Fully integrated RF transceiver integrated circuit

• US 20080293446A1
• Filed: 05/23/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rofougaran, Ahmadreza (Reza)
• Granted Patent: US 8,351,982 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/552.1
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2223/6627 Waveguides, e.g. microstrip line, strip line, coplanar line
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2223/6677 for antenna, e.g. antenna included within housing of semiconductor device antennas per se H01Q
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/32145 the bodies being stacked
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45099 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48227 connecting the wire to a bond pad of the item
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/73265 Layer and wire connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2225/06562 at least one device in the stack being rotated or offset
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/49855 for flat-cards, e.g. credit cards cards per se G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/5385 Assembly of a plurality of insulating substrates
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/5388 for flat cards, e.g. credit cards cards per se G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/66 High-frequency adaptations
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/48 of an individual wire connector
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/73 Means for bonding being of different types provided for in two or more of groups H01L24/10, H01L24/18, H01L24/26, H01L24/34, H01L24/42, H01L24/50, H01L24/63, H01L24/71
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/0657 Stacked arrangements of devices
• 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 2924/00012 Relevant to the scope of the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group
• 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 2924/13091 Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor [MOSFET]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/14 Integrated circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/15311 being a ball array, e.g. BGA
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/181 : Encapsulation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1903 : including wave guides
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3011 : Impedance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3025 : Electromagnetic shielding
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2283 : mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package

Abstract

A radio transceiver device includes circuitry for radiating electromagnetic signals at a very high radio frequency both through space, as well as through wave guides that are formed within a substrate material. In one embodiment, the substrate comprises a dielectric substrate formed within a board, for example, a printed circuit board. In another embodiment of the invention, the wave guide is formed within a die of an integrated circuit radio transceiver. A plurality of transceivers with different functionality is defined. Substrate transceivers are operable to transmit through the wave guides, while local transceivers are operable to produce very short range wireless transmissions through space. A third and final transceiver is a typical wireless transceiver for communication with remote (non-local to the device) transceivers. Additionally, a multi-mode transceiver is operable to configure transmit and receive circuitry based upon transmission path.

Claims

1. A multi-mode transceiver, comprising:

a substrate in a package;

a bare die formed on the substrate, the bare die including a transmit module operably disposed to receive outgoing pulses that represent digital data and a receive module operable to produce ingoing data pulses, wherein the transmit and receive modules are formed on the bare die; and

at least one antenna formed on the packaged substrate and sized to transmit and receive very high radio frequency signals having a frequency that is at least 20 GHz antenna wherein both the transmit and receive modules are both operably coupled to the at least one antenna.

2. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 further including a transmit-receive switch operably disposed to select between an output of the transmit module and an input of the receive module wherein the transmit-receive switch is formed on the substrate that includes the bare die.

3. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 wherein the transmit module includes a transmit processing module and wherein the receive module comprises a receive processing module wherein the transmit processing module is operable to receive and upsample the outgoing digital pulses to produce outgoing digital pulses having a sample rate that substantially matches the transmit frequency of the antenna formed to transmit the very high radio frequency signals and wherein the receive processing module is operable to receive wirelessly transmitted upsampled digital pulses and is operable to recover and decimate the upsampled digital pulses to produce digital pulses that represent the digital data.

4. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 3 wherein the transmit processing module is configurable based upon a transmission mode wherein:

in a first transmission mode, the transmit processing module operably couples logic to provide at least one of error correction, scrambling, interleaving, encoding, and constellation mapping in a digital portion of a transmission path; and

in a second transmission mode, the transmit processing module operably couples logic to receive outgoing digital pulses to upsample the outgoing digital pulses to produce outgoing digital pulses having a sample rate that substantially matches the transmit frequency of the antenna formed to transmit the very high radio frequency signals, wherein the transmit processing module produces the upsampled outgoing digital pulses for transmission from the at least one antenna.

5. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 wherein the outgoing digital pulses are produced directly from the transmit processing module to the antenna in the second transmission mode.

6. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 4 further including a transmit-receive switch operably disposed between the antenna and the and the transmit processing module wherein, in the second transmission mode, the outgoing digital pulses are produced directly from the transmit processing module to the transmit-receive switch in the second transmission mode and from the transmit-receive switch to the antenna.

7. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 further including a power amplifier wherein the upsampled outgoing digital pulses are produced, in the second transmission mode, from the transmit processing module in the second transmission mode to the power amplifier and from the power amplifier to the antenna.

8. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 further including a transmit-receive switch coupled to the antenna and a power amplifier operably disposed between the transmit-receive switch and the transmit processing module wherein the outgoing digital pulses are produced, in the second transmission mode, from the transmit processing module to the power amplifier and from the power amplifier to the transmit-receive switch coupled to the antenna.

9. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 further comprising a transmit processing module operable to provide routine digital signal processing for inter-device transmissions to a remote device wherein the routine signal processing includes at least one of scrambling, interleaving, forward error correction coding, and QPSK or higher order modulation encoding.

10. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 9 wherein the transmit processing module generates an outgoing radio frequency signal characterized by a frequency of less than or equal to 20 GHz and a transmission power level adequate to reach the remote device and wherein the at least one antenna is operably sized to wirelessly transmit the outgoing radio frequency signal.

11. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 9 wherein the transmit processing module operable to generate a radio frequency signal characterized by a frequency of greater than or equal to 20 GHz and a transmission power level adequate reach the local intra-device receiver.

12. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 9 wherein the transmit processing module is operable generate a radio frequency signal characterized by a frequency of greater than or equal to 20 GHz and a transmission power level adequate for transmissions through a dielectric substrate to reach a substrate receiver.

13. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 12 wherein the transmit processing module is operable to produce upsampled digital signals and further wherein the upsampled digital signals are phase shifted to one of two phase values based upon a data value of a data bit being transmitted.

14. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 12 wherein the transmit processing module is operable to produce upsampled digital signals and further wherein the upsampled digital signals are phase shifted to one of at least four phase values based upon a data value of a data bit being transmitted.

15. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 12 wherein the transmit processing module is operable to produce an upsampled digital signals and further wherein the upsampled digital signals are amplitude shifted to one of plurality of levels based upon a data value being transmitted.

16. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 further comprising multi-mode radio frequency front end circuitry operable to convert an outgoing digital signal to a continuous waveform and to produce an outgoing radio frequency signal for transmissions to remote devices at a frequency that is less than or equal to 20 GHz and to local intra-device receivers at a frequency that is greater than or equal 20 GHz.

17. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 12 further comprising transmit processing logic operable to provide at least one of scrambling, interleaving, error correction coding, and QPSK or higher order modulation encoding for transmissions to remote inter-device receivers at a frequency that is less than or equal 20 GHz.

18. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 1 wherein the transmit module is operable to produce an upsampled digital signal to the at least one antenna for wireless transmissions to a first destination and radio frequency signals for wireless transmissions to a second destination.

19. The multi-mode transceiver of claim 18 wherein the transmit module operably couples transmit processing logic according to destination wherein error protection logic is coupled to manipulate outgoing digital signals only for transmissions to the second destination.

20. A transceiver module, comprising:

a transmit module for generating outgoing digital signals characterized by a sample rate;

a receive module for receiving wirelessly transmitted ingoing digital signals characterized by the sample rate; and

an antenna operably disposed to receive the ingoing digital signals and to wirelessly transmit the outgoing digital signals.

21. The transceiver module of claim 20 wherein the transmit module produces outgoing digital signals that include at least one of error correction, scrambling, interleaving, encoding, and QPSK or higher order constellation mapping.

22. The transceiver module of claim 20 wherein the transmit module produces an upsampled digital data stream without error correction for transmission from the antenna.

23. The transceiver module of claim 20 wherein the processor is operable modulate the phase of the outgoing digital data to increase a data rate.

24. The transceiver module of claim 20 wherein the processor is operable modulate the phase to one of four or more phase values of the outgoing digital data to increase a data rate.

25. The transceiver module of claim 20 wherein the processor is operable to modulate an amplitude of the outgoing digital data to increase a data rate.

26. A transceiver module, comprising:

a processor for generating outgoing digital signals that comprise an unmodified digital data stream;

a radio frequency front end for converting the outgoing digital signals to a continuous waveform at a frequency that is greater than or equal to 20 GHz;

an amplifier for amplifying the continuous waveform signals; and

an antenna coupled to the processor for radiating the outgoing digital signals.

27. A method of transmitting a wireless communication signal, comprising:

determining a transmission mode;

determining whether to provide at least one of error correction, scrambling, interleaving, encoding, and constellation mapping in a digital portion of the transmission path according to the determined transmission mode;

determining whether to convert outgoing digital data to a continuous waveform prior to transmitting from an antenna; and

determining whether to power amplify either the outgoing digital data or outgoing continuous waveform signal prior to transmitting from the antenna.

28. The method of claim 27 further including phase modulating outgoing digital data and transmitting the phase modulated digital data from the antenna.

29. The method of claim 27 further including amplitude modulating the outgoing digital data and transmitting the amplitude modulated digital data from the antenna.