US20160373064A1 - Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier - Google Patents
Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- US20160373064A1 US20160373064A1 US14/744,894 US201514744894A US2016373064A1 US 20160373064 A1 US20160373064 A1 US 20160373064A1 US 201514744894 A US201514744894 A US 201514744894A US 2016373064 A1 US2016373064 A1 US 2016373064A1
- Authority
- US
- United States
- Prior art keywords
- bluetooth
- mode
- power mode
- coupled
- transceiver
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Granted
Links
- 239000003990 capacitor Substances 0.000 claims description 78
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 claims description 43
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 claims description 29
- 238000004891 communication Methods 0.000 description 29
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 23
- 230000015654 memory Effects 0.000 description 22
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 description 18
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 8
- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 6
- 238000012545 processing Methods 0.000 description 6
- 230000001413 cellular effect Effects 0.000 description 5
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 5
- 230000002776 aggregation Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000004220 aggregation Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000004422 calculation algorithm Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000013461 design Methods 0.000 description 2
- 239000002245 particle Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000005070 sampling Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000001360 synchronised effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000012935 Averaging Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000003213 activating effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000003491 array Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000004590 computer program Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000008878 coupling Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000010168 coupling process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000005859 coupling reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000013500 data storage Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000007774 longterm Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000010295 mobile communication Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012544 monitoring process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000005022 packaging material Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000013515 script Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 1
Images
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
- H04B1/02—Transmitters
- H04B1/04—Circuits
- H04B1/0458—Arrangements for matching and coupling between power amplifier and antenna or between amplifying stages
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F1/00—Details of amplifiers with only discharge tubes, only semiconductor devices or only unspecified devices as amplifying elements
- H03F1/02—Modifications of amplifiers to raise the efficiency, e.g. gliding Class A stages, use of an auxiliary oscillation
- H03F1/0205—Modifications of amplifiers to raise the efficiency, e.g. gliding Class A stages, use of an auxiliary oscillation in transistor amplifiers
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
- H03F3/189—High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers
- H03F3/19—High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
- H03F3/20—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers
- H03F3/21—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
- H03F3/211—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only using a combination of several amplifiers
-
- H04W4/008—
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
- H04W4/80—Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W52/00—Power management, e.g. TPC [Transmission Power Control], power saving or power classes
- H04W52/04—TPC
- H04W52/38—TPC being performed in particular situations
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F2200/00—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers
- H03F2200/294—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers the amplifier being a low noise amplifier [LNA]
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F2200/00—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers
- H03F2200/451—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F2203/00—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements covered by H03F3/00
- H03F2203/20—Indexing scheme relating to power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers
- H03F2203/21—Indexing scheme relating to power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
- H03F2203/211—Indexing scheme relating to power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only using a combination of several amplifiers
- H03F2203/21106—An input signal being distributed in parallel over the inputs of a plurality of power amplifiers
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W84/00—Network topologies
- H04W84/02—Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]
- H04W84/10—Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
- H04W84/12—WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
- H04W88/02—Terminal devices
- H04W88/06—Terminal devices adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
Definitions
- the present embodiments relate generally to wireless communications systems, and specifically to tunable load impedances for shared-antenna wireless communications systems.
- Modern wireless communications devices typically include multiple wireless radios (e.g., Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, etc.). To achieve a smaller footprint, multiple wireless radios may share the same antenna.
- a wireless device may include a Bluetooth radio and a Wi-Fi radio coupled to a single antenna.
- the Bluetooth radio may include a Bluetooth power amplifier to drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing data signals in accordance with one or more Bluetooth standards.
- the Wi-Fi radio may include a Wi-Fi power amplifier to drive outgoing data signals in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards.
- the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios typically operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency band, and may share an antenna to transmit signals to other wireless devices and/or to receive signals from other wireless devices.
- Power transmission efficiency may depend upon how closely matched the load impedance of a power amplifier is relative to the impedance that the power amplifier is able to efficiently drive.
- Bluetooth power amplifiers may be configured to operate in several different power modes (e.g., a high power mode, a low power mode, and an ultra-low power mode).
- Wi-Fi power amplifiers are typically operated at higher power levels than Bluetooth power amplifiers, for example, because Wi-Fi signals are typically transmitted at higher power levels than Bluetooth signals.
- Wi-Fi power amplifiers and Bluetooth power amplifiers may have different configurations, different operating characteristics, and/or different operating points, and may be optimized for power transmission efficiency by different load impedances.
- wireless devices including a Wi-Fi power amplifier and a Bluetooth power amplifier that share the same output load
- it may be difficult to ensure reliability of the Bluetooth power amplifier when the Wi-Fi power amplifier is transmitting e.g., because the Wi-Fi power amplifier typically drives Wi-Fi signals at higher power levels than the power levels to which the Bluetooth power amplifier drives Bluetooth signals).
- the tunable load circuit may be dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide different load impedances for the Wi-Fi power amplifier and the Bluetooth power amplifier based on an operating mode of the AFE circuit.
- the AFE circuit may include a switchable power supply that may be dynamically configured to provide a number of different supply voltages to the Bluetooth power amplifier based on a Bluetooth power mode (e.g., Bluetooth high power mode, Bluetooth low power mode, and Bluetooth ultra-low power mode).
- the tunable load circuit may also prevent damage to the Bluetooth power amplifier when the AFE circuit is transmitting Wi-Fi signals from the antenna.
- the tunable load circuit uses two impedance paths and two shunt paths to provide at least four different load impedances for different operating modes of the AFE circuit.
- the tunable load circuit may consume less circuit area than conventional solutions that selectively couple a different set of capacitors to the Bluetooth power amplifier for each of the different Bluetooth power modes and selectively couple yet another set of capacitors to the Wi-Fi power amplifier for the Wi-Fi mode.
- the wireless device includes a transceiver configured to transmit data in a plurality of operating modes including a Wi-Fi mode and two or more different Bluetooth power modes, the transceiver comprising: a first power amplifier configured to amplify Bluetooth signals; a second power amplifier configured to amplify Wi-Fi signals; an antenna coupled to the second power amplifier; and a tunable load circuit, coupled between the first amplifier and the second amplifier, configured to provide a different load impedance for each of the plurality of operating modes, the tunable load circuit consisting of: two impedance paths coupled in parallel between output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; and a number of shunt paths coupled between the tunable load circuit and ground potential.
- the two or more different Bluetooth power modes may include a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode.
- the tunable load circuit is configured to provide a first load impedance during the Bluetooth high power mode, to provide a second load impedance during the Bluetooth low power mode, and to provide a third load impedance during the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, and is further configured to provide a fourth load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode.
- the first load impedance may be less than the second load impedance
- the second load impedance may be less than the third load impedance
- the fourth load impedance may be a minimum, non-zero load impedance (e.g., a lowest possible load impedance value).
- the two impedance paths consist of: a first impedance path including a first capacitor, one or more first transistors, and a second capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; and a second impedance path including a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers.
- the number of shunt paths comprises: a first shunt path including a second transistor coupled between ground potential and a common node of the third and fourth capacitors; and a second shunt path including a third transistor and a fifth capacitor coupled in series between ground potential and the common node.
- the transceiver may also include a low noise amplifier (LNA) including an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the second amplifier; and a shunt transistor coupled between the input terminal of the LNA and ground potential, the shunt transistor including a gate to receive a transmission enable signal.
- LNA low noise amplifier
- the transceiver may be configured to transmit data in a plurality of operating modes, the transceiver comprising: a first amplifier configured to amplify first data signals; a second amplifier configured to amplify second data signals; an antenna coupled to the second amplifier; and a tunable load circuit, coupled between output terminals of the first and second amplifiers, configured to provide a different load impedance for each of the plurality of operating modes, the tunable load circuit comprising: a first impedance path including a first capacitor, one or more first transistors, and a second capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; a second impedance path including a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; a first shunt path including a second transistor coupled between ground potential and a common node of the third and fourth capacitors; and a second shunt path including a third transistor and a fifth capacitor coupled in series between ground potential and the common node.
- FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting a wireless device communicating with a wireless communication system, in accordance with example embodiments.
- FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of the wireless device depicted in FIG. 1 .
- FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an analog front-end (AFE) circuit in accordance with example embodiments.
- AFE analog front-end
- FIG. 4A is a circuit diagram of an example embodiment of the AFE circuit of FIG. 3 .
- FIG. 4B is a circuit diagram of another example embodiment of the AFE circuit of FIG. 3 .
- FIG. 4C is a circuit diagram of yet another example embodiment of the AFE circuit of FIG. 3 .
- FIG. 5A is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit of FIG. 4 when configured for an example WLAN mode of operation.
- FIG. 5B is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit of FIG. 4 when configured for an example first Bluetooth mode of operation.
- FIG. 5C is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit of FIG. 4 when configured for an example second Bluetooth mode of operation.
- FIG. 5D is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit of FIG. 4 when configured for an example third Bluetooth mode of operation.
- FIG. 5E is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit of FIG. 4 when configured for an example receive mode of operation.
- FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example wireless device within which the example embodiments may be implemented.
- FIG. 7 is an illustrative flow chart depicting a dynamic impedance matching operation in accordance with example embodiments.
- FIG. 8 is an illustrative flow chart depicting another dynamic impedance matching operation in accordance with example embodiments.
- WLAN and Bluetooth communications and networks are described below in the context of WLAN and Bluetooth communications and networks for simplicity only. It is to be understood that the example embodiments are equally applicable to other types of communications and networks (e.g., cellular networks, pico networks, femto networks, satellite networks, etc.), as well as systems using signals of one or more wired standards or protocols (e.g., Ethernet and/or HomePlug/PLC standards).
- Wi-Fi® may include communications governed by the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, HiperLAN (a set of wireless standards, comparable to the IEEE 802.11 standards, used primarily in Europe), and other technologies having relatively short radio propagation range.
- BLUETOOTH® Bluetooth
- Bluetooth Special Interest Group may include communications governed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
- circuit elements or software blocks may be shown as buses or as single signal lines.
- Each of the buses may alternatively be a single signal line, and each of the single signal lines may alternatively be buses, and a single line or bus might represent any one or more of a myriad of physical or logical mechanisms for communication between components.
- the present embodiments are not to be construed as limited to specific examples described herein but rather to include within their scopes all embodiments defined by the appended claims.
- a procedure, logic block, process, or the like is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system.
- a single block may be described as performing a function or functions; however, in actual practice, the function or functions performed by that block may be performed in a single component or across multiple components, and/or may be performed using hardware, using software, or using a combination of hardware and software.
- various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.
- the example wireless communications devices may include components other than those shown, including well-known components such as a processor, memory and the like.
- the techniques described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof, unless specifically described as being implemented in a specific manner. Any features described as modules or components may also be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the techniques may be realized at least in part by a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, performs one or more of the methods described above.
- the non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials.
- the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may comprise random access memory (RAM) such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), read only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), FLASH memory, other known storage media, and the like.
- RAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
- ROM read only memory
- NVRAM non-volatile random access memory
- EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
- FLASH memory other known storage media, and the like.
- the techniques additionally, or alternatively, may be realized at least in part by a processor-readable communication medium that carries or communicates code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and/or executed by a computer or other processor.
- processors such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific instruction set processors (ASIPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry.
- DSPs digital signal processors
- ASICs application specific integrated circuits
- ASIPs application specific instruction set processors
- FPGAs field programmable gate arrays
- a general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine.
- a processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).
- FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting a wireless device 110 communicating with a wireless communication system 120 , in accordance with example embodiments.
- the wireless communication system 120 may be an LTE system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, a wireless local area network (WLAN) system (e.g., a Wi-Fi system), a Personal Area Network (PAN), or some other wireless system.
- CDMA system may implement Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 1X, Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO), Time Division Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA), or some other version of CDMA.
- WCDMA Wideband CDMA
- CDMA 1X Code Division Multiple Access
- EVDO Evolution-Data Optimized
- TD-SCDMA Time Division Synchronous CDMA
- FIG. 1 shows the wireless communication system 120 including two base stations 130 and 132 and one system controller 140 .
- a wireless system may include any number of base stations and any set of network entities.
- the wireless device 110 may also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, etc.
- Wireless device 110 may be a cellular phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a wireless modem, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device, a laptop computer, a smartbook, a netbook, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a Bluetooth device, etc.
- the wireless device 110 may communicate with the wireless communication system 120 .
- the wireless device 110 may also receive signals from broadcast stations (e.g., a broadcast station 134 ), signals from satellites (e.g., a satellite 150 ) in one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), etc.
- the wireless device 110 may support one or more radio technologies for wireless communication such as LTE, WCDMA, CDMA 1x, EVDO, TD-SCDMA, GSM, Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11 communications
- the wireless device 110 may include an AFE circuit that includes a tunable load circuit coupled between a first power amplifier (PA 1 ) and a second power amplifier (PA 2 ).
- the tunable load circuit may provide a different load impedance for each of a plurality of operating modes of the wireless device 110 .
- the first power amplifier PA 1 may be a Bluetooth power amplifier configured to amplify Bluetooth signals
- the second power amplifier (PA 2 ) may be a WLAN power amplifier configured to amplify Wi-Fi signals.
- FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of one example embodiment of the wireless device 110 in FIG. 1 .
- the wireless device 110 includes a primary transceiver 220 coupled to a primary antenna 210 , a secondary transceiver 222 coupled to a secondary antenna 212 , and a data processor/controller 280 .
- the primary transceiver 220 includes a number (K) of receivers 230 pa to 230 pk and a number (K) of transmitters 250 pa to 250 pk to support multiple frequency bands, multiple radio technologies, carrier aggregation, etc.
- the secondary transceiver 222 includes a number (L) of receivers 230 sa to 230 sl and a number (L) of transmitters 250 sa to 250 sl to support multiple frequency bands, multiple radio technologies, carrier aggregation, receive diversity, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission from multiple transmit antennas to multiple receive antennas, etc.
- Each receiver 230 includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) 240 and a receive circuit 242 .
- the primary antenna 210 receives signals from base stations and/or other transmitter stations and provides a received radio frequency (RF) signal, which is routed through an antenna interface circuit 224 and presented as an input RF signal to a selected receiver.
