Field of the Invention
The invention relates to envelope tracking modulated power supplies suitable for radio frequency power amplifier applications. The invention is particularly concerned with such power supplies in which a reference signal is used as an input to a low frequency path and a high frequency path, and in which each path generates separate outputs which are combined to form a supply voltage.
Description of the Related Art
Envelope tracking power supplies for radio frequency power amplifiers are well-known in the art. Typically a reference signal is generated based on an envelope of an input signal to be amplified. An envelope tracking power supply generates a supply voltage for the power amplifier which tracks the reference signal.
An example of a power amplifier system incorporating a supply architecture such as illustrated in
An example of a power amplifier system incorporating a supply architecture such as illustrated in
A problem may arise in prior art arrangements such as illustrated in
It is an aim of the invention to provide an envelope tracking modulated power supply which offers improvements over the prior art, and in particular which addresses the resonance problem.
The invention provides an envelope tracking power supply arranged to generate a modulated supply voltage in dependence on a reference signal, comprising a first path for tracking low frequency variations in the reference signal and a second path for tracking high frequency variations in the reference signal, and further comprising a combiner, and for generating the modulated supply voltage, wherein there is further provided sensing circuitry for sensing a resonance signal in the combiner, and adjusting circuitry for adjusting a signal in the first path to control the resonance in dependence on the sensed signal.
The sensing circuitry may be adapted to sense the resonance in the first or second path.
The sensing circuitry may comprise circuitry for sensing a voltage developed across a combining element or a current flowing in a combining element.
The sensing circuitry may be for sensing a voltage developed across a combining element, the circuitry comprising a difference amplifier having two inputs, one input connected at each terminal of the combining element.
The combining element may be a high pass combining element. The combining element may be a capacitor. The combining element may be a low pass combining element. The combining element may be an inductor.
The sensing circuitry may comprises a current sense amplifier in the low pass combining element of the combiner, a differentiator, and a difference amplifier for amplifying the difference between the output of the differentiator and the reference signal, the first signal in the first path being adjusted in dependence on the output of the difference amplifier.
The adjusting circuitry may comprise a combiner for combining the sensed resonance signal with a control signal in the first path to generate an adjusted control signal.
The first path may include a pulse width modulator for controlling switches for generating a switched mode voltage output, wherein the pulse width modulator is varied in dependence upon the adjusted control signal.
The envelope tracking power supply may further comprise a current control feedback loop for sensing a current at the output of the switches, the control signal being generated in dependence on said sensed current.
The envelope tracking power supply may further comprise a difference amplifier for controlling the pulse width modulator, having one input connected to the adjusted control signal and one input connected to the sensed current.
The envelope tracking power supply may further comprise a difference combiner for subtracting the reference signal and the fed back current signal to generate the control signal.
The envelope tracking power supply may further comprise a voltage control feedback loop for sensing a voltage at the output of the switches, the pulse width generator being varied in dependence on the difference between the adjusted control signal and the fed back sensed voltage.
The fed back sensed voltage may be combined with a reference waveform.
The second path may comprise a linear amplifier, having a feedback path connecting the output of the linear amplifier to the input of the linear amplifier, such that the linear amplifier amplifies the difference between the reference signal and the output of the linear amplifier to generate output voltage for combining in the combiner.
There may be provided a feedback path from the output of a linear amplifier in the first path to the input of the linear amplifier and the linear amplifier amplifies a signal comprising the full spectrum of frequencies of the reference signal.
There may be provided an RF amplifier. There may be provided a wireless communication system. There may be provided a wireless mobile device.
The invention may also provide a method in an envelope tracking power supply arranged to generate a modulated supply voltage in dependence on a reference signal, the method comprising providing a first path for tracking low frequency variations in the reference signal and providing a second path for tracking high frequency variations in the reference signal, the envelope tracking power supply further comprising a combiner, and for generating the modulated supply voltage, wherein the method further provides sensing a resonance signal in the combiner, and adjusting a signal in the first path in dependence on the sensed resonance signal.
The invention is now described by way of example with reference to the accompanying Figures, in which:
In the following description the invention is described with reference to exemplary embodiments and implementations. The invention is not limited to the specific details of any arrangements as set out, which are provided for the purposes of understanding the invention.
Embodiments of the invention are described in the following description in the context of application to a preferred advantageous feedback architecture for the linear amplifier in the high frequency correction path. The invention and its embodiments are however not necessarily limited to the particular feedback arrangement in the high frequency correction path.
With reference to
Like reference numerals are used in the Figures to identify features in different Figures which are comparable.
It can be noted that the arrangement of
With further reference to
In the advantageous arrangement illustrated in
As shown in
The two signals at the input to the subtractor 38, on paths 14 and 40, comprise full spectrum signals. The signal at the output of the linear amplifier 24 is a full spectrum signal and the efficiency of the supply voltage to the linear amplifier can be maximised. In the arrangements of
The arrangement of
In this modified arrangement, the ripple current due to the switched mode amplifier 22 now flows in the inductor 28b and is now shunted to ground via the capacitor 28c. The loss associated with the ripple current flowing in inductor 28a and passing through the linear output stage 24 is now avoided.
A further modification in
The LF path switch mode amplifier 22 is preferably implemented, as shown in
An advantageous implementation of the switched mode amplifier 22 as illustrated in
As illustrated in
The switched mode amplifier 22 includes an inner current control feedback loop and an outer voltage control feedback loop.
The inner current control feedback loop senses the inductor current either directly or indirectly by sensing current in switch 52a or switch 52b, and provides a feedback path 58 to a combiner 61. The combiner 61 combines the feedback signal on feedback path 58 with a compensation ramp signal on line 63. The output of the combiner 61 provides an input to the inverting input of an amplifier 59. The amplifier 59 receives at its non-inverting input an output from an amplifier 60. The amplifier 59 generates the control signal on line 56.
