This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 national stage application of PCT International Application No. PCT/SE2014/050822, filed on Jul. 1, 2004, the disclosure and content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The above-referenced PCT International Application was published in the English language as International Publication No. WO 2016/003331 A1 on Jan. 7, 2016.
The invention relates to a hybrid coil circuit, remote radio head and network interface.
In many communication systems, there is a need to share a communications medium between transmit and receive signals. In e.g. analogue telephony systems, this is known as 4-wire to 2-wire conversion (or vice versa) since the shared medium (twisted pair), has two wires and transmit and receive signals have two wires each.
Typically, there is a need to achieve isolation between transmit and receive paths so that the transmit signal does not reach the receiver input with full strength. This is referred to as near-end echo cancellation. The degree of isolation between transmitter and receiver can be denoted Trans-Hybrid Return Loss (THRL). Here, we define THRL as the ratio between transmitter-receiver loss and the insertion loss from transmitter to line. The functionality can be implemented in different ways, e.g. by using a hybrid coil (also known as a hybrid transformer). Other types of hybrid circuits, e.g. using resistive bridges, are common in e.g. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems. Resistive bridges are cheaper and typically require smaller space on the circuit boards but usually have high loss in at least one direction and they also make it difficult to achieve low noise levels, due to thermal noise in the resistors.
A dual core hybrid coil can be designed to support wide bandwidth but it requires two transformers connected towards the 2-wire side (shared medium). Also, the transformers need to have two separate secondary windings, i.e. a winding with a centre tap is not sufficient. These restrictions lead to high cost and large space requirements, especially if the shared medium has high voltage isolation requirements.
A single core hybrid coil is less complex than the dual core hybrid coil, but it is difficult to achieve high isolation between transmit and receive ports over a wide bandwidth, mainly due to non-ideal properties of the transformer. Some transformer imperfections can be compensated for by modifying a impedance matching device.
For applications with high requirements regarding e.g. common-mode rejection and, it is not always sufficient to use just a transformer as interface between the transceiver and the transmission medium (hereafter called “line”) but a common-mode choke may be needed as well. This is typically seen for Local Area Network (LAN) applications such as 1000BASE-T (gigabit Ethernet) and 10 GBASE-T (10 gigabit Ethernet) where such a choke is used in conjunction with the transformer.
Such devices are available with high bandwidth, good return loss, low insertion loss, and high CMRR. However, even if return loss is very good in normal operation, the choke can cause problems when the device is used as a hybrid coil; if the leakage inductance of the choke is sufficiently high, a negative inductance is needed in the impedance matching device in order to cancel the leakage inductance of the choke, since the leakage inductance of the choke will end up in series with the balance impedance. However, implementing a negative inductance in a one- or two-terminal device requires active components, which typically adds cost, complexity, and noise.
According to a first aspect, it is presented a hybrid coil circuit comprising: a transformer comprising a first transformer winding and a second transformer winding, wherein a first centre tap is arranged on the first transformer winding; a common mode choke comprising a first choke winding connected on its first side to a first end of the first transformer winding, a second choke winding connected on its first side to the first centre tap and a third choke winding connected on its first side to a second end of the first transformer winding, wherein all choke windings are magnetically coupled; an impedance matching device connected on a first end to a second side of the second choke winding, the impedance matching device being connected to ground; a first terminal of a first port being provided connected to a second side of the first choke winding; a second terminal of the first port being provided connected to a second end of the impedance matching device; a first terminal of a second port being provided connected to a second side of the third choke winding; a second terminal of the second port being provided connected to a second end of the impedance matching device; a third port being provided with respective terminals connected to either end of the second transformer winding; a first inductor arranged between the second end of the impedance matching device and the second terminal of the first port; and a second inductor arranged between the second end of the impedance matching device and the second terminal of the second port, wherein the first inductor and the second inductor are magnetically coupled.
By using an appropriately dimensioned mutual inductance of the first inductor and second inductor, there is no need to provide any negative inductance in the impedance matching device. This is a great improvement over the prior art whereby better trans-hybrid return loss is achieved over a relatively large frequency span. Moreover, this is achieved using simple components.
The magnetic coupling of the first inductor and second inductor may comprise a first common magnetic core.
The magnetic coupling of all choke windings may comprise a second common magnetic core.
The hybrid coil circuit may further comprise: a first capacitor arranged between the first inductor and the second side of the first choke winding; and a second capacitor arranged between the second inductor and the second side of the third choke winding.
The hybrid coil circuit may further comprise: a third inductor arranged between the second terminal of the first port and the second terminal of the second port.
The impedance matching device may comprise a resistor in parallel with a capacitor.
The hybrid coil circuit may further comprise a first port transformer connected on the first port and a second port transformer connected on the second port.
The hybrid coil circuit may further comprise: a second centre tap is arranged on the second transformer winding, wherein the second centre tap is connected to ground.
According to a second aspect, it is provided a remote radio head comprising a hybrid coil circuit according to the first aspect, wherein the hybrid coil circuit is arranged such that its third port is connected to a port of the remote radio head for connection to a network node, its first port is connected to a receiver of the remote radio head and its second port is connected to a transmitter of the remote radio head.
