Radio frequency power source, and device

Abstract

A radio frequency power source, and a device. In the radio frequency power source, a first output end of a switch power source circuit is coupled to a first output end of the radio frequency power source, and outputs a first target voltage signal; an output end of a first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output end of the radio frequency power source, and outputs a second target voltage signal; the first output end of the radio frequency power source is used for supplying power to a first PA and outputting to the first PA a first voltage signal obtained by means of superimposition; a second output end of the switch power source circuit is coupled to a second output end of the radio frequency power source, and outputs a third target voltage signal; a voltage output end of a second high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the second output end of the radio frequency power source, and outputs a fourth target voltage signal; and the second output end of the radio frequency power source is used for supplying power to a second PA and outputting to the second PA a second voltage signal obtained by means of superimposition. The embodiments of the present application can supply power to a plurality of PAs simultaneously, such that the requirements of a plurality of PAs for a power supply system are met.

Description

RF power supplies and equipment

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese patent application filed on May 27, 2024, with application number 202410668923.8 and entitled "Radio Frequency Power Supply and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This application relates to the field of radio frequency power supply technology, and in particular to a radio frequency power supply and device. Background Technology

[0003] As a crucial component of mobile and wireless communication systems, the design of radio frequency front-end (RFFE) systems has become increasingly complex. RF transmitters need to support various characteristics, such as multi-band, multi-system, multi-duplex, and multi-antenna operation. To support these characteristics, RF transmitter systems require the use of various radio frequency power amplifiers (RFPAs). Each RFPA has different specifications for its transmission frequency band, bandwidth, noise level, etc., leading to varying power supply requirements for different RFPAs. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides an embodiment of an RF power supply and device that can simultaneously power multiple PAs, thus meeting the power supply system requirements of multiple PAs.

[0005] In a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide an radio frequency (RF) power supply, comprising: a switching power supply circuit, a first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and a second high-frequency voltage generation circuit; wherein, a first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to a first output terminal of the RF power supply, and outputs a first target voltage signal to the first output terminal of the RF power supply; the output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, and outputs a second target voltage signal to the first output terminal of the RF power supply; the first output terminal of the RF power supply is used to power a first power amplifier (PA), and outputs a first voltage signal obtained by superimposing the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal to the first PA; the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal are determined according to a first envelope signal corresponding to the first PA; a second output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to a second output terminal of the RF power supply, and outputs a third target voltage signal to the second output terminal of the RF power supply; the voltage output terminal of the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the second output terminal of the RF power supply, and outputs a fourth target voltage signal to the second output terminal of the RF power supply; the second output terminal of the RF power supply is used to power a second power amplifier (PA), and outputs a second voltage signal obtained by superimposing the third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal to the second PA; the third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal are determined according to a second envelope signal corresponding to the second PA. The radio frequency power supply provided in this application embodiment adopts a new radio frequency power supply implementation architecture. The same radio frequency power supply may include multiple high-frequency voltage generation circuits, so that it can be combined with different PAs, thereby enabling it to supply power to multiple PAs simultaneously and meet the power supply requirements of multiple PAs for the radio frequency power supply.

[0006] In some possible implementations, the controller is also included; the controller is coupled to the switching power supply circuit and the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit respectively, and is used to control the switching power supply circuit to output a first target voltage signal according to the low-frequency signal of the first envelope signal, and to control the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output a second target voltage signal according to the first envelope signal or the high-frequency signal of the first envelope signal.

[0007] And / or, the controller is coupled to the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to control the switching power supply circuit to output a third target voltage signal according to the low-frequency signal of the second envelope signal, and to control the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output a fourth target voltage signal according to the second envelope signal or the high-frequency signal of the second envelope signal.

[0008] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is an LA circuit or a deviation voltage generation circuit.

[0009] In some possible implementations, the deviation voltage generation circuit is specifically a multi-voltage selection circuit or a high-frequency switching power supply circuit.

[0010] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is an LA circuit, and the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including:

[0011] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply through a first inductor; or...

[0012] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply through a second inductor and a third inductor connected in series. The coupling terminal of the second inductor and the third inductor is grounded through a first capacitor.

