IC with a 55-64 GHz antenna

• US 7,839,334 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rofougaran, Ahmadreza (Reza)
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; HoangAnh T
• Application Number:
  US11/648,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20080159363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,425 Days
• Field of Search: 343/700.MS, 343/793, 343/795, 375/219, 455/77
• US Class Current: 343/700.0MS
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 23/00 Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/40 Circuits

Abstract

An integrated circuit (IC) includes a package substrate, a die, and an antenna structure. The die includes a functional circuit module and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver that processes inbound and outbound RF signals. The antenna structure is coupled to the RF transceiver and is on the die and/or the package substrate. The antenna structure receives the inbound RF signal within a frequency band of approximately 55 GHz to 64 GHz and transmits the outbound RF signal within the frequency band.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit (IC) comprises:

a package substrate;

a die coupled to the package substrate, wherein the die includes a functional circuit module and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, wherein the RF transceiver;

converts an inbound RF signal into an inbound symbol stream;

provides the inbound symbol stream to the functional circuit module;

receives an outbound symbol stream from the functional circuit module; and

converts the outbound symbol stream into an outbound RF signal; and

an antenna structure coupled to the RF transceiver, wherein the antenna structure receives the inbound RF signal within a frequency band of approximately 55 GHz to 64 GHz and transmits the outbound RF signal within the frequency band.

2. The IC of claim 1 further comprises:

the antenna structure is on the die.

3. The IC of claim 1 further comprises:

the antenna structure is on the package substrate.

4. The IC of claim 1, wherein the functional circuit module comprises at least one of:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) baseband processing module;

a WLAN RF transceiver;

a cellular voice baseband processing module;

a cellular voice RF transceiver;

a cellular data baseband processing module;

a cellular data RF transceiver;

a local infrastructure communication (LIC) baseband processing module;

a gateway processing module;

a router processing module;

a game controller circuit;

a game console circuit;

a microprocessor; and

memory.

5. The IC of claim 1, wherein the antenna structure comprises:

an antenna; and

a transmission line circuit coupling the antenna to the RF transceiver.

6. The IC of claim 5, wherein the RF transceiver includes:

a transmit/receive coupling module coupled to the transmission line circuit;

a low noise amplifier coupled to amplify the inbound RF signal to produce an amplified inbound RF signal, wherein the low noise amplifier receives the inbound RF signal via the transmit/receive coupling module;

a down-conversion module coupled to convert the amplified inbound RF signal into the inbound symbol stream based on a receive local oscillation; and

an up-conversion module coupled to convert the outbound symbol stream into the outbound RF signal based on a transmit local oscillation, wherein the up-conversion module provides the outbound RF signal to the transmit/receive coupling module.

7. The IC of claim 1, wherein the antenna structure comprises:

a transmit antenna;

a first transmission line circuit coupling the transmit antenna to the RF transceiver;

a receive antenna; and

a second transmission line circuit coupling the receive antenna to the RF transceiver.

8. The IC of claim 7, wherein the RF transceiver comprises:

a low noise amplifier coupled to amplify the inbound RF signal to produce amplified inbound RF signal;

a down-conversion module coupled to convert the amplified inbound RF signal into the inbound symbol stream based on a receive local oscillation; and

an up-conversion module coupled to convert the outbound symbol stream into the outbound RF signal based on a transmit local oscillation.

9. A radio transceiver integrated circuit comprises:

a package substrate;

a die coupled to the package substrate, wherein the die includes;

an up-conversion module coupled to convert an outbound symbol stream into an outbound radio frequency (RF) signal based on a transmit local oscillation;

a low noise amplifier coupled to amplify inbound RF signal to produce amplified inbound RF signal; and

a down-conversion module coupled to convert the amplified inbound RF signal into an inbound symbol stream;

an antenna structure coupled to receive the inbound RF signal within a frequency band of approximately 55 GHz to 64 GHz and to transmit the outbound RF signal within the frequency band; and

a transmission line circuit coupling the up-conversion module to the antenna structure.

10. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9 further comprises:

the antenna structure is on the die.

11. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9 further comprises:

an antenna of the antenna structure is on the package substrate.

12. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the up-conversion module comprises:

a first mixer coupled to mix an in-phase component of the outbound symbol stream with an in-phase component of the transmit local oscillation to produce a first mixed signal;

a second mixer coupled to mix a quadrature component of the outbound symbol stream with a quadrature component of the transmit local oscillation to produce a second mixed signal;

a combining module coupled to combine the first and second mixed signals to produce the outbound RF signal.

13. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the up-conversion module comprises:

an oscillation module coupled to introduce phase modulation into the transmit local oscillation based on the outbound symbol stream to produce the outbound RF signal.

14. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the up-conversion module comprises:

an oscillation module coupled to introduce phase modulation into the transmit local oscillation based on phase modulation information of the outbound symbol stream to produce a phase modulated RF signal; and

a multiplying module coupled to multiply the phase modulated RF signal with amplitude modulation information of the outbound symbol stream to produce the outbound RF signal.

15. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9 further comprises:

a baseband processing module coupled to convert outbound data into the outbound symbol stream in accordance with one or more wireless protocols to convert the inbound symbols stream into inbound data in accordance with the one or more wireless protocols.

16. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the antenna structure comprises:

an antenna coupled to receive the inbound RF signal and to transmit the outbound RF signal;

a transmission line circuit coupled to the antenna; and

a transmit/receive coupling module coupled to the transmission line circuit for providing the inbound RF signal to the low noise amplifier when the radio transceiver integrated circuit is in a receive mode and to receive the outbound RF signal from the up-conversion module when the radio transceiver integrated circuit is in a transmit mode.

17. The radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the antenna structure comprises:

a transmit antenna;

a first transmission line circuit coupling the transmit antenna to the up-conversion module;

a receive antenna; and

a second transmission line circuit coupling the receive antenna to the low noise amplifier.

18. A multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit comprises:

a package substrate;

a die coupled to the package substrate, wherein the die includes;

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver coupled to;

convert a local inbound RF signal into a local inbound symbol stream;

convert a local outbound symbol stream into a local outbound RF signal;

convert a remote inbound RF signal into a remote inbound symbol stream; and

convert a remote outbound symbol stream into a remote outbound RF signal;

baseband processing module coupled to;

convert the local inbound symbol stream into local inbound data;

convert local outbound data into the local outbound symbol stream;

convert the remote inbound symbol stream into remote inbound data;

convert remote outbound data into the remote outbound symbol stream;

a local communication antenna structure coupled to receive the local inbound RF signal within a frequency band of approximately 55 GHz to 64 GHz and transmits the local outbound RF signal within the frequency band; and

a remote communication antenna structure coupled to receive the remote inbound RF signal and to transmit the remote outbound RF signal.

19. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein the remote transmission antenna structure further functions to:

receive the remote inbound RF signal within the frequency band of approximately 55 GHz to 64 GHz and transmit the remote outbound RF signal within the frequency band.

20. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein the remote transmission antenna structure further functions to:

receive the remote inbound RF signal within a second frequency band of approximately 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.4 GHz, or 5 GHz and transmit the remote outbound RF signal within the second frequency band.

21. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18 further comprises:

the local communication antenna structure on the die; and

the remote communication antenna structure on the package substrate.

22. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18 further comprises:

the local communication antenna structure on the die; and

the remote communication antenna structure on the die.

23. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18 further comprises:

the local communication antenna structure on the package substrate; and

the remote communication antenna structure on the package substrate.

24. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein the RF transceiver comprises:

a receiver section coupled to convert the local inbound RF signal into the local inbound symbol stream when in a local communication mode and to convert the remote inbound RF signal into the remote inbound symbol stream when in a remote communication mode;

a transmitter section coupled to convert the local outbound symbol stream into local outbound RF signal when in the local communication mode and to convert the remote outbound symbol stream into the remote outbound RF signal when in the remote communication mode;

a first coupling circuit to receive the local outbound symbol stream from the baseband processing module to provide the local inbound symbol stream to the baseband processing module when in the local communication mode and to receive the remote outbound symbol stream from the baseband processing module to provide the remote inbound symbol stream to the baseband processing module when in the remote communication mode; and

a second coupling circuit to receive the local inbound RF signal from the local communication antenna structure and to provide the local outbound RF signal to the local communication antenna structure when in the local communication mode and to receive the remote inbound RF signal from the remote communication antenna structure and to provide the remote outbound RF signal to the remote communication antenna structure when in the remote communication mode.

25. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein the RF transceiver comprises:

a local receiver section coupled to convert the local inbound RF signal into the local inbound symbol stream;

a local transmitter section coupled to convert the local outbound symbol stream into local outbound RF signal;

a remote receiver section coupled to convert the remote inbound RF signal into the remote inbound symbol stream; and

a remote transmitter section coupled to convert the remote outbound symbol stream into the remote outbound RF signal.

26. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of 25, wherein the local transmitter comprises:

an up-conversion module coupled to convert the local outbound symbol stream into the local outbound RF signal based on a local transmit local oscillation; and

a local connection coupling the up-conversion module to the local communication antenna structure.

27. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of 18, wherein the local communication antenna structure comprises:

a local low efficiency antenna structure coupled to receive a low data rate local inbound RF signal within the frequency band and transmit a low data rate local outbound RF signal within the frequency band; and

a local efficient antenna structure coupled to receive a high data rate local inbound RF signal within the frequency band and transmit a high data rate local outbound RF signal within the frequency band.

28. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of 27 further comprises:

the local low efficiency antenna structure including at least one of;

an infinitesimal dipole antenna;

a small dipole antenna;

the local efficient antenna structure including at least one of;

a half-wave length dipole antenna; and

a quarter-wavelength dipole antenna.

29. The multi-mode radio transceiver integrated circuit of 18 comprises:

the remote inbound data including at least one of;

inbound graphics, inbound digitized voice signals, inbound digitized audio signals, inbound digitized video signals, and inbound text signals;

the remote outbound data including at least one of;

outbound graphics, outbound digitized voice signals, outbound digitized audio signals, outbound digitized video signals, and outbound text signals;

the local inbound data including at least one of;

inbound chip-to-chip communication data and inbound chip-to-board communication data; and

the local outbound data including at least one of;

outbound chip-to-chip communication data and outbound chip-to-board communication data.