Linearization bias circuit for BJT amplifiers

• US 6,426,677 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2001
• Issued: 07/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intersil Americas LLC (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Prentice, John S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shingleton, Michael B
• Application Number:
  US09/952,184
• Time in Patent Office: 319 Days
• Field of Search: 330/279, 330/281, 330/282, 330/284, 330/285
• US Class Current: 330/279
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/30 Modifications of amplifiers to reduce influence of variations of temperature or supply voltage or other physical parameters in differential amplifiers H03F3/45479
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/32 Modifications of amplifiers to reduce non-linear distortion by negative feedback H03F1/34
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/453 Controlling being realised by adding a replica circuit or by using one among multiple identical circuits as a replica circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/456 A scaled replica of a transistor being present in an amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 1/0035 using continuously variable impedance elements

Abstract

A linearization bias circuit for an RF BJT amplifier including a reference circuit, a current device and a transconductance amplifier. The linearization bias circuit controls the operating point of the BJT amplifier based on signal level of an input RF signal. The current device provides a constant reference current to the reference circuit, where the constant reference current has a level that is based on a desired collector current of the BJT amplifier. The reference circuit applies a predetermined relationship between DC and AC scale factors of collector current of the BJT amplifier. The transconductance amplifier asserts its output to maintain the constant reference current into the reference terminal of the reference circuit, and in doing so controls the base terminal of the BJT amplifier to modify its operating point to substantially maintain constant transconductance in the presence of varying input voltage amplitudes of the input RF signal.

Claims

1. A linearization bias circuit for a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifier including a base terminal that receives an input radio frequency (RF) signal, the linearization bias circuit comprising:

a reference circuit having a control terminal for coupling to the base terminal of the BJT amplifier and a reference terminal;

a current device, coupled to the reference terminal of the reference circuit, that provides a constant reference current, wherein the constant reference current has a level that is based on a desired DC collector current of the BJT amplifier; and

a transconductance amplifier, having an input coupled to the reference terminal of the reference circuit and an output coupled to the control terminal of the reference circuit, that asserts its output to maintain the constant reference current into the reference terminal of the reference circuit;

wherein the reference circuit applies a predetermined relationship between DC and AC scale factors of collector current of the BJT amplifier so that the transconductance amplifier applies its output for controlling the base terminal of the BJT amplifier to modify the operating point of the BJT amplifier to substantially maintain constant transconductance.

2. The linearization bias circuit of claim 1, wherein the transconductance amplifier comprises an emitter follower amplifier with an isolation resistor.

3. The linearization bias circuit of claim 1, wherein the output of the transconductance amplifier has a high impedance at a fundamental frequency of the RF signal.

4. The linearization bias circuit of claim 1, wherein the predetermined relationship is a linear regression according to an equation 2I₁(x)/x=mI₀(x)+b, wherein x is a normalized signal level of the RF signal, wherein I₀(x) is a zero order Bessel function representing a DC scale factor, wherein I₁(x) is a first order Bessel function representing an AC scale factor for current at a fundamental frequency of the RF signal, and wherein m and b are constants.

5. The linearization bias circuit of claim 4, wherein m is approximately 0.428 and b is approximately 0.592.

6. The linearization bias circuit of claim 4, wherein the reference circuit comprises:

a sense BJT having a base terminal coupled to the control terminal of the reference circuit for receiving the input RF signal, a collector terminal coupled to the reference terminal of the reference circuit and an emitter terminal for coupling to an emitter terminal of the BJT amplifier;

a reference BJT having a base terminal, a collector terminal coupled to the reference terminal of the reference circuit and an emitter terminal coupled to the emitter terminal of the sense BJT;

a low pass filter capacitor coupled between the collector and emitter terminals of the sense and reference BJTs to remove AC; and

a low pass filter circuit including a resistor coupled between the base terminals of the sense and reference BJTs and a capacitor coupled between the base and emitter terminals of the reference BJT, the low pass filter circuit removing AC from the base terminal of the reference BJT.

