CN108900165B - Power supply for radio frequency power amplifier - Google Patents
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- CN108900165B CN108900165B CN201810376671.6A CN201810376671A CN108900165B CN 108900165 B CN108900165 B CN 108900165B CN 201810376671 A CN201810376671 A CN 201810376671A CN 108900165 B CN108900165 B CN 108900165B
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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
- H03F1/02—Modifications of amplifiers to raise the efficiency, e.g. gliding Class A stages, use of an auxiliary oscillation
- H03F1/0205—Modifications of amplifiers to raise the efficiency, e.g. gliding Class A stages, use of an auxiliary oscillation in transistor amplifiers
- H03F1/0211—Modifications of amplifiers to raise the efficiency, e.g. gliding Class A stages, use of an auxiliary oscillation in transistor amplifiers with control of the supply voltage or current
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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
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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
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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
- H03F3/24—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers of transmitter output stages
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H03F2200/451—Indexing scheme relating to amplifiers the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
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Abstract
The present disclosure discloses a power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier, comprising: a linear amplification unit for linearly amplifying the first envelope signal and outputting a linearly amplified envelope signal; a first control unit for outputting a first control signal based on the linearly amplified envelope signal to operate the power supply in an envelope tracking mode, wherein the envelope tracking mode comprises two sub-modes: a constant on time control mode with a constant on time, a constant off time control mode with a constant off time; a first driving unit for providing a first electric signal based on the first control signal; a superimposing unit for superimposing the linearly amplified envelope signal and the first electrical signal for providing the supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier. The present disclosure is capable of more efficiently providing a supply voltage to a radio frequency power amplifier in either a constant on-time mode or a constant off-time mode. Even, it is able to operate in average power mode.
Description
Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communications, and more particularly, to a power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier.
Background
In the field of mobile communications, in order to increase the efficiency of radio frequency power amplifiers, power supplies with envelope tracking capabilities may be used.
Envelope tracking may dynamically change the supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier with the output power transmitted by the radio frequency power amplifier. Envelope tracking may also dynamically adjust the supply voltage of the power amplifier to track the amplitude of the envelope of the rf input signal.
When the signal envelope becomes large, the supply voltage is boosted; when the signal envelope becomes small, the supply voltage is lowered. In this way, the RF power amplifier can operate in a large part of the operating range, close to the optimum efficiency point, thereby improving the energy utilization of the mobile communication device.
How to further improve the efficiency of a power supply for envelope tracking is always a technical problem to be considered in the art.
Disclosure of Invention
To solve the above technical problem, the present disclosure provides a power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier, including:
a linear amplification unit for linearly amplifying the first envelope signal and outputting a linearly amplified envelope signal;
a first control unit for outputting a first control signal based on the linearly amplified envelope signal to operate the power supply in an envelope tracking mode, wherein the envelope tracking mode comprises two sub-modes: a constant on time control mode with a constant on time, a constant off time control mode with a constant off time;
a first driving unit for providing a first electric signal based on the first control signal;
a superimposing unit for superimposing the linearly amplified envelope signal and the first electrical signal for providing the supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier.
Preferably, the first envelope signal is an envelope signal input to the radio frequency power amplifier.
Preferably, the first driving unit includes a first switching amplifier and a first inductor.
Preferably, the first driving unit at least comprises a first switching amplifier and a second switching amplifier which are connected in parallel, and the first control unit is further configured to make the first switching amplifier and the second switching amplifier operate in a constant on-time control mode or a constant off-time control mode according to a time sequence.
Preferably, the power supply further includes a first mode selection unit for selecting between the constant on-time control mode and the constant off-time control mode.
Preferably, the first control unit comprises a timing unit for determining the constant on-time or constant off-time.
Preferably, the first control unit comprises a comparison unit for comparing the linearly amplified envelope signal with a first reference signal to determine the constant on-time or the moment at which the constant on-time is initiated, or to determine the constant off-time or the moment at which the constant off-time is initiated.
