REDUCED POWER-CONSUMPTION TRANSMITTERS

• US 20120236958A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Deng, Junxiong, Sahota, Gurkanwal Singh, Marra, Thomas, Aparin, Vladimir, Akula, Prashanth
• Granted Patent: US 8,618,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/295
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0261 with control of the polarisation voltage or current, e.g. gliding Class A
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/321 Use of a microprocessor in an amplifier circuit or its control circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/336 A I/Q, i.e. phase quadrature, modulator or demodulator being used in an amplifying circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/451 the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/537 A transformer being used as coupling element between two amplifying stages
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/24 of transmitter output stages
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/04 Circuits

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment discloses a digital control block for dynamically regulating power consumption of the transmitter; and a first driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes each corresponding to a power consumption level in the transmitter, the digital control block to instruct the first driver amplifier circuit to operate in a selected bias-mode to regulate power consumption of the transmitter.

Claims

1. A radio-frequency (RF) transmitter comprising:

a digital control block for dynamically regulating power consumption of the transmitter; and

a first driver amplifier circuit configured to receive at least one digital control instruction from the digital control block and comprising a plurality of bias-modes each corresponding to a power consumption level in the transmitter, the digital control block to instruct the first driver amplifier circuit via the at least one digital control instruction to operate in a selected bias-mode based on a measured output power level of the transmitter to regulate power consumption of the transmitter.

2. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the digital control block to instruct a plurality of circuits for regulating power consumption of the transmitter.

3. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the plurality of circuits comprising at least one of a base-band digital to analog converter, a base-band variable gain amplifier, a RF variable gain amplifier.

4. The RF transmitter of claim 2, the digital control block causes a reduction in a current consumption of at least one of the plurality of circuits when a transmitter output power decreases.

5. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the digital control block to select a high bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is high.

6. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the digital control block to select a low bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is low.

7. The RF transmitter of claim 1, further comprising:

a power amplifier (PA) circuit having an input for receiving an RF signal from the first driver amplifier circuit, and an output for outputting an amplified RF signal;

a PA-bypass path for connecting an output of the first driver amplifier circuit to the output of the PA circuit; and

a plurality of switches positioned between the output of the first driver amplifier circuit and the output of PA circuit to enable selection of the PA-bypass path.

8. The RF transmitter of claim 7, the power amplifier (PA) circuit is turned off when the transmitter output power is low.

9. The RF transmitter of claim 7, further comprising:

a surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter positioned between the output of the first driver amplifier circuit and the input of the PA circuit to filter the RF signal provided to the PA circuit by the first driver amplifier circuit.

10. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the first driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of gain states.

11. The RF transmitter of claim 1, the first driver amplifier circuit comprising 256 gain states.

13. The RF transmitter of claim 1, comprising:

a second driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes each corresponding to the power consumption level in the transmitter, the digital control block to instruct the second driver amplifier circuit to operate in a selected bias-mode to regulate power consumption of the transmitter, the first and second amplifier circuit having a common input;

a power amplifier (PA) circuit having an input for receiving an RF signal from the first driver amplifier circuit, and an output for outputting an amplified RF signal;

a PA-bypass path for connecting an output of the second driver amplifier circuit to the output of the PA circuit; and

at least one switch positioned between the output of the second driver amplifier circuits and the output of PA circuit to enable selection of the PA-bypass path.

14. The RF transmitter of claim 13, at least one of the first and second driver amplifier circuits each comprising a plurality of gain states.

15. The RF transmitter of claim 14, at least one of the first and second driver amplifier circuits comprising 256 gain states.

16. The RF transmitter of claim 13, the digital control block to select the second driver amplifier circuit and the PA-bypass path and to turn off at least one of the first driver amplifier circuit and the PA circuit when the transmitter output power is low.

17. The RF transmitter of claim 13, the digital control block to select the first driver amplifier circuit and the PA circuit and to turn the second driver amplifier circuit off when the transmitter output power is high.

18. The RF transmitter of claim 2, the digital control block to regulate power consumption of the transmitter based on a received signal.

19. The RF transmitter of claim 18, the digital control block to map the received signal to predetermined current consumption characteristics of at least one of the first driver amplifier circuit and the plurality of circuits to regulate power consumption of the transmitter.

20. The RF transmitter of claim 19, the digital control block to map the received signal to predetermined current consumption characteristics of at least one of the first driver amplifier circuit, the second driver amplifier circuit and the plurality of circuits to regulate power consumption of the transmitter.

12. The RF transmitter of claim 12, the plurality of circuits each comprising a plurality of gain states.

21. A method comprising:

dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via digital control instructions received at a first driver amplifier and based on a measured output power level of the transmitter; and

selecting based on the digital control instructions a bias-mode of the first driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes corresponding to power consumption levels in the transmitter.

22. The method of claim 21, the selecting further comprising:

selecting a low bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is low; and

selecting a high bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is high.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

selecting a PA-bypass path when the transmitter output power is low; and

selecting a power amplifier (PA) circuit when the transmitter output power is high.

24. The method of claim 21, the selecting a PA-bypass path further comprising:

turning off the PA circuit when the transmitter output power is low.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

selecting based on the digital control instructions a bias-mode of a second driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes corresponding to power consumption levels in the transmitter.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

selecting based on the digital control instructions the second driver amplifier circuit and a PA-bypass path and turning the first driver amplifier circuit and the PA circuit off when the transmitter output power is low; and

selecting the first driver amplifier circuit and the PA circuit and to turn the second driver amplifier circuit off when the transmitter output power is high.

27. The method of claim 21, the dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via digital control instructions further comprising:

dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via received digital control instructions; and

mapping the received signal to predetermined current consumption characteristics of at least one of the first driver amplifier circuit and a plurality of circuits of the transmitter.

28. The method of claim 25, the dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via digital control instructions further comprising:

dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via received digital control instructions; and

mapping the received signal to predetermined current consumption characteristics of at least one of the first driver amplifier circuit, the second driver amplifier circuit and a plurality of circuits of the transmitter.

29. An apparatus comprising:

means for dynamically regulating a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via digital control instructions received at a first driver amplifier and based on a measured output power level of the transmitter;

means for selecting based on the digital control instructions a bias-mode of the first driver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes corresponding to power consumption levels in the transmitter; and

means for operating the first driver amplifier circuit in the selected bias-mode.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising:

means for selecting a low bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is low; and

means for selecting a high bias mode for the first driver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is high.

31. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium comprising,

instructions for causing a computer to dynamically regulate a power consumption of a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter, via digital control instructions;

instructions for causing the computer to select based on the digital control instructions a bias-mode of a first diver amplifier circuit comprising a plurality of bias-modes corresponding to power consumption levels in the transmitter; and

instructions for causing the computer to operate the first diver amplifier circuit in the selected bias-mode.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 31, further comprising:

instructions for causing the computer to select a low bias mode for the first diver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is low; and

instructions for causing the computer to select a high bias mode for the first diver amplifier circuit when the transmitter output power is high.