IP Library Granted Patent US 11,942,899
Granted Patent B2
US 11,942,899 · App. 17/700,700 · Granted Mar 26, 2024

Envelope tracking voltage correction in a transmission circuit

Inventors: Nadim Khlat (Cugnaux, FR); James M. Retz (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Assignee: Qorvo US, Inc.
H03F1/0233H03F3/245H04B1/40H03F2200/105H03F2200/451
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,942,899
App. No.
17/700,700
Granted
Mar 26, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

Envelope tracking (ET) voltage correction in a transmission circuit is provided. The transmission circuit includes a transceiver circuit and a power amplifier circuit(s). The transceiver circuit generates a radio frequency (RF) signal(s) from a time-variant modulation vector and the power amplifier circuit(s) amplifies the RF signal(s) based on a modulated voltage and provides the amplified RF signal(s) to a coupled RF front-end circuit. Herein, the transceiver circuit is configured to apply a complex filter(s) to the time-variant modulation vector and/or the RF signal(s) to compensate for a voltage distortion filter created across a modulation bandwidth of the RF signal(s) by coupling the power amplifier circuit with the RF front-end circuit. As a result, it is possible to reduce undesired instantaneous excessive compression and/or spectrum regrowth resulting from the voltage distortion filter to thereby improve efficiency and linearity of the power amplifier circuit(s) across the modulation bandwidth of the RF signal(s).

Claims (55)

1. A transmission circuit comprising:

a power amplifier circuit coupled to a transmitter circuit via a radio frequency (RF) front-end circuit and configured to amplify an RF signal based on a modulated voltage and provide the amplified RF signal to the RF front-end circuit;

an envelope tracking (ET) integrated circuit (ETIC) configured to generate the modulated voltage based on a modulated target voltage; and

a transceiver circuit configured to:

generate the RF signal from a time-variant modulation vector;

generate the modulated target voltage as a function of the time-variant modulation vector; and

apply at least one complex filter to at least the RF signal to compensate for a voltage distortion filter created on an output stage of the power amplifier circuit by coupling the power amplifier circuit with the RF front-end circuit across a modulation bandwidth.

2. The transmission circuit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one complex filter comprises an equalization filter and a digital frequency equalization filter and the transceiver circuit is further configured to apply the equalization filter and the digital frequency equalization filter to the time-variant modulation vector.

3. The transmission circuit of claim 2 , wherein the transceiver circuit comprises:

a signal processing circuit configured to generate the RF signal from the time-variant modulation vector;

a target voltage circuit comprising:

an ET lookup table (LUT) circuit configured according to a selected frequency of the RF signal to generate the modulated target voltage; and

an equalizer circuit configured to apply the equalization filter to the time-variant modulation vector to generate a filtered time-variant modulation vector; and

a digital frequency equalizer configured to apply the digital frequency equalization filter to the time-variant modulation vector to generate an equalized time-variant modulation vector.

4. The transmission circuit of claim 3 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a vector-to-real (V2R) converter coupled to the equalizer circuit and configured to extract a selected real parameter from the filtered time-variant modulation vector.

5. The transmission circuit of claim 4 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a scaler coupled to the V2R converter and configured to scale the selected real parameter based on a scaling factor that is adapted according to an average power of the RF signal.

6. The transmission circuit of claim 4 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a unit converter configured to convert the selected real parameter to a predefined parameter configured in the ET LUT circuit for generating the modulated target voltage.

7. The transmission circuit of claim 3 , wherein the equalization filter is expressed as: H EQ (s)=1/H RF (s), wherein:

H EQ (s) represents the equalization filter; and

H RF (s) represents a transfer function of the RF front-end circuit.

