KR101003810B1 - Power Amplifier - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a form and connection structure of a transmission line transformer in a power amplifier having improved reliability by using two active devices having opposite polarities. Instead of the addition method, a new voltage coupling method is used to replace the placement of the transmission line transformer part and the rest of the circuit in the layout, thereby reducing the influence of the magnetic field in the operation of the transmission line transformer on other parts and, if necessary, The present invention relates to a power amplifier that enables the coupling between different processes by implementing a transmission line transformer part forming an output stage and the rest of the circuit including an active element as separate chips.

Power amplifier, transmission line transformer, differential structure, connection structure

Description

Power Amplifier

The present invention relates to a form and connection structure of a transmission line transformer in a power amplifier having improved reliability by using two active devices having opposite polarities. Instead of the addition method, a new voltage coupling method is used to replace the placement of the transmission line transformer part and the rest of the circuit in the layout, thereby reducing the influence of the magnetic field in the operation of the transmission line transformer on other parts and, if necessary, The present invention relates to a power amplifier that enables the coupling between different processes by implementing a transmission line transformer portion forming an output stage and the remaining portion of a circuit including an active element as separate chips.

A lot of research and development has been conducted on high frequency power amplifiers. In general, researches on the structure of power amplifiers using the current coupling method have been mainly focused, but recently [I. Aoki, S. D. Kee, D. B. Rutledge, and A. Hajimiri, “Fully integrated CMOS power amplifier design using the distributed active-transformer architecture,” IEEE Jour. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 371-383, Mar. 2002.] presented a power amplifier structure using voltage coupling.

Since the power amplifier using the voltage coupling method is easier to convert the impedance than the power amplifier using the current coupling method, it is easy to configure a matching network. In particular, in the above report, the transmission line transformer is used for the voltage coupling method. The transmission line transformer has a higher quality-factor than the general spiral inductor. Therefore, it has been found that the matching circuit formed using the transmission line transformer has higher efficiency than the matching circuit according to the prior art. Therefore, the power amplifier structure adopting the voltage coupling method using the transmission line transformer is expected to be widely applied to the power amplifier that requires the characteristics of high frequency, high efficiency and high output in the future.

The operating principle of the transmission line transformer is shown in Figure 1a. In FIG. 1A, a magnetic field is formed by the current flowing through the primary side 101, resulting in a magnetic coupling between the primary side and the secondary side 102. The current flowing on the primary side induces a current on the secondary side of the transformer by mutual induction electromotive force. The magnitude of the current flowing on the secondary side of the transformer is equal to the amount of current flowing on the primary side of the transformer and the direction is reversed. And the potential difference across the primary side of the transformer appears as it is on the secondary side of the transformer.

Such a transmission line transformer may be referred to as the simplest form of two parallel metal lines, and the implementation of the transmission line transformer may be classified into a 1: 1 voltage coupling method.

On the other hand, there are also more complicated transmission line transformer types. One example of a transmission line transformer of the modified form is shown in FIG. In this structure, two different primary sides 103 and 104 are located side by side on both sides of the secondary side 105 so that the secondary side magnetically couples with both primary sides and flows on the two primary sides. The sum of the magnitudes of the currents appears on the secondary side.

2 shows the operation principle of a power amplifier circuit using a transmission line transformer. Reference numeral 201 denotes a transmission line transformer, which is formed of a secondary transmission line 202 and a primary transmission line 203 and 204. Such a transmission line transformer may be integrated using a metal line on an integrated circuit using a CMOS process or a compound process, or may be formed on a printed circuit board (PCB). Reference numerals 205 and 206 denote transistors, which may be formed of NMOS, PMOS, HBT, pHEMT, or the like, and are assumed to be NMOS in FIG. 2 for convenience.

In Figure 2, 205 and 206 operate in a differential structure. In this case, the drain waveforms of 205 and 206 are 180 degrees out of phase with each other, which are expressed as + V and -V. According to the basic principle of the transmission line transformer, the voltage shown on the primary transmission line is added to the secondary transmission line.

In addition, in FIG. 2, two pairs of differential amplifiers are used to add output power generated by each through a transmission line transformer. It is a structure that adds the output voltage of the differential amplifier connected to the primary side of each transformer by connecting two transmission line transformers for implementing a 1: 1 voltage coupling method. As described above, in the case of a power amplifier using a transmission line transformer, a plurality of differential amplifiers are connected in parallel on the primary side of the transmission line transformer, and on the secondary side, the output voltages of the individual differential amplifiers are added in series. Add to increase the final output power.