[0013] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes:

[0014] The output of the linear amplifier is coupled to the output of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit through a second capacitor; the input of the linear amplifier serves as the input of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and is used to couple to the controller.

[0015] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit further includes:

[0016] The output of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the input of the linear amplifier; or,

[0017] The output terminal of a linear amplifier is coupled to the input terminal of the linear amplifier.

[0018] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a high-frequency switching power supply circuit;

[0019] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including:

[0020] The high-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply.

[0021] The output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including:

[0022] The high-level output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply.

[0023] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a multi-level selection circuit; the switching power supply circuit includes: a first switching power supply sub-circuit and a second switching power supply sub-circuit; the high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is used as the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit.

[0024] RF power supplies also include:

[0025] The low-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit and the low-level voltage input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit; the low-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is grounded.

[0026] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including:

[0027] The high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit.

[0028] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes: a first multilevel selection sub-circuit and a second multilevel selection sub-circuit, wherein the output terminal of the first multilevel selection circuit is used as the output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit;

[0029] The switching power supply circuit includes: a third switching power supply sub-circuit, a fourth switching power supply sub-circuit, and a fifth switching power supply sub-circuit; the high-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is used as the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit.

[0030] RF power supplies also include:

[0031] The low-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit and the low-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection sub-circuit.

[0032] The low-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit; the low-level input terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit is grounded; the high-level output terminal of the fifth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit, and the low-level output terminal is grounded.

[0033] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including:

[0034] The high-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection sub-circuit.

[0035] In some possible implementations, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is integrated with its corresponding PA to form a PA module.

[0036] In some possible implementations, when the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through an LA circuit, the PA corresponding to the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a PA that supports FDD; or,

[0037] When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through the deviation voltage generation circuit, the PA corresponding to the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a PA that supports TDD.

[0038] Secondly, embodiments of this application provide an electronic device including any of the radio frequency power supplies in the first aspect. Attached Figure Description

[0039] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the energy consumption of an electronic device running for one hour according to an embodiment of this application;

[0040] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the difference between the power supply capacity of the mobile phone battery and the power consumption of the application according to the embodiments of this application;

[0041] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the high-efficiency transmitter architecture provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0042] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the combination of drain modulation and Doherty technology provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0043] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the combination of drain modulation and outphasing technology provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0044] Figure 6A is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the ETM provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0045] Figure 6B is a schematic diagram of the voltage waveforms output by AET, DET, and APT provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0046] Figure 6C is a schematic diagram of the instantaneous output voltages of APT, AET, and DET provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0047] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the RFFE provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0048] Figure 8A is a schematic diagram of the spectrum of the baseband modulation signal and the envelope signal provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0049] Figure 8B is a schematic diagram of the bandwidth of the envelope signal and the bandwidth of the modulation signal provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0050] Figure 8C is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the energy distribution and frequency of the envelope signal provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0051] Figure 9A is a schematic diagram of a radio frequency power supply provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0052] Figure 9B is a schematic diagram of another structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0053] Figure 9C is a schematic diagram of a third structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0054] Figure 9D is a schematic diagram of the fourth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0055] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of the fifth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0056] Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of the sixth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0057] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the seventh structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0058] Figure 13 is a schematic diagram of the eighth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0059] Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of the equivalent circuit of the RF power supply shown in Figure 13;

[0060] Figures 15A to 15D are schematic diagrams of the structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0061] Figures 16A to 16C are simulation diagrams of the output waveforms under different RF power supply structures provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0062] Figure 17A is a schematic diagram of the output waveform of the RF power supply when the controller uses the APT control strategy to control the switching power supply circuit.

[0063] Figure 17B is a schematic diagram of the output waveform of the RF power supply when the controller uses the APT control strategy to control the switching power supply circuit and simultaneously control the LA circuit.

