Low noise figure radiofrequency device

• US 7,983,649 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ANTONE Wireless Corporation (Westell Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: ANTONE Wireless Corporation (Westell Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hey-Shipton, Gregory L., Eddy, Michael M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao; Minh D
• Application Number:
  US12/771,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20100225423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 455/341, 455/127.3, 455/194.2, 455/153.2, 455/311, 455/114.3, 455/144, 455/293, 330/303, 330/336, 333/134, 333/206, 375/272
• US Class Current: 455/341
• CPC Class Codes: H01P 1/2053 the coaxial cavity resonators being disposed parall to each other
• CPC Class Codes: H01P 1/2084 with dielectric resonators
• CPC Class Codes: H01P 7/10 Dielectric resonators
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/246 specially adapted for base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 23/00 Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/18 Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H

Abstract

A RF device such as a tower mounted amplifier (TMA), mast-head amplifier (MHA), or Tower Mounted Boosters (TMB) includes a housing having a plurality of cavities and an input and an output, the input being coupled to the antenna and the output being coupled to a base station. The housing includes a transmission path holding multiple coaxial resonators. The housing further includes multiple receive paths including at least one path having a plurality of cavities, each cavity containing a dielectric resonator. The metallic transmit resonator nearest the antenna input is coupled to the first dielectric resonator via a common resonant wire. The last dielectric resonator in the receive path is coupled to a first metallic resonator of a downstream clean-up filter via another common resonant wire.

Claims

1. A radiofrequency device adapted for coupling to an antenna comprising:

a housing having a plurality of cavities and an input and output, the input being operatively coupled to the antenna, the output being operatively coupled to a base station;

a transmission path disposed within the housing and including a plurality of transmit resonators;

a receive path disposed within the housing, the receive path including a plurality of receive resonators;

a low noise amplifier operatively coupled via an input to a last resonator in one of the plurality of receive filter sections, the low noise amplifier being operatively coupled via an output to the input of another of the plurality of receive filter sections;

a bypass function to allow the received RF signals to bypass the amplifier; and

wherein the radiofrequency device has a noise figure, when not in bypass, of less than 1.2 dB at the center band.

2. The radiofrequency device according to claim 1, wherein the radiofrequency device is physically located anywhere between the antenna and a base station.

3. The radiofrequency device according to claim 1, wherein the radiofrequency device has a noise figure, when not in bypass, of less than 1.2 dB at the center of, or over a substantial portion of, a receive frequency band of interest.

4. The radiofrequency device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency band of interest comprises a sub-band within the range of 0.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz.

5. The radiofrequency filter device according to claim 1, wherein the low noise amplifier is disposed on a low loss dielectric printed circuit board having a dissipation factor (Df) of 0.004 or less.

6. The radiofrequency filter device according to claim 1, wherein the gain of the device is variable.

7. The radiofrequency filter device according to claim 1, wherein the loss of the device when in bypass is less than 1.5 dB at the center of, or over a substantial portion of, the receive frequency band of interest.

8. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the receive or transmit paths are comprised of one or more of:

a cascade of resonators without non-adjacent resonator coupling, triplets, quadruplets, or sections with three or more resonators with or without non-adjacent resonator coupling.

9. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the receive and transmit resonators are formed from dielectric structures, metal structures or a mixture of both types of resonator structures.

10. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the output of the LNA is divided and one or more of the additional receive paths are connected to output connectors, without being recombined with the transmit signal.

11. A radiofrequency device adapted for coupling to an antenna comprising:

a housing having a plurality of cavities and an input and output, the input being operatively coupled to the antenna, the output being operatively coupled to a base station;

a transmission path disposed within the housing and including a plurality of transmit resonators;

a receive path disposed within the housing, the receive path including a plurality of receive resonators;

a low noise amplifier operatively coupled via an input to a last resonator in one of the plurality of receive filter sections, the low noise amplifier being operatively coupled via an output to the input of another of the plurality of receive filter sections;

wherein the radiofrequency device has a noise figure of less than 1.2 dB at the center band, and

the size of the device is less than 220 cubic inches for each antenna element-base station path, excluding connectors and mounting apparatus.

12. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the radiofrequency device is located anywhere between the antenna and a base station.

13. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the radiofrequency device has a noise figure of less than 1.2 dB at the center of, or over a substantial portion of, a receive frequency band of interest.

14. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the frequency band of interest comprises a sub-band within the range of 0.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz.

15. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the low noise amplifier is disposed on a low loss dielectric printed circuit board having a dissipation factor (Df) of 0.004 or less.

16. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the gain of the device is variable.

17. The radiofrequency device according to claim 11, wherein the LNA has a bypass function.

18. The radio frequency device according to claim 11, where the receive or transmit paths are comprised of one or more of:

a cascade of resonators without non-adjacent resonator coupling, triplets, quadruplets, or sections with three or more resonators with or without non-adjacent resonator coupling.

19. The radio frequency device according to claim 11, wherein the receive and transmit resonators are formed from dielectric structures, metal structures or a mixture of both types of structures.

20. The radio frequency device according to claim 11, wherein the output of the LNA is divided and one or more of the additional receive paths are connected to output connectors, without being recombined with the transmit signal.

21. A radiofrequency device adapted for coupling to an antenna comprising:

a housing having a plurality of cavities and an input and output, the input being operatively coupled to the antenna, the output being operatively coupled to a base station;

a plurality of transmission paths disposed within the housing and including a plurality of transmit resonators;

a plurality of receive paths disposed within the housing and including a plurality of receive resonators;

one or more low noise amplifiers each operatively coupled via an input to a last resonator in a pre-LNA receive filter section, the low noise amplifier being operatively coupled via an output to the input of a post-LNA receive filter section;

wherein at least one of the receive paths of the radiofrequency device has a noise figure of less than 1.2 dB at the center band.

22. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein the radiofrequency device is located anywhere between the antenna and a base station.

23. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein at least one of the receive paths has a noise figure of less than 1.2 dB at the center of, or over a substantial portion of, a receive frequency band of interest.

24. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein the frequency band of interest comprises a sub-band within the range of 0.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz.

25. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein one or more low noise amplifiers is disposed on a low loss dielectric printed circuit board having a dissipation factor (Df) of 0.004 or less.

26. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein the gain of the device is variable.

27. The radiofrequency device according to claim 21, wherein one or more LNAs has a bypass function.

28. The radio frequency device according to claim 21, where the receive or transmit paths are comprised of one or more of:

a cascade of resonators without non-adjacent resonator coupling, triplets, quadruplets, or sections with three or more resonators with or without non-adjacent resonator coupling.

29. The radio frequency device according to claim 21, wherein the receive and transmit resonators are formed from dielectric structures, metal structures or a mixture of both types of resonator structures.

30. The radio frequency device according to claim 21, wherein one or more filter sections carry both receive and transmit signals.

31. The radio frequency device according to claim 30, wherein one or more of the receive/transmit sections is further operatively connected to receive filter sections and transmit filter sections.

32. The radio frequency device according to claim 30, wherein one or more of the filter sections carrying both receive and transmit signals is operatively connected from the input of the radio frequency device, to the output of the radio frequency device.

33. The radio frequency device according to claim 21, wherein the output of the LNA is divided and one or more of the additional receive paths are connected to output connectors, without being recombined with the transmit signal.