Diversity receiver front end system with impedance matching components

• US 9,571,037 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2015
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Wloczysiak, Stephane Richard Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Lugo, David B.
• Application Number:
  US14/734,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20160126987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 616 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/0205 in transistor amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/56 Modifications of input or output impedances, not otherwise provided for
• 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 2200/387 A circuit being added at the output of an amplifier to adapt the output impedance of the amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/411 the output amplifying stage of an amplifier comprising two power stages
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/451 the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
• 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 2203/21112 A filter circuit being added at the input of a power amplifier stage
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2203/7209 the gated amplifier being switched from a first band to a second band
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/19 with semiconductor devices only
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/195 in integrated circuits
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/72 Gated amplifiers, i.e. amplifiers which are rendered operative or inoperative by means of a control signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/16 Circuits
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/01 Reducing phase shift
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/08 at the receiving station
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0825 with main and with auxiliary or diversity antennas

Abstract

Diversity receiver front end system with impedance matching components. A receiving system can include a controller configured to selectively activate one or more of a plurality of paths between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system. The receiving system can further include a plurality of amplifiers. Each one of the plurality of amplifiers can be disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and can be configured to amplify a signal received at the amplifier. The receiving system can further include a plurality of impedance matching components. Each one of the plurality of impedance matching components can be disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and can be configured to reduce at least one of an out-of-band noise figure or an out-of-band gain of the one of the plurality of paths.

Claims

1. A receiving system comprising:

a first amplifier disposed along a first path, corresponding to a first frequency band, between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system;

a second amplifier disposed along a second path, corresponding to a second frequency band, between the input of the receiving system and the output of the receiving system;

a controller configured to generate a first impedance tuning signal in response to a first band select signal indicating an in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a first out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band and to generate a second impedance tuning signal in response to a second band select signal indicating the in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a second out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band; and

a first impedance matching circuit disposed along the first path and having an impedance selected based on the second frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the first path for the second frequency band or a gain of the first path for the second frequency band, the first impedance matching circuit having a tunable impedance matching circuit with an impedance selected by the first impedance tuning signal received from the controller.

2. The receiving system of claim 1 further comprising a second impedance matching circuit disposed along the second path and having an impedance selected based on the first frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the second path for the first frequency band or a gain of the second path for the first frequency band.

3. The receiving system of claim 1 wherein the impedance of the first impedance matching circuit is further selected based on a third frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the first path for the third frequency band or a gain of the first path for the third frequency band.

4. The receiving system of claim 1 wherein the impedance of the first impedance matching circuit is further selected based on the first frequency band to reduce a noise figure of the first path for the first frequency band or increase a gain of the first path for the first frequency band.

5. The receiving system of claim 4 wherein the impedance of the first impedance matching circuit is selected to reduce an in-band metric of the noise figure of the first path for the first frequency band minus the gain of the first path for the first frequency band to within a threshold amount of an in-band metric minimum.

6. The receiving system of claim 5 wherein the impedance of the first impedance matching circuit is selected to reduce an out-of-band metric of the noise figure of the first path for the second frequency band plus the gain of the first path for the second frequency band to an in-band-constrained out-of-band minimum.

7. The receiving system of claim 1 further comprising a multiplexer configured to split an input signal received at the input of the receiving system into at least a first signal at the first frequency band propagated along the first path and a second signal at the second frequency band propagated along the second path.

8. The receiving system of claim 7 wherein the first impedance matching circuit is disposed between the multiplexer and the first amplifier.

9. The receiving system of claim 1 further comprising a signal combiner configured to combine at least a first signal propagating along the first path and a second signal propagating along the second path.

10. The receiving system of claim 1 wherein the first impedance matching circuit is a passive circuit.

11. The receiving system of claim 1 wherein the first impedance matching circuit is an RLC circuit.

12. The receiving system of claim 1 wherein the first impedance matching circuit is configured to phase-shift the second frequency band of a signal passing through the first impedance matching circuit such that an initial signal propagated along the second path and a reflected signal propagated along the first path are at least partially in-phase.

13. A radio-frequency (RF) module comprising:

a packaging substrate configured to receive a plurality of components;

a receiving system implemented on the packaging substrate, the receiving system including a first amplifier disposed along a first path, corresponding to a first frequency band, between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system, a second amplifier disposed along a second path, corresponding to a second frequency band, between the input of the receiving system and the output of the receiving system, and a first impedance matching circuit disposed along the first path and having an impedance selected based on the second frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the first path for the second frequency band or a gain of the first path for the second frequency band; and

a controller configured to generate, in response to a first band select signal indicating an in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a first out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band, a first impedance tuning signal to tune the first impedance matching circuit to a first impedance and to generate, in response to a second band select signal indicating the in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a second out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band, a second impedance tuning signal to tune the first impedance matching circuit to a second impedance.

14. The RF module of claim 13 wherein the RF module is a diversity receiver front-end module (FEM).

15. The RF module of claim 13 wherein the receiving system further includes a second impedance matching circuit disposed along the second path and having an impedance selected based on the first frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the second path for the first frequency band or a gain of the second path for the first frequency band.

16. The RF module of claim 13 wherein the impedance of the first impedance matching circuit is further selected based on a third frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the first path for the third frequency band or a gain of the first path for the third frequency band.

17. A wireless device comprising:

a first antenna configured to receive a first radio-frequency (RF) signal;

a first front-end module (FEM) in communication with the first antenna, the first FEM including a packaging substrate configured to receive a plurality of components, the first FEM further including a receiving system implemented on the packaging substrate, the receiving system including a first amplifier disposed along a first path, corresponding to a first frequency band, between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system, a second amplifier disposed along a second path, corresponding to a second frequency band, between the input of the receiving system and the output of the receiving system, and a first impedance matching circuit disposed along the first path and having an impedance selected based on the second frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the first path for the second frequency band or a gain of the first path for the second frequency band;

a transceiver configured to receive a processed version of the first RF signal from the output of the first FEM via a transmission line and generate data bits based on the processed version of the first RF signal; and

a controller configured to generate, in response to a first band select signal indicating an in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a first out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band, a first impedance tuning signal to tune the first impedance matching circuit to a first impedance and to generate, in response to a second band select signal indicating the in-band frequency band as the first frequency band and a second out-of-band frequency band as the second frequency band, a second impedance tuning signal to tune the first impedance matching circuit to a second impedance.

18. The wireless device of claim 17 further comprising a second antenna configured to receive a second radio-frequency (RF) signal and a second FEM in communication with the second antenna, the transceiver being configured to receive a processed version of the second RF signal from an output of the second FEM and generate the data bits based on the processed version of the second RF signal.

19. The wireless device of claim 17 wherein the receiving system further includes a second impedance matching circuit disposed along the second path and having an impedance selected based on the first frequency band to reduce at least one of a noise figure of the second path for the first frequency band or a gain of the second path for the first frequency band.