1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a duplexer in which balanced output is performed by a receiving side filter including a longitudinal mode resonator type filter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A duplexer used in a portable telephone terminal or a base station for portable telephones includes a transmitting (Tx) side filter 101 and a receiving (Rx) side filter 102 which are connected to a common antenna port 100 as shown in
As shown in
Meanwhile, in recent years, in a process where a frequency band used in a portable terminal has been allocated, there is a case where the pass band of the transmitting side filter 101 is set on the higher band side than the pass band of the receiving side filter 102, as in UMTS FDD Band 13, Band 20 (Band 14) and the like, for example. In this case, if the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 106 are used as the receiving side filter 102, it is difficult to secure, in the receiving side filter 102, the attenuation of about 50 dB, for example, in the pass band of the transmitting side filter 101, as shown in the aforementioned
Patent Document 1 describes a filter in which a 1-port type SAW resonator is connected in parallel between each of signal lines connecting two balanced signal terminals 6, 7 and IDTs 81, 85, respectively, and further, Patent Documents 2, 3 describe duplexers. However, these Documents do not describe the aforementioned problems.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-254410 (Paragraphs 0048 to 0052, FIG. 12)
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-157174
[Patent Document 3] International Publication WO 2007/040052
An object of the present invention is to provide a duplexer including a receiving side filter capable of obtaining a good attenuation characteristic in a pass band of a transmitting side filter, the duplexer performing balanced output using the receiving side filter including a longitudinal mode resonator type filter and setting a pass band of the receiving side filter on a lower band side than the pass band of the transmitting side filter.
A duplexer of the present invention having an antenna port, a transmission port, and reception ports formed of balanced signal terminals that receive balanced signals, the duplexer being characterized in that it includes: a transmitting side filter provided between the antenna port and the transmission port and having at least either of elastic wave resonators and an elastic wave filter; and a receiving side filter provided between the antenna port and the reception ports and whose pass band is set on a lower band side than a pass band of the transmitting side filter, in which the receiving side filter includes: a longitudinal mode resonator type filter having an unbalanced-balanced conversion function; a first ladder-type filter provided between the antenna port and the longitudinal mode resonator type filter and in which a series arm and a parallel arm each formed of an elastic wave resonator are connected in a ladder form; and a second ladder-type filter having series arms formed of elastic wave resonators and respectively interposed in a pair of signal paths that connect balanced signal terminals of the longitudinal mode resonator type filter and the balanced signal terminals of the reception ports and a parallel arm formed of an elastic wave resonator and provided between the pair of signal paths.
The present invention provides, in the receiving side filter, the first ladder-type filter in which the series arm and the parallel arm each formed of the elastic wave resonator are connected in a ladder form and the longitudinal mode resonator type filter, in this order from the antenna port side, and the second ladder-type filter having the series arms formed of the elastic wave resonators and respectively interposed in the pair of signal paths that connect the balanced signal terminals of the longitudinal mode resonator type filter and the balanced signal terminals of the reception ports and the parallel arm formed of the elastic wave resonator and provided between the pair of signal paths, between the antenna port and the reception ports formed of the balanced signal terminals. For this reason, a good attenuation characteristic can be obtained on the higher band side than the pass band of the receiving side filter, so that even in a case where the pass band of the transmitting side filter is set on the high band side, it is possible to achieve a duplexer with an excellent attenuation characteristic.
An example of a duplexer of an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to
The piezoelectric substrate 5 is structured so that an elastic wave propagates in a direction parallel to long edges 7 out of short edges 6 and the long edges 7 that form an outer edge of the piezoelectric substrate 5. Further, the aforementioned antenna port 1 is disposed in proximity to the long edge 7 being one side of the two long edges 7, 7 of the piezoelectric substrate 5, and the transmission port 2 and the reception ports 3, 3 are respectively disposed in proximity to the long edge 7 being the other side. An impedance with respect to the portable terminal or the like in the transmission port 2 is set to, for example, 50 Ω, and an impedance with respect to the portable terminal or the like in each of the reception ports 3, 3 is set to, for example, 100 Ω to 300 Ω, and is set to 200 Ω in this example.
