Envelope tracking in connection with simultaneous transmission in one or more frequency bands

• US 9,461,590 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2014
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Langer, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Patricia T
• Application Number:
  US14/568,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20160173031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 662 Days
• Field of Search: 330/126, 330/297, 330/295, 330/124.R
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0205 in transistor amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0222 by using a signal derived from the input signal
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0277 Selecting one or more amplifiers from a plurality of amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/111 the amplifier being a dual or triple band amplifier, e.g. 900 and 1800 MHz, e.g. switched or not switched, simultaneously or not
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/336 A I/Q, i.e. phase quadrature, modulator or demodulator being used in an amplifying circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/451 the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/516 Some amplifier stages of an amplifier use supply voltages of different value
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2203/21106 An input signal being distributed in parallel over the inputs of a plurality of power amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/189 High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/19 with semiconductor devices only
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/211 using a combination of several amplifiers H03F3/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/245 with semiconductor devices only

Abstract

Envelope tracking (ET) is enabled in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission. One example system includes two or more power amplification components associated with distinct frequency bands, with at least one including a first power amplifier (PA) configured to operate in an ET mode, and at least one including a second PA configured to operate in an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation. A first DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide a first supply voltage according to the ET mode to each first PA, and a second DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide a second supply voltage according to the APT mode to each second PA. A control component is configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select on that basis one or more PAs, wherein the control component selects at most one of the first PAs and at most one of the second PAs.

Claims

1. A system for envelope tracking (ET) in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission, comprising:

a plurality of power amplification components, wherein each power amplification component of the plurality of power amplification components is associated with a distinct frequency band, wherein each power amplification component of a first subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a first power amplifier (PA) configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to an ET mode of operation, wherein each power amplification component of a second subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a second PA configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation;

a first DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a first supply voltage according to the ET mode and coupled to each of the first PAs;

a second DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a second supply voltage according to the APT mode and coupled to each of the second PAs; and

a control component configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one or more PAs of the plurality of power amplification components.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more PAs comprise at most one of the first PAs and at most one of the second PAs.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least two of the plurality of power amplification components comprise both a first PA and a second PA.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control component is further configured to determine a set of predefined criteria, and wherein the control component selects the one or more PAs based at least in part on the set of predefined criteria.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise, for each of the one or more PAs, a first projected net current consumption associated with the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage to the first PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs and a second projected net current consumption associated with the second DC-to-DC converter providing the second supply voltage to the second PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first projected net current consumption is determined based at least in part on a first projected output power of the first PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs and on a second projected output power of the second PA of each power amplification component comprising at least one of the one or more PAs.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the first and second projected net current consumptions are determined based at least in part on a comparison between the distinct frequency bands associated with each of the one or more PAs.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to transmit a distinct input signal, wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise, for each of the one or more PAs, a set of signal characteristics associated with the distinct input signal, wherein the set of signal characteristics comprise one or more of a spectrum of the distinct input signal, a bandwidth of the distinct input signal, a contiguity of the distinct input signal, a number of spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, one or more distances between spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, or a modulation scheme associated with the distinct input signal.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the present transmission mode comprises an intra-band CA mode.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more PAs comprises a second PA of the set of second PAs when the bandwidth of the distinct input signal associated with the second PA exceeds a maximum supported bandwidth associated with the first DC-to-DC converter.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the first DC-to-DC converter is further configured to provide the first supply voltage according to the APT mode, wherein the control component is further configured to select, based at least in part on the set of predefined criteria, between the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage according to the ET mode and the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage according to the APT mode.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the present transmission mode comprises a single carrier mode, wherein the one or more PAs is a single PA, wherein the single PA is one of the first PAs when a projected output power of the single PA is above a threshold value, and wherein the single PA is one of the second PAs when a projected output power of the single PA is below a threshold value.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the present transmission mode comprises an inter-band CA mode, and wherein the one or more PAs comprise one of the first PAs and one of the second PAs, and wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to simultaneously transmit in the distinct frequency band associated with that PA.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the present transmission mode comprises a dual subscriber identity module (SIM) dual active mode, and wherein the one or more PAs comprise one of the first PAs and one of the second PAs, and wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to simultaneously transmit in the distinct frequency band associated with that PA.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a third DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a third supply voltage according to a mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter, wherein the mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter is one of the APT mode or the ET mode, wherein each power amplification component of a third subset of the plurality of power amplification components comprises a third PA configured to transmit in the distinct frequency band and configured to operate according to the mode associated with the third DC-to-DC converter, wherein the third DC-to-DC converter is coupled to each of the third PAs, and wherein the control component selects at most one of the third PAs.