[0064] Figure 18 is a schematic diagram of the ninth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0065] Figure 19 is a schematic diagram of the equivalent circuit of the RF power supply shown in Figure 18;

[0066] Figure 20A is a schematic diagram of the tenth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0067] Figure 20B is a schematic diagram of the eleventh structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0068] Figure 21 is a schematic diagram of the output voltage at the first output terminal of the RF power supply shown in Figure 20B;

[0069] Figures 22A and 22B are simulation diagrams of output waveforms under different RF power supply structures provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0070] Figure 23A is a schematic diagram of the twelfth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0071] Figure 23B is a schematic diagram of the thirteenth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0072] Figure 24 is a schematic diagram of the output voltage at the first output terminal of the RF power supply shown in Figure 23B;

[0073] Figure 25 is a schematic diagram of the simulation circuit of the RF power supply shown in Figure 23B;

[0074] Figure 26 is a schematic diagram of the output voltage of the simulation circuit shown in Figure 25;

[0075] Figure 27A is a schematic diagram of the fourteenth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0076] Figure 27B is a schematic diagram of the fifteenth structure of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0077] Figure 28 is a schematic diagram of the output voltage at the first output terminal of the RF power supply shown in Figure 27B;

[0078] Figure 29 is a schematic diagram of the simulation circuit of the RF power supply shown in Figure 27B;

[0079] Figure 30 is a schematic diagram of the output voltage of the simulation circuit shown in Figure 29;

[0080] Figure 31 is a schematic diagram of an integration method of a radio frequency power supply provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0081] Figure 32 is a schematic diagram of another integration method of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0082] Figure 33 is a schematic diagram of a third integration method of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0083] Figure 34 is a schematic diagram of a fourth integration method of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0084] Figure 35 is a schematic diagram of the fifth integration method of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0085] The terminology used in the implementation section of this application is for the purpose of explaining specific embodiments of this application only, and is not intended to limit this application.

[0086] Studies show that wireless systems and digital ecosystems are continuously increasing energy consumption. Specifically, the more frequently people use wireless electronic devices, the more energy is consumed. Take 5G networks as an example: the primary goal of 5G is to allow consumers to use more devices at faster speeds than ever before, and this goal will inevitably increase global energy consumption. In other words, the use of 5G networks will multiply energy consumption. Furthermore, future wireless communication systems such as 6G will need to support greater bandwidth, higher transmission rates, and support generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which will inevitably lead to further increases in the power consumption of wireless communication devices.

[0087] For the reasons mentioned above, the manufacture and use of electronic devices that utilize wireless communication, such as 5G or 6G networks, may become major contributors to climate change.

[0088] 1. The manufacturing process of mobile phones, computers and other everyday devices puts pressure on the environment: from chips to components to the manufacture of the whole device, a lot of electricity and other resources are consumed.

[0089] 2. The increasing energy consumption of electronic devices is impacting the environment: There are currently approximately 6 billion mobile electronic devices in use, and this number is expected to increase dramatically with the global population growing and new devices entering the market. One estimate of the lifecycle carbon emissions of a single device (excluding accessories and network connectivity) is that, at a moderate level of use over three years, a single device produces a total of 45 kg of CO2. This emission is equivalent to that of a typical European car driving 300 km. For example, see Figure 1, which illustrates the maximum carbon emissions, maximum water emissions, and maximum footprint of some applications running on electronic devices for one hour. For instance, using electronic devices for just one hour of video conferencing or streaming emits 150-1000 grams of CO2 (compared to approximately 8,887 grams of carbon emitted by a car burning one gallon of gasoline) and requires 2-12 liters of water.

[0090] 3. The increasing energy use of electronic devices in the market and homes is another environmental threat: For example, while some IoT devices promise to reduce energy use, the energy required by the 50 billion new IoT devices expected to be produced and used in the future will far exceed the energy used by electronic devices today.

[0091] Furthermore, with the increasing use of features such as screen size in electronic devices, use cases such as video consumption, cameras, and navigation-based applications are impacting the battery life of electronic devices like mobile phones. As shown in Figure 2, when the gap between battery energy and application energy demands continues to widen, what is the best energy-saving technology for the radio frequency (RF) portion of electronic devices like mobile phones? We need to analyze this from multiple dimensions, including architecture, device manufacturing processes, and system control, to provide the correct answer.

[0092] Mobile communication has become an integral part of daily life, a ubiquitous system for most of the world's population. Mobile communication technology has gradually transitioned from the traditional voice-centric era to the 4G era of mobile broadband, and now the industry is making every effort to promote the 5G and 6G eras that will lead humanity into a networked society.