In the transmitting side filter 11, series arms 12 and parallel arms 13 each formed of a SAW resonator are combined in a ladder form to structure a ladder-type filter. If, on the piezoelectric substrate 5, an area on which the antenna port 1 is formed is referred to as a far side and an area on which the transmission port 2 and the reception ports 3, 3 are disposed is referred to as a near side, in the transmitting side filter 11, three series arms 12 are disposed in one line from the far side toward the near side in this example, and the serial signal path 31 formed of a metal film or the like extending from the antenna port 1 connects each of the series arms 12, 12 adjacent to each other.
This serial signal path 31 extends to an area which is further on the near side relative to these three series arms 12, and the area forms the aforementioned transmission port 2. Further, one end side of a parallel signal path 32 formed of a metal film or the like is connected between each of the series arms 12, 12 adjacent to each other, and the other end side of each of the parallel signal paths 32 is connected to a ground port 4 via the parallel arm 13. Each of these series arms 12 and parallel arms 13 includes an IDT (interdigital transducer) electrode 41 in which electrode fingers 42 are formed to cross in a comb-teeth shape, and reflectors 45, 45 disposed to sandwich this IDT electrode 41 from both sides in the propagation direction of the elastic wave. Note that, although the conductive path grounded via the ground port 4 from each of the parallel arms 13 includes an inductor component, as in
These series arms 12 and parallel arms 13 are structured so that a pass band formed in the transmitting side filter 11 becomes about 832 MHz to 862 MHz. Concretely, each of arrangement patterns of the electrode fingers 42 of the IDT electrodes 41 and grating electrode fingers 46 of the reflectors 45 in these series arms 12 and parallel arms 13 (length of wavelength of excited elastic wave) is set so that a series resonance frequency (resonance point) in the series arm 12 and a parallel resonance frequency (antiresonance point) in the parallel arm 13 become the same at a frequency within the aforementioned pass band, which is, for example, 847 MHz. In
Next, the receiving side filter 21 will be described in detail. When the piezoelectric substrate 5 is seen from the near side toward the far side, the receiving side filter 21 is disposed on the left side with respect to the aforementioned transmitting side filter 11. Further, in the receiving side filter 21, a first ladder-type filter 24 in which a series arm 22 and a parallel arm 23 each formed of a SAW resonator are combined in a ladder form, longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 having an unbalanced-balanced conversion function, and a second ladder-type filter 26 in which series arms 27 and a parallel arm 28 each formed of a SAW resonator are combined in a ladder form, are connected in this order from the antenna port 1 side toward the side of the reception ports 3, 3. In this example, there are provided two longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25.
Each of the series arm 22 and the parallel arm 23 in the first ladder-type filter 24 is formed of the aforementioned IDT electrode 41 and the reflectors 45, 45 disposed on both sides of the IDT electrode 41 in the propagation direction of the elastic wave. The bus bar 43 on the far side of the series arm 22 is connected to the antenna port 1 via the serial signal path 33. One end side of a serial signal path 34 is connected to the bus bar 43 on the near side of the series arm 22, and the other end side of the serial signal path 34 is branched into two paths, which respectively extend toward the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25. To the serial signal path 34 between the series arm 22 and these longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, a parallel signal path 35 extending from the bus bar 43 on the far side of the parallel arm 23 is connected. The bus bar 43 on the near side of the parallel arm 23 extends to the side of the short edge 6 of the piezoelectric substrate 5 to form the ground port 4.
Each of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25 includes three IDT electrodes 41 disposed along the propagation direction of the elastic wave, and the reflectors 45, 45 disposed on one end side and the other end side of a row of these IDT electrodes 41. In each of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, the aforementioned serial signal path 34 is connected to each of the bus bars 43 on the far side of the IDT electrodes 41, 41 on both sides among the three IDT electrodes 41, and the bus bars 43 on the near side of these IDT electrodes 41, 41 respectively extend to the near side to form the ground ports 4. Further, regarding each of the center IDT electrodes 41 of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, the bus bar 43 on the far side forms the ground port 4, and to the bus bar 43 on the near side, one end side of a serial signal path 36 extending toward the reception port 3 is connected. In the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, the bus bars 43, 43 on the near side in the respective center IDT electrodes 41 form balanced signal terminals, respectively.