3 is a configuration diagram of a power amplifier (Korea Patent No. 747,113, 'Power Amplifier') that improves reliability by reducing a potential difference generated between both ports of an active device. In this structure, two active elements of the power amplifier are connected via the primary side of the transformer, one of the two active elements is connected to the supply voltage of the power amplifier, and the other is connected to the ground of the power amplifier and the output power Is shown through the secondary side of the transformer, thereby reducing the potential difference occurring between the ports of the active element. In a conventional power amplifier using only one type of active element (for example, NMOS), RF power is generated at one drain. However, in the structure of FIG. 3, RF power is divided at two drains. The potential difference seen is reduced, which improves the reliability of the power amplifier.

On the other hand, the power amplifier structure using the voltage coupling method has been studied from various viewpoints in addition to the above reliability problem. In particular, recently [K. An, Y. Kim, O. Lee, K. Yang, H. Kim, W. Woo, J. Chang, C. Lee, H. Kim and J. Laskar, “A monolithic voltage-boosting parallel-primary transformer structures for fully integrated CMOS power amplifier design, ”Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium Proceedings, 2007 IEEE, pp. 419-422, June. In 2007, a study on the shape of a new transmission line transformer was presented.

4 shows such a power amplifier structure. In the report above, instead of using 1: 1 voltage coupling multiple times to add the output voltages of individual differential amplifiers, a new voltage coupling scheme is used to provide a separate transmission line transformer. Using such a transmission line transformer structure, in a voltage coupled power amplifier, the transmission line transformer part and the remaining parts can be separated on the layout, thereby reducing the influence of the magnetic field generated by the transmission line transformer on other parts of the circuit.

4 is a circuit having the same connection structure as the power amplifier of FIG. 2 and performing the same operation. In addition, various modifications to the shape of the transmission line transformer are possible while maintaining the same operation within the structure of FIG. 4, and a number of studies on other types of separate transformer structures implementing different functions from the above report have been published. .

The power amplifier of FIG. 4 is a circuit using an active element of one polarity, and there is a need for applying the circuit structure of FIG. 3 to a separate transmission line transformer structure as shown in FIG. 4 in order to improve the reliability of the power amplifier operation. On the contrary, since the power amplifier circuit as shown in FIG. 3 also uses a voltage coupling method, the circuit operation is affected by the magnetic field generated in the transmission line transformer, and thus, a necessity of separating the transmission line transformer and the rest of the circuit arises. .

However, in the case of a power amplifier composed only of NMOS, the transformer and the active element are separated from each other in opposite directions with respect to the drain of the active element, so that the arrangement of the power amplifier is easy, whereas in the case of the improved power amplifier as shown in FIG. Since the transmission line transformer is located between the drain and the PMOS drain, it is not simple to separate the active element portion and the transmission line transformer portion.

Indeed, a separate transmission line transformer structure as shown in FIG. 4 cannot be applied to the power amplifier of FIG. 3 using two active elements of opposite polarity for reliability. In the structure of FIG. 4, both ends of the primary sides 401 and 402 of the transformer are connected to the drain of the NMOS, and the two NMOSs share ground with each other, receive input signals of opposite phases, and form a differential structure. In contrast, in the structure of FIG. 3, both ends of the primary side are connected to the NMOS and the PMOS, respectively, so that the two active devices cannot form a differential structure.

Therefore, when the connection structure of FIG. 4 is applied to the circuit of FIG. 3, in order to connect sources between active elements having the same polarity and share ground or power voltages, the metal lines connecting the sources on the layout are required. This becomes long, which makes it difficult to form an accurate virtual ground point. In other words, the implemented circuit is far from the operation of the ideal differential amplifier, and there is a problem of degradation in circuit performance. As the number of individual amplification stages increases, this problem becomes more serious.

In the power amplifier of FIG. 3, a power amplifier circuit having a transmission line transformer capable of arranging active elements having the same polarity with opposite phases of the input signal and simultaneously disposing them with other parts of the circuit is a conventional transmission line transformer. It is difficult to implement in form, and this implementation requires transmission line transformer considering additional form of new transformer as well as new connection form of NMOS and PMOS devices.