Preferably, the first control unit is further configured to output a second control signal based on the first envelope signal so that the power supply operates in an average power tracking mode; the first drive unit is further configured to provide the first electrical signal based on the second control signal.
Preferably, the first reference signal includes any one of: the power amplifier circuit comprises a preset signal, a reference signal related to a first envelope signal and a reference signal related to a supply voltage of a radio frequency power amplifier.
Preferably, the power supply further comprises a second mode selection unit for selecting between an average power tracking mode and an envelope tracking mode.
By means of the technical scheme, the power supply for the radio frequency power amplifier is novel, and can provide the supply voltage for the radio frequency power amplifier more efficiently in a mode of at least superposing the first electric signal to the linearly amplified envelope signal in a constant on-time mode or a constant off-time mode. Even more, it is possible to select between the average power mode and the envelope tracking mode, taking full advantage of the different modes.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a power supply configuration shown in one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of a power supply configuration shown in one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 2B is a timing diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a power supply configuration shown in one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of a power supply configuration shown in one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of a power supply configuration shown in one embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram of envelope tracking for conventional hysteretic control;
FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of prior art envelope tracking with hysteresis control with a low pass filter;
FIG. 5C is a schematic diagram of another prior art envelope tracking with hysteresis control with a low pass filter;
FIG. 5D is a schematic diagram of the envelope tracking with bang-bang comparator and COT control disclosed in the present disclosure;
wherein S1 denotes a first envelope signal, S3 denotes a linearly amplified envelope signal, S4 denotes a first electrical signal, 110 denotes a first control unit, 140 denotes a first driving unit, Vc denotes a first control signal, Sout denotes a supply voltage provided by a superimposing unit, 150 denotes a sampling unit, and S2 denotes a signal obtained by sampling or sensing the linearly amplified envelope signal in any possible manner.
Detailed Description
In the following description, numerous details are set forth to provide a more thorough explanation of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, features of different embodiments described below may be combined with each other, unless specifically stated otherwise.
Referring to fig. 1, in one embodiment, the present disclosure provides a power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier, comprising:
a linear amplification unit for linearly amplifying the first envelope signal (S1) and outputting a linearly amplified envelope signal;
a first control unit (110) for outputting a first control signal based on the linearly amplified envelope signal to cause the power supply to operate in an envelope tracking mode, wherein the envelope tracking mode comprises two sub-modes: a constant on time control mode with a constant on time, a constant off time control mode with a constant off time;
wherein the first control signal is output based on the linearly amplified envelope signal means that the linearly amplified envelope signal may be sensed or sampled in various possible ways.
Illustratively, the diagram 150 illustrates a sampling unit for sampling the linearly amplified envelope signal, and since the sampling is performed, the sampled signal is denoted by S2 for use by the first control unit 110, and the first control unit 110 outputs a first control signal based on the linearly amplified envelope signal to operate the power supply in an envelope tracking mode;
a first drive unit (140) for providing a first electrical signal based on the first control signal (Vc);
a superimposing unit for superimposing the linearly amplified envelope signal and the first electrical signal in order to provide a supply voltage (Sout) of the radio frequency power amplifier. In connection with fig. 1, it is readily seen that the superimposing unit superimposes the first electrical signal S4 and the further superimposed linearly amplified envelope signal S3 and results in the supply voltage Sout.
For the embodiment, the supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier is provided by superimposing the linearly amplified envelope signal and the first electrical signal, which is distinct from the prior art of providing a supply voltage to a radio frequency power amplifier by simply connecting two currents in parallel, in that: the first control unit and the first driving unit.
It is to be understood that the first control unit may be any COT control unit capable of implementing COT control. As for COT, two kinds are included: constant On Time, i.e., Constant On Time; and a Constant Off Time, i.e., Constant Off Time.
