MULTIPLE ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

• US 20100238075A1
• Filed: 03/04/2010
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NETGEAR, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sierra Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: Pourseyed, Behrouz
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 343/702
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/28 Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems multiple beam H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching

Abstract

The invention provides an antenna system for wireless communications and in particular to a multiple antenna system for operation in conjunction with a radio frequency (RF) front end for wireless communication. The antenna system comprises one or more antennas configurable for transmission and reception in a first set of configurations and configured for transmission in a second set of configurations. The antenna system further comprises two or more antennas configurable for MIMO-diversity reception for the second set of configurations. The antennas that are configured for MIMO-diversity reception may be tuneable, and may have similar characteristics to enhance MIMO reception. Mobile communications terminals utilizing the antenna system, and radio-frequency (RF) front ends for operation in conjunction with the antenna system are also provided. The antenna system may support communications in multiple frequency bands and/or multiple communication standards of operation.

Claims

1. An antenna system for operation in conjunction with a radio frequency (RF) front end of a wireless communications device, said antenna system comprising:

one or more non-tuneable antennas configurable for transmission and reception in a first set of one or more configurations, and configurable for transmission in a second set of one or more configurations; and

two or more narrowband antennas configurable for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)-diversity reception for the configurations of said second set.

2. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said antenna system supports communications in multiple frequency bands, multiple communication standards of operation, or both multiple frequency bands and multiple communication standards of operation, and wherein said configurations differ in frequency band of operation, communication standard of operation, or both.

3. The antenna system of claim 2, wherein said communications standards of operation are selected from the group consisting of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), CDMA2000, WI-Fi, Wi-Max, Global Positioning System (GPS), and Blue-Tooth.

4. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said narrowband antennas are substantially matched, and wherein said narrowband antennas have a desired correlation coefficient there-between to allow for MIMO reception.

5. The antenna system of claim 4, wherein the correlation coefficient between at least two of said narrowband antennas is less than 0.3.

6. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said narrowband antennas is a tuneable antenna.

7. The antenna system of claim 6, wherein at least one of said narrowband antennas is an electrically tuneable antenna.

8. The antenna system of claim 6, wherein at least one of said narrowband antennas supports operation in multiple frequency bands, and is configured for tuning of the center frequency, bandwidth, and/or shape of at least one of said multiple frequency bands.

9. The antenna system of claim 8, wherein at least one of said tuneable antennas is operable in a lower frequency band around 900 MHz and an upper frequency band around 2 GHz.

10. The antenna system of claim 9, wherein said upper frequency band supports reception of signals for UMTS1900, UMTS2100 or LTE1700, and said lower frequency band is tuneable for reception of signals for LTE700 or signals of UMTS900, UMTS850 or LTE900.

11. The antenna system of claim 8, wherein the center frequency, bandwidth, or both center frequency and bandwidth of one or more of said multiple frequency bands is independently tuneable using PIN diodes.

12. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said narrowband antennas are non-tuneable.

13. The antenna system of claim 12, wherein said narrowband antennas support operation in multiple frequency bands.

14. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein the configurations of said first set of configurations is selected from the group consisting of GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900.

15. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein the configurations of said second set of configurations is selected from the group consisting of LTE700, UMTS850, UMTS 900/LTE 900, UMTS1900, and UMTS 2100/LTE 1700.

16. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said one or more non-tuneable antennas comprises a single wideband antenna capable of transmission and reception in said first set of configurations, and transmission in said second set of configurations.

17. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said one or more non-tuneable antennas comprises a first antenna and a second antenna operable in disjoint groups of configurations.

18. The antenna system of claim 1, wherein said one or more non-tuneable antennas support MIMO-diversity transmission in at least one configuration of said first and second sets of configurations.

19. A wireless communications device utilizing the antenna system of claim 1.

20. The wireless communications device of claim 19, wherein the wireless communications device is a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, a smart phone, a laptop, or a wireless adapter.

21. An antenna system and radio frequency (RF) front end of a wireless communications device, said antenna system comprising:

one or more non-tuneable antennas configurable for transmission and reception in a first set of one or more configurations, and configurable for transmission in a second set of one or more configurations; and

two or more narrowband antennas configurable for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)-diversity reception for the configurations of said second set;

said radio frequency front end comprising;

a set of one or more switches selectably operable in a position selected from a first set of positions and a second set of positions, the first set of positions adapted to facilitate configuration of the one or more non-tuneable antennas in accordance with the first set of one or more configurations, the second set of positions adapted to facilitate configuration of the one or more non-tuneable antennas and the two or more narrowband antennas in accordance with the second set of one or more configurations.

22. The antenna system and RF front end according to claim 21, wherein said antenna system supports communications in multiple frequency bands, multiple communication standards of operation, or both multiple frequency bands and multiple communication standards of operation, and wherein said configurations differ in frequency band of operation, communication standard of operation, or both.

23. The antenna system and RF front end according to claim 21, wherein at least one of said narrowband antennas is a tuneable antenna.

24. The antenna system and RF front end according to claim 21, wherein said one or more non-tuneable antennas comprises at least one wideband antenna.

25. The antenna system and RF front end according to claim 21, wherein said one or more non-tuneable antennas comprises a first antenna and a second antenna operable in disjoint groups of configurations.

26. A radio frequency (RF) front end for operation in conjunction with an antenna system of a wireless communications device, said antenna system comprising one or more non-tuneable antennas and two or more narrowband antennas, said radio frequency front end comprising:

a set of one or more switches selectably operable in a position selected from a first set of positions and a second set of positions, the first set of positions adapted to facilitate configuration of the one or more non-tuneable antennas for transmission and reception, the second set of positions adapted to facilitate configuration of the one or more non-tuneable antennas for transmission, the second set of positions further adapted to facilitate configuration of the two or more narrowband antennas for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)-diversity reception.

27. The radio frequency front end according to claim 26, wherein the set of one or more switches includes a single-pole multi-throw RF switch or a multi-pole multi-throw RF switch.

28. The radio frequency front end according to claim 27, wherein the set of one or more switches includes one or more switches selected from the group consisting of:

solid state switches, electromechanical switches, PIN diode switches, and MEMS switches.

29. The radio frequency front end according to claim 26, wherein the set of one or more switches is configured to selectively establish one or more transmit paths and one or more receive paths in accordance with one of the first set of one or more configurations or the second set of one or more configurations.

30. The radio frequency front end according to claim 29, wherein at least one of the one or more transmit paths comprises a power amplifier.

31. The radio frequency front end according to claim 29, wherein at least one of the one or more receive paths comprises a low noise amplifier.

32. The radio frequency front end according to claim 29, wherein at least one of the one or more transmit paths and the one or more receive paths comprises an RF filter.

33. The radio frequency front end according to claim 29, wherein at least one of the one or more transmit paths and the one or more receive paths includes an RF transformer.

34. A wireless communication device utilizing the RF front end of claim 26.

35. A method for operating an antenna system and radio frequency (RF) front end of a wireless communication device, the antenna system comprising one or more non-tuneable antennas configurable for transmission and reception and two or more narrowband antennas configurable for MIMO-diversity reception, the method comprising the steps of:

a) selecting a configuration of the antenna system and the RF front end from a set of potential configurations, said set of potential configurations including a first set of one or more configurations wherein at least one of the one or more non-tuneable antennas is configured for transmission and reception, said set of potential configurations including a second set of one or more configurations wherein at least one of the one or more non-tuneable antennas is configured for transmission and at least two of the two or more narrowband antennas are configured for MIMO-diversity reception; and

b) configuring the antenna system and the RF front end in accordance with the selected configuration.