The series arms 27 each formed of the SAW resonator are interposed in the serial signal paths 36 between the respective longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 and the balanced signal terminals of the reception ports 3. Further, there is provided the parallel arm 28 formed of the SAW resonator so as to connect between the serial signal path 36 between one longitudinal mode resonator type filter 25 out of the two longitudinal mode is resonator type filters 25, 25 and the series arm 27 and the serial signal path 36 between the other longitudinal mode resonator type filter 25 and the series arm 27. The parallel arm 28 is connected to these serial signal paths 36, 36 via a parallel signal path 37. These two series arms 27, 27 and one parallel arm 28 form the second ladder-type filter 26. Each of the series arms 27 and the parallel arm 28 includes the aforementioned IDT electrode 41 and two reflectors 45, 45.
Regarding the receiving side filter 21, a wavelength of elastic wave that propagates in the receiving side filter 21 is set so that a pass band of the receiving side filter 21 positions at, for example, 791 MHz to 821 MHz, which is on the lower band side than a pass band of the transmitting side filter 11. Specifically, the pass band of the receiving side filter 21 is adjacent to the pass band of the transmitting side filter 11 from the low band side. Concretely, arrangement patterns of the electrode fingers 42 and the grating electrode fingers 46 in these series arms 22, 27 and parallel arms 23, 28 are set so that a resonance point in each of the series arms 22, 27 and an antiresonance point in each of the parallel arms 23, 28 become the same at a frequency within the pass band of the receiving side filter 21, which is, for example, 806 MHz. Further, regarding the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, arrangement patterns of the electrode fingers 42 and the grating electrode fingers 46 are set so that an elastic wave with a wavelength corresponding to, for example, 806 MHz, which is a center frequency in the pass band of the receiving side filter 21 propagates, for example. In each of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, the respective electrode fingers 42 are arranged so that a phase of mutual signals received in the pair of reception ports 3, 3 is changed by 180°.
In this duplexer, a signal of, for example, 832 MHz to 862 MHz is transmitted to the outside from the portable terminal or the like via the transmission port 2, the transmitting side filter 11 and the antenna port 1. Further, a signal of, for example, 791 MHz to 821 MHz from the outside is received by the portable terminal or the like via the antenna port 1, the receiving side filter 21 and the pair of reception ports 3, 3. At this time, the first ladder-type filter 24 and the second ladder-type filter 26 in addition to the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25 are provided as the receiving side filter 21, so that in the receiving side filter 21, an attenuation in a band corresponding to the pass band of the transmitting side filter 11 is extremely large, as shown in
According to the aforementioned embodiment, since the first ladder-type filter 24, the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 and the second ladder-type filter 26 are provided in this order from the antenna port 1 side between the antenna port 1 and the pair of reception ports 3, 3, it is possible to obtain an extremely large attenuation (obtain a good attenuation characteristic) on the higher band side than the pass band of the receiving side filter 21. For this reason, even in a case where the pass bands of the filters are set so that the pass band of the transmitting side filter 11 is adjacent to the pass band of the receiving side filter 21 from the high band side, it is possible to obtain, in the receiving side filter 21, a large attenuation equal to about 50 dB in the band corresponding to the pass band of the transmitting side filter 11. Therefore, by applying the receiving side filter 21 of the present invention to the duplexer of a type in which the balanced output with respect to the pair of reception ports 3, 3 is performed by using the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 and the pass band of the transmitting side filter 11 is set on the higher band side than the pass band of the receiving side filter 21, it is possible to obtain a duplexer excellent in the attenuation characteristic.
Further, when the balanced output with respect to the pair of transmission ports 3, 3 is performed, not the ladder-type filter but the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 are used as the receiving side filter 21, so that there is no need to provide a component for performing unbalanced-balanced conversion to the outside of the duplexer, for example. Accordingly, it is possible to perform the balanced output while suppressing the increase in size of the duplexer or the electronic component on which the duplexer is mounted.
