This application is based on and claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0015292, filed on Feb. 15, 2012, with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The present disclosure relates to an impedance matching circuit capable of wideband matching, which includes a passive element capable of controlling a matching characteristic, a power amplifier circuit including the same, and a manufacturing method for a variable capacitor included in the impedance matching circuit.
With the development of various types of wireless communication technologies, the necessity that wireless terminal and system need to support several wireless communication standards has bee increased. Portable terminals and systems capable of meeting various requirements are required to be developed in order for the wireless terminal and system to support several wireless communication standards. In the wireless communication system, an essential element that occupies the most important position is a power amplifier, and as a result, power amplifiers that are suitable for frequencies used in several services are required in order to satisfy various communication systems.
In the related art, a heterojunction bipolar transistor primarily formed on a GaAs substrate has been used as a power element by considering price, productivity and frequency characteristics, and a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) type power amplifier including a bias circuit and a matching circuit suitable for a used frequency has been designed, manufactured and used. The power amplifier using a GaAs based compound, which is manufactured as above is impedance-matched for each frequency which can be used in frequencies required in the wireless communication terminal and system.
Therefore, the power amplifier impedance-matched for each frequency band needs to be provided in order to manufacture the wireless communication terminals and systems which can be used in various frequencies. That is, the wireless communication terminals and systems which can be used in various frequencies need a plurality of power amplifiers impedance-matched for each frequency band, a plurality of switches that enables the power amplifier which is appropriate in each frequency band to be used in the wireless communication terminal and system, and a control circuit for controlling the switches.
In recent years, a study for decreasing the number of the power elements in order to decrease an area occupied by the power amplifier in the total area of the wireless communication terminal dimension and decrease the cost of production has been in progress. To this end, one power amplifier should be used in two or more frequency bands. A tunable matching circuit or a reconfigurable matching circuit that enables the power amplifier to be impedance-matched in a desired frequency is required so that one power amplifier is used in two or more frequency bands.
Another method includes a method that enables the power amplifier and the matching circuit to be operated in a wide frequency band. That is, the method is used to cover various wireless communication systems with one power amplifier by designing the power element and the matching circuit to have a wide bandwidth in the range of 500 MHz to 1 GHz. This method is ideally used to minimize the area of the power amplifier, but it is difficult to cover a total frequency band used in the wireless communication system with one power amplifier with the recent development of information and communication technologies and continuous extension of the frequency band used in the wireless communication system.
As illustrated in
The output impedance matching circuit M0 includes an inductor unit illustrated as L connected between an output terminal of the power amplifying unit AMP and an output node illustrated as OUT, and a capacitor unit illustrated as C connected between the output node OUT and a ground voltage terminal. Herein, an inductance value of the inductor unit L and a capacitance value of the capacitor unit C have fixed values to be impedance-matched with a load illustrated as RL at the frequency used in the wireless communication system where the power amplifier is used.
In the power amplifier of
That is, the power amplifier of
The present disclosure has been made in an effort to provide an impedance matching circuit that further extends a frequency range to enable impedance-matching by controlling capacitance values of one or more capacitors and inductance values of one or more inductors while enabling wideband matching, when the impedance matching circuit includes one or more capacitors and one or more inductors connected to one or more nodes to be configured in multiple stages.
The present disclosure also has been made in an effort to provide a manufacturing method for a variable capacitor that is included in the impedance matching circuit to arbitrarily control the capacitance value according to a bias voltage while decreasing an area thereof with a fixed capacitor.
An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides an impedance matching circuit including: a first variable inductor unit of which one end is connected to the first node and an inductance value varies; a second inductor unit connected between the first node and a second node and having a variable inductance value; a first variable capacitor unit of which one end is connected to the first node and a capacitance value varies; and a second variable capacitor unit of which one end is connected to the second node and a capacitance value varies, and the other end of the first variable capacitor unit and the other end of the second variable capacitor unit are connected to a ground voltage terminal to perform the impedance matching between a circuit connected to the other end of the first variable inductor unit and a circuit connected to the second node.
Another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a power amplifier circuit including: a power amplifying unit; an output impedance matching unit of which one end is connected to an output node connected with a load to perform impedance matching; and an internal impedance matching unit including a first node connected with an output terminal of the power amplifying unit and a second node connected with the other end of the output impedance matching unit, and performing the impedance matching, and an impedance of the internal impedance matching unit varies.
Yet another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a manufacturing method for a variable capacitor, including: forming a first element of which a capacitance value depends on a voltage applied to both terminals of a first area on a substrate; forming a second element having a capacitance value fixed to a second area on the substrate adjacent to the first area; and forming metallic wires for connecting the first element and the second element and connecting the first element and the second element with the outside.