In summary, the prior art for transmission line transformers does not allow the layout to separate the layout of the transmission line transformer and the rest of the circuit portion in the power amplifier of FIG. 3 using two active elements of opposite polarity to improve reliability. Therefore, in the circuit structure of FIG. 3 to improve reliability, there is a problem in that the magnetic field generated from the transmission line transformer reduces the influence on other parts of the circuit, or restricts the implementation of the two parts into separate chips.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above problems, by using a 1: 1 voltage coupling method several times at the output terminal of the power amplifier having improved reliability by using two active elements of opposite polarity, Instead of adding them, a new voltage coupling scheme is used to separate the layout of the transmission line transformer section from the rest of the circuit in the layout, reducing the effect of the magnetic field from the operation of the transmission line transformer on other sections and, if necessary, the output stage. It is to provide a power amplifier that enables the coupling between different processes by implementing the transmission line transformer portion forming the circuit and the remaining portion of the circuit including the active element as a separate chip, respectively.

The present invention connects two active elements via a primary side of a transformer, a plurality of primary sides to which two active elements are respectively coupled magnetically with one secondary side, and the output power of the transformer Appears through the vehicle side, and relates to a power amplifier in which each active element portion is disposed separately on the outside of the plurality of primary side and one secondary side portion in the layout.

Preferably, the two active elements connected to any primary side are characterized by opposite polarities to each other.

Also preferably, two active elements connected to any primary side are arranged not adjacent to each other on the layout.

Also, preferably, two active elements connected to an arbitrary primary side are supplied with signals having opposite phases of an input signal, and two active elements having the same polarity arranged separately on different primary sides are arranged adjacent to each other on a layout. It is characterized by having a differential structure.

Also preferably, one of two active elements connected to any primary side is connected to the power supply voltage of the amplifier, and the other is connected to the ground of the amplifier.

Also preferably, the amplifier connected to the supply voltage is a PMOS and the amplifier connected to ground is NMOS.

Also preferably, any one or more of two active elements connected to an arbitrary primary side may be formed in a cascode structure.

Also preferably, two active elements connected to any primary side are connected to the ground of the amplifier, and a power supply voltage is applied to a predetermined point on any primary side to form a virtual ground.

Also preferably, two active elements connected to any primary side are connected to the power supply voltage of the amplifier, and a ground is connected to a predetermined point on any primary side to form a virtual ground.

Also preferably, any one or more portions of the active elements and the plurality of primary and one secondary side portions disposed separately from each other may be formed in a chip form.

Also preferably, all of the active elements and the plurality of primary and one secondary side portions are formed in the form of chips using the same process.

Also preferably, the active elements and the plurality of primary and one secondary side portions are formed in a chip form using different processes.

Also preferably, any one of the two active devices connected to any primary side is a PMOS and the other is an NMOS.

And preferably, different primary side is characterized in that it comprises an intersection point intersecting each other.

According to the present invention, instead of adding output power by using multiple 1: 1 voltage coupling schemes at the output stage of the circuit, a new voltage coupling scheme is substituted to replace the arrangement of the transmission line transformer portion and the rest of the circuit in the layout. This improves the reliability of the power amplifier by reducing the potential difference between both ports of the active element, while reducing the effect of magnetic fields on other parts of the operation of the transmission line transformer, and forming output stages if necessary. Each of the transmission line transformer part and the remaining part of the circuit including the active element may be implemented as separate chips, thereby enabling the coupling between different processes.

Before describing the details for carrying out the present invention, it should be noted that configurations that are not directly related to the technical gist of the present invention are omitted within the scope of not distracting the technical gist of the present invention.

In addition, the terms or words used in the present specification and claims are consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention on the basis of the principle that the inventor can appropriately define the concept of the term in order to explain the invention in the best way. It should be interpreted as meaning and concept.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

5 is a configuration diagram of a power amplifier using a transformer used in the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 5, the power amplifier has a primary side of the transformer located between the drain of the PMOS and the NMOS, a source of the PMOS is connected to a power supply voltage, and a source of the NMOS is connected to ground. At this time, when a differential signal of opposite phases is applied to the gates of the PMOS and the NMOS, the NMOS and the PMOS are simultaneously turned off or on.

If the NMOS and PMOS are turned on at the same time, the supply voltage and ground are connected to each other through the primary side of the transformer with parasitic inductance components. At this time, current flows to the primary side of the transformer due to the potential difference between the power supply voltage and the ground, and magnetic energy is accumulated.