According to a third aspect, it is provided a network interface comprising a hybrid coil circuit according to the first aspect, wherein the hybrid coil circuit is arranged such that its third port is connected to a network port of the network interface, its first port is connected to a receiver of the network interface and its second port is connected to a transmitter of the network interface.
Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to “a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc.” are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated.
The invention is now described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description.
A transformer 10 comprises a first transformer winding 11a and a second transformer winding 11b, where either one of these windings can be the primary winding and the other winding is a secondary winding. However, in this example, the first winding is the primary winding and the second winding is the secondary winding. A first centre tap 12 is arranged on the first transformer winding 11a.
A common mode choke 25 is provided which comprises a first choke winding 26a, a second choke winding 26b and a third choke winding 26c. The first choke winding 26a is connected on its first side to a first end 14a of the first transformer winding 11a and on its second end to a first terminal 20a of the first port 17. The second choke winding 26b is connected on its first side to the first centre tap 12 and on it second end to an impedance matching device 30. The third choke winding 26c is connected on its first side to a second end 14b of the first transformer winding 11a and on its second end to a first terminal 21a of the second port 18. All three choke windings 26a-c are magnetically coupled (e.g. using a common magnetic core 27) to in this way achieve common mode rejection, i.e. to remove or at least reduce interference or noise present on the third port 19, e.g. from the line connected to the third port 19.
The impedance matching device 30 is also connected to ground. The impedance of the impedance matching device is denoted Z1. The third port 19 is provided with respective terminals 22a-b connected to either end of the second transformer winding 11b. The impedance on the third port 19 is denoted Z0.
Ignoring first the common mode choke 25, the operation of the hybrid coil circuit 1 will now be described. The first port 17 is the transmit port and the second port 18 is the receive port although the hybrid is symmetric so they could be interchanged. Both ports are referenced to ground, i.e. unbalanced. The third port 19 is on the other side of the transformer 10 and could be connected either balanced (as in the figure) e.g. to a twisted-pair cable, or unbalanced, e.g. to a coaxial cable.
In receive operation, a signal is assumed to come from the third port 19 (cable or other source). Assuming perfect common-mode rejection in the transformer 10, this will result in equal magnitude but opposite phase signals on either end 14a-b of the first transformer winding 11a, i.e. the transformer 10 acts as a power splitter, causing 3 dB reduction of received signal power into the second port 18. The voltage on the centre tap 12 of the transformer 10 (and the impedance matching device 30) is zero.
Now, the transmit operation will be described. Since the first port 17 and the second port 18 are ground referenced, the condition for perfect isolation (infinite THRL) between transmission and reception is that the voltage V3 on the lower end of the first transformer winding 11a should be zero, independent of the voltage V1 on the upper end of the transformer winding (all voltages are with respect to ground potential). If the two halves of the first winding 11a are equal, this further requires that V3=(V1+V2)/2=V1/2. Now, if V2=0, there can be no current going through the lower end of the first transformer winding 14b. This means that in order to get V3=V1/2, the impedance matching device 30 has to have an impedance Z1 which is equal to the impedance seen in the upper half of the first winding 11a (between the upper end 14a and the centre tap 12). Since the upper half of the first winding 11a has half the number of turns compared with the whole second winding 11b, and since the load on the secondary side is Z0, the impedance seen between the upper end 14a and the centre tap 12 will be (Z0/2^2)=Z0/4. Thus, the hybrid coil circuit 1 in
A more detailed theoretical analysis of the hybrid coil circuit of
The common mode choke 25 is assumed to have a leakage inductance Lc in each choke winding 26a-c while the primary and secondary sides of the transformer 10 are assumed to have leakage inductances Lp and Ls respectively in each half of the primary and secondary winding. In this analysis, the first port 17 is assumed to be used for transmission and the second port 18 is assumed to be used for reception, but the same analysis is applicable for the opposite.
Voltages are referenced to ground and denoted with V1, V2, V3 while currents are denoted I1, I2, I3.
V2≡0, I2≡0 (1)
Equations (1) are conditions for infinite Tx (transmission)−Rx (reception) isolation (balance condition)
The balance condition gives:
I3=I1 (2)
The input impedance Zin1 of the hybrid seen from the first port 17 becomes:
Furthermore, from the balance condition and the leakage inductances, we get
Inserting the expression for Z in (3) from above gives
Which after manipulation yields
It can be observed in (7) that if the leakage inductance of the choke, Lc, is large enough (greater than Ls/2), the impedance needed for infinite isolation, Z1, will contain a negative inductance term for the imaginary part. It can also be noted that the leakage inductance of the primary winding, Lp, disappeared from the expression and thus does not affect the hybrid's isolation.
From the expression (7), it seems like it would be possible to solve the issue by adding inductance in series with the load Z0. In practice, this only works partially since the expression above is too simplified and does not take into account the transmission line effect of the transformer 10. The main problem is that the correction is then performed on the wrong side of the line transformer 10. Since that transformer 10 typically has a large number of turns, it will act like a transmission line transformer and change the impedance for anything that deviates from the design impedance (typically 100 ohm). High frequencies will experience larger changes.
