MULTILEVEL LINC TRANSMITTER

• US 20080019459A1
• Filed: 06/04/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Taiwan University (Government of The Republic of China), MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: National Taiwan University (Government of The Republic of China), MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Yuan-Jyue, Tsao, Hen-Wai, Tseng, Posen, Jheng, Kai-Yuan, Wu, An-Yeu
• Granted Patent: US 7,724,839 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/297
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0205 in transistor amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/025 by using a signal derived from the input signal
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0294 using vector summing of two or more constant amplitude phase-modulated signals
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/468 the temperature being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/24 of transmitter output stages

Abstract

A multilevel LINC transmitter. The multilevel LINC transmitter comprises a multilevel signal component separator, a phase modulator block, and an RF block. The multilevel signal component separator comprises a multilevel scaler and converts a base band signal to constant envelope signals. The phase modulator block is coupled to the multilevel signal component separator. The RF block comprises a plurality of power amplifiers coupled to the phase modulator block and the multilevel scaler and a power combiner coupled to the power amplifiers.

Claims

1. A multilevel LINC transmitter, comprising:

a multilevel signal component separator comprising a multilevel scaler and converting an input signal to phase signals;

a phase modulator block coupled to the multilevel signal component separator; and

an RF block comprising a plurality of power amplifiers coupled to the phase modulator block and the multilevel scaler and a power combiner coupled to the power amplifiers.

2. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multilevel scaler comprises an slicer and a ROM coupled to the slicer.

3. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 2, wherein the slicer comprises a comparator.

4. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an envelope modulator coupled to the multilevel scaler and the power amplifiers.

5. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 4, wherein the envelope modulator comprises a digital to analog converter (DAC) coupled to the multilevel scaler and a low pass filter (LPF) coupled between the DAC and the power amplifiers.

6. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 5, wherein the envelope modulator further comprises a low drop-out (LDO) regulator coupled between the LPF and the power amplifier.

7. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a delay compensator coupled between the phase modulator block and the RF block.

8. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a distortion compensator coupled between the multilevel signal component separator and the envelope modulator.

9. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a sensor coupled to the distortion compensator.

10. The multilevel LINC transmitter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power combiner is a Wilkinson combiner.