Thereafter, when the NMOS and the PMOS are turned off at the same time, the magnetic energy stored in the primary side of the transformer is converted into electric energy in the two capacitors 501 and 502 of FIG. 5A and appears as output power. The two capacitors 501 and 502 of FIG. 5A can be implemented by parasitic capacitances of NMOS and PMOS and additional capacitors.

In FIG. 5A, since the magnetic energy stored in the primary side of the transformer is divided into two capacitors 501 and 502, respectively, and converted into electrical energy, the potential difference between the drain and the source of each NMOS and PMOS is reduced compared to the prior art. . The potential difference between the drain and the source of the NMOS used in the power amplifier according to the prior art is up to three times the power supply voltage, but in the power amplifier used in the present invention, the potential difference between the drain and the source is about 1.5 times the power supply voltage. to be. Therefore, the power amplifier structure used in the present invention has the advantage of reducing the potential difference applied to the active element compared to the prior art to improve the reliability of the circuit.

5B illustrates an embodiment of a power amplifier used in the present invention constructed by using a transmission line transformer commonly used in a high frequency circuit. When using a transmission line transformer as shown in Figure 5b, it is suitable for a power amplifier that has an operating range of several GHz band and implements output power of several watts (Watt).

In addition, in FIG. 6, an embodiment of the power amplifier used in the present invention, RF power is generated not only in the drain of the NMOS but also in the drain of the PMOS. This is different from that of RF power generated only in one of two active elements in a cascode structure, which is one of the prior arts, which can be seen in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, for convenience, capacitors such as 501 and 502 of FIG. 5A that are connected in parallel to the transistor are omitted.

In FIG. 6B, the input waveforms of the PMOS and the NMOS and the corresponding waveforms of the drains of the PMOS and the NMOS can be seen. In the power amplifier used in the present invention, the difference between the PMOS drain voltage and the NMOS drain voltage appears at both ends of the primary side of the transformer, and the same voltage difference also appears at the secondary side of the transformer. In addition, the current flowing on the primary side induces a current on the secondary side of the transformer by mutual induction electromotive force. In this way, the power generated by the two active devices appears as output power through the transformer.

7A is a configuration diagram in which the above-described power amplifier is formed in a differential structure. In general, when a power amplifier as shown in FIG. 5 or 6 is designed in a CMOS process, it is implemented in a differential structure.

Unlike the compound process technology, the CMOS process technology does not provide a via process, and thus, a power supply voltage and a ground are implemented on a pad in a circuit through a bonding wire outside the chip such as a PCB. When a high frequency circuit is designed using a CMOS process, deterioration of circuit characteristics is caused by parasitic inductance, capacitance, and resistance components generated when implementing ground in the circuit.

In order to solve this deterioration problem, a high frequency circuit having a differential structure is generally used. The high frequency circuit of the differential structure can easily implement virtual ground inside the circuit, and can effectively prevent deterioration of circuit characteristics compared to the high frequency circuit of the in-phase structure.

Meanwhile, in FIG. 7A, an active element of the power amplifier is formed in a cascode structure. This is to reduce the potential difference between both ports of the active device more than if only one NMOS or PMOS device was used. The two signals P and Q of FIG. 7A are DC signals for biasing the active element, and are connected to the gate terminals of the common-gate amplifier constituting the cascode stage.

In order to increase the total output power in a power amplifier using a voltage combining method, a method of adding a respective output voltage using a plurality of differential amplifiers is used. Such a structure can be implemented by using a plurality of differential amplifiers using a transmission line transformer that implements a 1: 1 voltage coupling method at an output terminal, and connecting the secondary sides of the plurality of transmission line transformers to each other.

FIG. 7B is a configuration diagram of a power amplifier in which the total output power is increased by using two pairs of the differential structures of FIG. 7A. In Fig. 7B, reference numerals 701 and 702 are pairs of active elements of the same polarity forming a differential structure, and these two active elements receive signals of opposite phases. Likewise, reference numerals 703 and 704 are pairs of active elements of the same polarity forming a differential structure, and these two active elements receive signals of opposite phases. However, the 701 and 702 pairs and the 703 and 704 pairs are opposite in polarity, and 701 and 703 are connected and 702 and 704 are connected through the primary side of the transmission line transformer.