[0093] With the increasing demand from users for mobile wireless communication technologies and the growing requirements for communication speeds, coupled with the need for ubiquitous access to wireless communication networks, wireless communication technologies are booming. Electronic devices supporting these technologies need to support various communication modes and standards, from 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) to 5G New Radio (NR), and from early Wi-Fi to today's Wi-Fi 6. Communication bandwidth is also expanding: from 1.4MHz LTE to 100MHz or even 200MHz bandwidth in 5G NR. Furthermore, broadband Wi-Fi and millimeter-wave communication systems offer even wider signal bandwidth. Simultaneously, the increase in frequency bands and support for more advanced wireless communication features, such as uplink carrier aggregation (CA) and uplink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), necessitates the simultaneous operation of several uplink transmitters. Current terminal transmitters are often multi-communication systems, such as Wi-Fi, cellular, and satellite communications, requiring multiple power supply voltages. Additionally, to improve cellular system coverage and compensate for losses between the RFPA output and the antenna, the output power of the RFPA is increasingly demanding.

[0094] The lifespan of electronic devices is closely related to battery capacity and system efficiency. Given that battery capacity cannot be further increased while the power consumption of other components in electronic devices is rising, improving the power consumption of the radio frequency (RF) section, especially the RF power amplifier (PA) system which accounts for a large portion of power consumption, is crucial for extending the lifespan of electronic devices. Among various technologies for improving PA system efficiency, envelope tracking (ET) technology, which features frequency agility, is particularly valued. ETPA systems are gradually becoming standard equipment in electronic devices, especially high-end mobile phones.

[0095] Commonly used transmitter technologies in electronic devices include Doherty, Linear Amplification With Nonlinear Components (LINC), ET, and Class S. Among them, ET technology has become the preferred architecture for high-efficiency power amplifier systems in electronic devices because it supports multi-frequency and multi-mode configuration.

[0096] Therefore, in some instances, high-efficiency transmitter architectures used in electronic devices are as shown in Figure 3. A high-efficiency transmitter architecture is a combined architecture designed to operate the power amplifier as close to saturation as possible. This is achieved by adjusting the supply voltage (drain modulation, such as ET) or adjusting the load impedance (load modulation, such as Doherty, Outphasing). Only drain modulation (such as ET) combines low-frequency (envelope domain) and high-frequency (RF domain) modulation. Therefore, drain modulation (such as ET) can be combined with other high-efficiency transmitter architectures, i.e., drain modulation (such as ET) + Doherty, as shown in Figure 4, and drain modulation (such as ET) + Outphasing, as shown in Figure 5.

[0097] To power the RFPA, as shown in Figure 6A, the architecture of the envelope tracking modulator (ETM) includes: a purely digital ETM (Digital_ET), an analog envelope tracker (AET), and a discrete envelope tracker (DET).

[0098] Pure digital ETM power supplies have the following disadvantages:

[0099] 1. High switching frequency requirement: 10X signal bandwidth, 100MHz, switching frequency requirement 1GHz;

[0100] 2. The abundant output stray signals of a switching power supply mean that the requirements for the filter circuit after the power supply are high;

[0101] Since pure digital ETMs require high switching frequencies from the switching devices, their current implementation is quite difficult; therefore, the embodiments of this application mainly focus on AET and DET as shown in Figure 6A.

[0102] Figure 6B shows the waveform diagrams of the supply voltage outputs of AET, DET, and APT. AET outputs a smooth waveform signal, DET outputs a square wave signal, and APT outputs a DC voltage signal. Figure 6C shows the instantaneous output voltage diagrams of the three power management technologies (APT, AET, and DET), indicating that their improvement in RFPA efficiency, from highest to lowest, is AET, DET, and APT.

[0103] Table 1 below shows the system features and application scope of AET and DET.

[0104] Table 1

[0105] However, the design of the radio frequency front-end (RFFE) subsystem in mobile and wireless communication systems in electronic devices is becoming increasingly complex. The RF transmitter is a multi-RFPA system that needs to support various characteristics, as shown in Figure 7, including:

[0106] 1) Multi-band: It needs to support frequencies from Sub-1GHz to Sub-6Hz, to mmWave, and even to THz;

[0107] 2) Multiple systems: It needs to support multiple mobile and wireless communication systems such as 4G, 5G, and WIFI;

[0108] 3) Multi-duplex: It needs to support multiple duplex operation modes, such as TDD duplex mode, FDD duplex mode, or even full-duplex mode.