While it may be possible to manufacture a transformer that allows zero or positive inductance in Z1, e.g. by increasing Ls or decreasing Lc, such a part may need custom manufacturing and may not be suitable for certain other applications since such modification may affect e.g. return loss and common mode rejection. A custom part is more expensive than a standard component. Also, the analysis above is likely too simplified to serve as basis for a redesigned line transformer due to the idealized modeling approach.
Here, a first inductor 33a is provided between the second end of the impedance matching device 30 and the second terminal 10b of the first port 17. Moreover, a second inductor 33b is provided between the second end of the impedance matching device 30 and the second terminal 21b of the second port 18. The first inductor 33a and the second inductor 33b are magnetically coupled, making up a coupled inductor 32. The coupled inductor 32 has a first common magnetic core 34.
By adding the coupled inductor 32 and thereby splitting the ground on the primary side of the transformer 10, the first port 17 and the second port 18 are semi-differential instead of single ended. The first port 17 and the second port 18 are here called semi-differential since they no longer share a common ground. The coupled inductor 32 then changes the ground reference for the Tx and Rx ports in order to compensate for the leakage inductance in the common mode choke 25. Another difference between the embodiment of
A theoretical analysis of the hybrid coil circuit of
V2≡V4, I2≡0 (8)
Equations (8) are conditions for infinite Tx−Rx isolation assuming infinite common mode impedance at the first and second ports 17, 18.
The balance condition gives:
I3=I1, I4=0 (9)
The input impedance Zin1p of the hybrid seen from the upper half of the first port 17 becomes:
Furthermore, from the balance condition and the leakage inductances, we get
Further, we have that
V4=V3−I3·jωLmV3=V4+I3·jωLm=V4−I1·jωLm (12)
and that
Combining the above three formulas gives
Inserting the expression for Zin1p yields:
Thus, the impedance Z1 for infinite isolation becomes
Here, we see that we can compensate for the negative inductance by selecting a mutual inductance for component the coupled inductor 32 according to
In other words, by using an appropriately dimensioned mutual inductance Lm between the second terminals 20b, 21b of the first port 17 and the second port 18, there is no need to provide any negative inductance in the impedance matching device 30.
Here, an optional first port transformer 45a and an optional second port transformer 45b have been added in order to improve performance by providing a high common mode impedance on the first and second ports 17, 18. The port transformers 45a, 45b can be replaced with common mode chokes as long as impedance transformation is not required. A further option is e.g. to replace the port transformer 45a, 45b with amplifiers with high common mode impedance.
The coupled inductor 32 creates a first-order low-pass filter for transmit and receive ports since at high frequencies, a larger part of the signal will fall over the coupled inductor 32. This can be useful to limit unwanted high-frequency radiation, e.g. from signal harmonics or clock spurs. Optional capacitors 40a, 40b are provided in order to tune the low-pass cutoff frequencies for transmission and reception, as well as the pass-band slope and the return loss as seen from the cable.
An optional third inductor 33c is arranged between the second terminal 20b of the first port 17 and the second terminal 21b of the second port 18. The third inductor forms part of the coupled inductor 32 along with the first inductor 33a and the second inductor 33b. The third inductor 33c is provided to tune down the mutual inductance of the coupled inductor 32. This is useful when the optimal value of the coupled inductor 32 is not available; a larger value can then be selected and tuned down by the third inductor 33c.
While the circuits of
The capacitor, when provided, compensates for parasitic capacitance in the transformer 10.
A dashed line 60 represents THRL for the hybrid coil circuit of
A receiver 50 of the remote radio head 2 is then connected to the first port 17 of the hybrid coil circuit 1 and a transmitter 51 is connected to the second port of the hybrid coil circuit 1. The third port 19 of the hybrid coil circuit 1 is connected to a port 7 of the remote radio head 2 for connection to a network node 5.
A receiver 60 of the network interface 3 is then connected to the first port 17 of the hybrid coil circuit 1 and a transmitter 61 is connected to the second port of the hybrid coil circuit 1. The third port 19 of the hybrid coil circuit 1 is connected to a port 8 of the network interface 3 for connection to a network.
The invention has mainly been described above with reference to a few embodiments. However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended patent claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/SE2014/050822 | 7/1/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2016/003331 | 1/7/2016 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2169360 | Kimmel | Aug 1939 | A |
20070297201 | Lee | Dec 2007 | A1 |
20110304411 | Zhang | Dec 2011 | A1 |
20120063173 | Fu | Mar 2012 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2 515 903 | May 1983 | FR |
2 021 362 | Nov 1979 | GB |
Entry |
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International Search Report, International Application No. PCT/SE2014/050822, dated Mar. 31, 2015. |
Written Opinion o f the International Searching Authority, International Application No. PCT/SE2014/050822, dated Mar. 31, 2015. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170125902 A1 | May 2017 | US |