The present invention generally relates to a tunable inductor arrangement, a radio frequency transceiver or receiver with a resonator having such an arrangement, a communication device, a method of tuning the arrangement and a computer program for tuning.
As more bands are to be supported in radio transceivers, which bands may span over a wide frequency range such as from 600 MHz to 3800 MHz, this can be met by a set of resonators. It is known that tuning an LC (inductor-capacitor) resonator more than one octave is difficult, which gives that a multitude of resonators may be demanded. This problem is further emphasized when carrier aggregation, i.e., the communication is performed on several different carriers simultaneously, which carriers may be spread anywhere in the wide frequency range.
LC resonators consume chip space, when implemented on-chip, and are fairly costly when implemented off-chip. It is, therefore, a desire to provide more flexible resonators.
An object of the invention is to at least alleviate the above-stated problem. The present invention is based on the understanding that both capacitance and inductance of an LC resonator need to be tuned to achieve the desired flexibility. A tunable inductor arrangement is provided accordingly. The inventor has also realized the demands that the self-resonant frequency needs to be set high enough for high-frequency modes, the Q-value has to be high enough not to degrade gain or increase current consumption in a usable implementation, and that the ratio of the inductances needs to be high enough to also cover the low bands. This is achieved by a switch arrangement in the tunable inductor arrangement which performs signal routing such that insertion loss is decreased.
According to a first aspect, there is provided a tunable inductor arrangement arrangeable on a chip or substrate. The tunable inductor comprises a first winding part connected at a first end to a first input of the tunable inductor arrangement; a second winding part connected at a first end to a second end of the first winding part; a third winding part connected at a first end to a second input of the tunable inductor arrangement; a fourth winding part connected at a first end to a second end of the third winding part; and a switch arrangement arranged to tune the tunable inductor arrangement by selectively provide any of a circuit comprising the first and fourth winding parts in parallel and the second and third winding parts in parallel, with the parallel couplings connected in series between the first and second inputs; and a circuit comprising the first, second, fourth and third winding parts in series between the first and second inputs.
The switch arrangement may comprise a first switch connected between a second end of the second winding part and a virtual ground; a second switch connected between the second end of the fourth winding part and the virtual ground; a third switch connected between the first end of the second winding part and the virtual ground; a fourth switch connected between the first end of the fourth winding part and the virtual ground; a fifth switch connected between the first input and a second end of the fourth winding part; and a sixth switch connected between the second input and the second end of the second winding part. The tunable inductor arrangement may then be tunable by either closing the third, fourth, fifth and sixth switches and having the first and second switches open, or closing the first and second switches and having the third, fourth, fifth and sixth switches open.
The switch arrangement may comprise a first switch connected between a second end of the second winding part and a second end of the fourth winding part; a second switch connected between the second end of the first winding part and the second end of the third winding part; a third switch connected between the first input and the second end of the fourth winding part; and a fourth switch connected between the second input and the second end of the second winding part. The tunable inductor arrangement may then be tunable by either closing the second, third and fourth switches and having the first switch open, or closing the first switch and having the second, third and fourth switches open.
The first, second, third and fourth winding parts may be interleaved on the chip or substrate such that magnetic fields of the windings are essentially common.
The tunable inductor arrangement may comprise a further winding part wherein the further winding part is arranged to cancel electromagnetic coupling with the first to fourth winding parts.
Two or more of the winding parts may be arranged in a plurality of conductive layers on the chip or substrate.
The virtual ground may be a DC power supply, which at AC, such as radio frequency, acts as a ground for AC signals, or be a ground or DC reference voltage node.
According to a second aspect, there is provided a radio frequency transceiver comprising a resonator, wherein the resonator comprises a tunable inductor arrangement according to the rust aspect, wherein the tunable inductor arrangement is tunable to enable the resonator to selectably work at one of a plurality of resonating frequencies.
According to a third aspect, there is provided a multiband radio frequency receiver comprising a first receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a first frequency band; a second receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a second frequency band, wherein the first frequency band operates at a higher frequency than the second frequency band, and each of the first and second receiver paths is arranged to selectively operate at a selected frequency band among a plurality of frequency bands; and comprises a resonator comprising a tunable inductor arrangement according to the first aspect, which resonator is arranged to be tuned for the selected frequency band.
According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a radio frequency transceiver according to the second aspect or a multiband radio frequency receiver according to the third aspect, and a processor arranged to interact with the radio frequency transceiver or multiband radio frequency receiver, wherein the processor is arranged to control to the switch arrangement to select a tuning mode of the tunable inductor arrangement.