- the antenna interface circuit 224 may include switches, duplexers, transmit filters, receive filters, matching circuits, etc.
- the description below assumes that the receiver 230 pa is the selected receiver.
- an LNA 240 pa amplifies the input RF signal and provides an output RF signal.
- the receive circuit 242 pa may down-convert the output RF signal from RF to baseband, amplify and filter the down-converted signal, and provide an analog input signal to data processor/controller 280 .
- the receive circuits 242 pa may include mixers, filters, amplifiers, matching circuits, an oscillator, a local oscillator (LO) generator, a phase locked loop (PLL), etc.
- LO local oscillator
- PLL phase locked loop
- each transmitter 250 includes transmit circuits 252 and power amplifiers (PA) 254 .
- the data processor/controller 280 processes (e.g., encodes and modulates) data to be transmitted and provides an analog output signal to a selected transmitter.
- transmitter 250 pa is the selected transmitter.
- the transmit circuit 252 pa may amplify, filter, and up-convert the analog output signal from baseband to RF and provide a modulated RF signal.
- the transmit circuit 252 pa may include amplifiers, filters, mixers, matching circuits, an oscillator, an LO generator, a PLL, and other suitable circuits, components, or modules.
- a PA 254 pa receives and amplifies the modulated RF signal and provides a transmit RF signal having the proper output power level.
- the transmit RF signal is routed through antenna interface circuits 224 and transmitted via primary antenna 210 .
- Each remaining transmitter 250 in the transceivers 220 and 222 may operate in similar manner as the transmitter 250 pa.
- Each receiver 230 and transmitter 250 may also include other circuits not shown in FIG. 2 , such as filters, matching circuits, and other suitable circuits, components, or modules. All or a portion of the transceivers 220 and 222 may be implemented on one or more analog integrated circuits (ICs), RF ICs (RFICs), mixed-signal ICs, and other suitable circuits or devices.
- ICs analog integrated circuits
- RFICs RF ICs
- mixed-signal ICs mixed-signal ICs
- the LNAs 240 and the receive circuits 242 within the transceivers 220 and 222 may be implemented on multiple IC chips.
- the circuits in the transceivers 220 and 222 may also be implemented in other manners.
- the data processor/controller 280 may perform various functions for the wireless device 110 .
- the data processor/controller 280 may perform processing for data being received via the receivers 230 and may perform processing for data being transmitted via the transmitters 250 .
- the data processor/controller 280 may control the operations of the various circuits within the transceivers 220 and 222 .
- a memory 282 may store program codes and data for the data processor/controller 280 .
- the data processor/controller 280 may be implemented on one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and/or other ICs.
- ASICs application specific integrated circuits
- the data processor/controller 280 may include or be associated with one or more baseband processing circuits (not shown for simplicity), which in turn may communicate with one or more Media Access Control (MAC) devices (not shown for simplicity) provided within the wireless device 110 of FIG. 1 .
- MAC Media Access Control
- the MAC device may include a number of contention engines (not shown for simplicity) that may contend for access to one more shared wireless mediums, and that may also store packets for transmission over the one more shared wireless mediums.
- the MAC device may include frame formatting circuitry (not shown for simplicity) to create and/or format frames received from the data processor/controller 280 (e.g., by adding MAC headers to PDUs provided by data processor/controller 280 ), and may be used to re-format frames received from receiver chains 230 (e.g., by stripping MAC headers from frames received from receiver chains 230 ).
- a transmitter e.g., transmitter 250
- a receiver e.g., receiver 230
- the transmitter 250 may include one or more PAs 254 and/or driver amplifiers (not shown for simplicity).
- receiver 230 may include one or more LNAs 240 and/or other amplifiers (not shown for simplicity).
- the primary transceiver 220 may include a tunable load circuit 340 coupled between an output terminal of one of the power amplifiers 254 pa - 254 pk and an output terminal of another of the power amplifiers 254 pa - 254 pk .
- the secondary transceiver 222 may include a tunable load circuit 340 coupled between an output terminal of one of the power amplifiers 254 sa - 254 sl and an output terminal of another of the power amplifiers 254 sa - 254 sl .
- the tunable load circuit 340 may provide a different load impedance for each of a plurality of operating modes of the wireless device 110 .
- FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an analog front-end (AFE) circuit 300 in accordance with example embodiments.
- the AFE circuit 300 which may be implemented within a host wireless device such as wireless device 110 of FIG. 1 , includes a Bluetooth power amplifier (BT PA) 310 , a Wi-Fi power amplifier (WLAN PA) 320 , a switchable power supply (PS) 330 , a tunable load circuit 340 , and a shared radio frequency interface (RFIO) circuit 350 .
- the RFIO circuit 350 which is well-known, may provide an interface between antenna 351 and AFE circuit 300 .
- the antenna 351 may be one embodiment of antennas 210 and/or 212 of FIG. 2 , and for actual embodiments may be more than one antenna.
- the BT PA 310 includes an input terminal to receive Bluetooth data signals, and includes an output terminal to provide amplified Bluetooth data signals at a first node N 1 .
- the switchable power supply 330 is coupled to the output terminal of BT PA 310 at first node N 1 .
- the WLAN PA 320 includes an input terminal to receive WLAN data signals, and includes an output terminal to provide amplified WLAN data signals at a second node N 2 .
- the antenna 351 is coupled to second node N 2 via the RFIO circuit 350 .
- the tunable load circuit 340 is coupled between first node N 1 and second node N 2 (e.g., between the output terminals of BT PA 310 and WLAN PA 320 ).
- the AFE circuit 300 is shown as coupled to a Bluetooth controller 370 and to a WLAN controller 380 .
- the Bluetooth controller 370 may provide Bluetooth data to AFE circuit 300 for transmission to one or more other devices (e.g., via BT PA 310 and antenna 351 ), and may receive Bluetooth data from one or more other devices via a receive chain (not shown for simplicity) of AFE circuit 300 .
- the WLAN controller 380 may provide WLAN data to AFE circuit 300 for transmission to one or more other devices (e.g., via WLAN PA 320 and antenna 351 ), and may receive WLAN data from one or more other devices via a receive chain of AFE circuit 300 .
- Bluetooth controller 370 and WLAN controller 380 may be part of the data processor/controller 280 of FIG. 2 .
- Bluetooth controller 370 and WLAN controller 380 may be any suitable circuit, device, or processor (e.g., a baseband processor) that generates and/or processes Bluetooth signals and Wi-Fi signals, respectively.
- the AFE circuit 300 may be coupled to (or alternatively may include) a mode control circuit 360 .
- the mode control circuit 360 may control one or more operating modes, settings, and/or configurations of AFE circuit 300 based, at least in part, on one or more WLAN control signals and/or one or more Bluetooth control signals.
- the one or more WLAN control signals collectively depicted in FIG. 3 as CTRL WLAN , may indicate whether WLAN data is to be transmitted, whether WLAN data is to be received, and/or other information regarding Wi-Fi communications of the host wireless device.
- the one or more Bluetooth control signals collectively depicted in FIG.
- CTRL BT may indicate whether Bluetooth data is to be transmitted, may indicate whether Bluetooth data is to be received, may indicate a power mode to be used for Bluetooth communications, and/or may be or indicate other information regarding Bluetooth communications of the host wireless device.
- the one or more Bluetooth control signals may be generated by Bluetooth controller 370
- the one or more WLAN control signals may be generated by WLAN controller 380 (although other suitable circuits or devices may generate the control signals CTRL WLAN and CTRL BT ).
- the BT PA 310 may be part of a Bluetooth radio (not shown for simplicity) of the host wireless device, and thus may drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing Bluetooth data signals to a power level specified by one or more Bluetooth standards.
- the WLAN PA 320 may be part of a Wi-Fi radio (not shown for simplicity) of the host wireless device, and may drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing WLAN data signals to a power level specified by one or more IEEE 802.11 standards.
- the BT PA 310 and the WLAN PA 320 may each be one embodiment of the power amplifiers 254 of FIG. 2 .
- Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communications typically occupy the 2.4 GHz frequency band.
- Wi-Fi communications are designed for relatively medium-to-long range communications
- Bluetooth communications are designed for relatively short range communications.
- the transmit power of the WLAN PA 320 may be significantly greater than the transmit power of the BT PA 310 .
- the BT PA 310 may operate in several different power modes (e.g., a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode), while the WLAN PA 320 typically operates in a single power mode.
- the output load impedance provided by the tunable load circuit 440 may be “matched” to the impedance that the WLAN PA 320 is able to drive with an acceptable level of efficiency (e.g., a level of efficiency that is greater than a threshold).
- an acceptable level of efficiency e.g., a level of efficiency that is greater than a threshold.
- This technique which may be referred to herein as “impedance matching,” may be used to maximize the ratio of transmitted power to lost power.
- a load impedance that optimizes power transmission efficiency for the WLAN PA 320 may be less than optimal for the BT PA 310 (and a load impedance that optimizes power transmission efficiency for the BT PA 310 may be less than optimal for the WLAN PA 320 ).
- the tunable load circuit 340 may be dynamically configured or adjusted to provide a first load impedance that matches the input impedance of the WLAN PA 320 during WLAN transmissions (e.g., to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the WLAN PA 320 ), and may be dynamically configured or adjusted to provide a second load impedance that matches the input impedance of the BT PA 310 during Bluetooth transmissions (e.g., to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 ).
- the tunable load circuit 340 may be configured to isolate the BT PA 310 from RFIO circuit 350 and antenna 351 during WLAN transmissions, and may be configured to isolate the WLAN PA 320 from RFIO circuit 350 and antenna 351 during Bluetooth transmissions.
- the tunable load circuit 340 may selectively operate in two or more operating modes based, at least in part, on a mode control (MC) signal provided by the mode control circuit 360 .
- the mode control circuit 360 may generate the MC signal based on the WLAN control signal CTRL WLAN and/or the Bluetooth control signal CTRL BT .
- the WLAN PA 320 drives WLAN signals through AFE circuit 300 for wireless transmission to one or more other wireless devices via antenna 351
- the BT PA 310 drives Bluetooth signals through AFE circuit 300 for wireless transmission to one or more other wireless devices via antenna 351 . Because the voltage swing and transmit power of WLAN signals is typically greater than the voltage swing and transmit power of Bluetooth signals, the tunable load circuit 340 may provide a lower load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode of operation than in the Bluetooth mode of operation.
- Bluetooth devices may operate according to several different power modes including, for example, a high power mode, a low power mode, and an ultra-low power mode.
- the tunable load circuit 340 may provide, during the Bluetooth mode of operation, a different load impedance for each of the different Bluetooth power modes, for example, so that the BT PA 310 may drive outgoing Bluetooth data signals to different power levels.
- the switchable power supply 330 may select a supply voltage for the BT PA 310 in response to a power selection control (PSC) signal provided by mode control circuit 360 .
- PSC power selection control
- the mode control circuit 360 may generate the PSC signal based, at least in part, on control signals CTRL WLAN and/or CTRL BT .
- the selection of a supply voltage to be provided by the switchable power supply 330 may be coordinated with the load impedance provided by the tunable load circuit 340 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 for each of the different Bluetooth power modes.
- FIG. 4A shows a circuit diagram of an AFE circuit 400 that may be one embodiment of the AFE circuit 300 of FIG. 3 .
- the AFE circuit 400 includes BT PA 310 , WLAN PA 320 , a switchable power supply 430 , a tunable load circuit 440 , a mode control circuit 460 , and a low noise amplifier (LNA) 490 .
- LNA low noise amplifier
- the Bluetooth controller 370 and the WLAN controller 380 described above with respect to FIG. 3 are not shown in FIG. 4A .
- the switchable power supply 430 may be one embodiment of switchable power supply 330 of FIG. 3
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be one embodiment of tunable load circuit 340 of FIG. 3
- the mode control circuit 460 may be one embodiment of mode control circuit 360 of FIG. 3
- the switchable power supply 430 and tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the WLAN PA 320 during the Wi-Fi mode of operation and to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 for each of the Bluetooth power modes (e.g., high power mode, low power mode, and ultra-low power mode), as described in more detail below.
- the Bluetooth power modes e.g., high power mode, low power mode, and ultra-low power mode
- the switchable power supply 430 includes a number of supply voltages (e.g., 1.3V, 2.2V, and 3.3V) that may be selectively coupled to the BT PA 310 in response to the PSC signal, which as described above may be indicative of a Bluetooth power mode and/or indicative of whether AFE circuit 400 is transmitting Bluetooth signals.
- the selected supply voltage may provide power to the BT PA 310 via an inductor L 1 .
- the Bluetooth power mode may depend on the class of the Bluetooth device that generates the Bluetooth data signals. For example, Class 1.5 Bluetooth devices typically operate in a “high power” mode, whereas Class 2 Bluetooth devices may operate in a “low power” mode or an “ultra-low power” mode.
- a particular supply voltage (e.g., either 1.3V, 2.2V or 3.3V) may be selected so that the BT PA 310 may drive Bluetooth data signals to a desired power level (e.g., to a power level suitable for the corresponding class of Bluetooth device).
- the WLAN PA 320 may receive a supply voltage from a separate power supply. Further, for at least some embodiments, the WLAN PA 320 may be a differential amplifier having differential output terminals coupled to second node N 2 by a balun, for example, as depicted in FIG. 4B . More specifically, the AFE circuit 401 of FIG. 4B is similar to the AFE circuit 400 of FIG. 4A , except that the single-ended WLAN PA 320 of FIG. 4A is replaced by a differential WLAN PA 321 that is coupled to node N 2 via a balun 322 .
- the balun 322 which may convert a differential WLAN signal provided by the differential WLAN PA 321 to a single-ended WLAN signal at node N 2 , is well-known and therefore not described in detail herein.
- the tunable load circuit 440 which is shown to include a number of capacitors C 1 -C 5 and a number of NMOS transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , MN 2 and MN 3 , may provide variable load impedances in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 .
- transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , MN 2 , and/or MN 3 may, for other embodiments, be PMOS devices (or any other technically feasible transistors such as BiCMOS, JFET, or BJT devices).
