is provided with a plurality of second inter-board connection points, wherein the second inter-board connection points may be understood as electrical connection points, for example, a welding point, a mounting point of a patch connector, or the like. Each of the second inter-board connection points is connected to one of the first inter-board connection points in a one-to-one correspondence, that is, the plurality of second inter-board connection points are electrically connected to the plurality of first inter-board connection points in a one-to-one correspondence, so as to electrically connect the rf board 11 and the antenna board 12. Specifically, the first inter-board connection point may be connected to the second inter-board connection point through a radio frequency trace. Optionally, the first inter-board connection point may be connected to the second inter-board connection point through an adapter board. In the embodiment of the present application, the material of the radio frequency board 11 and the antenna board 12 is not limited to the above example, and may be other materials.

A communication device comprising a radio frequency system as described above. The radio frequency system according to the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a communication device having a wireless communication function, where the communication device may be a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a computing device, a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, and various User Equipments (UEs), such as a Mobile phone, a Mobile Station (MS), and the like. The communication equipment is based on the radio frequency system, the utilization rate of the antenna can be improved, so that a relatively complex radio frequency signal receiving and transmitting function can be supported by a small number of antennas, and the size of the radio frequency equipment is further reduced.

The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.

The above-mentioned embodiments only express a few embodiments of the present application, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for those skilled in the art, variations and modifications can be made without departing from the concept of the embodiments of the present application, and these embodiments are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A radio frequency system is characterized by comprising a processor, a radio frequency front end module, a path switching module and M antennas, wherein the processor comprises a radio frequency transceiver and a switching control module which are connected, the path switching module is respectively connected with the radio frequency front end module and the M antennas and respectively conducts signal transceiving paths between the radio frequency front end module and the antennas;

the radio frequency transceiver is configured to: controlling the path switching module to switch to a preset state;

the switching control module is connected with the path switching module and configured to:

if the path switching module is in a preset state, selecting N antennas from M antennas to form a plurality of first antenna groups, and controlling the path switching module to conduct any first receiving path so as to respectively obtain the test result of the communication quality of each first antenna group;

controlling the path switching module to conduct the first receiving path between the radio frequency front end module and a first target antenna group to realize multi-path receiving of a first radio frequency signal, wherein the first target antenna group is one of a plurality of first antenna groups determined according to the test result;

selecting J antennas from the remaining M-N antennas to form at least one second antenna group, controlling the path switching module to conduct a second receiving path between the radio frequency front end module and a second target antenna group to realize downlink carrier aggregation, wherein the second target antenna group is one of the at least one second antenna group, J is greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to 4 and less than or equal to M, and M, N, J are integers.

2. The radio frequency system of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises:

a baseband processor coupled to the handover control module and configured to: respectively obtaining the test result of the communication quality of each first antenna group; determining the first target antenna group according to the test result, determining first target state information of the path switching module according to the first target antenna group, and outputting the first target state information to the switching control module; is further configured to: determining the second target antenna group from the remaining M-N antennas, determining second target state information of the path switching module according to the second target antenna group, and outputting the second target state information to the switching control module;

wherein the handover control module is further configured to: after controlling the path switching module to perform state switching each time, saving the current state information of the path switching module; and generating a signal carrying switching mode information according to the current state information and the received first target state information or second target state information so as to control the access switching module to carry out state switching.

3. The radio frequency system of claim 2, wherein the switching control module is coupled to the path switching module, the switching control module configured to: and outputting a switching control signal carrying the switching mode information to the path switching module to control the path switching module to conduct the first target receiving path and/or the second target receiving path.

4. The radio frequency system of claim 2, wherein the handover control module is configured to: outputting a switching indication signal carrying the switching mode information to the radio frequency transceiver, wherein the radio frequency transceiver is configured to: and outputting a switching control signal to the path switching module according to the switching indication signal so as to control the path switching module to conduct the first target receiving path and/or the second target receiving path.

5. The radio frequency system according to claim 1, wherein the path switching module comprises:

the radio frequency front end module comprises K first radio frequency switches, each first radio frequency switch comprises two first ends and two second ends, the two first ends of each first radio frequency switch are respectively connected with the radio frequency front end module, 2K second ends are respectively connected with the M antennas in a one-to-one correspondence mode, wherein K is M/2, and K is an integer.

6. The RF system of claim 5, wherein the RF front-end module comprises K RF transceiver units, each of the RF transceiver units respectively comprising:

the output end of each first receiving circuit is respectively connected with the radio frequency transceiver, and the first receiving circuit is used for receiving and processing the first radio frequency signal;

the output end of the frequency division receiving circuit is connected with the radio frequency transceiver, and the frequency division receiving circuits in the radio frequency front-end module are used for allowing signals of at least two carrier frequency bands in downlink carrier aggregation signals to be output respectively so as to support downlink carrier aggregation of the radio frequency system together;

the second radio frequency switch comprises at least three first ends and two second ends, the two first ends of the second radio frequency switch are respectively connected with the two first receiving circuits in a one-to-one correspondence mode, the remaining at least one first end of the second radio frequency switch is respectively connected with the input end of the frequency division receiving circuit, and the K second ends of the second radio frequency switch are respectively connected with the K first ends of the first radio frequency switch in a one-to-one correspondence mode.

7. The radio frequency system of claim 6, wherein each of the frequency-division receiving circuits comprises:

a first filter, an output end of the first filter is connected with the radio frequency transceiver, and the first filter is used for allowing signals of a first carrier frequency band to be output;

a second filter, an output of the second filter being connected to the radio frequency transceiver, the second filter being configured to allow output of signals in a second carrier frequency band;

the second radio frequency switch comprises four first ends, and the two first ends of the second radio frequency switch, which are connected with the frequency division receiving circuit, are respectively connected with the input end of the first filter and the input end of the second filter in a one-to-one correspondence manner.

8. The radio frequency system of claim 6, wherein one of the frequency-division receiving circuits comprises: a first filter, an output end of the first filter is connected with the radio frequency transceiver, and the first filter is used for allowing signals of a first carrier frequency band to be output;

another of the frequency dividing receiving circuits includes: a second filter, an output of the second filter being connected to the radio frequency transceiver, the second filter being configured to allow output of signals in a second carrier frequency band;

the second radio frequency switch comprises three first ends, and the second radio frequency switch is used for connecting one first end of the frequency division receiving circuit with the input end of the first filter or the input end of the second filter.

9. The radio frequency system according to any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the radio frequency front end module further comprises:

the aggregation transmitting circuit comprises two input ends and an output end, the two input ends of the aggregation transmitting circuit are respectively connected with the radio frequency transceiver, the two input ends of the aggregation transmitting circuit are respectively used for receiving a second radio frequency signal and a third radio frequency signal in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the aggregation transmitting circuit is used for synthesizing the second radio frequency signal and the third radio frequency signal into an uplink carrier aggregation signal;

the first rf switch in the path switching module further includes a first end, and the first end is connected to the output end of the aggregation transmitting circuit to receive the uplink carrier aggregation signal.

10. A radio frequency assembly, comprising:

a radio frequency board and an antenna board electrically connected;

the radio frequency system according to any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the radio frequency front end module and the processor in the radio frequency system are disposed on the radio frequency board, and the plurality of antennas in the radio frequency system are disposed on the antenna board respectively.

11. A communication device comprising a radio frequency system according to any one of claims 1 to 9.