According to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to perform wideband matching by changing a characteristic value of a passive element included in an impedance matching circuit configured in multiple stages.
It is also possible to reduce an area of a variable capacitor with a fixed capacitor while a capacitance value can be arbitrarily controlled according to biasing.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawing, which form a part hereof. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawing, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here.
Hereinafter, matching is a meaning that includes impedance matching.
As illustrated in
Hereinafter, the power amplifier will be described with reference to
The power amplifying unit AMP is a kind of amplifier that amplifies and outputs an input signal (not illustrated in
The internal impedance matching unit MI and the external impedance matching unit M0 match impedances of the power amplifying unit AMP and the load RL. Herein, the description of the external impedance matching unit M0 is the same as that described in
The internal impedance matching unit MI includes a first variable inductor unit illustrated as L1 connected between an output terminal of the power amplifying unit AMP and the first node N1 and having a variable inductance value, a second variable inductor unit illustrated as L2 connected between the first node N1 and the second node N2 and having a variable inductance value, a first variable capacitor unit illustrated as C1 connected between the first node N1 and a ground voltage terminal and having a variable capacitance value, and a second variable capacitor unit illustrated as C2 connected between the second node N2 and the ground voltage terminal and having a variable capacitance value.
The first variable inductor unit L1 and the second variable inductor unit L2 include wirebonds. The inductance values of the first variable inductor unit L1 and the second variable inductor unit L2 are determined according to the number and the lengths of wires included in the wirebond. The first variable capacitor unit C1 and the second variable capacitor unit C2 will be described below in detail with reference to
The internal impedance matching unit MI is configured by using a passive element capable of varying characteristic values (for example, the inductance value and the capacitance value) in order to easily control a matching characteristic with a multi-stage structure (meaning a structure including several nodes) for wideband matching. In
Frequency bands with which the impedances are matched are controlled by controlling the characteristic values (the impedance value or the capacitance value of the passive elements L1, L2, C1 and C2 included in the internal impedance matching unit MI to perform the impedance matching in a wider frequency range than a wideband matching circuit that operates in a fixed frequency band. Actual frequency bands with which the impedances are matched may be easily corrected by controlling a target frequency band and the characteristic values of the passive elements L1, L2, C1 and C2 due to a process characteristic and an additional package characteristic.
In
Since the power amplifier according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may perform wideband impedance matching while changing the frequency band unlike the related art, the power amplifier may be applied to various kinds of wireless communication terminals and systems. Accordingly, since one power amplifier operates in several frequency bands, a total area occupied by the power amplifier may be reduced by reducing the number of the power amplifiers included in the wireless communication terminal and system.
As illustrated in
The variable capacitor units C1 and C2 of
The capacitance value of the diode D is determined according to the magnitude of a bias voltage applied to the biasing unit B. The biasing unit B includes a resistor R and a voltage supplying unit V. The voltage of the voltage supplying unit V may be controlled. When a reverse bias is applied to the diode D by the biasing unit B, the capacitance value is generated in the diode D by a depleted region of the diode D. The capacitance value depends on the reverse bias voltage applied to both terminals of the diode D, and when the width of the depleted region is increased at a p-n junction of the diode D due to the increase in magnitude of the reverse bias, the capacitance value decreases, and when the width of the depleted region increases due to the decrease in magnitude of the reverse bias, the capacitance value increases.
Therefore, when the variable capacitor unit illustrated in
Referring back to
The internal impedance matching unit MI included in the power amplifier illustrated in
Herein, the power amplifying unit AMP of
The manufacturing method for the variable capacitor includes: forming a first element of which a capacitance value depends on a voltage applied to both terminals of a first area A1 on a substrate; forming a second element having a capacitance value fixed to a second area A2 on the substrate adjacent to the first area A1; and forming metallic wires 461 to 463 for connecting the first element and the second element and connecting the first element and the second element with the outside. Some and all of the respective steps of the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be simultaneously performed.
The first element is a bipolar transistor and includes the diode as described below. The second element is a capacitor including a dielectric having a value of a fixed capacitance value. Hereinafter, the forming of the first element and the second element will be described.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The first element to be used as the variable capacitor is formed in the first area A1, and the second element to be used as the fixed capacitor is formed in the second area A2, through the processes illustrated in
Next, the forming of the metallic wires 460 and 463 for connecting the first element and the second element will be described.
Referring to
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The variable inductor units L1 and L2 of
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various embodiments disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2012-15292 | Feb 2012 | KR | national |