In addition, the above embodiment is also obviously different from the existing power supply including the filtering unit and implementing the hysteresis control after filtering, and because the above embodiment does not need to adopt the filtering unit and the hysteresis control but adopts the COT control, the frequency of the first driving unit is not limited by the circuit parameter L, the equivalent load, the hysteresis, the loop delay, the input signal, and the like, and the on-time or the off-time can be quickly responded and adjusted easily by the first control unit, thereby improving the efficiency. That is, compared with the prior art adopting filtering and post-filtering hysteresis control, the embodiment has the advantages of simple scheme, high efficiency, capability of eliminating the jitter of the control signal and capability of reducing noise; moreover, the COT control has high response speed, and is very suitable for application scenes such as envelope tracking which require large input signal bandwidth and are convenient to expand.
It should be noted that the present disclosure does not focus on the innovative implementation of the COT control unit, and thus, various COT control units in the prior art can be referred to, and other circuits or functional units that the COT control unit may involve can be referred to, including but not limited to: timers or timers which may be involved in the COT control, or other circuits or functional units cooperating with the timers/timers-such other circuits or functional units are primarily aimed at calculating, determining the respective constant on-time or constant off-time.
This is common knowledge in the circuit field as regards the matching of time constants or delays between the individual circuits. The disclosure does not focus on how to design and adjust the time constant, and therefore, the detailed description thereof is omitted. It is noted that, with this embodiment, the signal taken by the output of the linear amplification unit is used as input to the first control unit, without taking into account the delay caused by this unit of the linear amplification unit.
It can be understood that the first electrical signal in the above embodiments may be a first current signal, or may be a first voltage signal. If the signal is the first current signal, the superposition of the superposition unit on the similar signals can be met only by ensuring that the linearly amplified envelope signal is the current signal; similarly, if the first voltage signal is the first voltage signal, the superposition unit can superpose the signals of the same type only by ensuring that the envelope signal of the linear amplification is the voltage signal. Hereinafter, the various electrical signals are similar to each other, and will not be described in detail hereinafter.
It should be noted that, if the power supply of the above embodiment is an analog power supply, then: (1) when the first electrical signal is a first current signal, the circuits corresponding to the first electrical signal and the linearly amplified envelope signal can be connected in parallel to realize a superposition unit; (2) when the first electrical signal is a first voltage signal, the circuits corresponding to the first electrical signal and the linearly amplified envelope signal can be connected in series to form a superposition unit; further, if the power supply of the above-described embodiment is a digital power supply, any digital circuit can be used to implement the present invention as long as the digital signal of the first electrical signal, the linearly amplified envelope signal, can be superimposed by these digital circuits. For the various embodiments below, it is similar to this paragraph if the power supply is an analog or digital power supply.
In another embodiment, the first envelope signal is an envelope signal input to the radio frequency power amplifier.
For the embodiment, when the first envelope signal is the envelope signal input to the radio frequency power amplifier, as in most technical solutions in the prior art, the embodiment uses the radio frequency (i.e. RF) input signal as the reference signal for envelope tracking, and the embodiment also uses the envelope signal input to the radio frequency power amplifier from the signal source head to realize envelope tracking.
It should be particularly noted that, for the above-mentioned embodiment of the present disclosure, when the first envelope signal is a bandwidth Reduced envelope signal, the first control unit may further be configured to output a first control signal based on the linearly amplified signal so that the power supply operates in an average power tracking mode (also referred to as APT mode), where the bandwidth Reduced envelope signal (Reduced bandwidth envelope) is an envelope signal generated by low-pass filtering an original envelope signal under a limit of a maximum voltage of an envelope voltage required by a target instantaneous output power of the radio frequency power amplifier. In theory, the low-pass filtering may be performed by means of an analog filter or by means of a digital filter, and in consideration of the characteristics of the envelope signal, the low-pass filtering may be performed by means of a digital filter. It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this embodiment may therefore operate in an average power tracking mode, as determined by the circuit principles disclosed in the above embodiments and the properties of the bandwidth reduced envelope signal itself. Hereinafter, the average power tracking mode will also be referred to with respect to certain other embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in more detail below.