7. The linearization bias circuit of claim 6, wherein the constant reference current is approximately 2.34 times a desired collector current of the BJT amplifier, and wherein the reference BJT has an emitter area that is approximately 1.38 times an emitter area of the sense BJT.

8. The linearization bias circuit of claim 7, wherein the sense BJT has an emitter area that is smaller than an emitter area of the BJT amplifier by a predetermined scale factor.

9. The linearization bias circuit of claim 7, wherein the constant reference current and a ratio of emitter areas of the sense and reference BJTs are adjusted to account for circuit imperfections.

10. The linearization bias circuit of claim 1, wherein the predetermined relationship is according to an equation 2I₁(x)/x mI₀(nx), wherein x is a normalized signal level of the input RF signal, wherein I₀(x) is a zero order Bessel function representing a DC scale factor, wherein I₁(x) is a first order Bessel function representing an AC scale factor for current at a fundamental frequency of the RF signal, and wherein n is a predetermined value less than one.

11. The linearization bias circuit of claim 10, wherein n is approximately 0.73.

12. The linearization bias circuit of claim 10, wherein the reference circuit comprises:

a reference BJT having a base terminal, a collector terminal coupled to the reference terminal of the reference circuit and an emitter terminal for coupling to an emitter terminal of the BJT amplifier;

a low pass filter capacitor coupled between the collector and emitter terminals of the reference BJT to remove AC; and

an attenuator circuit including an attenuation resistor coupled between the control terminal of the reference circuit and the base terminal of the reference BJT, and a first attenuation capacitor coupled between the base and emitter terminals of the reference BJT, the attenuator circuit applying a predetermined percentage of the level of the RF signal to the base terminal of the reference BJT at a fundamental frequency.

13. The linearization bias circuit of claim 12, wherein the predetermined percentage is approximately 73 percent.

14. The linearization bias circuit of claim 12, wherein the reference BJT has an emitter area that is smaller than an emitter area of the BJT amplifier by a predetermined scale factor.

15. The linearization bias circuit of claim 12, wherein the attenuation circuit includes a second attenuation capacitor coupled in parallel with the attenuation resistor.

16. The linearization bias circuit of claim 15, wherein for a fundamental frequency f, a resistance R of the attenuation resistor, a capacitance C₁ of the first attenuator capacitor, a capacitance C₂ of the second attenuator capacitor, and a base to emitter capacitance C_π

of the reference BJT are such that the magnitude of (2π

fRC₂j+1)/(2π

fR(C₁+C_π

+C₂)+1) is approximately equal to 0.73.

17. A method of biasing a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifier, the BJT amplifier having a base terminal that receives an input radio frequency (RF) signal, the method comprising:

providing the input RF signal to a bias control circuit;

providing a constant reference current to the bias control circuit, the constant reference current having a level that is based on a desired DC collector current for the BJT amplifier; and

the bias control circuit controlling the base terminal of the BJT amplifier to modify the BJT amplifier operating point based on signal level of the input RF signal according to a predetermined relationship between a DC current scale factor and a transconductance scale factor of the BJT amplifier at a fundamental frequency of the input RF signal in order to substantially maintain constant transconductance of the BJT amplifier.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the DC current scale factor is a zero order Bessel function I₀(x) in which x is a normalized signal level of the RF signal, wherein the transconductance scale factor is 2I₁(x)/x in which I₁(x) is a first order Bessel function, and wherein the predetermined relationship is 2I₁(x)/x=mI₀(x)+b in which m and b are constants.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein m is approximately 0.43 and wherein b is approximately 0.59.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

scaling an emitter area of a reference BJT to be larger than an emitter area of a sense BJT by a predetermined scale factor;

applying the input RF signal at the base terminal of the BJT amplifier to a base terminal of the sense BJT;

generating a filtered RF signal by low pass filtering the input RF signal as applied to the base terminal of the sense BJT to remove AC and providing the filtered RF signal to a base terminal of the reference BJT;

scaling the constant reference current by a predetermined multiple of a desired DC collector current level of the BJT amplifier;

