CN118174667B - Radio frequency power amplifier applied to terminal and wireless transmitting system - Google Patents
Radio frequency power amplifier applied to terminal and wireless transmitting system Download PDFInfo
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- CN118174667B CN118174667B CN202410586610.8A CN202410586610A CN118174667B CN 118174667 B CN118174667 B CN 118174667B CN 202410586610 A CN202410586610 A CN 202410586610A CN 118174667 B CN118174667 B CN 118174667B
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- XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Silicon Chemical compound [Si] XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 13
- 229910052710 silicon Inorganic materials 0.000 claims description 13
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Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
- H03F3/189—High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers
- H03F3/19—High-frequency amplifiers, e.g. radio frequency amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
- H02M—APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION BETWEEN AC AND AC, BETWEEN AC AND DC, OR BETWEEN DC AND DC, AND FOR USE WITH MAINS OR SIMILAR POWER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUT POWER; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF
- H02M3/00—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output
- H02M3/02—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac
- H02M3/04—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters
- H02M3/10—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode
- H02M3/145—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode using devices of a triode or transistor type requiring continuous application of a control signal
- H02M3/155—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode using devices of a triode or transistor type requiring continuous application of a control signal using semiconductor devices only
- H02M3/156—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode using devices of a triode or transistor type requiring continuous application of a control signal using semiconductor devices only with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators
- H02M3/158—Conversion of dc power input into dc power output without intermediate conversion into ac by static converters using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode using devices of a triode or transistor type requiring continuous application of a control signal using semiconductor devices only with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators including plural semiconductor devices as final control devices for a single load
- H02M3/1582—Buck-boost converters
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F1/00—Details of amplifiers with only discharge tubes, only semiconductor devices or only unspecified devices as amplifying elements
- H03F1/32—Modifications of amplifiers to reduce non-linear distortion
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
- H03F3/20—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers
- H03F3/21—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
- H04B1/02—Transmitters
- H04B1/04—Circuits
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
- H03F—AMPLIFIERS
- H03F2200/00—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers
- H03F2200/451—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
- H04B1/02—Transmitters
- H04B1/04—Circuits
- H04B2001/0408—Circuits with power amplifiers
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
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Abstract
The invention relates to a radio frequency power amplifier applied to a terminal, which comprises: a compound radio frequency power amplifier, a distributed DC-DC converter; the DC-DC converter with the distributed structure improves the power efficiency of the DC-DC converter, and improves the linearity of the radio frequency power amplifier on the premise of not reducing the overall system efficiency. Meanwhile, the parasitic capacitance of the electrostatic discharge protection module is multiplexed into the filter capacitance by the radio frequency power amplifier, so that the use of the filter capacitance can be avoided, and the area and the cost of a chip are reduced. According to the radio frequency power amplifier, the invention also provides a wireless transmitting system applied to the terminal, and compared with the prior art, the wireless transmitting system has the advantages of high linearity and small size by adopting the distributed DC-DC converter and the compound radio frequency power amplifier, thereby laying a deep foundation for large-scale commercial application of the radio frequency front-end module with sensitive response and accurate control.
Description
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the field of radio frequency integrated circuits, and particularly relates to a radio frequency power amplifier and a wireless transmitting system.
Background
The innovation of communication technology not only deeply changes the life style of people, but also the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) has become a global research and development hot spot at present, which can realize the span-type promotion of high reliability, low time delay, low power consumption and data transmission rate and open the intelligent era of 'everything interconnection'. The 5G wireless technology has the following characteristics: 1) High order modulation; 2) A broadband; 3) A multi-carrier; 4) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO). These characteristics require high efficiency and high linearity of the radio frequency power amplifier and the wireless transmission system.
Compared with a silicon-based process, the compound semiconductor process has higher forbidden bandwidth, higher breakdown voltage, higher power density, higher thermal conductivity and higher saturated electron drift velocity, and is more beneficial to manufacturing a radio frequency power amplifier (Radio Frequency Power Amplifier, RF PA) with high efficiency and high linearity. However, the drain voltage of the RF PA compound is high (usually 15-50V), which limits the application range of the RF PA compound, so that the RF PA compound is only applied to large-scale communication devices such as base stations. For wireless terminal devices with low supply voltages (usually 1.8-3.3V), the terminal supply voltage cannot directly power the compound RF PA, so that the compound RF PA is not applied to the wireless terminal device.