8 is a layout view on a layout for the circuit of FIG. 7B. The structure shown in FIG. 8 is called a circular structure. In FIG. 8, 701 and 703 are connected through the primary side, and 702 and 704 are connected to each other in the configuration diagram of FIG. 7B. However, while 701 and 702 form a differential structure, 703 and 704 do not form an active device pair that forms a differential structure in the layout. However, the difference in connection in the configuration diagram of FIG. 7B and the layout of FIG. 8 does not appear as a difference in circuit operation.

That is, in the layout of FIG. 8, 1) an NMOS and a PMOS, which receive a signal having an opposite phase, are connected through a primary side of a transformer, and 2) an NMOS pair and a PMOS pair that operate in a differential structure exist, and 3 ) If the secondary side of the transformer is responsible for adding output power appearing at the plurality of primary sides formed by 1), the arrangement and connection of elements in the layout of FIG. The difference does not matter. Rather, in the production process it is difficult to arrange the elements by the connection method according to the configuration of Figure 7b, this approach is sometimes impossible.

In a layout of a cyclic structure formed by using a plurality of 1: 1 transmission line transformers, active elements are disposed in the transmission line transformers as shown in FIG. 8 to efficiently use an area on an integrated circuit. When the active elements are disposed inside the transmission line transformer, the active elements are adjacent to each other, and thus it is easy to apply an input signal to a plurality of active elements constituting the power amplifier.

Because of these advantages, the cyclic structure has been widely used to implement power amplifiers, but there are various problems involved, requiring a new transformer type and a connection structure.

Variables such as the length and width of the transmission line transformer used in the power amplifier are determined in terms of circuit operation. In this case, since the inner area of the cyclic structure is determined according to the length of the transmission line transformer, the arrangement of the remaining circuits on the layout of the cyclic structure is limited by the length of the transmission line transformer. In addition, the magnetic energy generated by the transmission line transformer affects the adjacent active elements, which may be an undesirable result in the operation of the active elements.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to separate the arrangement of the transformer portion and the remaining circuit portions on the layout by using a new transmission line transformer instead of a cyclic structure using a 1: 1 voltage coupling method.

This layout separation reduces the effects of the magnetic field from the operation of the transmission line transformers on other parts, and separates the parts of the rest of the circuit, including active components, from the transformers that form the output stages, if necessary. It can also be implemented as a chip to enable coupling between different processes. Such a separate arrangement is not possible with the circular structure as shown in FIG. 8.

9 is an embodiment of a power amplifier circuit using a transmission line transformer structure according to the present invention. Instead of adding the output power of the individual amplifier stages by connecting a plurality of 1: 1 transmission line transformers, a plurality of primary sides are arranged side by side in a parallel direction, and a secondary side is wound around a plurality of primary sides. The transmission line transformer structure is constructed so that magnetic coupling occurs.

When the output power of each amplifier stage is added by 1: 1 voltage coupling method, the secondary side of the transformer receives energy from one primary side, while in the new voltage coupling method, the two primary sides of the transformer are different from each other. Receive energy from the side.

Here, the two primary sides mean that the pair of active elements connected to both ends of each primary side is different from each other. That is, in the transformer structure of FIG. 9, the secondary sides are connected to each other, but the primary side is not simply transferring energy to each secondary side independently, but a plurality of primary sides connected to several amplifier pairs are secondary sides. Magnetically coupled with At this time, the direction of current flowing in two primary sides magnetically coupled to one secondary side is designed to be the same. In order to implement this, in the transmission line transformer of FIG. 9, an intersection point such as 911 is used several times.

In the layout of the cyclic structure, the transmission line transformer using the voltage coupling method according to the present invention is constructed using the same characteristics as the in-phase structure of the in-phase circuit constituting the power amplifier and the symmetry of the differential structure are used.

In the power amplifier of FIG. 9, two active elements of opposite polarities are connected through the primary side while receiving an input signal having a reverse phase, which is similar to the basic structure of FIG. 5B. Such a plurality of in-phase circuits are coupled through a transmission line transformer, while active elements are arranged in a portion of the circuit except the transformer, forming a differential structure.

In the present invention, the layout of the transmission line transformer part and the remaining part of the circuit are separated on the layout, and two active element pairs connected to different primary sides are not differentially disposed, and two active elements connected via the primary side are not disposed adjacently. To form a structure.