8. The transmission circuit of claim 3 , wherein the digital frequency equalization filter is expressed as H F (s)=[1/H EQ (s)]*[1/H RF (s)], wherein:

H F (s) represents the digital frequency equalization filter;

H ET (s) represents a combined complex filter configured to match a combined signal path filter, the combined complex filter is expressed as: H ET (s)=H EQ (s)*H PA (s)*H IV (s), wherein:

H IQ (s) represents a transfer function of the signal processing circuit;

H PA (s) represents a voltage gain transfer function of the power amplifier circuit; and

H IV (s) represents the voltage distortion filter created on the output stage of the power amplifier circuit by coupling the power amplifier circuit with the RF front-end circuit; and

H RF (s) represents a transfer function of the RF front-end circuit.

9. The transmission circuit of claim 3 , wherein the signal processing circuit comprises:

a memory digital predistortion (mDPD) circuit configured to digitally pre-distort the equalized time-variant modulation vector to generate a pre-distorted time-variant modulation vector; and

a modulator circuit configured to generate the RF signal from the pre-distorted time-variant modulation vector and provide the RF signal to the power amplifier circuit.

10. The transmission circuit of claim 2 , wherein the at least one complex filter further comprises an analog frequency equalization filter.

11. The transmission circuit of claim 10 , wherein the transceiver circuit comprises:

a digital frequency equalizer configured to apply the digital frequency equalization filter to the time-variant modulation vector to generate an equalized time-variant modulation vector;

a target voltage circuit comprising:

an ET lookup table (LUT) circuit configured according to a selected frequency of the RF signal to generate the modulated target voltage; and

an equalizer circuit configured to apply the equalization filter to the equalized time-variant modulation vector to generate a filtered time-variant modulation vector;

a signal processing circuit configured to generate the RF signal from the equalized time-variant modulation vector; and

an analog frequency equalizer configured to apply the analog frequency equalization filter to the RF signal.

12. The transmission circuit of claim 11 , wherein the equalization filter is expressed as: H EQ (s)=1, wherein H EQ (s) represents the equalization filter.

13. The transmission circuit of claim 11 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a vector-to-real (V2R) converter coupled to the equalizer circuit and configured to extract a selected real parameter from the filtered time-variant modulation vector.

14. The transmission circuit of claim 13 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a scaler coupled to the V2R converter and configured to scale the selected real parameter based on a scaling factor that is adapted according to an average power of the RF signal.

15. The transmission circuit of claim 13 , wherein the target voltage circuit further comprises a unit converter configured to convert the selected real parameter to a predefined parameter configured in the ET LUT circuit for generating the modulated target voltage.

16. The transmission circuit of claim 11 , wherein:

the digital frequency equalization filter is expressed as H F1 (s)=1/H RF (s), wherein:

H F1 (s) represents the digital frequency equalization filter; and

H RF (s) represents a transfer function of the RF front-end circuit; and

the analog frequency equalization filter is expressed as H F2 (s)=1/H ET (s), wherein:

H F2 (s) represents the analog frequency equalization filter; and

H ET (s) represents a combined complex filter configured to match a combined signal path filter, the combined complex filter is expressed as: H ET (s)=H IQ (s)*H PA (s)*H IV (s), wherein:

H IQ (s) represents a transfer function of the signal processing circuit;

H PA (s) represents a voltage gain transfer function of the power amplifier circuit; and

H IV (s) represents the voltage distortion filter created on the output stage of the power amplifier circuit by coupling the power amplifier circuit with the RF front-end circuit.

17. The transmission circuit of claim 11 , wherein the signal processing circuit comprises:

a memory digital predistortion (mDPD) circuit configured to digitally pre-distort the equalized time-variant modulation vector to generate a pre-distorted time-variant modulation vector; and

a modulator circuit configured to generate the RF signal from the pre-distorted time-variant modulation vector and provide the RF signal to the power amplifier circuit.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 22, 2022
From: KHLAT, NADIM; RETZ, JAMES M.
To: QORVO US, INC.
Reel/Frame 059336/0661 →
Continuity (3)
Provisional Application 63245145 · Sep 16, 2021
Provisional Application 63212418 · Jun 18, 2021
Related Publication 20220407464A1 · Dec 22, 2022
Cited By (1)
US 12,526,001