For the compound RF PA to be applied to wireless terminal devices, a stable voltage different from a power supply voltage needs to be provided using buck-boost conversion. Step-up-and-down conversion is typically accomplished by a DC-DC converter, which mainly includes a control circuit and a step-up circuit. The control circuit of the DC-DC converter is usually composed of PMOS and NMOS, and the efficiency of the DC-DC converter is mainly limited by the control circuit. Currently, DC-DC converters for silicon-based processes are endless due to their low cost and high stability. However, parasitic parameters such as on-resistance, gate-source capacitance and the like in the silicon-based process are obvious, and the efficiency of the PMOS and the NMOS is seriously affected, so that the efficiency of the DC-DC converter and wireless terminal equipment using the DC-DC converter is obviously reduced.
In order to maintain efficiency and reduce power consumption, wireless terminal devices for 5G communications typically employ high efficiency radio frequency power amplifier modules. However, high efficiency compound rf power amplifier modules tend to sacrifice linearity while improving efficiency. The efficiency limit of a typical linear class a amplifier is 50%, and as the power amplifier is gradually switched from class a to class B, the efficiency limit is gradually increased to 78.5%, while the linearity is gradually decreased. Class C power amplifiers, although having an efficiency limit of 100%, have poorer linearity than class B power amplifiers and a sharp drop in saturated output power. For the switch D, E, F type power amplifier, the efficiency limit is not limited by 78.5 percent, and the efficiency limit capability is 100 percent. However, in order to pursue the extreme efficiency, the output waveform of the switch-type power amplifier approximates to a square wave, so that the linearity of the switch-type power amplifier is poor, and digital predistortion calibration is generally used, thereby adding an additional design burden.
In practical applications, the performance of RF PAs requires a tradeoff between efficiency and linearity to meet specific performance requirements and application requirements. In order to meet the accuracy of high-order modulation signal transmission in 5G communication, improving the linearity of RF PA while maintaining the existing efficiency is a hotspot problem of market concern. Taking a mobile phone terminal system as an example, in the future, the communication rate is faster and faster, so that the communication signal is gradually transited to a higher-order modulation signal, and the linearity of the radio frequency power amplifier is very severely required. However, given the inherent trade-off of efficiency and linearity in RF PA performance, further improvement in linearity while maintaining current efficiency levels is faced with significant challenges.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the problem that a distributed DC-DC converter module in a radio frequency power amplifier applied to a terminal cannot give consideration to efficiency, so that the power amplifier module reduces linearity in the process of improving efficiency, the invention provides a strategy for giving consideration to efficiency and linearity, and the strategy can be integrated with an antenna, a power supply and the like to obtain a wireless transmitting system with high efficiency and high linearity.
In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a radio frequency power amplifier applied to a terminal, including: a power amplifier module and a distributed DC-DC converter module;
Wherein,
The power amplifier module is used for amplifying the power of the received signal;
the distributed DC-DC converter module comprises a control module and a boosting module, wherein the control module boosts the power supply voltage to the working voltage of the power amplifier module by controlling the boosting module to supply power to the power amplifier module at high voltage;
The boosting module is a circuit based on a silicon-based process;
the control module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process;
The power amplifier module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process;
and the control module and the power amplifier module are integrated on the same substrate.
Thus, the radio frequency power amplifier can use heterogeneous integration technology to perform heterogeneous integration on the compound radio frequency power amplifier and the distributed DC-DC converter module.
The invention peels off the control module in the DC-DC converter module, so that the control module and the boosting module use different manufacturing processes. In addition, the control module and the power amplifier module are integrated on the same substrate by adopting a compound semiconductor process, so that the distributed DC-DC converter is achieved. The efficiency of the control module is improved by using the compound semiconductor process, so that the efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter module is improved, and the overall efficiency of the radio frequency power amplifier is ensured without sacrificing linearity of the power amplifier module.
Further, the silicon-based process is a CMOS process or a BCD process.