In the prior art, since two active elements connected through the primary side are disposed adjacent to each other to form a differential structure, there is a limitation that the polarities of the two active elements must be the same. That is, the conventionally disclosed separate transmission line transformer structure is not applicable when the devices connected to both ends of the primary side are NMOS and PMOS, respectively. This is because the source of the NMOS that must be connected to ground and the source of the PMOS that must be connected to the supply voltage cannot be connected to form a virtual ground. That is, in the prior art, it is impossible to separately arrange the transmission line transformer part in the power amplifier circuit having improved reliability as shown in FIG. 7.

However, in the transmission line transformer according to the present invention, two active elements forming a differential structure are connected to different primary sides, and two active elements having opposite polarities connected to both ends of the primary side are not disposed adjacent to each other. It is applicable to power amplifiers configured with both NMOS and PMOS for improved reliability, and of course for circuits with only one polarity.

Hereinafter, the form and connection structure of a transmission line transformer according to the present invention as shown in FIG. 9 will be described in detail.

In FIG. 9, reference numerals 901, 902, 907, and 908 denote a cascode structure consisting of one NMOS or two NMOS, and reference numerals 903, 904, 905, and 906 denote one PMOS or two. It shows a cascode structure composed of PMOS. 901 and 902 share ground while receiving input signals that are opposite in phase, and 903 and 904 share power supply voltage while receiving input signals in opposite phases. 909 is the primary side of the transmission line transformer, and 910 is the secondary side. 911 represents a point where two primary sides cross each other. Because of the intersection point like 911, this type of transmission line transformer is preferably implemented in several layers.

As shown in FIG. 9B, the transmission line transformer part and the rest of the circuit may be implemented as separate chips and connected to the bonding wires 912. Thus, the two parts may be implemented as separate processes, thereby allowing the coupling between different processes.

10 illustrates a connection structure between a transmission line transformer and an active element in the power amplifier structure according to the present invention. The circuit of FIG. 10 is composed of two pairs of differential amplifiers as shown in FIG. 7B, and two active elements having opposite polarities and opposite phases of the input signal are connected through the primary side of the transformer, and are separately input on the layout. Active elements of the same polarity with opposite phases of the signal are placed side by side to form a differential structure that shares ground or supply voltage.

In FIG. 10A, 901 is connected to 906 through the primary side 1001 of the transformer. 901 and 906 are two active devices of opposite polarity while receiving signals of opposite phases. Likewise, in FIG. 10B, 902 is connected to 905 through the primary side 1002 of the transformer.

As described above, since the direction of the current flowing in parallel side by side should be the same, the direction of the path from 906 (PMOS) to 901 (NMOS) and the path from 905 (PMOS) to 902 (NMOS) should be reversed. do. This is because the phases of the input signals of 906 and 905 are reversed, and intersection points such as 911 were used for this implementation.

Depending on the order in which the active elements are placed, the position at which the primary side of the transformer intersects varies and the shape of the primary side changes. In the separated transmission line transformer structure according to the present invention, in order to implement the same operation of a plurality of in-phase circuits, an intersection point with the primary side of the transformer is designed and active elements are arranged so that the length of the primary side of the transformer is the same as much as possible.

In addition to the above considerations, in the structure using active elements of two polarities for reliability, elements of the same polarity having the opposite phase of the input signal should be arranged side by side to share the ground or the supply voltage. Considering the direction of current flow on the primary side and the basic structure of NMOS and PMOS, if two adjacent active devices do not share ground or supply voltage, the physical distance of the two active devices sharing ground or supply voltage on the layout This is due to the degradation of performance due to parasitic components in the chip interconnect.

Reflecting the above considerations, a plurality of in-phase circuits having the basic structure as shown in FIG. 5B are combined to form a power amplifier. In this case, the secondary side is disposed between the plurality of primary sides, and receives energy from the adjacent primary side. Similarly, 903 (PMOS) of FIG. 9 has a basic structure with 908 (NMOS), and 904 (PMOS) has a basic structure with 907 (NMOS). Of course, the transmission line transformer structure of FIG. 9 or 10 may be extended to add more output power of the amplifier, or the connection structure of FIG. 9 or 10 may be modified.

As described above and described with reference to a preferred embodiment for illustrating the technical idea of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the configuration and operation as shown and described as described above, it is a deviation from the scope of the technical idea It will be understood by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations can be made to the invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, all such suitable changes and modifications and equivalents should be considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

1A and 1B are exemplary views of a transmission line transformer using a voltage coupling method.