applying the constant reference current to a reference node coupled to collector terminals of the sense and reference BJTs;

low pass filtering AC from reference node; and

controlling the DC level at the base terminal of the BJT amplifier using a transconductance amplifier that forces a sum of collector currents of the sense and reference BJTs to be approximately the same as the constant reference current level.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the predetermined scale factor is approximately 1.38 and wherein the predetermined multiple is approximately 2.34.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the DC current scale factor is a zero order Bessel function I₀(x) in which x is a normalized signal level of the RF signal, wherein the transconductance scale factor is 2I₁(x)/x in which I₁(x) is a first order Bessel function, and wherein the predetermined relationship is 2I₁(x)/x=I₀(nx) in which n is a constant.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein n is approximately 0.73.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

generating an attenuated RF signal by attenuating the input RF signal as applied to the base terminal of the sense BJT by a predetermined attenuation factor and providing the attenuated RF signal to a base terminal of a reference BJT;

providing the constant reference current at a desired DC collector current level of the BJT amplifier;

applying the constant reference current to a reference node coupled to a collector terminal of the reference BJT;

low pass filtering AC from the reference node; and

controlling DC at the base terminal of the BJT amplifier using a transconductance amplifier that forces a collector current of the reference BJT to be approximately the same as the constant reference current level.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the predetermined attenuation factor is 0.73.

26. A method of linearizing gain of a radio frequency (RF) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifier, comprising:

applying a DC base to emitter voltage of the BJT amplifier to a base to emitter junction of a reference BJT;

applying a portion of an input AC signal to the base to emitter junction of the reference BJT;

filtering AC from a collector terminal of the reference BJT;

applying a constant current to the collector terminal of the reference BJT, the constant current having a level based on desired DC current level of the BJT amplifier; and

applying feedback control between the collector terminal of the reference BJT and the base terminals of the reference BJT and the BJT amplifier to maintain a collector current of the reference BJT at the fixed reference level so that the DC base to emitter voltage of the BJT amplifier varies with the level of the input AC signal to maintain relatively constant transconductance of the BJT amplifier.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said applying a portion of an input AC signal comprises providing an attenuator between the base terminals of the reference BJT and the BJT amplifier.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein said applying a portion of an input AC signal comprises attenuating the input AC signal applied to the base terminal of the reference BJT by approximately 73%.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising scaling an emitter area of the reference BJT relative to an emitter area of the BJT amplifier by a predetermined scale factor.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said applying feedback control comprises presenting feedback control that is high impedance at a frequency level of the input AC signal.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

said applying a portion of an input AC signal to the base to emitter junction of the reference BJT comprising applying all of the input AC signal to the base to emitter junction of the reference BJT, the reference BJT comprising a first reference BJT;

applying the DC base to emitter voltage of the BJT amplifier to a base to emitter junction of a second reference BJT;

filtering AC from the collector terminals of the first and second reference BJTs;

scaling an emitter area of the second reference BJT relative to an emitter area of the first reference BJT; and

said applying feedback control comprising applying feedback control between the collector terminals of the first and second reference BJTs and the base terminals of the first reference BJT and the BJT amplifier to maintain a sum of collector currents of the first and second reference BJTs at the fixed reference level so that the DC base to emitter voltage of the BJT amplifier varies with the level of the input AC signal to maintain relatively constant transconductance of the BJT amplifier.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said applying the DC base to emitter voltage of the BJT amplifier to a base to emitter junction of a second reference BJT comprises low pass filtering the base to emitter voltage of the first reference BJT and applying a filtered signal to the base terminal of the second reference BJT.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein said scaling an emitter area of the second reference BJT relative to an emitter area of the first reference BJT comprises scaling the emitter area of the second reference BJT to be approximately 1.38 times larger than the emitter area of the first reference BJT.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein said applying a constant current comprises applying a constant current having a level that is approximately 2.34 times a desired DC current level of the first reference BJT.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein an emitter area of the first reference BJT is scaled by a predetermined scale factor relative to an emitter area of the BJT amplifier.