- Capacitor C 1 is coupled to the output terminal of the BT PA 310 (at first node N 1 ), capacitor C 2 is coupled to an output terminal of WLAN PA 320 and an input terminal of the RFIO circuit 350 (at second node N 1 ), and transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b are coupled in series between capacitors C 1 and C 2 .
- Transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b each include a gate to receive mode control signal MC 1 . Together, transistors MN 1 a -MN 1 b and capacitors C 1 -C 2 form a first impedance path (IP 1 ) between first node N 1 and second node N 2 .
- Capacitors C 3 and C 4 are coupled in series between first node N 1 and second node N 2 , and together form a second impedance path (IP 2 ) between first node N 1 and second node N 2 (e.g., where the second impedance path is in parallel with the first impedance path between nodes N 1 and N 2 ).
- IP 2 second impedance path
- Transistor MN 2 is coupled a third node N 3 (residing between capacitors C 3 and C 4 ) and ground potential, and includes a gate to receive a second mode control signal MC 2 .
- Capacitor C 5 and transistor MN 3 are coupled in series between third node N 3 and ground potential, and transistor MN 3 includes a gate to receive a third mode control signal MC 3 .
- Transistor MN 2 forms a first shunt path (SP 1 ) between node N 3 and ground potential, and transistor MN 3 and capacitor C 5 form a second shunt path (SP 2 ) between node N 3 and ground potential.
- capacitors C 1 , C 2 , and C 5 may have relatively large capacitance values (e.g., compared to capacitors C 3 and C 4 ), and capacitors C 3 and C 4 may have relatively small capacitance values (e.g., compared to capacitors C 1 , C 2 , and C 5 ).
- capacitor C 1 has a capacitance value of approximately 6.6 pico-Farads (pF)
- capacitor C 2 has a capacitance value of approximately 3.3 pF
- capacitor C 3 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.5 pF
- capacitor C 4 has a capacitance value of approximately 0.75 pF
- capacitor C 5 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.3 pF.
- the series connection of capacitors C 1 and C 2 may provide a lower impedance path between nodes N 1 and N 2 than the series connection of capacitors C 3 and C 4 .
- the impedances of capacitors C 1 -C 5 may be expressed as Z 1 -Z 5 , respectively.
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide different load impedances by selectively turning on (e.g., activating) and/or turning off (e.g., deactivating) different combinations of transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , MN 2 , and MN 3 .
- the switchable power supply 430 may be configured to provide a particular supply voltage to the BT PA 310 depending on the selected Bluetooth power mode.
- the LNA 490 which includes an input terminal coupled to antenna 351 via RFIO circuit 350 and includes an output terminal coupled to processing circuitry on the host wireless device, may be used to amplify Bluetooth and/or WLAN data signals received via antenna 351 .
- an inductor L 2 is coupled between node N 2 and the input terminal of LNA 490
- an NMOS transistor MN 4 is coupled between the input terminal of LNA 490 and ground potential.
- Transistor MN 4 includes a gate to receive a transmission enable signal (TX_EN).
- TX_EN transmission enable signal
- the inductor L 2 may be inductively coupled to a matching network (not shown for simplicity) within the WLAN PA 320 .
- transistor MN 4 may act as a shunt to ground, for the LNA 490 , when the AFE circuit 400 operates in a transmit mode (e.g., in response to an assertion of the TX_EN signal).
- transistor MN 4 may be referred to as a shunt transistor. More specifically, turning on transistor MN 4 may prevent LNA 490 from sampling outgoing data signals from the BT PA 310 and/or the WLAN PA 320 .
- transistor MN 4 may be a PMOS device (or any other technically feasible transistor such as a BiCMOS, JFET, or BJT device).
- the mode control circuit 460 includes input terminals to receive control signals CTRL BT and CTRL WLAN , and includes output terminals to generate the mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , the power select control signal (PSC), and the transmission enable signal (TX_EN). As described in more detail below, mode control circuit 460 may control the operation and/or configuration of the switchable power supply 430 , the tunable load circuit 440 , and transistor MN 4 based on an operating mode of AFE circuit 400 (e.g., as may be indicated or derived from control signals CTRL BT and CTRL WLAN ).
- mode control circuit 460 may control the operation and/or configuration of the switchable power supply 430 , the tunable load circuit 440 , and transistor MN 4 based on an operating mode of AFE circuit 400 (e.g., as may be indicated or derived from control signals CTRL BT and CTRL WLAN ).
- the switchable power supply 430 is turned off (e.g., in response to a disabled state of the PSC signal), thereby isolating first node N 1 from all of the supply voltages associated with the switchable power supply 430 .
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , to provide a very low (e.g., a minimum non-zero) load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode. This very low load impedance may allow the WLAN PA 320 to drive the Wi-Fi signals to a desired high power level.
- mode control signal MC 1 is de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), and mode control signals MC 2 -MC 3 are asserted (e.g., to logic high).
- transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b are turned off, and transistors MN 2 and MN 3 are turned on. Because transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b are not conductive, capacitors C 1 and C 2 are de-coupled from tunable load circuit 440 , and therefore may not affect the impedance of the tunable load circuit 440 .
- the conductive states of transistors MN 2 and MN 3 may provide a shunt for the tunable load circuit 440 , for example, by pulling the third node N 3 to ground potential.
- This shunt to ground potential may significantly reduce the load impedance seen at the output terminal of WLAN PA 320 (e.g., to a minimum non-zero impedance), thereby allowing the W LAN PA 320 to drive output signals with a higher voltage swing that would be possible with a higher load impedance.
- the load impedance Z L of tunable load circuit 440 may be expressed as Z L ⁇ Z 4 .
- any residual charges on capacitors C 3 and C 4 accumulated during any of the Bluetooth power modes may be quickly discharged to ground potential by transistors MN 2 and MN 3 , thereby improving the clarity of WLAN data signals driven to antenna 351 by WLAN PA 320 .
- FIG. 5A An equivalent circuit diagram 501 of the AFE circuit 400 , when configured to operate in the Wi-Fi mode, is shown in FIG. 5A .
- the switchable power supply 430 selects a first supply voltage value of 3.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to a first enabled state of the PSC signal).
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , to provide a first load impedance during the Bluetooth high power mode.
- the first load impedance may be a “relatively low” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes.
- mode control signal MC 1 is asserted (e.g., to logic high), and mode control signals MC 2 -MC 3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low).
- transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b are turned on, and transistors MN 2 and MN 3 are turned off.
- the non-conductive states of transistors MN 2 and MN 3 isolate the third node N 3 from ground potential. Because transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b are conductive, capacitors C 1 and C 2 are coupled together and form the first impedance path between nodes N 1 and N 2 , and capacitors C 3 and C 4 form the second impedance path between nodes N 1 and N 2 .
- tunable load circuit 440 provides the first load impedance (e.g., a relatively “low” load impedance) at the output terminal of the BT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals at high power levels.
- reducing the load impedance provided by tunable load circuit 440 to the first (e.g., relatively low) load impedance value and providing the high supply voltage of 3.3V may maximize the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth high power mode.
- the first load impedance may have a relatively “low” value of approximately 500.
- FIG. 5B An equivalent circuit diagram 502 of the AFE circuit 400 , when configured to operate in the Bluetooth high power mode, is shown in FIG. 5B .
- the switchable power supply 430 selects a second supply voltage value of 1.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to a second enabled state of the PSC signal).
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , to provide a second load impedance during the Bluetooth low power mode.
- the second load impedance may be a “relatively medium” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes.
- all of mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), which turns off all transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , MN 2 , and MN 3 of the tunable load circuit 440 .
- the non-conductive states of transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b prevent capacitors C 1 and C 2 from affecting the impedance of the tunable load circuit 440 , and the non-conductive states of transistors MN 2 and MN 3 isolate third node N 3 from ground potential.
- tunable load circuit 440 provides the second load impedance (e.g., a relatively “medium” load impedance) at the output terminal of the BT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals in the Bluetooth low power mode.
- providing the second (e.g., the relatively medium) load impedance and providing the low supply voltage of 1.3V may reduce the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth low power mode (e.g., as compared with the Bluetooth high power mode).
- the second load impedance may have a relatively “medium” value of approximately 80 ⁇ .
- FIG. 5C An equivalent circuit diagram 503 of the AFE circuit 400 , when configured to operate in the Bluetooth low power mode, is shown in FIG. 5C .
- the switchable power supply 430 selects the second supply voltage value of 1.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to the second enabled state of the PSC signal).
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , to provide a third load impedance during the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode.
- the third load impedance may be a “relatively high” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes.
- mode control signal MC 3 is asserted (e.g., to logic high), and mode control signals MC 1 -MC 2 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low).
- transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , and MN 2 are turned off, and transistor MN 3 is turned on.
- the conductive state of transistor MN 3 couples capacitor C 5 to ground potential, and the non-conductive state of transistor MN 2 de-couples the shunt path between third node N 3 and ground potential.
- tunable load circuit 440 provides the third load impedance (e.g., a relatively high load impedance) at the output terminal of the BT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals at ultra-low power levels.
- providing the third (e.g., relatively high) load impedance and providing the low supply voltage of 1.3V may further reduce the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode (e.g., as compared with the Bluetooth low power mode).
- the third load impedance may have a relatively high value of approximately 100 ⁇ .
- FIG. 5D An equivalent circuit diagram 504 of the AFE circuit 400 , when configured to operate in the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, is shown in FIG. 5D .
- capacitors C 3 and C 4 remain coupled between nodes N 1 and N 2 for all Bluetooth power modes.
- the circuit area of the tunable load circuit 440 may be reduced (e.g., as compared with conventional solutions that selectively couple a different set of capacitors to the output terminal of the BT PA 310 for each of the different Bluetooth power modes).
- conventional load circuits that include a separate impedance path for each of the different Bluetooth power modes and/or for the Wi-Fi mode require more transistors (e.g., switches) and capacitors than embodiments of the present disclosure.
- AFE circuit 400 When AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a receive mode (e.g., to receive WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals from another wireless device via antenna 351 ), the switchable power supply 430 is turned off (e.g., in response to a disabled state of the PSC signal), thereby isolating first node N 1 from all of the supply voltages associated with the switchable power supply 430 .
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , to isolate antenna 351 and RFIO circuit 350 from the BT PA 310 , for example, so that voltages induced at second node N 2 by the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals do not damage the BT PA 310 .
- all of mode control signals MC 1 -MC 3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), which turns off all transistors MN 1 a , MN 1 b , MN 2 , and MN 3 of the tunable load circuit 440 .
- the non-conductive states of transistors MN 1 a and MN 1 b isolate the BT PA 310 from second node N 2 via the first impedance path formed by capacitors C 1 and C 2 , and the non-conductive states of transistors MN 2 and MN 3 isolate third node N 3 from ground potential by disabling the first and second shunt paths to ground potential.
- the capacitors C 3 and C 4 may block DC components of the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals, for example, so that transistors (not shown for simplicity) that form BT PA 310 are not damaged by voltage swings at node N 2 induced by the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals.
- the mode control circuit 460 de-asserts the TX_EN signal (e.g., to logic low), which turns off transistor MN 4 .
- the non-conductive state of transistor MN 4 isolates the input terminal of LNA 490 from ground potential, thereby allowing the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals to be provided to the input terminal of LNA 490 .
- the LNA 490 amplifies the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals, and provides the amplified WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals to one or more other circuits for processing.
- the amplified Bluetooth signals may be provided to Bluetooth controller 370
- the amplified WLAN signals may be provided to WLAN controller 380 (see also FIG. 3 ). In this manner, the AFE circuit 400 may receive WLAN signals and Bluetooth signals at the same time.
- AFE circuit 400 may include a number of first LNAs 490 to amplify received Bluetooth signals, and may include a number of second LNAs 490 to amplify received WLAN signals.
- the transconductance (Gm) value of the first LNAs may be set to a first value to filter WLAN signals, and the Gm value of the second LNAs may be set to a second value to filter Bluetooth signals.
- Gm transconductance
- FIG. 5E An equivalent circuit diagram 505 of the AFE circuit 400 , when configured to operate in the receive mode, is shown in FIG. 5E .
- capacitor C 1 has a capacitance value of approximately 6.6 pF
- capacitor C 2 has a capacitance value of approximately 3.3 pF
- capacitor C 3 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.5 pF
- capacitor C 4 has a capacitance value of approximately 0.75 pF
- capacitor C 5 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.3 pF.
- the load impedances provided by tunable load circuit 440 for the different operating modes described above may be summarized below in Table 2.
- FIG. 4C shows a circuit diagram of an AFE circuit 403 that may be another embodiment of the AFE circuit 300 of FIG. 3 .
- the AFE circuit 403 is similar to the AFE circuit 400 of FIG. 4A , except that the BT PA 310 is replaced by a first power amplifier PA 1 , the WLAN PA 320 is replaced by a second power amplifier PA 2 , the control signal CTRL BT is replaced by a control signal CTRL PA1 , and the control signal CTRL WLAN is replaced by a control signal CTRL PA2 .
- the first power amplifier PA 1 may amplify first data signals (Data 1 ) for wireless transmission via antenna 351 during a first operating mode
- the second power amplifier PA 2 may amplify second data signals (Data 2 ) for wireless transmission via antenna 351 during a second operating mode.
- the operating mode may be controlled by control signals MC 1 -MC 3 , PSC, and TX_EN in response to control signals CTRL PA1 and CTRL PA2 .
- FIG. 6 shows a wireless device 600 that may be an example embodiment of wireless device 110 of FIGS. 1-2 .
- the wireless device 600 may include a transceiver 610 , a processor 620 , a memory 630 , and a number of antennas 640 ( 1 )- 640 ( n ).
- the transceiver 610 may be used to transmit signals to and receive signals from other wireless devices via one or more of antennas 640 ( 1 )- 640 ( n ), and may be used to scan the surrounding environment to detect and identify other wireless devices.
- Transceiver 610 is shown to include a number of AFE circuits 615 , one or more of which may be an embodiment of AFE circuit 400 of FIG. 4A , the AFE circuit 401 of FIG.