2 is a block diagram of a power amplifier circuit for implementing a 1: 1 voltage coupling method at an output terminal through a transmission line transformer.

3 is a diagram illustrating a power amplifier in which a primary side of a transmission line transformer is connected between two active elements having opposite polarities in order to improve reliability.

4 is a block diagram of a power amplifier using a separate type transmission line transformer.

5A and 5B are schematic diagrams showing the basic structure of a power amplifier in which reliability is improved by reducing a potential difference between both ports of an active element.

6A and 6B are graphs showing the operation of the basic structure of the power amplifier of Fig. 5B and the voltage waveform at each point.

7A and 7B are diagrams illustrating the basic structure of the power amplifier of FIG. 5B having a differential structure.

8 is a layout in which the power amplifier of FIG. 7A or 7B is arranged in a cyclic structure.

9A and 9B are diagrams illustrating a power amplifier using a separate transmission line transformer according to the present invention.

10A and 10B are explanatory views of a connection structure between a transmission line transformer and an active element in a power amplifier structure using a separate transmission line transformer according to the present invention.

-Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawing-

101: Primary part of the transformer

102: Secondary side of the transformer

103, 104: Primary part of the transformer

105: secondary part of the transformer (Secondary part)

201: Transmission line transformer

202 Secondary side of the transformer

203, 204: Primary part of the transformer

205, 206: two transistors paired in a differential structure

207: load resistance (R _LOAD )

401, 402: Primary part of the transformer

403: Secondary side of the transformer

501, 502: capacitors connected in parallel to active elements

701, 702: Active Device (PMOS) Pair Forms Differential Structure

703 and 704 active device (NMOS) pairs to form a differential structure

901, 902, 907, 908: Cascode structure consisting of one NMOS or two NMOSs

903, 904, 905, 906: Cascode structure consisting of one PMOS or two PMOSs

909: Primary part of the transmission line transformer according to the present invention

910: secondary side of the transmission line transformer according to the present invention (Secondary part)

911: intersection point inside the transmission line transformer according to the present invention

912: bonding wire

1001, 1002: primary part of the transmission line transformer according to the present invention

Claims (14)

The two active elements are connected via the primary side of the transformer, and a plurality of primary sides to which the two active elements are connected are magnetically coupled to one secondary side, and magnetically coupled to one secondary side. The direction of the current flowing to the plurality of primary sides is the same, and the output power is shown through the secondary side of the transformer, and each active element portion on the layout outside the plurality of primary side and one secondary side portion Separate and placed in the The two active elements connected to any of the primary sides are opposite in polarity to each other, and the two active elements connected to any of the primary sides are arranged to be spaced apart from each other on the layout by a predetermined distance, and include an intersection point at which the different primary sides cross each other. A power amplifier, characterized in that. delete delete The method of claim 1, It has a differential structure in which two active elements connected to an arbitrary primary side are supplied with signals having opposite phases of an input signal, and two active elements of the same polarity arranged separately on different primary sides are arranged adjacent to each other on a layout. A power amplifier, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, A power amplifier, characterized in that one of two active elements connected to any primary side is connected to the power supply voltage of the amplifier and the other is connected to the ground of the amplifier. The method of claim 5, An amplifier connected to the supply voltage is a PMOS and the amplifier connected to ground is an NMOS. The method of claim 1, A power amplifier comprising at least one of two active elements connected to an arbitrary primary side in a cascode structure. The method of claim 1, And two active elements connected to any primary side are connected to the ground of the amplifier, and a power supply voltage is applied to a predetermined point on any primary side to form a virtual ground. The method of claim 1, And two active elements connected to an arbitrary primary side are connected to a power supply voltage of an amplifier, and a ground is connected to a predetermined point of any primary side to form a virtual ground. The method of claim 1, A power amplifier comprising a portion of active elements arranged separately from each other and at least one of a plurality of primary side and one secondary side portion in the form of a chip. The method of claim 10, And a plurality of active elements and a plurality of primary side and one secondary side portion in the form of chips using the same process. The method of claim 10, And a plurality of active elements and a plurality of primary side and one secondary side portion in the form of chips using different processes. The method of claim 1, A power amplifier, characterized in that either one of the two active elements connected to any primary side is a PMOS and the other is an NMOS. delete

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