DUAL ANTENNA DISTRIBUTED FRONT-END RADIO

• US 20120243447A1
• Filed: 03/19/2012
• Published: 09/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Weissman, Haim M., Brillant, Avigdor, Fong, Gene, Mansour, Rimon
• Application Number:
  US13/423,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20120243447A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0057 using diplexing or multiplexing filters for selecting the desired band
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0458 Arrangements for matching and coupling between power amplifier and antenna or between amplifying stages matching circuits in general H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/109 by improving strong signal performance of the receiver when strong unwanted signals are present at the receiver input
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a dual antenna distributed radio frequency front end (RFFE). RFFE topologies described herein may provide lower insertion loss (IL), reduced emission mask, decreased power consumption, and/or lower noise figure (NF) compared to conventional RFFE topologies. One example apparatus for wireless communications generally includes first and second power amplifiers (PAs) for amplifying signals for transmission, a transmit antenna for transmitting the amplified signals, a receive antenna for receiving other signals to be processed in a receive path, and a first transmit filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the first PA before amplification by the second PA. For certain aspects, a divided inter-stage filter providing overlapping frequency bands may be utilized. For certain aspects, the RFFE may support frequency-division duplexing (FDD)/TDD (time-division duplexing) coexistence, including support for FDD/TDD MIMO (multiple input multiple output).

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

first and second power amplifiers (PAs) for amplifying signals for transmission;

a transmit antenna for transmitting the amplified signals;

a receive antenna for receiving other signals to be processed in a receive path; and

a first transmit filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the first PA before amplification by the second PA.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a second transmit filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the second PA before transmission by the transmit antenna.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second transmit filter has more relaxed rejection than the first transmit filter.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second transmit filter has low insertion loss.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second PA is a low gain PA.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first transmit filter comprises a divided filter, wherein the divided filter comprises:

at least two selectable filters; and

at least one switch for selecting between the at least two selectable filters.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least two selectable filters have overlapping passbands.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least two selectable filters comprise at least one of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter, a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter, a thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filter, or an inductor-capacitor (LC) filter.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmit antenna is a tunable transmit antenna.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a notch filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the first PA before amplification by the second PA.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the notch filter is a tunable notch filter.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first transmit filter comprises a notch filter.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receive path comprises:

first and second low noise amplifiers (LNAs) for amplifying the other signals received by the receive antenna; and

a first receive filter configured to filter the amplified other signals from the first LNA before amplification by the second LNA.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a second receive filter configured to filter the other signals received by the receive antenna before amplification by the first LNA.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the second receive filter has more relaxed rejection than the first receive filter.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the second receive filter has low insertion loss.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first LNA is a low gain LNA.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first receive filter comprises a divided filter, wherein the divided filter comprises:

at least two selectable filters; and

at least one switch for selecting between the at least two selectable filters.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least two selectable filters have overlapping passbands.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least two filters comprise at least one of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter, a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter, a thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filter, or an inductor-capacitor (LC) filter.

21. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a notch filter configured to filter the amplified other signals from the first LNA before amplification by the second LNA.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the notch filter is a tunable notch filter.

23. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first receive filter comprises a notch filter.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receive path comprises:

a first receive filter configured to filter the other signals received by the receive antenna; and

a low noise amplifier (LNA) for amplifying the filtered other signals.

25. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receive antenna is a tunable receive antenna.

26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus supports long-term evolution (LTE) B22 (3.5 GHz band) with frequency division duplexing (FDD).

27. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus supports a frequency division duplexing (FDD) band gap of about 10 MHz.

28. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmit antenna is isolated from the receive antenna by at least 15 dB.

29. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a transmit diplexer configured to frequency-domain multiplex inputs to first and second ports onto a third port, wherein the first port receives the amplified signals from the second PA and wherein the third port is coupled to the transmit antenna.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising a third PA for amplifying the amplified signals from the first PA, wherein the amplified signals from the third PA are sent to the second port of the transmit diplexer.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first transmit filter, the second PA, and a second transmit filter coupled between the first and third ports of the transmit diplexer form a first transmit path that supports frequency-division duplex (FDD) transmission and wherein the third PA and a third transmit filter coupled between the second and third ports of the transmit diplexer form a second transmit path that supports time-division duplexing (TDD).

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first transmit path supports the FDD transmission in a first range from about 3.41 to about 3.49 GHz and wherein the second transmit path supports the TDD in a second range from about 3.6 to about 3.8 GHz.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the receive path supports FDD reception in a third range from about 3.51 to about 3.59 GHz.

34. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a receive diplexer having first and second ports and configured to frequency-domain de-multiplex an input to a third port onto the first and second ports, wherein the third port receives the other signals from the receive antenna.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the receive path comprises:

a switch for selecting between the first and second ports of the receive diplexer; and

at least one low noise amplifier (LNA) for amplifying the other signals received via the selected one of the first and second ports.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the receive path and a first receive filter coupled between the first and third ports of the receive diplexer support frequency-division duplex (FDD) reception in a first range from about 3.51 to 3.59 GHz and wherein the receive path and a second receive filter coupled between the second and third ports of the receive diplexer support time-division duplexing (TDD) in a second range from about 3.6 to 3.8 GHz.

37. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a receive antenna for receiving signals;

a transmit antenna for transmitting other signals processed in a transmission path;

first and second low noise amplifiers (LNAs) for amplifying the signals received by the receive antenna; and

a first receive filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the first LNA before amplification by the second LNA.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising a second receive filter configured to filter the signals received by the receive antenna before amplification by the first LNA.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the second receive filter has more relaxed rejection than the first receive filter.

40. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the second receive filter has low insertion loss.

41. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the first LNA is a low gain LNA.

42. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the first receive filter comprises a divided filter, wherein the divided filter comprises:

at least two selectable filters; and

at least one switch for selecting between the at least two selectable filters.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the at least two selectable filters have overlapping passbands.

44. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the at least two selectable filters comprise at least one of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter, a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter, a thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filter, or an inductor-capacitor (LC) filter.

45. The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising a notch filter configured to filter the amplified signals from the first LNA before amplification by the second LNA.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the notch filter is a tunable notch filter.

47. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the first receive filter comprises a notch filter.

48. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the receive antenna is a tunable receive antenna.

49. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the apparatus supports long-term evolution (LTE) B22 (3.5 GHz band) with frequency division duplexing (FDD).

50. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the apparatus supports a frequency division duplexing (FDD) band gap of about 10 MHz.

51. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the transmit antenna is isolated from the receive antenna by at least 15 dB.

52. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a first driver amplifier (DA) for amplifying signals for transmission;

a transmit filter for filtering the amplified signals from the first DA;

a first power amplifier (PA) for amplifying the filtered signals from the transmit filter;

a first diplexer configured to frequency-domain multiplex inputs to first and second ports onto a third port, wherein the first port receives the amplified signals from the first PA;

a first antenna coupled to the first PA via a first diplexer; and

a second antenna coupled to a receive path via a second diplexer.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the first diplexer is configured to frequency-domain multiplex inputs to first and second ports onto a third port, wherein the first port receives the amplified signals from the first PA and wherein the third port is coupled to the first antenna.

54. The apparatus of claim 53, further comprising:

a second DA for amplifying other signals for transmission; and

a third PA for amplifying the amplified signals from the second DA, wherein the third PA is coupled to the second port of the first diplexer.

55. The apparatus of claim 54, further comprising:

a first low noise amplifier (LNA); and

a first switch for selecting between the third PA for transmission and the first LNA for reception, wherein the first switch is coupled to the second port of the first diplexer.

56. The apparatus of claim 55, wherein the receive path comprises a second LNA and wherein the second diplexer is configured to frequency-domain multiplex inputs to fourth and fifth ports onto a sixth port, wherein the sixth port is coupled to the second antenna and wherein the fourth port is coupled to the second LNA.

57. The apparatus of claim 56, further comprising:

a third LNA; and

a second switch for selecting between the second PA for transmission and the third LNA for reception, wherein the second switch is coupled to the fifth port of the second diplexer.

58. The apparatus of claim 56, further comprising:

a second switch interposed between the second LNA and the fourth port of the second diplexer; and

a third switch coupled to the fifth port of the second diplexer, wherein the third switch is for selecting between the second PA for transmission and the second switch for reception by the second LNA and wherein the second switch is for selecting between the fifth port, via the third switch, and the fourth port for reception.

59. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein the transmit filter, the first PA, and a portion of the first diplexer including the first port form a first transmit path that supports frequency-division duplex (FDD) transmission and wherein the receive path and a portion of the second diplexer including the fourth port support FDD reception.

60. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the first transmit path supports the FDD transmission in a first range from about 3.41 to about 3.49 GHz and wherein the receive path and the portion of the second diplexer support the FDD reception in a second range from about 3.51 to about 3.59 GHz.

61. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the third PA, the first switch, and another portion of the first diplexer including the second port support time-division duplex (TDD) transmission and wherein the first LNA, the first switch, and the portion of the first diplexer including the second port support TDD reception.

62. The apparatus of claim 61, wherein the apparatus supports the TDD transmission and the TDD reception in a third range from about 3.6 to about 3.8 GHz.

63. The apparatus of claim 61, wherein the apparatus supports the TDD transmission or the TDD reception simultaneously with the FDD transmission and the FDD reception.

64. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein the apparatus supports time-division duplexing (TDD) multiple input, multiple output (MIMO).

65. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein the second LNA comprises a dual-mode LNA.

66. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the first DA has a higher gain than the first PA.

67. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein at least one of the first and second antennas is a tunable antenna.

68. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the first antenna is isolated from the second antenna by at least 15 dB.

69. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the apparatus supports a frequency-division duplexing (FDD) band gap of about 20 MHz.