Cell phone signal booster
First Claim
1. A cellular telephone signal booster system comprising:
- a first antenna that receives remote incoming cellular signals at a first frequency from a remote cellular site and that transmits remote outgoing cellular signals to the remote cellular site at a second frequency;
a second antenna that transmits local outgoing cellular signals responsive to the remote incoming cellular signals to a local cellular telephone at the first frequency and that receives local incoming cellular signals from the local cellular telephone at the second frequency;
a first RF amplifier that is responsive to the remote incoming cellular signals from the first antenna at the first frequency to provide the local outgoing cellular signals at the first frequency to the second antenna;
a second RF amplifier that is responsive to the local incoming cellular signals from the second antenna at the second frequency to provide the remote outgoing cellular signals at the second frequency to the first antenna;
a first active stability network operating at the first frequency that decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal between the first and the second antenna by combining a first stabilization signal that at least partially compensates for the parasitic cellular signal with a first RF input signal at the first frequency, the first network coupled from the output of the first amplifier back to the input of the first amplifier;
a second active stability network operating at the second frequency that decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal between the first and the second antenna by combining a second stabilization signal that at least partially compensates for the parasitic cellular signal with a second RF input signal at the second frequency, the second network coupled from the output of the second amplifier back to the input of the second amplifier; and
an RF circuit board comprising a ground plane interposed between the first and the second antenna at controlled distances and reflecting RF power from the antennas, and the RF circuit board further comprising a common microcontroller adjusting both the first and the second stabilization signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and a method achieve a higher level of stable gain for a cellular telephone booster (repeater) than previously considered to be achievable. An RF signal booster includes active stability control provided by an active stability network. The active stability network decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic signal coupled from the output of an amplifier back to the input of the amplifier. The active stability network allows a higher system gain than would otherwise be achievable. In one embodiment, the active stability network (stabilization network) includes an RF sample coupler, one or more band pass filters, a vector modulator, an RF recombining coupler and an RF detection circuit. An algorithm controls the stabilization network to minimize the amount of parasitic coupled signal from the output of the amplifier back to the input of the amplifier and to maximize the achievable system gain.
49 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A cellular telephone signal booster system comprising:
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a first antenna that receives remote incoming cellular signals at a first frequency from a remote cellular site and that transmits remote outgoing cellular signals to the remote cellular site at a second frequency; a second antenna that transmits local outgoing cellular signals responsive to the remote incoming cellular signals to a local cellular telephone at the first frequency and that receives local incoming cellular signals from the local cellular telephone at the second frequency; a first RF amplifier that is responsive to the remote incoming cellular signals from the first antenna at the first frequency to provide the local outgoing cellular signals at the first frequency to the second antenna; a second RF amplifier that is responsive to the local incoming cellular signals from the second antenna at the second frequency to provide the remote outgoing cellular signals at the second frequency to the first antenna; a first active stability network operating at the first frequency that decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal between the first and the second antenna by combining a first stabilization signal that at least partially compensates for the parasitic cellular signal with a first RF input signal at the first frequency, the first network coupled from the output of the first amplifier back to the input of the first amplifier; a second active stability network operating at the second frequency that decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal between the first and the second antenna by combining a second stabilization signal that at least partially compensates for the parasitic cellular signal with a second RF input signal at the second frequency, the second network coupled from the output of the second amplifier back to the input of the second amplifier; and an RF circuit board comprising a ground plane interposed between the first and the second antenna at controlled distances and reflecting RF power from the antennas, and the RF circuit board further comprising a common microcontroller adjusting both the first and the second stabilization signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for providing a stable gain for a cellular telephone signal booster between a receiving antenna and a transmitting antenna, comprising:
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an RF amplifier that provides amplified output signals to the transmitting antenna in response to RF input signals received via the receiving antenna; and
an active stability network that decreases the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal between the receiving and the transmitting antenna by combining a band pass filtered signal with the RF input signals, the network coupled from the output of the amplifier back to the input of the amplifier, the active stability network comprising; an RF sample coupler that samples the amplified output signals and produces a sampled RF signal; a vector modulator that receives the sampled RF signal and produces a vector modulated signal; at least one band pass filter that receives the vector modulated signal and that produces a band pass filtered signal that represents a stabilization signal that at least partially compensates for the radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal; an RF combining coupler that combines the band pass filtered signal with an incoming RF signal that includes the parasitic cellular signal to produce a combined signal; a variable attenuator that selectively attenuates the combined signal and provides a selectively attenuated signal to the input of the RF amplifier; an RF detection circuit that monitors the output of the RF amplifier to detect the power output of the RF amplifier; and a controller responsive to the output of the RF detection circuit that selectively adjusts the vector modulator and the variable attenuator to minimize the effect of the parasitic coupled cellular signal; and an RF circuit board comprising a ground plane interposed between the receiving and the transmitting antenna at controlled distances and reflecting RF power from the antennas, and the RF circuit board further comprising active stability network. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method of providing a stable gain for a cellular telephone booster by decreasing the amount of radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal coupled from the output of an amplifier back to the input of the amplifier, the method comprising:
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positioning an RF circuit board comprising a ground plane between a receiving and a transmitting antenna at controlled distances and that reflect RF power from the antennas, and the RF circuit board further a microcontroller; sampling the output of the amplifier using an RF sample coupler to produce a sampled signal; applying vector modulation to the sampled signal to produce a vector modulated signal; band pass filtering the sampled signal to produce a band pass filtered signal that represents a stabilization signal, which at least partially compensates for the radiated or conducted parasitic cellular signal; combining the band passed filtered signal with an input signal to produce a combined signal; applying a selective attenuation to the combined signal to provide an attenuated signal; providing the attenuated signal as the input of the amplifier; and using the microcontroller to monitor the RF power output of the amplifier and adjust the vector modulation and the selective attenuation in response to the RF power output to minimize the amount of parasitic coupled cellular signal. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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Specification