[0109] 4) Multiple antennas: Requires support for multiple antenna systems such as MIMO and beamforming;

[0110] Supporting the above characteristics requires the transmitter system to use a variety of RFPAs. Each PA has different requirements for the transmission frequency band, bandwidth, noise, etc. of the supported system, which in turn leads to different requirements for their power supply systems.

[0111] The aforementioned ETM architecture cannot meet the power supply requirements of PAs with different characteristics, resulting in poor performance of the RF power supply.

[0112] Therefore, embodiments of this application also provide a high-performance radio frequency power supply capable of powering PAs with different characteristics. The PA in these embodiments may be, for example, an RF PA.

[0113] Figure 8A is a schematic diagram of the spectrum of the baseband modulation signal and the envelope signal. Figure 8B is a schematic diagram of the bandwidth of the envelope signal and the bandwidth of the modulation signal. Figure 8C is a schematic diagram of the relationship between the energy distribution of the envelope signal and the frequency. Based on the above schematic diagrams, it can be seen by performing spectrum analysis on the envelope signal of the wireless and mobile communication modulation signal that most of the energy of the envelope signal is concentrated near the low frequency. This is the basis for the high performance of the RF power supply provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0114] Specifically, in this embodiment, the envelope signal is split into a low-frequency part and a high-frequency part. The voltage signal corresponding to the low-frequency part of the envelope signal is output through the switching power supply circuit, and the voltage signal corresponding to the high-frequency part of the envelope signal is output through the high-frequency voltage generation circuit. The two voltage signals are superimposed to obtain the voltage signal corresponding to the envelope signal, which powers the PA.

[0115] Furthermore, in the RF power supply of this application embodiment, each high-frequency voltage generation circuit can correspond to one PA, and the switching power supply circuit can simultaneously output voltage signals for two or more PAs.

[0116] Figure 9A is a schematic diagram of a radio frequency power supply provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 9A, the radio frequency power supply may include: a controller, a switching power supply circuit, a first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and a second high-frequency voltage generation circuit; wherein...

[0117] The controller is coupled to the switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit, respectively.

[0118] The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, and outputs the first target voltage signal to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0119] The output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, and outputs the second target voltage signal to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0120] The first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is used to power the first PA, and outputs a first voltage signal obtained by superimposing the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal to the first PA; the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal are determined according to the first envelope signal corresponding to the first PA.

[0121] The second output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the second output terminal OUT2 of the RF power supply, and outputs the third target voltage signal to the second output terminal OUT2 of the RF power supply.

[0122] The voltage output terminal of the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the second output terminal OUT2 of the RF power supply, and outputs the fourth target voltage signal to the second output terminal OUT2 of the RF power supply.

[0123] The second output terminal OUT2 of the RF power supply is used to power the second PA, and outputs a second voltage signal obtained by superimposing the third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal to the second PA. The third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal are determined according to the second envelope signal corresponding to the second PA.

[0124] Optionally, the controller can be used to determine a first target voltage signal and a second target voltage signal based on a first envelope signal, control the switching power supply circuit to output the first target voltage signal, and control the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output the second target voltage signal. Specifically, the controller can split the first envelope signal into a low-frequency signal and a high-frequency signal, determine the first target voltage signal to be output by the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit based on the low-frequency signal, and determine the second target voltage signal to be output by the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit based on the high-frequency signal. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the controller can also extract only the low-frequency signal from the first envelope signal, in which case the second target voltage signal to be output by the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be directly determined based on the first envelope signal. Specifically, the controller can output a control signal to the control terminal of the switching power supply circuit to control the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit to output the first target voltage signal, and output a control signal to the control terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit to control the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output the second target voltage signal. The specific implementation of the above control signals will not be elaborated in the embodiments of this application.