Further, the output impedance of the reception ports 3, 3 with respect to the portable terminal or the like is set higher than the impedance with respect to the portable terminal or the like in the transmission port 2, as described above. For this reason, by providing the ladder-type filters 24, 26 on the receiving side filter 21 side, not on the transmitting side filter 11 side, the impedance of these ladder-type filters 24, 26 can also match the impedance of the reception ports 3, 3. Accordingly, the sizes of these ladder-type filters 24, 26 can be reduced, resulting in that a duplexer having a small size and excellent attenuation characteristic can be obtained.
Furthermore, since the first ladder-type filter 24 is disposed further on the antenna port 1 side relative to the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, the first ladder-type filter 24 also plays a role of a sort of phase shifter, which enables to suppress a signal from entering the receiving side filter 21 side from the transmitting side filter 11 side.
Further, since the ladder-type filters 24 (26) are disposed on both sides of a previous stage (antenna port 1 side) and a subsequent stage (reception ports 3, 3 side) of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25, it is possible to easily adjust input/output terminal impedances (impedance of the receiving side filter 21 with respect to the antenna port 1 and impedance of the receiving side filter 21 with respect to the reception ports 3, 3). Further, when the SAW resonators are disposed as the series arms, resistance to ESD (Electric static discharge) becomes high, so that by disposing the series arms 22, 27 on the previous stage side and the subsequent stage side of the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, it is possible to obtain a duplexer excellent in ESD resistance.
Furthermore, even if a phase of one signal out of two signals output to the portable terminal or the like from the pair of reception ports 3, 3 attempts to shift, for instance, since the parallel arm 28 is provided in parallel between the two serial signal paths 36, 36, the phase shift in these reception ports 3, 3 is sort of neutralized, resulting in that a phase balance between the pair of reception ports 3, 3 can be adjusted.
Although, in the aforementioned example, two longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, 25 are provided in the receiving side filter 21, the longitudinal mode resonator type filter 25 is for converting an unbalanced signal into a balanced signal, and accordingly, it is also possible that only one of the filters is provided.
The serial signal path 34 is connected to each of the bus bars 43 on the far side of the IDT electrodes 41, 41 on both sides and the center IDT electrode 41 among these five IDT electrodes 41, and the bus bars 43 on the near side of these IDT electrodes 41 form the ground ports 4. Further, regarding the respective IDT electrodes 41 disposed between these IDT electrodes 41, 41 whose bus bars 43 on the far side are connected to the serial signal paths 34, the bus bars 43 on the far side form the ground ports 4, and the serial signal paths 36 connected to the bus bars 43 on the near side respectively extend toward the reception ports 3. Also in this example, it is possible to obtain a large attenuation on the higher band side than the pass band of the receiving side filter 21, as described above. As above, the number of IDT electrodes 41 in the longitudinal mode resonator type filter 25 and the number of longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25 are only required to be set so that the balanced output from the pair of reception ports 3, 3 can be realized.
Further, regarding the second ladder-type filter 26, it is also possible to dispose two parallel arms 28 connected in parallel with respect to two serial signal paths 36, 36 between the reception ports 3, 3 and the longitudinal mode resonator type filters 25, as shown in
Further, as shown in
Furthermore, it is also possible to dispose the transmitting side filter 11 and the receiving side filter 21 on separate piezoelectric substrates 5a, 5b, respectively, as shown in
Further, in the aforementioned examples, the SAW resonators utilizing surface acoustic wave are disposed as the series arms 12, 22, 27 and the parallel arms 13, 23, 28 in the respective filters 11, 21, but, it is also possible to use as the SAW resonators, the one port SAW resonators, or the two ports SAW resonators, or as shown in
Here, an another structure of the second ladder-type filter 26 will be explained with reference to
Further, as the piezoelectric substrate 5, it is also possible to use a substrate having a piezoelectric function made of, not the aforementioned lithium tantalate but quartz crystal, lithium niobate (LiNbO3) or the like, or it is also possible to use a substrate obtained by forming one layer or more of thin film having the piezoelectric function on a substrate having a piezoelectric property or a substrate with no piezoelectric property.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2010-206780 | Sep 2010 | JP | national |