- transceiver 610 may include any number of transmit chains to process and transmit signals to other wireless devices via antennas 640 ( 1 )- 640 ( n ), and may include any number of receive chains to process signals received from antennas 640 ( 1 )- 640 ( n ).
- the wireless device 600 may be configured for MIMO operations including, for example, SU-MIMO operations and MU-MIMO operations.
- transceiver 610 may include one or more Wi-Fi transceivers, Bluetooth transceivers, cellular transceivers, and/or other suitable radio frequency (RF) transceivers to transmit and receive wireless communication signals.
- Each transceiver may communicate with other wireless devices in distinct operating frequency bands and/or using distinct communication protocols.
- the Wi-Fi transceiver may communicate within a 2.4 GHz frequency band and/or within a 5 GHz frequency band in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 standards.
- the cellular transceiver may communicate within various RF frequency bands in accordance with a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol described by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) (e.g., between approximately 700 MHz and approximately 3.9 GHz) and/or in accordance with other cellular protocols (e.g., a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications protocol).
- LTE Long Term Evolution
- 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
- GSM Global System for Mobile
- the transceivers included within the wireless device 600 may be any technically feasible transceiver such as a ZigBee transceiver described by a specification from the ZigBee specification, a WiGig transceiver, and/or a HomePlug transceiver described a specification from the HomePlug Alliance.
- Processor 620 which is coupled to transceiver 610 and memory 630 , may be any one or more suitable processors capable of executing scripts or instructions of one or more software programs stored in wireless device 600 (e.g., within memory 630 ).
- processor 620 is shown as coupled between transceiver 610 and memory 630 .
- transceiver 610 , processor 620 , and/or memory 630 may be connected together using one or more buses (not shown for simplicity).
- Memory 630 may include a profile table 631 that may store location data, configuration information, data rates, MAC addresses, and other suitable information of a number of wireless devices.
- the profile table 631 may also store information regarding the class of Bluetooth devices included within and/or associated with wireless device 600 , transmit power levels for WLAN signals and/or transmit power levels for Bluetooth signals.
- Memory 630 may also include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or more nonvolatile memory elements, such as EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, a hard drive, and so on) that may store the following software (SW) modules:
- SW software
- Processor 620 may execute the operating mode determination software module 632 to determine an operating mode of the wireless device 600 (e.g., a Wi-Fi transmit mode, one or more Bluetooth power modes, or a WLAN/BT receive mode). Processor 620 may also execute the load impedance selection software module 634 to select one of a number of different load impedances that the tunable load circuit 440 is to provide based, at least in part, on the determined operating mode. Processor 620 may also execute the supply voltage selection software module 636 to select one of a number of different supply voltages (or no supply voltage) to be provided to BT PA 310 by the switchable power supply 430 .
- the operating mode determination software module 632 may determine an operating mode of the wireless device 600 (e.g., a Wi-Fi transmit mode, one or more Bluetooth power modes, or a WLAN/BT receive mode). Processor 620 may also execute the load impedance selection software module 634 to select one of a number of different load impedances that the tunable load circuit 440 is
- FIG. 7 is an illustrative flow chart depicting a dynamic impedance matching operation 700 in accordance with example embodiments.
- the dynamic impedance matching operation 700 is described below with respect to the wireless device 110 and the AFE circuit 400 of FIG. 4A (although the dynamic impedance matching operation 700 may also be performed by the AFE circuit 401 of FIG. 4B and/or the AFE circuit 403 of FIG. 4C ).
- an operating mode of the AFE circuit 400 is determined ( 701 ).
- the operating modes for AFE circuit 400 may include a receive mode and a number of transmit modes.
- the AFE circuit 400 may receive Bluetooth signals and/or WLAN signals from antenna 351 via RFIO circuit 350 .
- the transmit mode may include a Wi-Fi transmit mode, a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode.
- the input terminal of LNA 490 is shunted to ground potential ( 703 ). Shunting the input terminal of LNA 490 , which may be accomplished by turning on transistor MN 4 via assertion of the TX_EN signal, may prevent the LNA 490 from sampling WLAN or Bluetooth signals being transmitted from AFE circuit 400 . Then, a determination is made whether WLAN signals or Bluetooth signals are being transmitted ( 704 ).
- the BT PA 310 is de-coupled from the RFIO circuit 350 (and thereby isolated from the output terminal of the WLAN PA 320 ( 705 ). This may protect the transistors which form the BT PA 310 from being damaged by the relatively high transmit power levels of the WLAN signals output from the WLAN PA 320 (e.g., as compared with the lower transmit power levels of the BT signals).
- the switchable power supply 430 is also de-coupled from AFE circuit 400 , for example, to isolate the BT PA 310 from the supply voltages associated with and/or provided by the switchable power supply 430 ( 706 ).
- the impedance circuitry of the tunable load circuit 440 is shunted to ground potential, for example, to provide a minimum non-zero load impedance at the output terminal of the WLAN PA 320 ( 707 ).
- the switchable power supply 430 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide a load impedance value based on the Bluetooth power mode ( 710 ).
- the switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 3.3V for the BT PA 310
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a first (e.g., relatively low) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 .
- the first load impedance may be approximately 50 ⁇ .
- the switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 1.3V for the BT PA 310
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a second (e.g., relatively “medium”) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 .
- the second load impedance may be approximately 80 ⁇ .
- the switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 1.3V for the BT PA 310
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a third (e.g., relatively high) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310 .
- the third load impedance may be approximately 100 ⁇ .
- the tunable load circuit 440 may be dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide a very high load impedance (e.g., a load impedance greater than the first, second, and third load impedances), for example, to prevent the received signals from damaging components of the BT PA 310 ( 708 ). Then, the switchable power supply 430 may be de-coupled from AFE circuit 400 , for example, to prevent received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals from coupling into (and possibly damaging) the BT PA 310 ( 709 ).
- a very high load impedance e.g., a load impedance greater than the first, second, and third load impedances
- FIG. 8 is an illustrative flow chart depicting another dynamic impedance matching operation 800 in accordance with example embodiments.
- the dynamic impedance matching operation 800 is described below with respect to the wireless device 110 and the AFE circuit 400 of FIG. 4A (although the dynamic impedance matching operation 800 may also be performed by the AFE circuit 401 of FIG. 4B and/or the AFE circuit 403 of FIG. 4C ).
- a Bluetooth operating mode of the AFE circuit 400 is determined ( 801 ).
- the Bluetooth operating modes for AFE circuit 400 may include a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode.
- the switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of approximately 1.3V to provide to the BT PA 310 ( 803 ). If the operating mode is a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, as tested at 804 , then the tunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the third load impedance (e.g., a relatively high load impedance) ( 805 ).
- the third load impedance e.g., a relatively high load impedance
- the tunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the second load impedance (e.g., a relatively medium load impedance) ( 808 ).
- the second load impedance e.g., a relatively medium load impedance
- the switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of approximately 3.3V to provide to the BT PA 310 ( 806 ). Then, the tunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the first load impedance (e.g., a relatively low load impedance) ( 807 ).
- the first load impedance e.g., a relatively low load impedance
- a software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.
- An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium.
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Transmitters (AREA)
- Amplifiers (AREA)
- Transceivers (AREA)
Abstract
Description
- The present embodiments relate generally to wireless communications systems, and specifically to tunable load impedances for shared-antenna wireless communications systems.
- Modern wireless communications devices typically include multiple wireless radios (e.g., Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, etc.). To achieve a smaller footprint, multiple wireless radios may share the same antenna. For example, a wireless device may include a Bluetooth radio and a Wi-Fi radio coupled to a single antenna. The Bluetooth radio may include a Bluetooth power amplifier to drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing data signals in accordance with one or more Bluetooth standards. The Wi-Fi radio may include a Wi-Fi power amplifier to drive outgoing data signals in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards. The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios typically operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency band, and may share an antenna to transmit signals to other wireless devices and/or to receive signals from other wireless devices.
- Power transmission efficiency may depend upon how closely matched the load impedance of a power amplifier is relative to the impedance that the power amplifier is able to efficiently drive. Bluetooth power amplifiers may be configured to operate in several different power modes (e.g., a high power mode, a low power mode, and an ultra-low power mode). Wi-Fi power amplifiers are typically operated at higher power levels than Bluetooth power amplifiers, for example, because Wi-Fi signals are typically transmitted at higher power levels than Bluetooth signals. As a result, Wi-Fi power amplifiers and Bluetooth power amplifiers may have different configurations, different operating characteristics, and/or different operating points, and may be optimized for power transmission efficiency by different load impedances.
- For wireless devices including a Wi-Fi power amplifier and a Bluetooth power amplifier that share the same output load, it may be difficult to configure the output load in a manner that optimizes power transmission efficiency for both the Wi-Fi power amplifier and the Bluetooth power amplifier. Further, for wireless devices in which an antenna is shared between the Wi-Fi power amplifier and the Bluetooth power amplifier, it may be difficult to ensure reliability of the Bluetooth power amplifier when the Wi-Fi power amplifier is transmitting (e.g., because the Wi-Fi power amplifier typically drives Wi-Fi signals at higher power levels than the power levels to which the Bluetooth power amplifier drives Bluetooth signals).
- Thus, there is a need to dynamically configure and/or dynamically adjust one or more settings of the shared output load in a manner that optimizes the power transmission efficiency for both the Wi-Fi power amplifier and the Bluetooth power amplifier and that ensures reliability of the Bluetooth power amplifier when the Wi-Fi power amplifier is transmitting.
- This Summary is provided to introduce in a simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
- Systems and methods are disclosed that may maximize power efficiency of both a Bluetooth power amplifier and a Wi-Fi power amplifier which share an antenna coupled to radio frequency input/output (RFIO) circuit. In accordance with example embodiments, an analog front-end (AFE) circuit for use in a transceiver of a wireless device is disclosed that includes at least a Bluetooth power amplifier, a Wi-Fi power amplifier, and a tunable load circuit. The tunable load circuit may be dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide different load impedances for the Wi-Fi power amplifier and the Bluetooth power amplifier based on an operating mode of the AFE circuit. In addition, the AFE circuit may include a switchable power supply that may be dynamically configured to provide a number of different supply voltages to the Bluetooth power amplifier based on a Bluetooth power mode (e.g., Bluetooth high power mode, Bluetooth low power mode, and Bluetooth ultra-low power mode). The tunable load circuit may also prevent damage to the Bluetooth power amplifier when the AFE circuit is transmitting Wi-Fi signals from the antenna.
- For the example embodiments described above, the tunable load circuit uses two impedance paths and two shunt paths to provide at least four different load impedances for different operating modes of the AFE circuit. In this manner, the tunable load circuit may consume less circuit area than conventional solutions that selectively couple a different set of capacitors to the Bluetooth power amplifier for each of the different Bluetooth power modes and selectively couple yet another set of capacitors to the Wi-Fi power amplifier for the Wi-Fi mode.
- More specifically, for at least one example embodiment, the wireless device includes a transceiver configured to transmit data in a plurality of operating modes including a Wi-Fi mode and two or more different Bluetooth power modes, the transceiver comprising: a first power amplifier configured to amplify Bluetooth signals; a second power amplifier configured to amplify Wi-Fi signals; an antenna coupled to the second power amplifier; and a tunable load circuit, coupled between the first amplifier and the second amplifier, configured to provide a different load impedance for each of the plurality of operating modes, the tunable load circuit consisting of: two impedance paths coupled in parallel between output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; and a number of shunt paths coupled between the tunable load circuit and ground potential.
- For some embodiments, the two or more different Bluetooth power modes may include a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode. The tunable load circuit is configured to provide a first load impedance during the Bluetooth high power mode, to provide a second load impedance during the Bluetooth low power mode, and to provide a third load impedance during the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, and is further configured to provide a fourth load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode. For at least one example embodiment, the first load impedance may be less than the second load impedance, the second load impedance may be less than the third load impedance, and the fourth load impedance may be a minimum, non-zero load impedance (e.g., a lowest possible load impedance value).
- For some embodiments, the two impedance paths consist of: a first impedance path including a first capacitor, one or more first transistors, and a second capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; and a second impedance path including a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers. The number of shunt paths comprises: a first shunt path including a second transistor coupled between ground potential and a common node of the third and fourth capacitors; and a second shunt path including a third transistor and a fifth capacitor coupled in series between ground potential and the common node.
- The transceiver may also include a low noise amplifier (LNA) including an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the second amplifier; and a shunt transistor coupled between the input terminal of the LNA and ground potential, the shunt transistor including a gate to receive a transmission enable signal.
- For another embodiment, the transceiver may be configured to transmit data in a plurality of operating modes, the transceiver comprising: a first amplifier configured to amplify first data signals; a second amplifier configured to amplify second data signals; an antenna coupled to the second amplifier; and a tunable load circuit, coupled between output terminals of the first and second amplifiers, configured to provide a different load impedance for each of the plurality of operating modes, the tunable load circuit comprising: a first impedance path including a first capacitor, one or more first transistors, and a second capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; a second impedance path including a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor coupled in series between the output terminals of the first and second amplifiers; a first shunt path including a second transistor coupled between ground potential and a common node of the third and fourth capacitors; and a second shunt path including a third transistor and a fifth capacitor coupled in series between ground potential and the common node.
- The present embodiments are illustrated by way of example and are not intended to be limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings. Like numbers reference like elements throughout the drawings and specification.