[0125] Optionally, the controller can also be used to determine a third target voltage signal and a fourth target voltage signal based on the second envelope signal, control the switching power supply circuit to output the third target voltage signal, and control the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output the fourth target voltage signal. Specifically, the controller can split the second envelope signal into a low-frequency signal and a high-frequency signal, determine the third target voltage signal required to be output by the second output terminal of the switching power supply circuit based on the low-frequency signal, and determine the fourth target voltage signal required to be output by the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit based on the high-frequency signal. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the controller can also extract only the low-frequency signal from the second envelope signal, in which case the fourth target voltage signal required to be output by the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be directly determined based on the second envelope signal. Specifically, the controller can output a control signal to the control terminal of the switching power supply circuit to control the second output terminal of the switching power supply circuit to output the third target voltage signal, and output a control signal to the control terminal of the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to control the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output the fourth target voltage signal. The specific implementation of the above control signals will not be elaborated in the embodiments of this application.

[0126] It should be noted that the terms "high frequency" and "low frequency" in the embodiments of this application are relative concepts and there is no clear dividing line. They may vary depending on the scenario.

[0127] It is understood that the envelope signal corresponding to each PA is related to the radio frequency signal that the PA needs to transmit. The method for generating the envelope signal (e.g., the first envelope signal and the second envelope signal) corresponding to each PA is not described in detail in the embodiments of this application.

[0128] Optionally, when the controller determines and controls the output voltage signal (e.g., first target voltage signal, second target voltage signal) of the switching power supply circuit based on the low-frequency signal of the envelope signal (e.g., first envelope signal, second envelope signal), it can be achieved through a preset control mechanism. The preset control mechanism can be, for example, average power tracking (APT), symbol power tracking (SPT), or other control mechanisms for the PA supply voltage, such as the control signal of the switching power supply circuit generated by modulating the low-frequency signal with a PWM modulator or a hysteresis comparator. This application embodiment does not impose any limitations.

[0129] The controller can split the envelope signal into low-frequency and high-frequency signals using relevant technologies, and this application does not impose limitations on these embodiments. In some embodiments, the low-frequency signal can be the DC component of the envelope signal, specifically the lowest voltage value or RMS value within a time period, such as a slot or a symbol. The high-frequency signal can be the AC component of the envelope signal. In some embodiments, the DC component can be the average value of the envelope signal, and the AC component is obtained by removing the DC component from the envelope signal.

[0130] Optionally, the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit can be a charge pump based on switched capacitors, a single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) converter, a buck circuit, a boost circuit, or a buck-boost circuit, as long as it can output the required target voltage signal under the control of the controller. Optionally, the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit is a low-frequency switching power supply circuit.

[0131] It should be noted that the terms "high-frequency switching power supply" and "low-frequency switching power supply" used in the embodiments of this application are relative concepts and there is no clear dividing line. In some embodiments, the switching frequency of the high-frequency switching power supply can be higher than 50kHz, and the switching frequency of the low-frequency switching power supply is lower than the switching frequency of the high-frequency switching power supply.

[0132] Optionally, the aforementioned first high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be implemented by an LA circuit or a deviation voltage generation circuit. Specifically, the deviation voltage generation circuit can be a high-speed switching power supply circuit or a multi-voltage selection circuit, etc.

[0133] Alternatively, the aforementioned second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can also be implemented using an LA circuit or a deviation voltage generation circuit.

[0134] It should be noted that the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be implemented using the same circuit or different circuits, and this application does not impose any limitations. For example, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can each be an LA circuit, as shown in the RF power supply in Figure 9B; or, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be an LA circuit, and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be a deviation voltage generation circuit, as shown in the RF power supply in Figure 9C; or, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can each be a deviation voltage generation circuit, as shown in the RF power supply in Figure 9D. In this case, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be implemented using the same or different deviation voltage generation circuits, and this application will not list them all. In related technologies, the combination of the switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit in this application embodiment can be called an AET mode RF power supply, and the combination of the switching power supply circuit and the deviation voltage generation circuit in this application embodiment can be called a DET mode RF power supply. It can be understood that when the RF power supply in this application embodiment is implemented using the structure shown in Figure 9C, the RF power supply includes both AET and DET modes, which is a multi-mode implementation method, thereby improving the adaptability of the RF power supply to different scenarios.

