Gain control amplification circuit and terminal equipment having the same

• US 6,941,112 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 09/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Osamu
• Primary Examiner(s): Deane, Jr., William J.
• Application Number:
  US09/894,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20020006776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 455/69, 455/68, 455/75, 455/522
• US Class Current: 455/69
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/3042 in modulators, frequency-changers, transmitters or power amplifiers transmission power control in bidirectional transmission systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/3052 in bandpass amplifiers (H.F. or I.F.) or in frequency-changers used in a (super)heterodyne receiver H03G3/32, H03G3/34 take precedence

Abstract

A gain control amplification circuit of this invention has a gain control amplification section which has at least two stages and is arranged in the transmission circuit of a terminal equipment for communicating with a base station. The gain control amplification section includes gain control amplifiers of IF-GCA and RF-GCA arranged on the input side (former stage) and output side (latter stage) of an up converter in the transmission circuit. The gains of the gain control amplifiers are individually controlled by a control section.

Claims

1. A gain control amplification circuit for a terminal equipment in a radio communication system which executes communication between a base station and the terminal equipment, comprising:

a gain control amplification section having gain control amplifiers of at least two stages; and

control means for controlling said gain control amplifiers,

wherein said gain control amplifiers are individually controlled by said control means to set a transmission output value from the terminal equipment to a predetermined value on the basis of a reception level of a reception signal transmitted from the base station and received by the terminal equipment; and

wherein said control means comprises a determination circuit for determining an intensity of the reception signal, an adder for calculating a control signal on the basis of a determination result from said determination circuit, and a control voltage generation circuit for controlling said gain control amplifiers on the basis of the control signal.

2. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein said gain control amplifiers are of IF-GCA and RF-GCA stages, a range of a gain control amplifier at a latter stage is set wider than that at a former stage.

3. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein out of said gain control amplifiers of two stages, a range of a gain control amplifier at a latter stage is set wider than that at a former stage.

4. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein when the transmission output is to be reduced, the gain of a gain control amplifier at a latter stage is reduced first.

5. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein said control voltage generation circuit is a linear interpolation circuit.

6. The circuit according to claim 5, wherein a predetermined portion of a linear characteristic in said linear interpolation circuit is used by each of said gain control amplifiers.

7. The circuit according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined portion of the linear characteristic in said linear interpolation circuit is set on the basis of an SNR of the transmission output.

8. The circuit according to claim 5, wherein said linear interpolation circuit stores a conversion value between a level of the reception signal and a gain corresponding to the level.

9. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein said gain control amplifiers of two stages are arranged on an input side (former stage) and an output side (latter stage) of an up converter in the transmission circuit.

10. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein said gain control amplifiers comprise at least three stages.

11. The circuit according to claim 1, wherein the radio communication system uses a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) scheme.

12. A terminal equipment in a radio communication system, which has a reception circuit for receiving a transmission signal from a base station, and a transmission circuit for transmitting a signal to the base station so as to communicate with the base station, comprising:

a gain control amplification circuit having a gain control amplification section in which gain control amplifiers of at least two stages are arranged; and

control means for individually controlling said gain control amplifiers,

wherein said gain control amplifiers are individually controlled by said control means to set a transmission output value from said terminal equipment to a predetermined value on the basis of a reception level of a reception signal transmitted from the base station and received by said terminal equipment, and

wherein said control means comprises a determination circuit for determining an intensity of the reception signal, an adder for calculating a control signal on the basis of a determination result from said determination circuit, and a control voltage generation circuit for controlling said gain control amplifiers on the basis of the control signal.