-
FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting a wireless device communicating with a wireless communication system, in accordance with example embodiments. -
FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of the wireless device depicted inFIG. 1 . -
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an analog front-end (AFE) circuit in accordance with example embodiments. -
FIG. 4A is a circuit diagram of an example embodiment of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 3 . -
FIG. 4B is a circuit diagram of another example embodiment of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 3 . -
FIG. 4C is a circuit diagram of yet another example embodiment of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 3 . -
FIG. 5A is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 4 when configured for an example WLAN mode of operation. -
FIG. 5B is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 4 when configured for an example first Bluetooth mode of operation. -
FIG. 5C is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 4 when configured for an example second Bluetooth mode of operation. -
FIG. 5D is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 4 when configured for an example third Bluetooth mode of operation. -
FIG. 5E is a circuit diagram of the AFE circuit ofFIG. 4 when configured for an example receive mode of operation. -
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example wireless device within which the example embodiments may be implemented. -
FIG. 7 is an illustrative flow chart depicting a dynamic impedance matching operation in accordance with example embodiments. -
FIG. 8 is an illustrative flow chart depicting another dynamic impedance matching operation in accordance with example embodiments. - The example embodiments are described below in the context of WLAN and Bluetooth communications and networks for simplicity only. It is to be understood that the example embodiments are equally applicable to other types of communications and networks (e.g., cellular networks, pico networks, femto networks, satellite networks, etc.), as well as systems using signals of one or more wired standards or protocols (e.g., Ethernet and/or HomePlug/PLC standards). As used herein, the terms “WLAN” and “Wi-Fi®” may include communications governed by the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, HiperLAN (a set of wireless standards, comparable to the IEEE 802.11 standards, used primarily in Europe), and other technologies having relatively short radio propagation range. Further, as used herein, the term BLUETOOTH® (Bluetooth) may include communications governed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
- In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth such as examples of specific components, circuits, and processes to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. The term “coupled” as used herein means connected directly to or connected through one or more intervening components or circuits. Also, in the following description and for purposes of explanation, specific nomenclature is set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the example embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details may not be required to practice the example embodiments. In other instances, well-known circuits and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the present disclosure. Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processes and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to other skilled in the art.
- The interconnection between circuit elements or software blocks may be shown as buses or as single signal lines. Each of the buses may alternatively be a single signal line, and each of the single signal lines may alternatively be buses, and a single line or bus might represent any one or more of a myriad of physical or logical mechanisms for communication between components. The present embodiments are not to be construed as limited to specific examples described herein but rather to include within their scopes all embodiments defined by the appended claims. In the present application, a procedure, logic block, process, or the like, is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system.
- It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the present application, discussions utilizing the terms such as “accessing,” “receiving,” “sending,” “using,” “selecting,” “determining,” “normalizing,” “multiplying,” “averaging,” “monitoring,” “comparing,” “applying,” “updating,” “measuring,” “deriving,” or the like, refer to the actions and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage transmission or display devices.
- In the figures, a single block may be described as performing a function or functions; however, in actual practice, the function or functions performed by that block may be performed in a single component or across multiple components, and/or may be performed using hardware, using software, or using a combination of hardware and software. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention. Also, the example wireless communications devices may include components other than those shown, including well-known components such as a processor, memory and the like.
- The techniques described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof, unless specifically described as being implemented in a specific manner. Any features described as modules or components may also be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. If implemented in software, the techniques may be realized at least in part by a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, performs one or more of the methods described above. The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials.
- The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may comprise random access memory (RAM) such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), read only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), FLASH memory, other known storage media, and the like. The techniques additionally, or alternatively, may be realized at least in part by a processor-readable communication medium that carries or communicates code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and/or executed by a computer or other processor.
- The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits and instructions described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be executed by one or more processors, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific instruction set processors (ASIPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry. The term “processor,” as used herein may refer to any of the foregoing structure or any other structure suitable for implementation of the techniques described herein. In addition, in some aspects, the functionality described herein may be provided within dedicated software modules or hardware modules configured as described herein. Also, the techniques could be fully implemented in one or more circuits or logic elements. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).
-
FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting awireless device 110 communicating with awireless communication system 120, in accordance with example embodiments. Thewireless communication system 120 may be an LTE system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, a wireless local area network (WLAN) system (e.g., a Wi-Fi system), a Personal Area Network (PAN), or some other wireless system. A CDMA system may implement Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 1X, Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO), Time Division Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA), or some other version of CDMA. For simplicity,FIG. 1 shows thewireless communication system 120 including twobase stations system controller 140. In general, a wireless system may include any number of base stations and any set of network entities. - The
wireless device 110 may also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, etc.Wireless device 110 may be a cellular phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a wireless modem, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device, a laptop computer, a smartbook, a netbook, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a Bluetooth device, etc. Thewireless device 110 may communicate with thewireless communication system 120. Thewireless device 110 may also receive signals from broadcast stations (e.g., a broadcast station 134), signals from satellites (e.g., a satellite 150) in one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), etc. Thewireless device 110 may support one or more radio technologies for wireless communication such as LTE, WCDMA, CDMA 1x, EVDO, TD-SCDMA, GSM, Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE 802.11 communications), Bluetooth communications, etc. - The
wireless device 110 may include an AFE circuit that includes a tunable load circuit coupled between a first power amplifier (PA1) and a second power amplifier (PA2). As explained in more detail below, the tunable load circuit may provide a different load impedance for each of a plurality of operating modes of thewireless device 110. For at least some embodiments, the first power amplifier PA1 may be a Bluetooth power amplifier configured to amplify Bluetooth signals, and the second power amplifier (PA2) may be a WLAN power amplifier configured to amplify Wi-Fi signals. -
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of one example embodiment of thewireless device 110 inFIG. 1 . Thewireless device 110 includes aprimary transceiver 220 coupled to aprimary antenna 210, asecondary transceiver 222 coupled to asecondary antenna 212, and a data processor/controller 280. Theprimary transceiver 220 includes a number (K) of receivers 230 pa to 230 pk and a number (K) of transmitters 250 pa to 250 pk to support multiple frequency bands, multiple radio technologies, carrier aggregation, etc. Thesecondary transceiver 222 includes a number (L) of receivers 230 sa to 230 sl and a number (L) of transmitters 250 sa to 250 sl to support multiple frequency bands, multiple radio technologies, carrier aggregation, receive diversity, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission from multiple transmit antennas to multiple receive antennas, etc. - Each receiver 230 includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) 240 and a receive circuit 242. For data reception, the
primary antenna 210 receives signals from base stations and/or other transmitter stations and provides a received radio frequency (RF) signal, which is routed through anantenna interface circuit 224 and presented as an input RF signal to a selected receiver. Theantenna interface circuit 224 may include switches, duplexers, transmit filters, receive filters, matching circuits, etc. The description below assumes that the receiver 230 pa is the selected receiver. Within the receiver 230 pa, an LNA 240 pa amplifies the input RF signal and provides an output RF signal. The receive circuit 242 pa may down-convert the output RF signal from RF to baseband, amplify and filter the down-converted signal, and provide an analog input signal to data processor/controller 280. The receive circuits 242 pa may include mixers, filters, amplifiers, matching circuits, an oscillator, a local oscillator (LO) generator, a phase locked loop (PLL), etc. Each remaining receive 230 in thetransceivers - For the example of
FIG. 2 , each transmitter 250 includes transmit circuits 252 and power amplifiers (PA) 254. For data transmission, the data processor/controller 280 processes (e.g., encodes and modulates) data to be transmitted and provides an analog output signal to a selected transmitter. The description below assumes that transmitter 250 pa is the selected transmitter. Within the transmitter 250 pa, the transmit circuit 252 pa may amplify, filter, and up-convert the analog output signal from baseband to RF and provide a modulated RF signal. The transmit circuit 252 pa may include amplifiers, filters, mixers, matching circuits, an oscillator, an LO generator, a PLL, and other suitable circuits, components, or modules. A PA 254 pa receives and amplifies the modulated RF signal and provides a transmit RF signal having the proper output power level. The transmit RF signal is routed throughantenna interface circuits 224 and transmitted viaprimary antenna 210. Each remaining transmitter 250 in thetransceivers - Each receiver 230 and transmitter 250 may also include other circuits not shown in
FIG. 2 , such as filters, matching circuits, and other suitable circuits, components, or modules. All or a portion of thetransceivers transceivers transceivers - The data processor/
controller 280 may perform various functions for thewireless device 110. For example, the data processor/controller 280 may perform processing for data being received via the receivers 230 and may perform processing for data being transmitted via the transmitters 250. The data processor/controller 280 may control the operations of the various circuits within thetransceivers memory 282 may store program codes and data for the data processor/controller 280. The data processor/controller 280 may be implemented on one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and/or other ICs. For other embodiments, the data processor/controller 280 may include or be associated with one or more baseband processing circuits (not shown for simplicity), which in turn may communicate with one or more Media Access Control (MAC) devices (not shown for simplicity) provided within thewireless device 110 ofFIG. 1 . - The MAC device may include a number of contention engines (not shown for simplicity) that may contend for access to one more shared wireless mediums, and that may also store packets for transmission over the one more shared wireless mediums. The MAC device may include frame formatting circuitry (not shown for simplicity) to create and/or format frames received from the data processor/controller 280 (e.g., by adding MAC headers to PDUs provided by data processor/controller 280), and may be used to re-format frames received from receiver chains 230 (e.g., by stripping MAC headers from frames received from receiver chains 230).
- As shown in
FIG. 2 , a transmitter (e.g., transmitter 250) and a receiver (e.g., receiver 230) may include various amplifiers. For example, the transmitter 250 may include one or more PAs 254 and/or driver amplifiers (not shown for simplicity). In a similar manner, receiver 230 may include one or more LNAs 240 and/or other amplifiers (not shown for simplicity). - For at least some embodiments, the
primary transceiver 220 may include atunable load circuit 340 coupled between an output terminal of one of the power amplifiers 254 pa-254 pk and an output terminal of another of the power amplifiers 254 pa-254 pk. Similarly, thesecondary transceiver 222 may include atunable load circuit 340 coupled between an output terminal of one of the power amplifiers 254 sa-254 sl and an output terminal of another of the power amplifiers 254 sa-254 sl. As explained in more detail below, thetunable load circuit 340 may provide a different load impedance for each of a plurality of operating modes of thewireless device 110. -
FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an analog front-end (AFE)circuit 300 in accordance with example embodiments. TheAFE circuit 300, which may be implemented within a host wireless device such aswireless device 110 ofFIG. 1 , includes a Bluetooth power amplifier (BT PA) 310, a Wi-Fi power amplifier (WLAN PA) 320, a switchable power supply (PS) 330, atunable load circuit 340, and a shared radio frequency interface (RFIO)circuit 350. TheRFIO circuit 350, which is well-known, may provide an interface betweenantenna 351 andAFE circuit 300. Theantenna 351 may be one embodiment ofantennas 210 and/or 212 ofFIG. 2 , and for actual embodiments may be more than one antenna. - The
BT PA 310 includes an input terminal to receive Bluetooth data signals, and includes an output terminal to provide amplified Bluetooth data signals at a first node N1. Theswitchable power supply 330 is coupled to the output terminal ofBT PA 310 at first node N1. TheWLAN PA 320 includes an input terminal to receive WLAN data signals, and includes an output terminal to provide amplified WLAN data signals at a second node N2. Theantenna 351 is coupled to second node N2 via theRFIO circuit 350. Thetunable load circuit 340 is coupled between first node N1 and second node N2 (e.g., between the output terminals ofBT PA 310 and WLAN PA 320). - For the example of
FIG. 3 , theAFE circuit 300 is shown as coupled to aBluetooth controller 370 and to aWLAN controller 380. TheBluetooth controller 370 may provide Bluetooth data toAFE circuit 300 for transmission to one or more other devices (e.g., viaBT PA 310 and antenna 351), and may receive Bluetooth data from one or more other devices via a receive chain (not shown for simplicity) ofAFE circuit 300. Similarly, theWLAN controller 380 may provide WLAN data toAFE circuit 300 for transmission to one or more other devices (e.g., viaWLAN PA 320 and antenna 351), and may receive WLAN data from one or more other devices via a receive chain ofAFE circuit 300. For at least some embodiments,Bluetooth controller 370 andWLAN controller 380 may be part of the data processor/controller 280 ofFIG. 2 . For other embodiments,Bluetooth controller 370 andWLAN controller 380 may be any suitable circuit, device, or processor (e.g., a baseband processor) that generates and/or processes Bluetooth signals and Wi-Fi signals, respectively. - The
AFE circuit 300 may be coupled to (or alternatively may include) a mode control circuit 360. The mode control circuit 360 may control one or more operating modes, settings, and/or configurations ofAFE circuit 300 based, at least in part, on one or more WLAN control signals and/or one or more Bluetooth control signals. The one or more WLAN control signals, collectively depicted inFIG. 3 as CTRLWLAN, may indicate whether WLAN data is to be transmitted, whether WLAN data is to be received, and/or other information regarding Wi-Fi communications of the host wireless device. The one or more Bluetooth control signals, collectively depicted inFIG. 3 as CTRLBT, may indicate whether Bluetooth data is to be transmitted, may indicate whether Bluetooth data is to be received, may indicate a power mode to be used for Bluetooth communications, and/or may be or indicate other information regarding Bluetooth communications of the host wireless device. For the example embodiment shown inFIG. 3 , the one or more Bluetooth control signals may be generated byBluetooth controller 370, and the one or more WLAN control signals may be generated by WLAN controller 380 (although other suitable circuits or devices may generate the control signals CTRLWLAN and CTRLBT). - The