Further, the compound semiconductor process is a GaN process, a GaAs process, or an InP process.
Further, the power amplifier module is a compound linear power amplifier or a compound switch type power amplifier.
Further, the power amplifier module is a discrete compound radio frequency power amplifier, a compound monolithic microwave integrated circuit radio frequency power amplifier or a compound radio frequency power amplifier of an integrated radio frequency switch.
Further, the number of the DC-DC converter modules and/or the power amplifier modules may be one or more; the plurality of DC-DC converter modules are connected with the power amplifier module in a cascading manner; or the plurality of power amplifier modules are connected with the DC-DC converter module in a parallel mode.
The DC-DC converter module typically requires a filtering circuit to filter the noise of the DC-DC converter to avoid degradation of the rf power amplifier when powering the rf power amplifier. The invention multiplexes the parasitic capacitance of the electrostatic protection module (ESD, electrostatic Discharge) of the radio frequency power amplifier into the filter capacitance, and the noise of the DC-DC converter module is short-circuited to the ground through the low-resistance path formed by the parasitic capacitance of the ESD, thereby avoiding the use of a filter circuit, reducing the number of used filter capacitance elements and obviously reducing the area and cost of a chip. The capacitance value of the parasitic capacitance of the electrostatic protection module is extremely stable, and experiments prove that the sensitivity of the parasitic capacitance to signal frequency change is extremely low, so that the electrostatic protection module can be reused as a filter capacitance.
Further, the electrostatic protection module includes, but is not limited to: SCR, GGNMOS, diode, etc. devices with parasitic capacitance.
The invention also provides a wireless transmitting system which comprises the radio frequency power amplifier, an antenna and a power supply; the antenna is used for transmitting the signal amplified by the power amplifier module in the form of electromagnetic waves; the power supply is used for supplying power to the radio frequency power amplifier.
Optionally, the wireless transmitting system may further include a filter for filtering the signal amplified by the power amplifier module; the filter may be a SAW filter, a BAW filter, or the like.
The invention provides a radio frequency power amplifier applied to a terminal and a wireless transmitting system, which adopts a compound radio frequency power amplifier as a power amplifier of the transmitting system. Compared with silicon-based processes, compound semiconductors such as GaAs devices, inP devices and GaN devices have higher forbidden bandwidths, higher breakdown voltages, higher power densities, higher thermal conductivities and higher saturated electron drift speeds, and show great potential in terminal wireless emission system applications.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:
(1) On the basis of maintaining efficiency, the linearity of the radio frequency power amplifier is effectively improved. The present invention can improve the overall efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter module by about 10% by manufacturing the control module of the distributed DC-DC converter module using a compound semiconductor process. Therefore, the radio frequency power amplifier architecture can be converted from a power amplifier architecture with poor linearity and higher efficiency into a power amplifier architecture with good linearity and lower efficiency, so that the linearity of the radio frequency power amplifier is improved on the premise of ensuring the whole efficiency to be unchanged.
(2) The area and cost of the chip are reduced. The invention multiplexes the parasitic capacitance of the ESD module of the radio frequency power amplifier into the filter capacitance, the noise of the power amplifier module is short-circuited to the ground through the low-resistance path formed by the parasitic capacitance of the ESD, the number of filter capacitance elements used by the radio frequency power amplifier is reduced, and the area and the cost of the chip are obviously reduced on the premise of not reducing the performance of the chip.
Drawings
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to aid in understanding the scope of the invention.
In the drawings:
fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional power amplifier including a DC-DC converter module and a radio frequency.
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a conventional power amplifier including a DC-DC converter module, a filter circuit, and a radio frequency.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an optimized circuit according to the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of the present invention showing a plurality of DC-DC converter modules cascaded to power a power amplifier module at high voltage.
Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention showing a DC-DC converter module supplying power to a plurality of power amplifier modules in parallel.
Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the electrostatic protection module multiplexing according to the present invention.
Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the filter circuit of the present invention using SCR-form ESD protection circuit multiplexing.
Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the filter circuit of the present invention using ESD protection circuit multiplexing in the form of GGNMOS.
Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the filter circuit of the present invention using diode series form ESD protection circuit multiplexing.
Fig. 10 is a circuit diagram of a wireless transmission system according to the present invention.
