Front-end circuitry for multiband frequency management

• US 10,341,079 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2017
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhang, Chen
• Primary Examiner(s): Louis, Vinncelas
• Application Number:
  US15/834,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20180123770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 572 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/006 using switches for selecting the desired band H04B1/0057 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex

Abstract

The described technology provides front-end antenna architecture for wireless communication that manages multiple frequency sub-bands in a manner that results in a low insertion loss rate. Further, the components of the architecture are smaller than typical wireless communication antenna architectures, and therefore the described architecture can be accommodated in a smaller area than typical architectures without a decrease in efficiency. A matching circuit is communicatively connected to each frequency sub-band'"'"'s respective signal path. When two or more sub-bands are requested for high-speed wireless communication, the matching circuits match the impedance of each sub-band with one-another. Matching the impedance allows two or more sub-bands to be used to wirelessly communicate while maintaining high efficiency. The matching circuits are disabled when only one sub-band is needed for wireless communication.

Claims

1. A system for selectively connecting antenna signals of a wireless communication device, the system comprising:

switch bank circuitry including a plurality of radio frequency (RF) switches and configured to selectively communicate the antenna signals between at least one antenna port and at least one communication port, the antenna signals being allocated into frequency bands, each of the frequency bands being divided into frequency sub-bands, each of the frequency sub-bands being associated with an RF switch of the plurality of RF switches; and

a frequency matched port assembly for each frequency sub-band communicatively connected to the switch bank circuitry and the communication port of the wireless communication device, each frequency matched port assembly including an enable/disable switch and an associated impedance matching circuit, the enable/disable switch being communicatively coupled to the associated impedance matching circuit, each enable/disable switch being configured to enable the associated impedance matching circuit and disable the associated impedance matching circuit based on instructions received from a processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each frequency matched port assembly further includes a duplexer, the duplexer configured to allow bi-directional communication over a single path.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the impedance matching circuit is configured according to a frequency of a first sub-band and a frequency of a second sub-band.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a first sub-band and a second sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the frequency bands include at least one of a high band and a middle band, and a first sub-band and a second sub-band are corresponding sub-band pairs selected from the at least one of the high band and the middle band.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a high/middle band antenna communicatively connected to the switch bank circuitry.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the switch bank circuitry is further configured to selectively communicate a first sub-band and a second-sub band of the frequency sub-bands, the first sub-band and the second-sub band being corresponding based on carrier aggregation, the first sub-band having a frequency match port assembly, the second sub-band having a second frequency match port assembly.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a high/middle band antenna communicatively connected to the switch bank circuitry via the at least one antenna port, the high/middle band antenna configured to communicate a high band of antenna signals and a middle band of antenna signals, at least one of the high band of antenna signals and the middle band of antenna signals including the frequency sub-bands of the antenna signals, the middle band of antenna signals being centered at lower frequencies than the high band of antenna signals;

low band switch bank circuitry configured to selectively communicate the antenna signals between at least one different antenna port and at least one different communication port; and

a low band antenna communicatively connected to the low band switch bank circuit and configured to communicate a low band of antenna signals, the low band of antenna signals being centered at lower frequencies than the middle band of antenna signals.

9. A method of communicating signals of a wireless communication device comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via frequency sub-bands of antenna signals of multiple frequency bands; and

selectively communicating via the frequency sub-bands, wherein a switch bank circuitry includes a plurality of radio frequency (RF) switches and selectively communicates the frequency sub-bands between at least one antenna port and at least one designated communication port of the wireless communication device, each of the frequency sub-bands being associated with an RF switch of the plurality of RF switches and allocated to a frequency matched port assembly including an enable/disable switch and an associated impedance matching circuit, the enable/disable switch being communicatively coupled to the associated impedance matching circuit, each enable/disable switch being configured to enable the associated impedance matching circuit and disable the associated impedance matching circuit based on instructions received from a processor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands of antenna signals for carrier aggregation;

selectively matching an impedance of a first sub-band of the two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands with an impedance of a corresponding second sub-band of the two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands, wherein the first sub-band is allocated to a first impedance matching circuit and the second sub-band is allocated to a second impedance matching circuit; and

selectively communicating the first sub-band and second sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein selectively matching the impedance of the first sub-band with the impedance of the second sub-band is executed exclusively when the request includes a request to use the first sub-band and the second sub-band simultaneously.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the selectively matching operation further comprises:

selectively enabling the first impedance matching circuit via a first enable/disable switch allocated to the first sub-band; and

selectively enabling the second impedance matching circuit via a second enable/disable switch allocated to the second sub-band.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an instruction to wirelessly communicate via a single sub-band of the frequency sub-bands;

selectively disabling the first impedance matching circuit via the first enable/disable switch; and

selectively communicating the single sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein a first sub-band and a second sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.

15. One or more tangible processor-readable storage media embodied with instructions for executing on one or more processors and circuits of a device a process to communicate antenna signals of a wireless communication device, the process comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via frequency sub-bands of antenna signals of multiple frequency bands; and

selectively communicating via the frequency sub-bands, wherein a switch bank circuitry includes a plurality of radio frequency (RF) switches and selectively communicates the frequency sub-bands between at least one antenna port and at least one designated communication port of the wireless communication device, each of the frequency sub-bands being associated with an RF switch of the plurality of RF switches and allocated to a frequency matched port assembly including an enable/disable switch and an associated impedance matching circuit, the enable/disable switch being communicatively coupled to the associated impedance matching circuit, each enable/disable switch being configured to enable the associated impedance matching circuit and disable the associated impedance matching circuit based on instructions received from a processor.

16. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 15, the process further comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands of antenna signals for carrier aggregation;

selectively matching an impedance of a first sub-band of the two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands with an impedance of a corresponding second sub-band of the two or more corresponding frequency sub-bands, wherein the first sub-band is allocated to a first impedance matching circuit and the second sub-band is allocated to a second impedance matching circuit; and

selectively communicating the first sub-band and second sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

17. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 16, the process further comprising:

selectively enabling the first impedance matching circuit via a first enable/disable switch allocated to the first sub-band; and

selectively enabling the second impedance matching circuit via a second enable/disable switch allocated to the second sub-band.

18. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 17, the process further comprising:

receiving an instruction to wirelessly communicate via a single sub-band of the frequency bands;

selectively disabling the first impedance matching circuit via the first enable/disable switch;

selectively disabling the second impedance matching circuit via the second enable/disable switch; and

selectively communicating the single sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

19. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein selectively matching the impedance of the first sub-band with the impedance of the second sub-band is executed exclusively when the request includes a request to use the first sub-band and the second sub-band simultaneously.

20. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein a first sub-band and a second sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.