Front-end circuitry for multiband frequency management

• US 9,871,646 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Issued: 01/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhang, Chen
• Primary Examiner(s): Louis, Vinncelas
• Application Number:
  US14/871,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20170093552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 839 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/006 using switches for selecting the desired band H04B1/0057 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex

Abstract

The described technology provides front-end antenna architecture for wireless communication that manages multiple frequency sub-bands in a manner that results in a low insertion loss rate. Further, the components of the architecture are smaller than typical wireless communication antenna architectures, and therefore the described architecture can be accommodated in a smaller area than typical architectures without a decrease in efficiency. A matching circuit is communicatively connected to each frequency sub-band'"'"'s respective signal path. When two or more sub-bands are requested for high-speed wireless communication, the matching circuits match the impedance of each sub-band with one another. Matching the impedance allows two or more sub-bands to be used to wirelessly communicate while maintaining high efficiency. The matching circuits are disabled when only one sub-band is needed for wireless communication.

Claims

1. A system for selectively connecting antenna signals of a wireless communication device, the system comprising:

switch bank circuitry configured to selectively communicate the antenna signals between at least one antenna port and at least one communication port, the antenna signals being allocated to one or more frequency bands, the one or more frequency bands being divided into two or more frequency sub-bands, the switch bank circuitry being further configured to communicate a first frequency sub-band and a second frequency sub-band of the two or more frequency sub-bands responsive to a request from a processor for carrier aggregation; and

a frequency matched port assembly for each frequency sub-band communicatively connected to the switch bank circuitry and the communication port of the wireless communication device, the frequency matched port assembly including an enable/disable switch and an associated matching circuitry, the enable/disable switch being communicatively coupled to the associated matching circuitry, each enable/disable switch being configured to enable the associated matching circuitry or disable the associated matching circuitry, the first frequency sub-band allocated to a first matching circuitry and the second frequency sub-band being allocated to a second matching circuitry, an enable/disable switch associated with the first matching circuitry and an enable/disable switch associated with the second matching circuitry enabling the associated matching circuitries to selectively match an impedance of the first frequency sub-band with an impedance of the second frequency sub-band responsive to the request from the processor.

2. The system of claim 1, the frequency matched port assembly further comprising a duplexer, the duplexer configured to allow bi-directional communication over a single path.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first matching circuitry is configured according to a frequency of the first frequency sub-band and the second matching circuitry is configured according to a frequency of the second frequency sub-band.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more frequency bands are at least one of high and middle bands and the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band are corresponding sub-band pairs selected from the at least one high and middle bands.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a high/middle band antenna communicatively connected to the switch bank circuitry.

7. A method of communicating antenna signals of a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via a first frequency sub-band and a second frequency sub-band of the antenna signals, the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band being corresponding frequency sub-bands for carrier aggregation;

selectively communicating the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band between at least one antenna port and at least one designated communication port using a switch bank circuitry the switch bank circuitry configured to selectively communicate two or more frequency sub-bands between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port of the wireless communication device, each of the one or more frequency sub-bands being allocated to a designated matching circuit and a designated enable/disable switch communicatively connected to the designated matching circuit, the designated enable/disable switch being configured to enable the designated matching circuit or disable the designated matching circuit based on an instruction received from a processor; and

selectively matching an impedance of the first frequency sub-band with an impedance of the second frequency sub-band, the first frequency sub-band being allocated to a first matching circuit and the second frequency sub-band being allocated to a second matching circuit.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein selectively matching the impedance of the first frequency sub-band with the impedance of the second frequency sub-band is executed exclusively when the request includes a request to use the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band simultaneously.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the selectively matching operation further comprises:

selectively enabling the first matching circuit via a first enable/disable switch allocated to the first frequency sub-band; and

selectively enabling the second matching circuit via a second enable/disable switch allocated to the second frequency sub-band.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving an instruction to wirelessly communicate via a single frequency sub-band of the one or more frequency bands;

selectively disabling the first matching circuit via the first enable/disable switch; and

selectively communicating the single frequency sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.

12. One or more tangible processor-readable storage media embodied with instructions for executing on one or more processors and circuits of a device a process to communicate antenna signals of a wireless communications device, the process comprising:

receiving a request to wirelessly communicate via a first frequency sub-band and a second frequency sub-band of the antenna signals, the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band being corresponding frequency sub-bands for carrier aggregation;

selectively communicating the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band between at least one antenna port and at least one designated communication port using a switch bank circuitry, the switch bank circuitry configured to selectively communicate two or more frequency sub-bands between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port of the wireless communication device each of the one or more frequency sub-bands being allocated to a designated matching circuit and a designated enable/disable switch communicatively connected to the designated matching circuit, the designated enable/disable switch being configured to enable the designated matching circuit or disable the designated matching circuit based on an instruction received from a processor; and

selectively matching an impedance of the first frequency sub-band with an impedance of the second frequency sub-band, the first frequency sub-band being allocated to a first matching circuit and the second frequency sub-band being allocated to a second matching circuit.

13. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 12, the process further comprising:

selectively enabling the first matching circuit via a first enable/disable switch, allocated to the first frequency sub-band; and

selectively enabling the second matching circuit via a second enable/disable switch, allocated to the second frequency sub-band.

14. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 13, the process further comprising:

receiving an instruction to wirelessly communicate via a single frequency sub-band of the one or more frequency bands;

selectively disabling the first matching circuit via the first enable/disable switch;

selectively disabling the second matching circuit via the second enable/disable switch; and

selectively communicating the single frequency sub-band between the at least one antenna port and the at least one designated communication port using the switch bank circuitry.

15. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein selectively matching the impedance of the first frequency sub-band with the impedance of the second frequency sub-band is executed exclusively when the request includes a request to use the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band simultaneously.

16. The one or more tangible processor-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the first frequency sub-band and the second frequency sub-band are selected from the group consisting of sub-bands 2 and sub-band 30, sub-band 3 and sub-band 7, sub-band 4 and sub-band 30, sub-band 25 and sub-band 41, sub-band 1 and sub-band 3, and sub-band 2 and sub-band 4.