Detailed Description
Features and exemplary embodiments of various aspects of the present application will be described in detail below, and in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and the detailed embodiments. It should be understood that the particular embodiments described herein are meant to be illustrative of the application only and not limiting. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present application may be practiced without some of these specific details. The following description of the embodiments is merely intended to provide a better understanding of the application by showing examples of the application.
It is noted that relational terms such as first and second, and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.
It should be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein is merely one relationship describing the association of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Accordingly, it is intended that the present application covers the modifications and variations of this application provided they come within the scope of the appended claims (the claims) and their equivalents. The embodiments provided by the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without contradiction.
Before describing the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, in order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the present application firstly specifically describes the problems existing in the related art:
the terminal of the invention comprises, but is not limited to, wireless terminal equipment such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a smart watch or a small base station, and the like, and the terminals all require higher efficiency and linearity.
Efficiency is that: refers to the ability of a radio frequency power amplifier to convert direct current electrical energy to radio frequency signal energy, often characterized by drain efficiency (DRAIN EFFICIENCY, DE). Drain efficiency is the ratio of output rf power to input dc power, typically expressed as a percentage. High efficiency means that less power is wasted being converted to heat, thereby extending battery life and reducing heat generation, which is particularly important for portable wireless devices. For example, an efficient power amplifier may have less loss in converting energy, so that the device can operate longer without requiring charging.
Linearity: is a measure of how tightly the linear relationship between the amplifier output signal and the input signal is, often characterized using error vector magnitude (Error Vector Magnitude, EVM). Error vector magnitude refers to the difference between the theoretical waveform and the actual waveform received, and is the root mean square value of the ratio of the average error vector signal power to the average reference signal power. In wireless communications, signals often need to be modulated to carry information, and amplifiers with good linearity can faithfully amplify signals without introducing additional distortion, which is critical to maintaining signal accuracy and data transmission quality. If the linearity is not good, the signal may be distorted after amplification, which results in difficult demodulation at the receiving end, affects the communication quality and the data transmission rate, and especially in modern communication systems such as 5G and the like adopting high-order modulation technology, the requirement on the linearity is more strict.
Within the prior art framework as shown in fig. 1, the terminal power supply voltage is boosted to the compound radio frequency power amplifier of the back end by the DC-DC converter of the front end, so that the compound radio frequency power amplifier can be applied to wireless terminal equipment. The problem of the front-end DC-DC converter module being inefficient forces engineers to try to find space on the back-end power amplifier module for efficiency improvement, but this is usually at the expense of the linearity of the power amplifier. The reduced linearity can directly impact signal quality, especially in wireless communication and radar systems where high fidelity is required, a non-negligible challenge.
The invention provides an innovative solution to the inherent efficiency and linearity balance problem in a radio frequency power amplifier system. Through structural and technological innovation, the traditional constraint relation between the efficiency and the linearity is broken. The control module in the front-end DC-DC converter module is firstly stripped, the control module is manufactured by using a compound semiconductor process, and the boosting module still uses a low-cost silicon-based process, so that the distributed DC-DC converter module is achieved. The compound semiconductor technology can greatly improve the efficiency of PMOS and NMOS in the control module due to the excellent characteristics, so that the efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter is improved. Furthermore, the stripped control module and the rear-end power amplifier module are integrated on the same semiconductor substrate through a compound semiconductor process, so that parasitic parameters of the control module and the power amplifier module are low, and the control module and the power amplifier module have high linearity and high efficiency.
Fig. 3 shows a radio frequency power amplifier of the invention, comprising: a power amplifier module and a distributed DC-DC converter module; the power amplifier module is used for amplifying the power of the received signal; the distributed DC-DC converter module comprises a control module and a boosting module, wherein the control module boosts the power supply voltage to the working voltage of the power amplifier module by controlling the boosting module, and supplies power to the power amplifier module at high voltage.
The boosting module is a circuit based on a silicon-based process.
The control module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process.
The power amplifier module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process, which may be a compound linear power amplifier or a compound switching type power amplifier. The specific types may be: a discrete compound radio frequency power amplifier, a compound monolithic microwave integrated circuit radio frequency power amplifier, or a compound radio frequency power amplifier integrated with a radio frequency switch.
