Programmable radio transceiver

• US 20060030277A1
• Filed: 08/11/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: BitWave Semiconductor, Inc.
• Inventors: Dawe, Geoffrey C., Cyr, Russell J., Bohorquez, Jose L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,508,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/77
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/04042 Bonding areas specifically adapted for wire connectors, e.g. wirebond pads
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/05554 being square
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/05599 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45099 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48227 connecting the wire to a bond pad of the item
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/49171 Fan-out arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/49175 Parallel arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/85399 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/06 of a plurality of bonding areas
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/48 of an individual wire connector
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/49 of a plurality of wire connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01005 Boron [B]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01006 Carbon [C]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01013 Aluminum [Al]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01014 Silicon [Si]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01015 Phosphorus [P]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01019 Potassium [K]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0102 : Calcium [Ca]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01023 : Vanadium [V]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01027 : Cobalt [Co]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01032 : Germanium [Ge]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01033 : Arsenic [As]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01047 : Silver [Ag]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01066 : Dysprosium [Dy]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01074 : Tungsten [W]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01075 : Rhenium [Re]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01076 : Osmium [Os]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01082 : Lead [Pb]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01083 : Bismuth [Bi]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/014 : Solder alloys
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/12034 : Varactor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/13091 : Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor [MOSFET]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/14 : Integrated circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1433 : Application-specific integrated circuit [ASIC]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1461 : MEMS
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/19041 : being a capacitor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/19042 : being an inductor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/30107 : Inductance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3011 : Impedance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/30111 : matching
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/223 : with MOSFET's
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/294 : the amplifier being a low noise amplifier [LNA]
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/372 : Noise reduction and elimination in amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/191 : Tuned amplifiers H03F3/193, H03F3/195 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/45179 : using MOSFET transistors as the active amplifying circuit H03F3/45278 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0003 : Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/005 : adapting radio receivers, transmitters andtransceivers for operation on two or more bands, i.e. frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 : with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes

Abstract

A fully integrated, programmable mixed-signal transceiver comprising a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) which is frequency and protocol agnostic with digital inputs and outputs, the transceiver being programmable and configurable for multiple radio frequency bands and standards and being capable of connecting to many networks and service providers. The RFIC does not use spiral inductors and instead includes transmission line inductors allowing for improved scalability. Components of the transceiver are programmable to allow the transceiver to switch between different frequency bands of operating. Frequency switching can be accomplished though the content of digital registers coupled to the components.

Claims

1. A programmable transceiver comprising:

a controller adapted to dynamically select and control an operating frequency band of the programmable transceiver such that the programmable transceiver is capable of switching between multiple frequency bands and operating protocols;

a plurality of digitally programmable components coupled to the controller via a programming bus, each of the plurality of digitally programmable components comprising a digital register adapted to receive digital control data from the controller via the programming bus, the digital data controlling an operating frequency band and protocol for each of the digitally programmable components;

a plurality of MOS switches coupled to the digital registers of the plurality of digitally programmable components and operably responsive to the digital control data; and

a corresponding plurality of capacitive elements coupled to the plurality of MOS switches;

wherein the controller controls selection of the operating frequency band by providing the digital control data to the digital registers of the plurality of digitally programmable components; and

wherein the plurality of MOS switches control switching in and out of the corresponding plurality of capacitive elements in response to the digital control data to effect selection of the operating frequency band.

2. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the plurality of capacitive elements includes a plurality of fixed capacitors.

3. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the plurality of MOS switches are adapted to adjust a gate width of at least one of the plurality of digitally programmable components responsive to the digital control data to effect selection of the operating frequency band for the at least one digitally programmable component.

4. The programmable transceiver of claim 3, wherein the at least one of the plurality of digitally programmable components includes at least one of a programmable notch filter, a programmable low noise amplifier, a programmable gain amplifier;

and a programmable I/Q modulator.

5. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the plurality of digitally programmable components includes at least one of a low noise amplifier, a mixer, a notch filter, a voltage controlled oscillator, a programmable gain amplifier, an I/Q modulator, an analog-to-digital converter, a digital-to-analog converter, and a local oscillator.

6. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein at least one of the capacitive elements includes a varactor diode, and wherein a capacitance value of the at leat capacitive element is controlled by adjusting a bias voltage of the varactor diode responsive to the digital control data.

7. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the multiple frequency bands cover a frequency range of about 70 Megahertz to 6 gigahertz.

8. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the multiple operating protocols include at least two of GSM, UMTS, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, CDMA, CDMA2k, Den and digital video broadcasting (handheld).

9. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, wherein the transceiver circuitry does not include any spiral inductors.

10. The programmable transceiver of claim 1, further comprising:

a transmitter chain that produces a transmit signal;

wherein the plurality of digitally programmable components includes a low noise amplifier and a notch filter coupled to the low noise amplifier;

wherein the plurality of MOS switches includes at least one first switch coupled to the digital register of the low noise amplifier, and at least one second switch coupled to the digital register of the notch filter;

wherein the plurality of switchable capacitive elements includes a first plurality of switchable capacitive elements coupled to the at least one first switch, and a second plurality of switchable capacitive elements coupled to the at least one second switch;

wherein the controller tunes an operating frequency band of the low noise amplifier by providing the digital control data to the digital register of the low noise amplifier to control the at least one first switch to switch in and out the first plurality of switchable capacitive elements; and

wherein the controller provides digital control data to the digital register of the notch filter to control the at least one second switch to switch the second plurality of switchable capacitive elements so as to provide a center operating frequency of the notch filter that matches a center frequency of the transmit signal so as to prevent leakage of the transmit signal into the low noise amplifier.

11. A method of switching a programmable transceiver between different operating frequency bands, the method comprising:

providing digital control data that identifies a desired operating frequency band;

loading the digital control data into a digital register of a programmable component;

controlling at least one switch based on the digital control data; and

switching in and out a plurality of capacitive elements with the at least one switch to effect selecting the desired operating frequency band.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein switching in and out of the plurality of capacitive elements includes adjusting a gate width of at least one active MOS device included in the programmable component by switching in and out capacitors coupled to a gate of the at least one active MOS device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the capacitive elements include at least one varactor diode, and further comprising a step of tuning a capacitance value of the at least one varactor diode to further control selecting the desired operating frequency band.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein tuning the capacitance value of the at least one varactor diode includes adjusting a bias voltage of the at least one varactor diode.

15. A frequency synthesizer implemented as a phase-locked loop without mixers, the phase-locked loop comprising:

a first voltage-controlled oscillator;

a second voltage-controlled oscillator;

a first resonance circuit coupled to the first voltage-controlled oscillator and adapted to produce a first tuning signal to tune a frequency range of a first frequency signal produced by the first voltage controlled oscillator;

a second resonance circuit coupled to the second voltage-controlled oscillator and adapted to produce a second tuning signal to tune a frequency range of a second frequency signal produced by the second voltage controlled oscillator;

a switch;

two cascaded divide-by-N circuits coupled to the first and second voltage-controlled oscillators via the switch, wherein the switch is operable to couple at least one of the first frequency signal and the second frequency signal to the cascaded divide-by-N circuits; and

a divide-by-M circuit coupled to the cascaded divide-by-N circuits in a feedback loop with the first and second voltage-controlled oscillators.

16. The frequency synthesizer of claim 15, further comprising:

a phase detector coupled to the divide-by-M circuit in the feedback loop between the divide-by-M circuit and the first and second voltage-controlled oscillators; and

a loop filter coupled between the phase detector and the first and second voltage-controlled oscillators.

17. A programmable transceiver fabricated in a semiconductor integrated circuit without the use of any spiral inductors and configurable for multiple operating frequency bands and protocols, the transceiver comprising:

at least one transmission line having an inductance; and

a plurality of switchable capacitive elements capable of being switched in and out of connectivity with the at least one transmission line responsive to a digital control signal to provide a resonance circuit having a tunable center resonance frequency at least partially dependent on a number of the plurality of switchable capactive elements that are connected to the at least one transmission line and on the inductance of the at least one transmission line;

wherein the control signal controls tuning of the center resonance frequency to a desired operating frequency band of the transceiver by switching in and out appropriate ones of the plurality of switchable capacitors.

18. The programmable transceiver of claim 17, further comprising at least one variable capacitor coupled to the at least one transmission line and forming part of the resonance circuit, the at least one variable capacitor having a capacitance value tunable responsive to a tuning signal that further controls tuning of the center resonance frequency.