It should be noted that the average power tracking mode may also include two sub-modes: a constant on time control mode with a constant on time, a constant off time control mode with a constant off time. This is because the average power tracking mode does not exclude the constant on time control mode or the constant off time control mode.
In another embodiment, the first driving unit includes a first switching amplifier and a first inductor.
It can be appreciated that the switching amplifier is suitable for higher frequency applications. And the current in the branch circuit is stored and released through the corresponding first inductor. In addition, a capacitor may be further included as an energy storage device, if necessary.
In another embodiment, the first driving unit includes at least a first switching amplifier and a second switching amplifier connected in parallel, and the first control unit is further configured to operate the first switching amplifier and the second switching amplifier in a constant on-time control mode or a constant off-time control mode according to a timing sequence.
It can be appreciated that the above-described embodiments enable polyphase control of envelope tracking since the plurality of switching amplifiers operate in time sequence.
Further, as shown in fig. 2A, in another embodiment, the first driving unit includes a first switching amplifier, a second switching amplifier and a third switching amplifier connected in parallel, and the first control unit is further configured to operate the first switching amplifier, the second switching amplifier and the third switching amplifier in a constant on-time control mode or a constant off-time control mode according to a timing sequence.
As shown in fig. 2B, the first control unit provides a constant on or off time control signal to the switching amplifiers according to a timing, the switching amplifiers are turned on according to the timing, and outputs a driving signal. The first control unit 110 outputs a control signal Vc1 having a constant on-time Ton to the first switching amplifier SW1, outputs a control signal Vc2 having a constant on-time Ton to the second switching amplifier SW2, and outputs a control signal Vc3 having a constant on-time Ton to the third switching amplifier SW 3. The control signal Vc2 is enabled at the falling edge of the on pulse of the control signal Vc1, and similarly, the control signal Vc3 is enabled at the falling edge of the on pulse of the control signal Vc 2. This time-sequentially turned-on control enables the first driving unit 140 to perform multi-phase control of envelope tracking. It can be appreciated that the timing illustrated in FIG. 2B is only one example; it can be understood that, at another timing, the control signal Vc1 is enabled at the timing of the falling edge of the on pulse of the control signal Vc2, and the control signal Vc3 is enabled at the timing of the falling edge of the on pulse of the control signal Vc 1.
It should be noted that the three-way Ton shown in fig. 2B may be the same or different.
It can be appreciated that for multiple parallel switching amplifiers, a constant on-time Ton that is not exactly the same can cope with the variability and complexity of the envelope signal. Further, the constant on-time or constant off-time may be dynamically adjusted. In this case, the constant on-time or constant off-time of each channel may be calculated according to the specific condition of the first envelope signal (or the linearly amplified envelope signal) or the supply voltage; in addition, if the supply voltage is considered as an output and the first envelope signal (or the linearly amplified envelope signal) is considered as an input, then an input reference signal or an output reference signal may also be introduced when calculating the constant on-time or the constant off-time, or other preset reference signals. It can be understood that when the first driving unit has only one switching amplifier, the constant on time or the constant off time may be determined by referring to the above calculation method.
It is preferable that the constant on time or the constant off time of each switching amplifier is the same as that of the other switching amplifiers. This is because the same constant on-time or constant off-time is advantageous for engineering implementation and is simpler to implement.
However, there is also a case: the constant on-time or constant off-time of at least one switching amplifier is different from that of the other switching amplifiers. This, however, increases the complexity of the implementation, which in some cases may be beneficial to increase the power efficiency, but may cause significant ripple.
In another embodiment, the power supply further comprises a first mode selection unit for selecting between the constant on-time control mode and the constant off-time control mode.
For this embodiment, an implementation of mode selection is given, i.e. the selection of the respective control mode is made by the first mode selection unit. It will be appreciated that the selection may be implemented by hardware circuitry, or by software calculations.
