Low noise switching voltage regulator

• US 7,058,374 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2002
• Issued: 06/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Komaili, Jaleh, Levesque, Chris, Millard, Jason D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Application Number:
  US10/270,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20040203544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 455/127.1, 455/127.3, 455/127.5, 455/194.2, 455/522, 455/253.2, 455/309, 455/311, 455/341, 455/572, 455/574, 455/343.1, 455/343.5, 330/297, 330/199, 330/202, 330/285, 330/127, 375/297, 375/295
• US Class Current: 455/127.3
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0227 using supply converters
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0238 using supply converters
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/294 the amplifier being a low noise amplifier [LNA]
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/372 Noise reduction and elimination in amplifier

Abstract

A low-noise switching voltage regulator for supplying a voltage to a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier is disclosed. In one embodiment, the invention can be conceptualized as a power amplifier supply circuit, comprising a pair of oppositely polarized semiconductor switches, and a data formatter configured to supply a data stream having a voltage transition on at least every other bit to each of the pair of oppositely polarized semiconductor switches.

Claims

1. A method for supplying voltage to a power amplifier in a portable communication handset, comprising:

providing a switching voltage regulator, the switching voltage regulator configured to provide a direct current (DC) output; and

providing a data stream to the switching voltage regulator, wherein the data stream comprises sufficient bit transitions to spread any alternating current (AC) voltage on the DC output over a bandwidth occupied by data to be transmitted by the portable communication handset.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising converting the data stream to a Manchester line code.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data stream is random.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the data stream is a transmit data stream.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the switching voltage regulator is located in a power amplifier control loop.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the switching voltage regulator comprises a P-type field effect transistor (FET) and an N-type FET.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the Manchester line code distributes switching ripple caused by the switching voltage regulator to a portion of the frequency spectrum having minimal transmit energy.