16. A system for envelope tracking (ET) in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission, comprising:

a plurality of power amplifiers (PAs) configured to transmit in distinct frequency bands;

a first DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a first supply voltage according to an ET mode of operation;

a second DC-to-DC converter configured to provide a second supply voltage according to an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation;

a control component configured to determine a present transmission mode and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one of the plurality of PAs, and to select, based at least in part on the present transmission mode, one of the first DC-to-DC converter and the second DC-to-DC converter and an associated supply voltage; and

one or more switching elements configured to couple the selected DC-to-DC converter to the selected PA,

wherein the selected DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide the selected supply voltage to the selected PA.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the control component is further configured to determine a set of predefined criteria, and wherein the control component selects the selected DC-to-DC converter based at least in part on the predefined criteria.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise a first projected net current consumption associated with the first DC-to-DC converter providing the first supply voltage to the selected PA and a second projected net current consumption associated with the second DC-to-DC converter providing the second supply voltage to the selected PA.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first projected net current consumption is determined based at least in part on a first projected output power of the selected PA when provided the first supply voltage and on a second projected output power of the selected PA when provided the second supply voltage.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the selected PA is configured to transmit a first input signal, wherein the set of predefined criteria comprise a set of signal characteristics associated with the first input signal, wherein the set of signal characteristics comprise one or more of a spectrum of the first input signal, a bandwidth of the first input signal, a contiguity of the first input signal, a number of spectral clusters of the first input signal, one or more distances between spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, or a modulation scheme associated with the distinct input signal.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the present CA mode comprises an intra-band CA mode.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the present CA mode comprises an inter-band CA mode, and wherein the unselected DC-to-DC converter is configured to provide the unselected supply voltage to the unselected PA.

23. A method of envelope tracking (ET) in connection with single-band or multi-band transmission, comprising:

determining a present transmission mode;

determining a set of predefined criteria;

selecting, based at least in part on the present transmission mode and the set of predefined criteria, one or more power amplifiers (PAs) from among a set of first PAs and a set of second PAs, wherein each first PA is configured to transmit in a distinct frequency band and is associated with a second PA configured to transmit in the same distinct frequency band, wherein each of the first PAs is configured to operate in an ET mode of operation, wherein each of the second PAs is configured to operate in an average power tracking (APT) mode of operation;

providing a first supply voltage according to the ET mode to each of the one or more PAs from the set of first PAs; and

providing a second supply voltage according to the APT mode to each of the one or more PAs from the set of second PAs.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein each of the one or more PAs is configured to transmit a distinct input signal, and wherein determining the set of predefined criteria comprises determining a set of signal characteristics associated with the distinct input signal, wherein the set of signal characteristics comprise one or more of a spectrum of the distinct input signal, a bandwidth of the distinct input signal, a contiguity of the distinct input signal, a number of spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, one or more distances between spectral clusters of the distinct input signal, or a modulation scheme associated with the distinct input signal.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein determining the set of predefined criteria comprises:

determining, for each of the one or more PAs, a projected ET current consumption of the first PA configured to operate in the distinct frequency band of that PA;

determining, for each of the one or more PAs, a projected APT current consumption of the second PA configured to operate in the distinct frequency band of that PA; and

determining, for each of the one or more PAs, a projected net current consumption that comprises the sum of the projected ET current consumption of that PA and the projected APT current consumptions of each other PA of the one or more PAs.