In another embodiment, the first control unit comprises a timing unit for determining the constant on-time or constant off-time. As previously described, this example presents an implementation of determining a constant on-time or a constant off-time. Similar to the above mentioned, the present disclosure does not focus on proposing a new way of determining a constant on-time or a constant off-time, and therefore, the timing unit is not described herein in detail. In theory, all techniques of the prior art with respect to constant on-time or constant off-time can be used to implement the timing unit. In general, a timing unit can be considered as a timer circuit.
Referring to fig. 3, in another embodiment the first control unit comprises a comparison unit for comparing the linearly amplified envelope signal with a first reference signal and determining the constant on-time or constant off-time. Illustratively, the comparison unit may employ a bang-bang comparator.
It can be understood that this embodiment proposes a scheme of determining a constant on-time or a constant off-time using a comparison unit.
In another embodiment, the first reference signal comprises any one of: a preset signal, a reference signal associated with the first envelope signal, a reference signal associated with a supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier.
It is emphasized that a Constant On-Time or Constant Off-Time, i.e., a Constant On Time or a Constant Off Time, can be considered as a Time interval. The skilled person can compare the linearly amplified envelope signal with a first reference signal and determine the constant on-time or constant off-time. For example, the linearly amplified envelope signal is subtracted from a first reference signal to determine a constant on-time or a constant off-time. For a person skilled in the art, the determination of the time interval by the comparison unit means that the voltage level of the output can be adapted to a plurality of voltage levels, for example, a time interval of the order of magnitude when outputting 1.5V, but another time interval of the order of magnitude determined when outputting 2.0V.
Further, the linearly amplified envelope signal may be compared with a first reference signal and determine which time instant the constant on-time is enabled, or which time instant the constant off-time is enabled, i.e.: to compare the linearly amplified envelope signal with a first reference signal and to determine a starting instant of a constant on-control mode or a starting instant of a constant off-mode. For example, the linearly amplified envelope signal is subtracted from the first reference signal, which may be a voltage signal or a current signal, and the variation trend of the current difference value and the previous difference value is determined to determine which time to start the constant on-time or which time to start the constant off-time. Which moment to start has an impact on the power efficiency for a person skilled in the art.
As mentioned above, in addition to the linearly amplified envelope signal, when the reference signal is additionally used to calculate or determine the constant on-time or the constant off-time, the reference signal may be a preset signal, a reference signal associated with the input, i.e. the first envelope signal, or a reference signal associated with the output, i.e. the supply voltage of the rf power amplifier. It will be appreciated that the reference signal is often used for a difference operation, for example by an error amplifier subtracting a linearly amplified envelope signal from the reference signal.
Referring to fig. 4A, in another embodiment, the first control unit is further configured to output a second control signal based on the first envelope signal to enable the power supply to operate in an average power tracking mode; the first drive unit is further configured to provide the first electrical signal based on the second control signal. As mentioned before, it is particularly suitable for the case where the first envelope signal is a reduced bandwidth envelope signal.
For the above embodiment, it means that the embodiment can innovatively implement the fusion of average power tracking (also referred to as APT) and envelope tracking (also referred to as FT): when the first envelope signal is a bandwidth reduced envelope signal, the average power tracking mode may be preferred; the envelope tracking mode may be preferred when the first envelope signal is the other signal. The two different tracking modes of the radio frequency power amplifier have respective advantages and disadvantages of average power tracking and envelope tracking, but the embodiment has the advantages of novelty and superiority, and can adopt a corresponding appropriate tracking mode in respective appropriate scenes. It should be noted that it is not necessary to introduce the first envelope signal through the first control unit, since those skilled in the art can also achieve this purpose through an additional second control unit, and adaptively use the second driving unit to provide the second electric signal, similarly to the first driving unit providing the first electric signal, and in the case of the second electric signal, the superimposing unit additionally superimposes the second electric signal.