BT PA 310 may be part of a Bluetooth radio (not shown for simplicity) of the host wireless device, and thus may drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing Bluetooth data signals to a power level specified by one or more Bluetooth standards. TheWLAN PA 320 may be part of a Wi-Fi radio (not shown for simplicity) of the host wireless device, and may drive (e.g., amplify) outgoing WLAN data signals to a power level specified by one or more IEEE 802.11 standards. Thus, for at least some embodiments, theBT PA 310 and theWLAN PA 320 may each be one embodiment of the power amplifiers 254 ofFIG. 2 . - As described above, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communications typically occupy the 2.4 GHz frequency band. Wi-Fi communications are designed for relatively medium-to-long range communications, and Bluetooth communications are designed for relatively short range communications. Accordingly, the transmit power of the
WLAN PA 320 may be significantly greater than the transmit power of theBT PA 310. Moreover, theBT PA 310 may operate in several different power modes (e.g., a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode), while theWLAN PA 320 typically operates in a single power mode. - To achieve optimum power transmission efficiency for the
WLAN PA 320, the output load impedance provided by thetunable load circuit 440 may be “matched” to the impedance that theWLAN PA 320 is able to drive with an acceptable level of efficiency (e.g., a level of efficiency that is greater than a threshold). This technique, which may be referred to herein as “impedance matching,” may be used to maximize the ratio of transmitted power to lost power. However, because theWLAN PA 320 and theBT PA 310 typically operate at different power levels (e.g., to transmit WLAN signals and Bluetooth signals, respectively, at different power levels), a load impedance that optimizes power transmission efficiency for theWLAN PA 320 may be less than optimal for the BT PA 310 (and a load impedance that optimizes power transmission efficiency for theBT PA 310 may be less than optimal for the WLAN PA 320). - In example embodiments, the
tunable load circuit 340 may be dynamically configured or adjusted to provide a first load impedance that matches the input impedance of theWLAN PA 320 during WLAN transmissions (e.g., to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the WLAN PA 320), and may be dynamically configured or adjusted to provide a second load impedance that matches the input impedance of theBT PA 310 during Bluetooth transmissions (e.g., to maximize the power transmission efficiency of the BT PA 310). In addition, thetunable load circuit 340 may be configured to isolate theBT PA 310 fromRFIO circuit 350 andantenna 351 during WLAN transmissions, and may be configured to isolate theWLAN PA 320 fromRFIO circuit 350 andantenna 351 during Bluetooth transmissions. - More specifically, for example embodiments, the
tunable load circuit 340 may selectively operate in two or more operating modes based, at least in part, on a mode control (MC) signal provided by the mode control circuit 360. The mode control circuit 360 may generate the MC signal based on the WLAN control signal CTRLWLAN and/or the Bluetooth control signal CTRLBT. For example, in a Wi-Fi mode of operation, theWLAN PA 320 drives WLAN signals throughAFE circuit 300 for wireless transmission to one or more other wireless devices viaantenna 351, while in a Bluetooth mode of operation, theBT PA 310 drives Bluetooth signals throughAFE circuit 300 for wireless transmission to one or more other wireless devices viaantenna 351. Because the voltage swing and transmit power of WLAN signals is typically greater than the voltage swing and transmit power of Bluetooth signals, thetunable load circuit 340 may provide a lower load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode of operation than in the Bluetooth mode of operation. - As mentioned above, Bluetooth devices may operate according to several different power modes including, for example, a high power mode, a low power mode, and an ultra-low power mode. Thus, for at least some embodiments, the
tunable load circuit 340 may provide, during the Bluetooth mode of operation, a different load impedance for each of the different Bluetooth power modes, for example, so that theBT PA 310 may drive outgoing Bluetooth data signals to different power levels. Theswitchable power supply 330 may select a supply voltage for theBT PA 310 in response to a power selection control (PSC) signal provided by mode control circuit 360. The mode control circuit 360 may generate the PSC signal based, at least in part, on control signals CTRLWLAN and/or CTRLBT. - For some implementations, the selection of a supply voltage to be provided by the
switchable power supply 330 may be coordinated with the load impedance provided by thetunable load circuit 340 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310 for each of the different Bluetooth power modes. -
FIG. 4A shows a circuit diagram of anAFE circuit 400 that may be one embodiment of theAFE circuit 300 ofFIG. 3 . TheAFE circuit 400 includesBT PA 310,WLAN PA 320, aswitchable power supply 430, atunable load circuit 440, amode control circuit 460, and a low noise amplifier (LNA) 490. For simplicity, theBluetooth controller 370 and theWLAN controller 380 described above with respect toFIG. 3 are not shown inFIG. 4A . - The
switchable power supply 430 may be one embodiment ofswitchable power supply 330 ofFIG. 3 , thetunable load circuit 440 may be one embodiment oftunable load circuit 340 ofFIG. 3 , and themode control circuit 460 may be one embodiment of mode control circuit 360 ofFIG. 3 . Theswitchable power supply 430 andtunable load circuit 440 may be configured to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theWLAN PA 320 during the Wi-Fi mode of operation and to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310 for each of the Bluetooth power modes (e.g., high power mode, low power mode, and ultra-low power mode), as described in more detail below. - The
switchable power supply 430 includes a number of supply voltages (e.g., 1.3V, 2.2V, and 3.3V) that may be selectively coupled to theBT PA 310 in response to the PSC signal, which as described above may be indicative of a Bluetooth power mode and/or indicative of whetherAFE circuit 400 is transmitting Bluetooth signals. The selected supply voltage may provide power to theBT PA 310 via an inductor L1. The Bluetooth power mode may depend on the class of the Bluetooth device that generates the Bluetooth data signals. For example, Class 1.5 Bluetooth devices typically operate in a “high power” mode, whereas Class 2 Bluetooth devices may operate in a “low power” mode or an “ultra-low power” mode. In example embodiments, a particular supply voltage (e.g., either 1.3V, 2.2V or 3.3V) may be selected so that theBT PA 310 may drive Bluetooth data signals to a desired power level (e.g., to a power level suitable for the corresponding class of Bluetooth device). - Although not shown in
FIG. 4A for simplicity, theWLAN PA 320 may receive a supply voltage from a separate power supply. Further, for at least some embodiments, theWLAN PA 320 may be a differential amplifier having differential output terminals coupled to second node N2 by a balun, for example, as depicted inFIG. 4B . More specifically, theAFE circuit 401 ofFIG. 4B is similar to theAFE circuit 400 ofFIG. 4A , except that the single-endedWLAN PA 320 ofFIG. 4A is replaced by adifferential WLAN PA 321 that is coupled to node N2 via abalun 322. Thebalun 322, which may convert a differential WLAN signal provided by thedifferential WLAN PA 321 to a single-ended WLAN signal at node N2, is well-known and therefore not described in detail herein. - The
tunable load circuit 440, which is shown to include a number of capacitors C1-C5 and a number of NMOS transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, MN2 and MN3, may provide variable load impedances in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3. Although shown inFIG. 4A as NMOS devices, transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, MN2, and/or MN3 may, for other embodiments, be PMOS devices (or any other technically feasible transistors such as BiCMOS, JFET, or BJT devices). - Capacitor C1 is coupled to the output terminal of the BT PA 310 (at first node N1), capacitor C2 is coupled to an output terminal of
WLAN PA 320 and an input terminal of the RFIO circuit 350 (at second node N1), and transistors MN1 a and MN1 b are coupled in series between capacitors C1 and C2. Transistors MN1 a and MN1 b each include a gate to receive mode control signal MC1. Together, transistors MN1 a-MN1 b and capacitors C1-C2 form a first impedance path (IP1) between first node N1 and second node N2. - Capacitors C3 and C4 are coupled in series between first node N1 and second node N2, and together form a second impedance path (IP2) between first node N1 and second node N2 (e.g., where the second impedance path is in parallel with the first impedance path between nodes N1 and N2).
- Transistor MN2 is coupled a third node N3 (residing between capacitors C3 and C4) and ground potential, and includes a gate to receive a second mode control signal MC2. Capacitor C5 and transistor MN3 are coupled in series between third node N3 and ground potential, and transistor MN3 includes a gate to receive a third mode control signal MC3. Transistor MN2 forms a first shunt path (SP1) between node N3 and ground potential, and transistor MN3 and capacitor C5 form a second shunt path (SP2) between node N3 and ground potential.
- For some embodiments, capacitors C1, C2, and C5 may have relatively large capacitance values (e.g., compared to capacitors C3 and C4), and capacitors C3 and C4 may have relatively small capacitance values (e.g., compared to capacitors C1, C2, and C5). For at least one example embodiment, capacitor C1 has a capacitance value of approximately 6.6 pico-Farads (pF), capacitor C2 has a capacitance value of approximately 3.3 pF, capacitor C3 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.5 pF, capacitor C4 has a capacitance value of approximately 0.75 pF, and capacitor C5 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.3 pF. Thus, because the impedance (Z) of a capacitor is inversely related to its capacitance (i.e., Z=1/jωC), the series connection of capacitors C1 and C2 may provide a lower impedance path between nodes N1 and N2 than the series connection of capacitors C3 and C4. For the discussion that follows, the impedances of capacitors C1-C5 may be expressed as Z1-Z5, respectively.
- For example embodiments, the
tunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide different load impedances by selectively turning on (e.g., activating) and/or turning off (e.g., deactivating) different combinations of transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, MN2, and MN3. Further, whenAFE circuit 400 is transmitting Bluetooth data signals, theswitchable power supply 430 may be configured to provide a particular supply voltage to theBT PA 310 depending on the selected Bluetooth power mode. - The
LNA 490, which includes an input terminal coupled toantenna 351 viaRFIO circuit 350 and includes an output terminal coupled to processing circuitry on the host wireless device, may be used to amplify Bluetooth and/or WLAN data signals received viaantenna 351. In example embodiments, an inductor L2 is coupled between node N2 and the input terminal ofLNA 490, and an NMOS transistor MN4 is coupled between the input terminal ofLNA 490 and ground potential. Transistor MN4 includes a gate to receive a transmission enable signal (TX_EN). The inductor L2 may be inductively coupled to a matching network (not shown for simplicity) within theWLAN PA 320. As explained in more detail below, transistor MN4 may act as a shunt to ground, for theLNA 490, when theAFE circuit 400 operates in a transmit mode (e.g., in response to an assertion of the TX_EN signal). Thus, for the discussion herein, transistor MN4 may be referred to as a shunt transistor. More specifically, turning on transistor MN4 may preventLNA 490 from sampling outgoing data signals from theBT PA 310 and/or theWLAN PA 320. Although shown in FIG. 4A as an NMOS device, transistor MN4 may be a PMOS device (or any other technically feasible transistor such as a BiCMOS, JFET, or BJT device). - The
mode control circuit 460 includes input terminals to receive control signals CTRLBT and CTRLWLAN, and includes output terminals to generate the mode control signals MC1-MC3, the power select control signal (PSC), and the transmission enable signal (TX_EN). As described in more detail below,mode control circuit 460 may control the operation and/or configuration of theswitchable power supply 430, thetunable load circuit 440, and transistor MN4 based on an operating mode of AFE circuit 400 (e.g., as may be indicated or derived from control signals CTRLBT and CTRLWLAN). - When
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in the Wi-Fi mode (e.g., so that theWLAN PA 320 may drive WLAN data signals toantenna 351 via RFIO circuit 350), theswitchable power supply 430 is turned off (e.g., in response to a disabled state of the PSC signal), thereby isolating first node N1 from all of the supply voltages associated with theswitchable power supply 430. Further, thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3, to provide a very low (e.g., a minimum non-zero) load impedance during the Wi-Fi mode. This very low load impedance may allow theWLAN PA 320 to drive the Wi-Fi signals to a desired high power level. More specifically, mode control signal MC1 is de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), and mode control signals MC2-MC3 are asserted (e.g., to logic high). In response thereto, transistors MN1 a and MN1 b are turned off, and transistors MN2 and MN3 are turned on. Because transistors MN1 a and MN1 b are not conductive, capacitors C1 and C2 are de-coupled fromtunable load circuit 440, and therefore may not affect the impedance of thetunable load circuit 440. - The conductive states of transistors MN2 and MN3 may provide a shunt for the
tunable load circuit 440, for example, by pulling the third node N3 to ground potential. This shunt to ground potential may significantly reduce the load impedance seen at the output terminal of WLAN PA 320 (e.g., to a minimum non-zero impedance), thereby allowing theW LAN PA 320 to drive output signals with a higher voltage swing that would be possible with a higher load impedance. In this configuration, the load impedance ZL oftunable load circuit 440 may be expressed as ZL˜Z4. - Moreover, any residual charges on capacitors C3 and C4 accumulated during any of the Bluetooth power modes (which are described below) may be quickly discharged to ground potential by transistors MN2 and MN3, thereby improving the clarity of WLAN data signals driven to
antenna 351 byWLAN PA 320. - An equivalent circuit diagram 501 of the
AFE circuit 400, when configured to operate in the Wi-Fi mode, is shown inFIG. 5A . - When
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a Bluetooth high power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 selects a first supply voltage value of 3.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to a first enabled state of the PSC signal). Further, thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3, to provide a first load impedance during the Bluetooth high power mode. For some embodiments, the first load impedance may be a “relatively low” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes. More specifically, mode control signal MC1 is asserted (e.g., to logic high), and mode control signals MC2-MC3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low). In response thereto, transistors MN1 a and MN1 b are turned on, and transistors MN2 and MN3 are turned off. The non-conductive states of transistors MN2 and MN3 isolate the third node N3 from ground potential. Because transistors MN1 a and MN1 b are conductive, capacitors C1 and C2 are coupled together and form the first impedance path between nodes N1 and N2, and capacitors C3 and C4 form the second impedance path between nodes N1 and N2. In this configuration, the load impedance ZL may be expressed as ZL=(Z1+Z2)˜(Z3+Z4). As a result,tunable load circuit 440 provides the first load impedance (e.g., a relatively “low” load impedance) at the output terminal of theBT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals at high power levels. For example, because the output power may be expressed as Pout=V2/2R (where R is the load impedance), reducing the load impedance provided bytunable load circuit 440 to the first (e.g., relatively low) load impedance value and providing the high supply voltage of 3.3V may maximize the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth high power mode. For at least one embodiment, the first load impedance may have a relatively “low” value of approximately 500. - An equivalent circuit diagram 502 of the
AFE circuit 400, when configured to operate in the Bluetooth high power mode, is shown inFIG. 5B . - When
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a Bluetooth low power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 selects a second supply voltage value of 1.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to a second enabled state of the PSC signal). Further, thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3, to provide a second load impedance during the Bluetooth low power mode. For some embodiments, the second load impedance may be a “relatively medium” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes. More specifically, all of mode control signals MC1-MC3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), which turns off all transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, MN2, and MN3 of thetunable load circuit 440. The non-conductive states of transistors MN1 a and MN1 b prevent capacitors C1 and C2 from affecting the impedance of thetunable load circuit 440, and the non-conductive states of transistors MN2 and MN3 isolate third node N3 from ground potential. In this configuration, the load impedance ZL may be expressed as ZL=Z3+Z4. As a result,tunable load circuit 440 provides the second load impedance (e.g., a relatively “medium” load impedance) at the output terminal of theBT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals in the Bluetooth low power mode. For example, because the output power may be expressed as Pout=V2/2R, providing the second (e.g., the relatively medium) load impedance and providing the low supply voltage of 1.3V may reduce the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth low power mode (e.g., as compared with the Bluetooth high power mode). For at least one embodiment, the second load impedance may have a relatively “medium” value of approximately 80Ω. - An equivalent circuit diagram 503 of the
AFE circuit 400, when configured to operate in the Bluetooth low power mode, is shown inFIG. 5C . - When
