Integrous signal combiner

• US 10,447,322 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2017
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Wloczysiak, Stephane Richard Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Nhan T
• Application Number:
  US15/820,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20180205404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/10 Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/163 Special arrangements for the reduction of the damping of resonant circuits of receivers amplifiers H03F; negative impedance networks for line transmission systems H04B3/16

Abstract

A front-end module (FEM) is disclosed that includes an integrous signal combiner. The integrous signal combiner can process received signals and use a set of resonant circuits to filter signal noise prior to recombination of a plurality of signal bands that form an aggregate carrier signal. These resonant circuits may be placed after a set of low noise amplifiers and can be used to more efficiently reduce noise and parasitic loading within each of a set of signal paths. Each resonant circuit may be configured to filter noise relating to a bandwidth for a signal that is to be combined with the signal of the signal path that includes the resonant circuit. In some implementations, the integrous signal combiner can be a tunable integrous signal combiner with resonant circuits that may be reconfigurable or dynamically configurable.

Claims

1. An integrous signal combiner comprising:

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, each of the plurality of low noise amplifiers corresponding to a different frequency band;

a plurality of resonant circuits each corresponding to and in communication with a different low noise amplifier from the plurality of low noise amplifiers; and

a combiner configured to combine at least a first signal output by a first resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits and a second signal output by a second resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits to obtain a combined signal, the combined signal being a signal formed from a plurality of communication bands.

2. The integrous signal combiner of claim 1 wherein the combiner includes an impedance matching network.

3. The integrous signal combiner of claim 1 wherein the combined signal is output from the integrous signal combiner to an impedance matching network.

4. The integrous signal combiner of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of resonant circuits includes a notch filter.

5. The integrous signal combiner of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of bypass switch networks, each bypass switch network configurable to bypass a corresponding resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits, the corresponding resonant circuit differing for each bypass switch network.

6. The integrous signal combiner of claim 5 wherein a bypass switch network from the plurality of bypass switch networks is configurable to bypass the corresponding resonant circuit when a signal received at the integrous signal combiner includes a single communication band.

7. The integrous signal combiner of claim 5 wherein a bypass switch network from the plurality of bypass switch networks is configurable to bypass the corresponding resonant circuit when a multiband signal received at the integrous signal combiner includes a first communication band and a second communication band that are at least a threshold bandwidth apart.

8. The integrous signal combiner of claim 1 wherein the resonant circuit includes a combination of an inductor and a switched capacitor.

9. An integrous signal combiner comprising:

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, each of the plurality of low noise amplifiers corresponding to a different frequency band;

a plurality of resonant circuits each corresponding to and in communication with a different low noise amplifier from the plurality of low noise amplifiers; and

a combiner configured to combine at least a first signal output by a first resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits and a second signal output by a second resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits to obtain a combined signal, the first signal of a first communication band and the second signal of a second communication band.

10. The integrous signal combiner of claim 9 wherein the first resonant circuit is configured to filter the second communication band from a first amplified signal received from a first low noise amplifier of the plurality of low noise amplifiers.

11. A front-end module comprising:

a multiplexer network configured to receive a signal from an antenna and to separate the signal into a plurality of signal components corresponding to a plurality of communication bands; and

an integrous signal combiner including;

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, each of the plurality of low noise amplifiers corresponding to a different frequency band;

a plurality of resonant circuits each corresponding to and in communication with a different low noise amplifier from the plurality of low noise amplifiers; and

a combiner configured to combine at least a first filtered signal component output by a first resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits and a second filtered signal component output by a second resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits to obtain a combined signal, the first filtered signal component a filtered version of an amplified first signal component, and the amplified first signal component an amplified version of a first signal component of the plurality of signal components.

12. The front-end module of claim 11 wherein the combiner includes an impedance matching network.

13. The front-end module of claim 11 wherein the antenna is a diversity antenna.

14. The front-end module of claim 11 wherein the integrous signal combiner further includes a bypass switch network configurable to bypass at least one resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits.

15. The front-end module of claim 14 wherein the bypass switch network is configurable to bypass the at least one resonant circuit when the plurality of communication bands are separated by at least a threshold bandwidth.

16. A wireless device including the front-end module of claim 11.

17. A front-end module comprising:

a multiplexer network configured to receive a signal from an antenna and to separate the signal into a plurality of signal components corresponding to a plurality of communication bands; and

an integrous signal combiner including;

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, each of the plurality of low noise amplifiers corresponding to a different frequency band;

a plurality of resonant circuits each corresponding to and in communication with a different low noise amplifier from the plurality of low noise amplifiers; and

a combiner configured to combine at least a first filtered signal component output by a first resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits and a second filtered signal component output by a second resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits to obtain a combined signal, the integrous signal combiner receiving a plurality of signals, each signal a different signal component from the plurality of signal components.

18. The front-end module of claim 17 wherein the integrous signal combiner further includes a bypass switch network configurable to bypass at least one resonant circuit of the plurality of resonant circuits.

19. The front-end module of claim 18 wherein the bypass switch network is configurable to bypass the at least one resonant circuit when the plurality of communication bands are separated by at least a threshold bandwidth.

20. A method of processing a signal, the method comprising:

receiving a first signal of a first bandwidth at an integrous signal combiner;

receiving a second signal of a second bandwidth at the integrous signal combiner;

amplifying the first signal using a first amplifier of the integrous signal combiner to obtain a first amplified signal, the first amplifier configured to amplify signals of the first bandwidth;

amplifying the second signal using a second amplifier of the integrous signal combiner to obtain a second amplified signal, the second amplifier configured to amplify signals of the second bandwidth;

filtering at least a first noise component from the first amplified signal using a first resonant circuit of the integrous signal combiner to obtain a first filtered signal, the first noise component including signal of the second bandwidth;

filtering at least a second noise component from the second amplified signal using a second resonant circuit of the integrous signal combiner to obtain a second filtered signal, the second noise component including signal of the first bandwidth;

receiving a third signal of a third bandwidth at the integrous signal combiner;

amplifying the third signal using a third amplifier of the integrous signal combiner to obtain a third amplified signal, the third amplifier configured to amplify signals of the third bandwidth;

bypassing a third resonant circuit of the integrous signal combiner to maintain the third amplified signal without filtering the third amplified signal, the third resonant circuit configured to at least filter one or more noise components of one or more bandwidths; and

combining at least the first filtered signal, the second filtered signal, and the third amplified signal to obtain a carrier aggregation signal.