According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a method of a tunable inductor arrangement including winding parts and switches for tuning according to the first aspect. The method comprises determining a tuning setting for the tunable inductor arrangement; assigning switch states for respective switches for the tuning setting; and controlling the switches according to the assigned switch states.
According to a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising computer executable instructions which when executed by a programmable controller of a radio frequency transceiver or multiband radio frequency receiver comprising a resonator which comprises a tunable inductor arrangement causes the controller to perform the method of the fifth aspect.
Other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings. 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, device, component, means, step, etc.]” are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of said element, device, 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 above, as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention, with reference to the appended drawings.
To accomplish that all windings are operable in both modes, the switch arrangement further comprises a fifth switch S5 connected between the one end of the first winding part W1 and the other end of the fourth winding part W4, and a sixth switch S6 connected between the one end of the third winding part W3 and the other end of the second winding part W2. The tunable inductor arrangement is thereby further tunable by closing the fifth and sixth switches S5, S6 when the third and fourth switches S3, S4 are closed. In that case, a circuit is formed from the first input INP via the closed fifth switch S5, the fourth winding part W4, the closed fourth switch S4, the closed third switch S3, the second winding part W2, and the closed sixth switch S6 to the second input INN.
Thereby, the tunable inductor arrangement is enabled to, by selectively provide for that a circuit comprising the first and fourth winding parts W1, W4 in parallel and the second and third winding part W2. W3 in parallel, and then couple the respective parallel couplings W1, W4; W2, W3 in series between the rust and second inputs INP, INN, or a circuit comprising the first, second, fourth and third winding parts W1, W2, W4, W3 in series between the first and second inputs INP, INN, provide different inductances where all the windings are operable in both modes.
Although the above demonstrated tunable inductor arrangement can operate all windings in all its operating modes, it may still be combinable with additional inductor arrangements which does not. Such combinations may provide further tunability. To achieve a good Q-value, all winding parts with mutual magnetic interaction are preferably in operation at all states. One or more circuits as the one demonstrated above can be used as building blocks to achieve a tunable inductor arrangement.
The windings are arranged on a substrate or chip. The substrate can also be a printed circuit board. A virtual ground node can also be applied, which is also elucidated below with reference to
An example where the front end arrangement as demonstrated above can be used is a multiband radio frequency receiver 600. The receiver 600 comprises a first receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a first frequency band and a second receiver path arranged to receive a radio signal in a second frequency band, wherein the first frequency band operates at a higher frequency than the second frequency band, i.e., a high-low band arrangement where both the high and the low bands can be received simultaneously. Each of the first and second receiver paths can be arranged to selectively operate at a selected frequency band among a plurality of frequency bands, e.g., the first high-band path can select to operate in one of 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2700 MHz frequency bands while the second low-band path can select to operate in one of 750 MHz. 850 MHz. 900 MHz and 1500 MHz frequency bands simultaneously. These frequency bands are only demonstrated as examples, and other frequency bands and groupings between high and low-frequency bands are equally possible. Each receiver path comprises a resonator comprising a tunable inductor arrangement 602, 604 as demonstrated above, wherein the resonators are arranged to be tuned for the selected frequency band in respective receiver path. Arrangements with more than two such receiver paths are also possible. Flexible frequency band combinations are thus enabled, which for example is advantageous in carrier aggregation solutions since each filter can be enabled to cover any frequency within the total frequency range of the receiver 600 due to the improved tenability of the filters.
The method according to the present invention is suitable for implementation with the aid of processing means, such as computers and/or processors, especially for the case where a digital controller controls the transceiver. Therefore, there is provided computer programs, comprising instructions arranged to cause the processing means, processor, or computer to perform the steps of any of the methods according to any of the embodiments described with reference to
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.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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13188910 | Oct 2013 | EP | regional |
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/118,212 filed 10 Dec. 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/360,414 filed 21 Mar. 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,892,080, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/872,184 filed 16 Jan. 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,283,252, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/029,284 filed 14 Apr. 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,905,350, which is a National Phase Application of PCT/EP2014/071750 filed 10 Oct. 2014, which claims priority from EP13188910.7 filed 16 Oct. 2013. The entire contents of each aforementioned application is incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20230070802 A1 | Mar 2023 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17118212 | Dec 2020 | US |
Child | 17986435 | US | |
Parent | 16360414 | Mar 2019 | US |
Child | 17118212 | US | |
Parent | 15872184 | Jan 2018 | US |
Child | 16360414 | US | |
Parent | 15029284 | US | |
Child | 15872184 | US |