The silicon-based process may be classified into a CMOS process and a BCD process. CMOS processes refer to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) processes. In CMOS processes, transistors in integrated circuits are composed of two types of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs): n-type MOSFETs (NMOS) and P-type MOSFETs (PMOS). The two transistor types complement each other, and the integrated circuit design with low power consumption, high integration level and good stability can be realized. The BCD process is referred to as a "Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS" process, which is a hybrid integrated circuit fabrication process that incorporates three different types of semiconductor device technologies: bipolar (bipolarr), CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) and DMOS (double diffused metal oxide semiconductor). BCD processes are commonly used to fabricate power integrated circuits (Power Integrated Circuits) and are characterized by high integration and low cost.
The compound semiconductor process, such as a GaN process, a GaAs process, or an InP process, has a higher power density, a higher operating frequency, and a higher temperature tolerance than a silicon-based process. C ds of the compound radio frequency power device is smaller, the magnitude of the compound radio frequency power device is only a few pF, the variation of R out along with the frequency increase is much smaller than that of materials such as Si, and meanwhile, the switching response time is very fast. Meanwhile, the compound radio frequency power device generally uses 10-50V high-voltage power supply, and can fully exert the high-efficiency characteristic.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the control module and the power amplifier module are integrated on the same substrate, so that the integration level of the power amplifier can be improved, the power consumption can be reduced, and the performance stability of the system can be improved. The integrated design is expected to reduce transmission delay and signal loss between the connection circuit and the device, improve the working efficiency and response speed of the system, and reduce the manufacturing cost and complexity.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the overall efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter module can be improved by 10% from 80% to 90% by manufacturing the control module of the distributed DC-DC converter module using a GaN process. On the basis of improving the efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter module, the radio frequency power amplifier architecture can be converted from a B-type architecture with poor linearity (EVM= -20 dB) and higher efficiency (DE=70%) to a AB-type architecture with good linearity (EVM= -24 dB) and lower efficiency (DE=62%) so that the error vector amplitude is reduced by 4 dB on the premise of ensuring that the overall efficiency of the distributed DC-DC converter module and the radio frequency power amplifier is unchanged (56%).
The number of the DC-DC converter modules and/or the power amplifier modules in the amplifier may be one or more. Fig. 4 shows a situation of three DC-DC converter modules and one power amplifier module. In order to prevent the insufficient boosting capability of the DC-DC converter modules, the plurality of DC-DC converter modules are connected with the power amplifier module in a cascading mode, and the three DC-DC converter modules are used for boosting continuously to supply power for the power amplifier module at high voltage. Fig. 5 shows a case of one DC-DC converter module and three power amplifier modules. In order to prevent the saturated output power capability of the power amplifier modules from being insufficient, the three power amplifier modules are connected with the DC-DC converter modules in a parallel mode, and the power amplifier modules are supplied with high voltage through the DC-DC converter modules.
As shown in fig. 2, when the distributed DC-DC converter module supplies high voltage power to the radio frequency power amplifier, noise is generated, which is typically high frequency noise as is known in the art. It is often necessary to add a filter circuit (typically a filter capacitor connected in parallel to ground) between the distributed DC-DC converter module and the radio frequency power amplifier to filter out noise from the distributed DC-DC converter module, avoiding high frequency noise affecting the radio frequency power amplifier. In addition, in order to protect the power amplifier module from electrostatic discharge, an ESD module is typically provided between the distributed DC-DC converter module and the radio frequency power amplifier, as shown in fig. 2. Electrostatic discharge refers to a sudden charge transfer phenomenon between two objects with different electrostatic potentials, and this transfer may generate instantaneous high voltage and high current, which may damage the power amplifier module, such as causing chip breakdown, performance degradation, or functional failure.
ESD modules (e.g., SCR, GGNMOS, diode, etc.) may have some parasitic capacitance due to their physical structure. The capacitor is connected with the high-frequency resistance low frequency, and the inductor is connected with the low-frequency resistance high frequency. For high frequency noise, the parasitic capacitance connected in parallel to ground is a low resistance path, thereby bleeding to ground through the parasitic capacitance. In order to realize further integration, the invention multiplexes the electrostatic protection modules, as shown in fig. 6, the high-frequency noise of the distributed DC-DC converter is shorted to ground through a low-resistance path formed by the parasitic capacitance of the ESD. Therefore, the number of filter capacitor elements used by the radio frequency power amplifier is reduced, and the area and cost of the chip are obviously reduced on the premise of not reducing the performance of the chip.