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 selects the second supply voltage value of 1.3V for the BT PA 310 (e.g., in response to the second enabled state of the PSC signal). Further, thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3, to provide a third load impedance during the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode. For some embodiments, the third load impedance may be a “relatively high” load impedance, for example, as compared with load impedance values provided for other operating modes. More specifically, mode control signal MC3 is asserted (e.g., to logic high), and mode control signals MC1-MC2 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low). In response thereto, transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, and MN2 are turned off, and transistor MN3 is turned on. The conductive state of transistor MN3 couples capacitor C5 to ground potential, and the non-conductive state of transistor MN2 de-couples the shunt path between third node N3 and ground potential. The non-conductive states of transistors MN1 a and MN1 b de-couple capacitors C1 and C2 from tunable load circuit 440 (and therefore may not affect the impedance of the tunable load circuit 440). In this configuration, the load impedance ZL may be expressed as ZL=Z4+(Z3∥Z5). As a result,tunable load circuit 440 provides the third load impedance (e.g., a relatively high load impedance) at the output terminal of theBT PA 310 to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310 when transmitting Bluetooth signals at ultra-low power levels. For example, because the output power may be expressed as Pout=V2/2R, providing the third (e.g., relatively high) load impedance and providing the low supply voltage of 1.3V may further reduce the output power of the Bluetooth signals for the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode (e.g., as compared with the Bluetooth low power mode). For at least one embodiment, the third load impedance may have a relatively high value of approximately 100Ω. - An equivalent circuit diagram 504 of the
AFE circuit 400, when configured to operate in the Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, is shown inFIG. 5D . - For the example embodiments described above, capacitors C3 and C4 remain coupled between nodes N1 and N2 for all Bluetooth power modes. By using the series combination of capacitors C3 and C4 to provide different load impedances for the high power, low power, and ultra-low power Bluetooth power modes, the circuit area of the
tunable load circuit 440 may be reduced (e.g., as compared with conventional solutions that selectively couple a different set of capacitors to the output terminal of theBT PA 310 for each of the different Bluetooth power modes). More specifically, conventional load circuits that include a separate impedance path for each of the different Bluetooth power modes and/or for the Wi-Fi mode require more transistors (e.g., switches) and capacitors than embodiments of the present disclosure. - When
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a receive mode (e.g., to receive WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals from another wireless device via antenna 351), theswitchable power supply 430 is turned off (e.g., in response to a disabled state of the PSC signal), thereby isolating first node N1 from all of the supply voltages associated with theswitchable power supply 430. Further, thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured, in response to mode control signals MC1-MC3, to isolateantenna 351 andRFIO circuit 350 from theBT PA 310, for example, so that voltages induced at second node N2 by the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals do not damage theBT PA 310. More specifically, all of mode control signals MC1-MC3 are de-asserted (e.g., to logic low), which turns off all transistors MN1 a, MN1 b, MN2, and MN3 of thetunable load circuit 440. The non-conductive states of transistors MN1 a and MN1 b isolate theBT PA 310 from second node N2 via the first impedance path formed by capacitors C1 and C2, and the non-conductive states of transistors MN2 and MN3 isolate third node N3 from ground potential by disabling the first and second shunt paths to ground potential. In this configuration, the capacitors C3 and C4 may block DC components of the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals, for example, so that transistors (not shown for simplicity) that formBT PA 310 are not damaged by voltage swings at node N2 induced by the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals. - In addition, the
mode control circuit 460 de-asserts the TX_EN signal (e.g., to logic low), which turns off transistor MN4. The non-conductive state of transistor MN4 isolates the input terminal ofLNA 490 from ground potential, thereby allowing the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals to be provided to the input terminal ofLNA 490. TheLNA 490 amplifies the received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals, and provides the amplified WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals to one or more other circuits for processing. For some embodiments, the amplified Bluetooth signals may be provided toBluetooth controller 370, and the amplified WLAN signals may be provided to WLAN controller 380 (see alsoFIG. 3 ). In this manner, theAFE circuit 400 may receive WLAN signals and Bluetooth signals at the same time. - Although only one
LNA 490 is shown inFIG. 4A for simplicity, for actual embodiments,AFE circuit 400 may include a number offirst LNAs 490 to amplify received Bluetooth signals, and may include a number ofsecond LNAs 490 to amplify received WLAN signals. The transconductance (Gm) value of the first LNAs may be set to a first value to filter WLAN signals, and the Gm value of the second LNAs may be set to a second value to filter Bluetooth signals. In this manner,AFE circuit 400 may discriminate between the received Bluetooth signals and the received WLAN signals using two sets of LNAs that have different Gm values. - An equivalent circuit diagram 505 of the
AFE circuit 400, when configured to operate in the receive mode, is shown inFIG. 5E . - The configurations of the
AFE circuit 400 for each of the above-described modes of operation are summarized in Table 1 below. -
TABLE 1 Switchable Operating Mode PS MN1a MN1b MN2 MN3 MN4 WLAN Transmit OFF OFF OFF ON ON ON (TX) BT High Power 3.3 V ON ON OFF OFF ON TX BT Low Power 1.3 V OFF OFF OFF OFF ON TX BT Ultra-Low 1.3 V OFF OFF OFF ON ON Power TX Receive (RX) OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF - As mentioned above, for at least one example embodiment, capacitor C1 has a capacitance value of approximately 6.6 pF, capacitor C2 has a capacitance value of approximately 3.3 pF, capacitor C3 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.5 pF, capacitor C4 has a capacitance value of approximately 0.75 pF, and capacitor C5 has a capacitance value of approximately 1.3 pF. As such, the load impedances provided by
tunable load circuit 440 for the different operating modes described above may be summarized below in Table 2. -
TABLE 2 Operating Mode Z expression Z value WLAN Transmit (TX) ZL~Z4 <50 Ω BT High Power TX ZL = (Z1 + Z2) || (Z3 + Z4) 50 Ω BT Low Power TX ZL = Z3 + Z4 80 Ω BT Ultra-Low Power TX Z = Z4 + (Z3 || Z5) 100 Ω Receive (RX) OFF Very high -
FIG. 4C shows a circuit diagram of anAFE circuit 403 that may be another embodiment of theAFE circuit 300 ofFIG. 3 . TheAFE circuit 403 is similar to theAFE circuit 400 ofFIG. 4A , except that theBT PA 310 is replaced by a first power amplifier PA1, theWLAN PA 320 is replaced by a second power amplifier PA2, the control signal CTRLBT is replaced by a control signal CTRLPA1, and the control signal CTRLWLAN is replaced by a control signal CTRLPA2. Specifically, the first power amplifier PA1 may amplify first data signals (Data1) for wireless transmission viaantenna 351 during a first operating mode, and the second power amplifier PA2 may amplify second data signals (Data2) for wireless transmission viaantenna 351 during a second operating mode. The operating mode may be controlled by control signals MC1-MC3, PSC, and TX_EN in response to control signals CTRLPA1 and CTRLPA2. -
FIG. 6 shows awireless device 600 that may be an example embodiment ofwireless device 110 ofFIGS. 1-2 . Thewireless device 600 may include atransceiver 610, aprocessor 620, amemory 630, and a number of antennas 640(1)-640(n). Thetransceiver 610 may be used to transmit signals to and receive signals from other wireless devices via one or more of antennas 640(1)-640(n), and may be used to scan the surrounding environment to detect and identify other wireless devices.Transceiver 610 is shown to include a number ofAFE circuits 615, one or more of which may be an embodiment ofAFE circuit 400 ofFIG. 4A , theAFE circuit 401 ofFIG. 4B , theAFE circuit 403 ofFIG. 4C , and/orAFE circuit 300 ofFIG. 3 . Although not shown inFIG. 6 for simplicity,transceiver 610 may include any number of transmit chains to process and transmit signals to other wireless devices via antennas 640(1)-640(n), and may include any number of receive chains to process signals received from antennas 640(1)-640(n). Thus, for example embodiments, thewireless device 600 may be configured for MIMO operations including, for example, SU-MIMO operations and MU-MIMO operations. - More generally,
transceiver 610 may include one or more Wi-Fi transceivers, Bluetooth transceivers, cellular transceivers, and/or other suitable radio frequency (RF) transceivers to transmit and receive wireless communication signals. Each transceiver may communicate with other wireless devices in distinct operating frequency bands and/or using distinct communication protocols. For example, the Wi-Fi transceiver may communicate within a 2.4 GHz frequency band and/or within a 5 GHz frequency band in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 standards. The cellular transceiver may communicate within various RF frequency bands in accordance with a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol described by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) (e.g., between approximately 700 MHz and approximately 3.9 GHz) and/or in accordance with other cellular protocols (e.g., a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications protocol). In other embodiments, the transceivers included within thewireless device 600 may be any technically feasible transceiver such as a ZigBee transceiver described by a specification from the ZigBee specification, a WiGig transceiver, and/or a HomePlug transceiver described a specification from the HomePlug Alliance. -
Processor 620, which is coupled totransceiver 610 andmemory 630, may be any one or more suitable processors capable of executing scripts or instructions of one or more software programs stored in wireless device 600 (e.g., within memory 630). For purposes of discussion herein,processor 620 is shown as coupled betweentransceiver 610 andmemory 630. For actual embodiments,transceiver 610,processor 620, and/ormemory 630 may be connected together using one or more buses (not shown for simplicity). -
Memory 630 may include a profile table 631 that may store location data, configuration information, data rates, MAC addresses, and other suitable information of a number of wireless devices. The profile table 631 may also store information regarding the class of Bluetooth devices included within and/or associated withwireless device 600, transmit power levels for WLAN signals and/or transmit power levels for Bluetooth signals.Memory 630 may also include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or more nonvolatile memory elements, such as EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, a hard drive, and so on) that may store the following software (SW) modules: -
- an operating mode
determination software module 632 to determine an operating mode of the wireless device 600 (e.g., a Wi-Fi transmit mode, one or more Bluetooth power modes, or a WLAN/BT receive mode), for example, as described below for one or more operations ofFIG. 7 and/orFIG. 8 ; - a load impedance
selection software module 634 to select one of a number of different load impedances that thetunable load circuit 440 is to provide based, at least in part, on the determined operating mode, for example, as described below for one or more operations ofFIG. 7 and/orFIG. 8 ; and - a supply voltage
selection software module 636 to select one of a number of different supply voltages (or no supply voltage) to be provided toBT PA 310 by theswitchable power supply 430, for example, as described below for one or more operations ofFIG. 7 and/orFIG. 8 .
Each software module includes instructions that, when executed byprocessor 620,cause wireless device 600 to perform the corresponding functions. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofmemory 630 thus includes instructions for performing all or a portion of the operations of the method ofFIG. 7 and/or the method ofFIG. 8 .
- an operating mode
-
Processor 620 may execute the operating modedetermination software module 632 to determine an operating mode of the wireless device 600 (e.g., a Wi-Fi transmit mode, one or more Bluetooth power modes, or a WLAN/BT receive mode).Processor 620 may also execute the load impedanceselection software module 634 to select one of a number of different load impedances that thetunable load circuit 440 is to provide based, at least in part, on the determined operating mode.Processor 620 may also execute the supply voltageselection software module 636 to select one of a number of different supply voltages (or no supply voltage) to be provided toBT PA 310 by theswitchable power supply 430. -
FIG. 7 is an illustrative flow chart depicting a dynamicimpedance matching operation 700 in accordance with example embodiments. The dynamicimpedance matching operation 700 is described below with respect to thewireless device 110 and theAFE circuit 400 ofFIG. 4A (although the dynamicimpedance matching operation 700 may also be performed by theAFE circuit 401 ofFIG. 4B and/or theAFE circuit 403 ofFIG. 4C ). First, an operating mode of theAFE circuit 400 is determined (701). As described above, the operating modes forAFE circuit 400 may include a receive mode and a number of transmit modes. During the receive mode, theAFE circuit 400 may receive Bluetooth signals and/or WLAN signals fromantenna 351 viaRFIO circuit 350. The transmit mode may include a Wi-Fi transmit mode, a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode. - If the
AFE circuit 400 is operating in one of the transmit modes, as tested at 702, then the input terminal ofLNA 490 is shunted to ground potential (703). Shunting the input terminal ofLNA 490, which may be accomplished by turning on transistor MN4 via assertion of the TX_EN signal, may prevent theLNA 490 from sampling WLAN or Bluetooth signals being transmitted fromAFE circuit 400. Then, a determination is made whether WLAN signals or Bluetooth signals are being transmitted (704). - If WLAN signals are being transmitted, as tested at 704, then the
BT PA 310 is de-coupled from the RFIO circuit 350 (and thereby isolated from the output terminal of the WLAN PA 320 (705). This may protect the transistors which form theBT PA 310 from being damaged by the relatively high transmit power levels of the WLAN signals output from the WLAN PA 320 (e.g., as compared with the lower transmit power levels of the BT signals). Theswitchable power supply 430 is also de-coupled fromAFE circuit 400, for example, to isolate theBT PA 310 from the supply voltages associated with and/or provided by the switchable power supply 430 (706). Next, the impedance circuitry of thetunable load circuit 440 is shunted to ground potential, for example, to provide a minimum non-zero load impedance at the output terminal of the WLAN PA 320 (707). - Conversely, if Bluetooth signals are being transmitted, as tested at 704, then the
switchable power supply 430 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide a load impedance value based on the Bluetooth power mode (710). For one example, whenAFE circuit 400 is to operate in the Bluetooth high power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 3.3V for theBT PA 310, and thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a first (e.g., relatively low) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310. For at least one embodiment, the first load impedance may be approximately 50Ω. - For another example, when
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in the Bluetooth low power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 1.3V for theBT PA 310, and thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a second (e.g., relatively “medium”) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310. For at least one embodiment, the second load impedance may be approximately 80Ω. - For another example, when
AFE circuit 400 is to operate in a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, theswitchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of 1.3V for theBT PA 310, and thetunable load circuit 440 may be configured to provide a third (e.g., relatively high) load impedance, for example, to maximize the power transmission efficiency of theBT PA 310. For at least one embodiment, the third load impedance may be approximately 100Ω. - If the
AFE circuit 400 is operating in a receive mode, as tested at 702, then thetunable load circuit 440 may be dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide a very high load impedance (e.g., a load impedance greater than the first, second, and third load impedances), for example, to prevent the received signals from damaging components of the BT PA 310 (708). Then, theswitchable power supply 430 may be de-coupled fromAFE circuit 400, for example, to prevent received WLAN and/or Bluetooth signals from coupling into (and possibly damaging) the BT PA 310 (709). -
FIG. 8 is an illustrative flow chart depicting another dynamicimpedance matching operation 800 in accordance with example embodiments. The dynamicimpedance matching operation 800 is described below with respect to thewireless device 110 and theAFE circuit 400 ofFIG. 4A (although the dynamicimpedance matching operation 800 may also be performed by theAFE circuit 401 ofFIG. 4B and/or theAFE circuit 403 ofFIG. 4C ). First, a Bluetooth operating mode of theAFE circuit 400 is determined (801). As described above, the Bluetooth operating modes forAFE circuit 400 may include a Bluetooth high power mode, a Bluetooth low power mode, and a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode. - If the
AFE circuit 400 is operating in one of the Bluetooth low power modes (e.g., a Class 1.5 Bluetooth device), as tested at 802, then theswitchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of approximately 1.3V to provide to the BT PA 310 (803). If the operating mode is a Bluetooth ultra-low power mode, as tested at 804, then thetunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the third load impedance (e.g., a relatively high load impedance) (805). Conversely, if the operating mode is a Bluetooth low power mode, as tested at 804, then thetunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the second load impedance (e.g., a relatively medium load impedance) (808). - If the operating mode is a Bluetooth high power mode (e.g., a Class 2 Bluetooth device), as tested at 802, then the
switchable power supply 430 may select a supply voltage of approximately 3.3V to provide to the BT PA 310 (806). Then, thetunable load circuit 440 is dynamically configured and/or adjusted to provide the first load impedance (e.g., a relatively low load impedance) (807). - Those of skill in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.
- Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the disclosure.
- The methods, sequences or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium.
- In the foregoing specification, the example embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader scope of the disclosure as set forth herein. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.
Claims (30)
Priority Applications (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US14/744,894 US9543900B1 (en) | 2015-06-19 | 2015-06-19 | Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier |
CN201680035025.2A CN107743683A (en) | 2015-06-19 | 2016-05-19 | Changeable power supply and tunable load transimpedance power amplifier |
PCT/US2016/033360 WO2016204926A1 (en) | 2015-06-19 | 2016-05-19 | Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US14/744,894 US9543900B1 (en) | 2015-06-19 | 2015-06-19 | Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
US20160373064A1 true US20160373064A1 (en) | 2016-12-22 |
US9543900B1 US9543900B1 (en) | 2017-01-10 |
Family
ID=56098390
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
US14/744,894 Active US9543900B1 (en) | 2015-06-19 | 2015-06-19 | Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US9543900B1 (en) |
CN (1) | CN107743683A (en) |
WO (1) | WO2016204926A1 (en) |
Cited By (7)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US20170064745A1 (en) * | 2015-08-25 | 2017-03-02 | Laird Technologies, Inc. | Automatic wireless mode switching |
US20180368082A1 (en) * | 2017-06-16 | 2018-12-20 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Controlling coexistent radio systems in a wireless device |
US20190028306A1 (en) * | 2016-02-08 | 2019-01-24 | Sony Corporation | Transmission device and communication system |
KR20190032684A (en) * | 2017-09-18 | 2019-03-28 | 삼성전자주식회사 | Transmitter device and transceiver device for transmitting different wireless standard signal |
US10779198B1 (en) * | 2017-08-16 | 2020-09-15 | Sprint Spectrum L.P. | Adjusting handover thresholds for high power class wireless devices |
CN113115336A (en) * | 2021-04-09 | 2021-07-13 | 英华达(上海)科技有限公司 | Wireless communication optimization method and system based on load tuner |
US20210377879A1 (en) * | 2018-01-12 | 2021-12-02 | Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp, Ltd. | Data transmission method and device, and system |
Families Citing this family (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
KR102552460B1 (en) | 2018-05-11 | 2023-07-06 | 삼성전자 주식회사 | Radio frequency integrated circuit operating in multiple modes and wireless communication device comprising the same |
CN114205900A (en) * | 2019-03-26 | 2022-03-18 | 华为技术有限公司 | Method for adjusting Bluetooth output power and terminal equipment |
US11424783B2 (en) * | 2019-12-27 | 2022-08-23 | Mediatek Inc. | Transceiver having radio-frequency front-end circuit, dedicated radio-frequency front-end circuit, and switchable matching circuit integrated in same chip |
CN112468179B (en) * | 2020-11-30 | 2022-05-24 | 维沃移动通信有限公司 | Radio frequency circuit, electronic device and control method thereof |
CN114884530B (en) * | 2022-04-20 | 2024-04-19 | 星宸科技股份有限公司 | Wired transceiver |
Family Cites Families (30)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7157966B2 (en) * | 2004-12-17 | 2007-01-02 | Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation | Multi-mode power amplifier |
US7382186B2 (en) * | 2005-01-24 | 2008-06-03 | Triquint Semiconductor, Inc. | Amplifiers with high efficiency in multiple power modes |
US20080137566A1 (en) * | 2006-12-06 | 2008-06-12 | Bojko Marholev | Method and System for Shared High-Power Transmit Path for a Multi-Protocol Transceiver |
CN101207399B (en) * | 2006-12-06 | 2014-06-04 | 美国博通公司 | Method and system for controlling circuit in an emitter |
US7818029B2 (en) * | 2007-04-11 | 2010-10-19 | Apple Inc. | Wireless communications circuitry with antenna sharing capabilities for handheld electronic devices |
US20100008338A1 (en) * | 2008-07-14 | 2010-01-14 | Texas Instruments Incorporated | High transmission power using shared bluetooth and wireless local area network front end module |
US8073401B2 (en) * | 2009-02-17 | 2011-12-06 | Rfaxis, Inc. | Multi mode radio frequency transceiver front end circuit with inter-stage matching circuit |
US8331289B1 (en) * | 2009-05-11 | 2012-12-11 | Marvell International, Ltd. | Bluetooth / Wi-Fi coexistence |
US8971830B2 (en) | 2009-05-12 | 2015-03-03 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Multi-mode multi-band power amplifier module |
US9143172B2 (en) | 2009-06-03 | 2015-09-22 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Tunable matching circuits for power amplifiers |
US8442581B2 (en) * | 2009-06-05 | 2013-05-14 | Mediatek Inc. | System for the coexistence between a plurality of wireless communication modules |
US8750810B2 (en) * | 2009-07-24 | 2014-06-10 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Power amplifier with switched output matching for multi-mode operation |
EP2561621A4 (en) * | 2010-04-20 | 2016-10-05 | Blackberry Ltd | Method and apparatus for managing interference in a communication device |
JP2011234155A (en) * | 2010-04-28 | 2011-11-17 | Renesas Electronics Corp | Transmitter |
US9667206B2 (en) * | 2011-02-24 | 2017-05-30 | Dsp Group Ltd. | Linear row array integrated power combiner for RF power amplifiers |
EP2587676B1 (en) | 2011-10-24 | 2014-06-11 | ST-Ericsson SA | RX-TX switch with two power amplifiers |
US8634789B2 (en) * | 2011-11-10 | 2014-01-21 | Skyworks Solutions, Inc. | Multi-mode power amplifier |
EP3567629A3 (en) | 2012-06-14 | 2020-01-22 | Skyworks Solutions, Inc. | Power amplifier modules including related systems, devices, and methods |
US8933858B2 (en) | 2012-08-09 | 2015-01-13 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Front end parallel resonant switch |
CN104170267B9 (en) * | 2012-09-25 | 2017-04-05 | Dsp集团有限公司 | CMOS-based TX/RX switch |
US9160377B2 (en) | 2012-12-19 | 2015-10-13 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Multi-mode multi-band power amplifiers |
US8682269B1 (en) * | 2012-12-21 | 2014-03-25 | Texas Instruments Incorporated | Method, system and apparatus for coupling multiple radio receivers to a receiving antenna |
US9287829B2 (en) | 2012-12-28 | 2016-03-15 | Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation | Control systems and methods for power amplifiers operating in envelope tracking mode |
US9100079B2 (en) * | 2013-03-29 | 2015-08-04 | Mediatek Inc. | Wireless transceiver and method of controlling the wireless transceiver |
WO2015023899A2 (en) | 2013-08-14 | 2015-02-19 | Witricity Corporation | Impedance tuning |
US9374122B2 (en) | 2013-09-26 | 2016-06-21 | Broadcom Corporation | Integrated on-chip duplexer for simultaneous wireless transmission |
US9433011B2 (en) | 2013-10-23 | 2016-08-30 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Apparatus and methods of bluetooth and wireless local area network coexistence |
US9166534B2 (en) | 2013-12-17 | 2015-10-20 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Tunable loadline |
US9484977B2 (en) * | 2014-05-14 | 2016-11-01 | Dsp Group, Ltd. | RF transformer based TX/RX integrated RF switch |
CN105429605B (en) * | 2014-09-16 | 2019-03-08 | 天工方案公司 | The multiband equipment loaded with reduced frequency band |
-
2015
- 2015-06-19 US US14/744,894 patent/US9543900B1/en active Active
-
2016
- 2016-05-19 WO PCT/US2016/033360 patent/WO2016204926A1/en active Application Filing
- 2016-05-19 CN CN201680035025.2A patent/CN107743683A/en active Pending
Cited By (14)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US20170064745A1 (en) * | 2015-08-25 | 2017-03-02 | Laird Technologies, Inc. | Automatic wireless mode switching |
US9781750B2 (en) * | 2015-08-25 | 2017-10-03 | Laird Technologies, Inc. | Automatic wireless mode switching |
US10616007B2 (en) * | 2016-02-08 | 2020-04-07 | Sony Corporation | Transmission device and communication system |
US20190028306A1 (en) * | 2016-02-08 | 2019-01-24 | Sony Corporation | Transmission device and communication system |
CN110741561A (en) * | 2017-06-16 | 2020-01-31 | 高通股份有限公司 | Controlling a co-existing radio system in a wireless device |
US20180368082A1 (en) * | 2017-06-16 | 2018-12-20 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Controlling coexistent radio systems in a wireless device |
US10772052B2 (en) * | 2017-06-16 | 2020-09-08 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Controlling coexistent radio systems in a wireless device |
US11184867B2 (en) * | 2017-06-16 | 2021-11-23 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Controlling coexistent radio systems in a wireless device |
US10779198B1 (en) * | 2017-08-16 | 2020-09-15 | Sprint Spectrum L.P. | Adjusting handover thresholds for high power class wireless devices |
KR20190032684A (en) * | 2017-09-18 | 2019-03-28 | 삼성전자주식회사 | Transmitter device and transceiver device for transmitting different wireless standard signal |
KR102385164B1 (en) | 2017-09-18 | 2022-04-12 | 삼성전자주식회사 | Transmitter device and transceiver device for transmitting different wireless standard signal |
US20210377879A1 (en) * | 2018-01-12 | 2021-12-02 | Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp, Ltd. | Data transmission method and device, and system |
US11785560B2 (en) * | 2018-01-12 | 2023-10-10 | Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. | Data transmission method and device, and system |
CN113115336A (en) * | 2021-04-09 | 2021-07-13 | 英华达(上海)科技有限公司 | Wireless communication optimization method and system based on load tuner |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
US9543900B1 (en) | 2017-01-10 |
CN107743683A (en) | 2018-02-27 |
WO2016204926A1 (en) | 2016-12-22 |
Similar Documents
Publication | Publication Date | Title |
---|---|---|
US9543900B1 (en) | Switchable supply and tunable load impedance power amplifier | |
KR101973138B1 (en) | Radio Frequency Low Noise Amplifier with On-Chip Matching and Built-In Tunable Filter | |
US8626084B2 (en) | Area efficient concurrent matching transceiver | |
US9232562B2 (en) | Method and apparatus for concurrent communication with multiple wireless communication systems of different radio access technologies | |
US9762274B2 (en) | Feedback receive path with RF filter | |
US20160164476A1 (en) | Amplifier with triple-coupled inductors | |
US9800280B2 (en) | Noise suppression in radio frequency receivers | |
US9991875B2 (en) | Reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) bandstop/intermediate frequency (IF) bandpass filter | |
US9473091B2 (en) | Amplifier with common-mode filter | |
KR101793148B1 (en) | Multi-band power amplifier | |
KR20180044288A (en) | Low Noise Amplifier and Notch Filter | |
US10142087B2 (en) | Transmission/reception module | |
EP3189588B1 (en) | Multi-band low noise amplifier | |
US20170201408A1 (en) | Wireless receiver for carrier aggregation | |
US9893702B2 (en) | Notch filter with differential split inductor | |
US9515749B2 (en) | Low noise amplifier module with output coupler | |
US10075138B2 (en) | Inductor shielding |
Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AS | Assignment |
Owner name: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, CALIFORNIA Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LIN, SAIHUA;CHOI, JONGHOON;REEL/FRAME:036320/0684 Effective date: 20150729 |
|
FEPP | Fee payment procedure |
Free format text: PAYOR NUMBER ASSIGNED (ORIGINAL EVENT CODE: ASPN); ENTITY STATUS OF PATENT OWNER: LARGE ENTITY |
|
STCF | Information on status: patent grant |
Free format text: PATENTED CASE |
|
MAFP | Maintenance fee payment |
Free format text: PAYMENT OF MAINTENANCE FEE, 4TH YEAR, LARGE ENTITY (ORIGINAL EVENT CODE: M1551); ENTITY STATUS OF PATENT OWNER: LARGE ENTITY Year of fee payment: 4 |