Further, on the basis of the previous embodiment and the multiphase control described in the foregoing, the first driving unit includes at least a first switching amplifier and a second switching amplifier connected in parallel, and the first control unit is further configured to operate the first switching amplifier and the second switching amplifier in a constant on-time control mode or a constant off-time control mode according to a timing sequence. In this way, when the average power tracking mode is fused with the envelope tracking mode, the multiphase control of the envelope tracking mode can be further realized through the parallel connection of at least two switching amplifiers.
Such as the multiphase control shown in fig. 4B, with reference to the previous embodiment utilizing the first switching amplifier SW1, the second switching amplifier SW2, and the third switching amplifier SW 3.
In another embodiment, the power supply further comprises a second mode selection unit for selecting between an average power tracking mode and an envelope tracking mode.
It can be appreciated that the second mode selection unit, like the first mode selection unit, has a technical purpose to enable selection between an average power tracking mode and an envelope tracking mode.
By way of example and not limitation, it is preferred, in further embodiments, to try to ensure the efficiency of the power supply in signal tracking:
when the bandwidth of the radio frequency signal is judged to be high through the first envelope signal or the supply voltage or an error signal based on the first envelope signal or the supply voltage, an envelope tracking mode is selected; and when the bandwidth of the radio frequency signal is judged to be low, selecting an average power tracking mode. Or, when the average power drop, instantaneous power and supply voltage are below a certain threshold for more time, then selecting the average power tracking mode; otherwise, the envelope tracking mode is selected. It can be understood that the present embodiment innovatively utilizes the respective advantages of envelope tracking and average power tracking in the prior art.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that efficiency priority is desired whether envelope tracking mode or average power tracking mode is selected in accordance with the disclosed circuit principles.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is,
the first switching amplifier and the second switching amplifier are selected from any one of the following: GaN switching amplifier, Si-based switching amplifier. It is clear that this embodiment is for higher frequency signals, since the switching frequency of GaN switching amplifiers can reach very high levels. Similarly, a Si-based switching amplifier (i.e., a silicon-based switching amplifier, also referred to as a silicon-based switching amplifier) with a high switching frequency may also be used. It will be appreciated that the associated switching amplifier may have more options if it is not required for higher frequency signals. For the various embodiments of the present disclosure, the selection of the switching amplifier depends on the frequency range of the signal it processes.
Fig. 5A is a schematic diagram of envelope tracking of conventional hysteretic control, where black line 1 represents the envelope signal, blue line 2 represents the current in the inductor L, and magenta 3 represents the switching waveform at Vc, where the on-time is 0.12 us-2 us and the average switching frequency is 1.2 MHz;
FIG. 5B is a prior art schematic diagram of envelope tracking with hysteresis control with a low pass filter, where the black line 1 represents the envelope signal, the blue line 2 represents the current in the inductor L, and the magenta 3 represents the switching waveform at Vc, where the low pass filter has a bandwidth of 15MHz, an on-time of 0.12 us-2 us, and an average switching frequency of 880 kHz;
FIG. 5C is a graph of another prior art envelope tracking with hysteresis control with a low pass filter, where the black line 1 represents the envelope signal, the blue line 2 represents the current in the inductor L, and the magenta 3 represents the switching waveform at Vc, where the low pass filter has a bandwidth of 8MHz and an average switching frequency of 73 kHz;
fig. 5D is a schematic diagram of the power supply with bang-bang comparator and COT control disclosed in the present disclosure when the first envelope signal is a bandwidth-reduced envelope signal, wherein a black line 1 represents the bandwidth-reduced envelope signal, a blue line 2 represents the current in the inductor L, and a magenta line 3 represents the switching waveform at Vc, wherein the on-time is 1 us.
As can be seen from fig. 5A to 5D, when the COT control is adopted in fig. 5D, the current waveform in the inductor L can provide a stable current signal, and is hardly affected by the envelope signal, and the fixed on-time/off-time is favorable for the design of the switching power supply, thereby optimizing and improving the power efficiency.