Fig. 7-9 illustrate different forms of ESD modules.
As shown in fig. 7, the ESD module in the form of an SCR is a bi-directional conductive device. When the DC-DC converter module has an electrostatic discharge current, the voltage between the anode and the cathode of the SCR exceeds a trigger voltage, so that the SCR enters a conducting state, and the conducting SCR provides a low-impedance ESD discharge path from the DC-DC converter module to the ground, so that the voltage of the DC-DC converter module is clamped in a safe voltage range.
As shown in fig. 8, the ESD module in the form of GGNMOS is an NMOS transistor with its gate connected to ground. When the DC-DC converter module has electrostatic discharge current, the voltage between the gate and the source of the GGNMOS rises to enable the transistor to enter a conducting state, and the conducting transistor provides a low-impedance ESD discharge path from the DC-DC converter module to the ground, so that the voltage of the DC-DC converter module is clamped in a safe voltage range.
As shown in fig. 9, the ESD module in the form of a diode series is composed of a plurality of diodes D 1~Dn. When the DC-DC converter module has an electrostatic discharge current, the diodes connected in series conduct, providing an ESD discharge path from the DC-DC converter module to ground, clamping the voltage of the DC-DC converter module within a safe voltage range.
Fig. 10 shows an inventive wireless transmission system comprising the aforementioned rf power amplifier, antenna, power supply and filter; the antenna is used for transmitting the signal amplified by the power amplifier module in the form of electromagnetic waves; the power supply is used for supplying power to the radio frequency power amplifier; the filter is used for filtering the signal amplified by the power amplifier module.
Claims (10)
1. A radio frequency power amplifier applied to a terminal is characterized in that,
Comprising the following steps: a power amplifier module and a distributed DC-DC converter module;
Wherein,
The power amplifier module is used for amplifying the power of the received signal;
The distributed DC-DC converter module comprises a control module and a boosting module, wherein the control module boosts the power supply voltage to the working voltage of the power amplifier module by controlling the boosting module to supply power to the power amplifier module;
The boosting module is a circuit based on a silicon-based process;
the control module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process;
The power amplifier module is a circuit based on a compound semiconductor process;
and the control module and the power amplifier module are integrated on the same substrate.
2. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The silicon-based process is a CMOS process or a BCD process.
3. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The compound semiconductor process is a GaN process, a GaAs process or an InP process.
4. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The power amplifier module is a compound linear power amplifier or a compound switch type power amplifier.
5. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The power amplifier module is a discrete compound radio frequency power amplifier, a compound monolithic microwave integrated circuit radio frequency power amplifier or a compound radio frequency power amplifier integrated with a radio frequency switch.
6. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The distributed DC-DC converter modules are more than two in number and are connected with the power amplifier modules in a cascading mode.
7. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The number of the power amplifier modules is more than two, and the power amplifier modules are connected with the distributed DC-DC converter modules in a parallel mode.
8. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The power amplifier module comprises an electrostatic protection module, the electrostatic protection module comprises parasitic capacitance, and high-frequency noise of the distributed DC-DC converter module is short-circuited to the ground through a low-resistance path formed by the parasitic capacitance of the electrostatic protection module.
9. The radio frequency power amplifier of claim 8, wherein the radio frequency power amplifier is configured to,
The electrostatic protection module is as follows: a silicon controlled rectifier, a gate grounded NMOS or a diode.
10. A wireless transmitting system, characterized in that,
Comprising an antenna, a power supply and the radio frequency power amplifier of claim 1;
The antenna is used for transmitting the signal amplified by the power amplifier module in the form of electromagnetic waves;
The power supply supplies power to the radio frequency power amplifier.
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| WO2014179686A1 (en) * | 2013-05-03 | 2014-11-06 | Rfaxis, Inc. | Complementary metal oxide semiconductor power amplifier |
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