The outer voltage control feedback loop provides a voltage feedback path 62 from the second terminal of the inductor 28b, where it connects to the inductor 28a and capacitor 28c. The feedback path 62 provides a feedback signal to an inverting input of the amplifier 60. The amplifier 60 receives the low frequency path signal on line 16 at its non-inverting input.
Inductor 28b behaves as a current source due to the action of the inner current feedback loop provided by feedback path 58. A compensation ramp is provided on line 63 in this inner current feedback loop, and is used to prevent frequency halving at high duty cycles.
The outer voltage feedback loop provided by feedback path 62 is used to control the voltage at the junction of inductor 28b, inductor 28a, and capacitor 28c.
The peak-current-mode buck-converter as illustrated in
The low pass filter 18 generates a signal representing low frequency variation in the reference signal. This signal on line 16 then comprises a control signal for the pulse signal for the buck switcher, comprising switches 52a and 52b, which has a duty cycle determined by the control signal, such that the voltage at the output of the buck switcher tracks the signal on line 16, i.e. the low frequency variation in the reference signal.
In addition, however, this control signal on line 16 is modified by the inner feedback current control loop and the outer feedback voltage control loop.
The outer feedback voltage control loop firstly adjusts the control signal in amplifier 60. The control signal (i.e. the low frequency reference signal) has the feedback signal on feedback path 62 removed therefrom. The feedback voltage on feedback path 62 represent the voltage at the output of the low frequency path, and the removal of this voltage from the low frequency reference signal on line 16 provides a signal representing the error between the output voltage and the reference voltage.
The inner feedback control loop secondly adjusts the control signal in amplifier 59. The second adjusted control signal (output from amplifier 59) has signal on feedback path 58 removed therefrom. The signal on feedback path 58 represents the output current.
There has thus been set out, with reference to
The output impedance of the peak-current-mode buck-converter switched mode amplifier 22 of
The output impedance of the linear amplifier 24 of
Hence the system of
With reference to
When operating in compression, the inductor 28a and the capacitor 30a together with the power amplifier as represented by resistor 74 form a low Q resonant circuit. When operating outside of compression, the inductor 28a and the capacitor 30a together with the power amplifier as represented by current source 76 form a high Q resonant circuit.
In the case of
The consequence of this mis-tracking at the resonant frequency is illustrated in
The combiner 26 has a low frequency combining element (the inductor 28a) and a high frequency combining element (the capacitor 30a). As described above with reference to
As illustrated in
In this way, the voltage formed across the capacitor 30a is sensed. A scaled and offset replica of this voltage is then combined with the output of the voltage error amplifier 60 of the switched mode amplifier 22 (peak-current-mode buck-converter). The scaling and offsetting is implemented in the amplifier 30.
Thus with reference to
In an alternative arrangement, this operation may be based on sensing the voltage across, or the current in, the inductor 28a. This is illustrated in
As shown in
Further a difference amplifier 83 receives the output of the differentiating amplifier 81, and compares the output of the differentiating amplifier 81 with the voltage at the input to the amplifier 18. The difference amplifier 83 thus provides a feedback signal to the subtractor 82 to remove the resonance generated in the low frequency path in accordance with the above-described techniques.
In different implementations the sensing circuitry may be arranged to sense current or voltage and the embodiments described herein are exemplary.
Thus in general the voltage or current developed across or in an element of the combiner is sensed, being either a low frequency or high frequency combining element.
With further reference to
The linear amplifier 24 is preferably always operated with the minimum possible supply voltage, which is provided by an efficient switched mode supply (not shown in the arrangements of
The arrangement in which the resonance is reduced by sensing the current or voltage at the output of the low frequency path is particularly advantageous in a distributed architecture where a single low frequency path is provided in conjunction with multiple high frequency paths and multiple correction amplifiers. Such an exemplary embodiment is shown in
In the arrangement of
The distributed architecture may provide any number of amplifiers, but for the sake of simplicity two amplifiers 34a and 34b are shown in
Each amplifier 34a, 34b receives the low frequency switched supply on line 88 at a first terminal of a respective inductor 90a, 90b, which may optionally be combined with inductor 22a, and combines this with a high frequency correction voltage received at a second terminal of the inductor from a high frequency correction path on line 92a, 92b. The second terminals of the inductors form the supply inputs to the amplifiers 34a, 34b.
In a distributed architecture such as is described, only one power amplifier is active at any one time. The inductance 28a is therefore optional and may not be required as inductors 28a and 90a, 90b are in series.
Each high frequency correction path corresponds to the high frequency correction path of
Each high frequency correction path receives the reference signal on line 10. Each high frequency correction path also generates a high frequency correction signal for combination with the common low frequency signal, before application to a respective power amplifier as the supply thereof. Such a distributed arrangement is known in the art.
The invention and its embodiments relate to the application of envelope tracking (ET) to radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers, and is applicable to a broad range of implementations including cellular handsets, wireless infrastructure, and military power amplifier applications at high frequencies to microwave frequencies.
The invention has been described herein by way of example with reference to embodiments. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, nor to specific combinations of features in embodiments. Modifications may be made to the embodiments within the scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1301855.1 | Feb 2013 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2014/051960 | 1/31/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2014/118341 | 8/7/2014 | WO | A |
Number | Date | Country |
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2484475 | Apr 2012 | GB |
Entry |
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Wu et al., “A Two-Phase Switching Hybrid Supply Modulator for RF Power Amplifiers With 9% Efficiency Improvement”, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 45, No. 12, Dec. 2010, pp. 2543-2556. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20160006397 A1 | Jan 2016 | US |