Furthermore, in some embodiments, the control unit may be provided on a chip or processor (e.g., silicon) of the digital transmitter. Furthermore, the driving unit may also be provided on a chip or processor of the digital transmitter. More broadly, the remaining units may also be provided on the relevant chip or processor. The above power supply may naturally also be provided on the chip or processor of the digital transmitter.
Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware or in software, depending on the particular implementation requirements. The implementation can be performed using a digital storage medium (e.g., a floppy disk, DVD, blu-ray, CD, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, or FLASH memory) having electronically readable control signals stored thereon. Accordingly, the digital storage medium may be computer-readable.
In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (e.g., a field programmable gate array) may be used to perform some or all of the functions of the methods described herein. In some embodiments, a field programmable gate array may cooperate with a microprocessor to implement the power supplies described herein.
The above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that modifications and variations of the arrangements and details described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto, and not by the specific details presented by way of the description and illustration of the embodiments presented herein.
Claims (9)
1. A power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier, comprising:
a linear amplification unit for linearly amplifying the first envelope signal and outputting a linearly amplified envelope signal;
a first control unit for outputting a first control signal based on the linearly amplified envelope signal to operate the power supply in an envelope tracking mode, wherein the envelope tracking mode comprises two sub-modes: a constant on time control mode with a constant on time, a constant off time control mode with a constant off time;
a first driving unit for providing a first electric signal based on the first control signal;
a superimposing unit for superimposing the linearly amplified envelope signal and the first electrical signal in order to provide a supply voltage for the radio frequency power amplifier;
the first driving unit at least comprises a first switching amplifier and a second switching amplifier which are connected in parallel, the first control unit provides constant on or off time control signals to the switching amplifiers according to a time sequence, and the switching amplifiers are switched on according to the time sequence and output driving signals;
the power supply further comprises a second mode selection unit for selecting between an average power tracking mode and an envelope tracking mode; selecting an envelope tracking mode when the bandwidth of the output frequency signal is judged to be high through the first envelope signal or the supply voltage or an error signal based on the first envelope signal or the supply voltage and the error signal; and when the bandwidth of the radio frequency signal is judged to be low, selecting an average power tracking mode.
2. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first envelope signal is an envelope signal input to the radio frequency power amplifier.
3. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first driving unit comprises a first switching amplifier and a first inductor.
4. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first control unit is further configured to operate the first switching amplifier and the second switching amplifier in a constant on-time control mode or a constant off-time control mode according to a timing sequence.
5. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the power supply further comprises a first mode selection unit for selecting between the constant on-time control mode and a constant off-time control mode.
6. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first control unit comprises a timing unit for determining the constant on-time or constant off-time.
7. The power supply of claim 1, wherein the first control unit comprises a comparison unit for comparing the linearly amplified envelope signal with a first reference signal for determining the constant on-time or a moment at which the constant on-time is initiated, or for determining the constant off-time or a moment at which the constant off-time is initiated.
8. The power supply of claim 1, wherein when the first envelope signal is a bandwidth reduced envelope signal, the first control unit is further configured to output a second control signal based on the first envelope signal to cause the power supply to operate in an average power tracking mode; the first driving unit is further configured to provide the first electrical signal based on the second control signal.
9. The power supply of claim 7, wherein the first reference signal comprises any one of: a preset signal, a reference signal associated with the first envelope signal, a reference signal associated with a supply voltage of the radio frequency power amplifier.
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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| CN110138343B (en) * | 2019-05-27 | 2024-11-19 | 陕西亚成微电子股份有限公司 | A feedback-based power supply for a radio frequency power amplifier |
| CN110365296B (en) * | 2019-05-27 | 2024-02-13 | 陕西亚成微电子股份有限公司 | Power supply for radio frequency power amplifier |
| CN111030602B (en) * | 2019-11-11 | 2022-04-01 | 西安亚润微光电科技有限公司 | Power supply with expandable bandwidth for radio frequency power amplifier |
| CN115441883A (en) * | 2021-06-04 | 2022-12-06 | 华为技术有限公司 | Power supply circuit, processing circuit and wireless communication system |
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