[0135] In some embodiments, the controller described above can be implemented using a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC). In some embodiments, the functionality of the controller in the above embodiments can be implemented by multiple controllers, and this application does not impose any limitations.

[0136] In the above embodiments, the switching power supply circuit includes two output terminals, which are respectively coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 and the second output terminal OUT2. In other embodiments, if the voltage signals required by the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to be output by the switching power supply circuit are the same, the switching power supply circuit can be coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 and the second output terminal OUT2 through only one output terminal. The connection relationship is shown in Figure 10.

[0137] In the embodiments shown in Figures 9A to 10, the RF power supply includes two high-frequency voltage generation circuits: a first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and a second high-frequency voltage generation circuit. In other embodiments, the RF power supply may also include three or more high-frequency voltage generation circuits. For example, in the RF power supply shown in Figure 11, the switching power supply circuit has n output terminals, and the RF power supply also includes n high-frequency voltage generation circuits and n output terminals, so that it can be coupled to n PAs and supply power to the n PAs respectively.

[0138] It should be noted that when the RF power supply includes three or more high-frequency voltage generation circuits, different output terminals of the switching power supply circuit can be coupled to one or more output terminals of the RF power supply. This application does not impose any restrictions. For example, as shown in Figure 12, one output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the output terminals OUT1 and OUT2 of the RF power supply, and the other output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the output terminal OUT of the RF power supply.

[0139] The RF power supply provided in this application adopts a new RF power supply implementation architecture. The same RF power supply may include multiple LA circuits or multiple high-frequency voltage generation circuits, thereby combining the parasitic LA circuit with FDD PA and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit with TDD PA, thereby effectively reducing the impact of parasitic parameters on power supply performance and improving the performance of the RF power supply.

[0140] Furthermore, the RF power supply provided in this application embodiment separates the low-frequency signal of the envelope signal corresponding to each PA and outputs the low-frequency voltage signal required by multiple PAs through a switching power supply circuit, thereby forming a power resource pool. It eliminates the need to set up a switching power supply circuit for each PA, thereby reducing the cost of the RF power supply in the RF system.

[0141] Furthermore, by constructing a line-of-sight architecture for the RF power supply using a switching power supply circuit and multiple high-frequency voltage generation circuits, the following additional system benefits can be generated, such as:

[0142] In this embodiment, the RF power supply is controlled by a controller based on the low- and high-frequency characteristics of the first envelope signal to control the voltage signals output by the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit. This is a feedforward control method, which can avoid the hysteresis effect introduced by the feedback control loop and is beneficial to improving the performance and efficiency of the RF power supply. Moreover, using a feedforward control method to control the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can simplify the hardware design.

[0143] The switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit can use different chip processes, which can reduce the implementation cost of the RF power supply while taking into account the performance of the RF unit.

[0144] It is compatible with existing platforms. For example, the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit can be controlled by APT or other methods (such as SPT).

[0145] The switching power supply that generates low-frequency DC voltage can reuse the existing APT Buck-Boost power supply or other more advanced switching power supplies such as SPT power supply.

[0146] High-frequency voltage generation circuits and switching power supplies can maintain different technological evolution paths.

[0147] The following example illustrates the circuit implementation structure between the controller, the switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply. It is understood that the circuit implementation structure between the controller, the switching power supply circuit, the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the second output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply can also be implemented with reference to the circuit structure described below, and will not be listed here individually.

[0148] In some embodiments, when the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through an LA circuit, the circuit structure between the aforementioned switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is as shown in Figure 13. The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit and the output terminal of the LA circuit are respectively coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF unit.

[0149] As shown in Figure 13, in some embodiments, the switching power supply circuit of the RF power supply is implemented through a buck-boost circuit, which may specifically include:

[0150] The voltage supply terminal VIN is grounded through PMOS transistor S1 and NMOS transistor S5 connected in series, and is also coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S5 through PMOS transistor S2, PMOS transistor S3 and NMOS transistor S4 connected in series; the drain of PMOS transistor S3 is coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S5 through capacitor C1; the drain of PMOS transistor S3 is coupled to the first terminal of inductor L2 through NMOS transistor S6, and the second terminal of inductor L2 is coupled to the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit.

[0151] The voltage supply terminal VIN is grounded through a series-connected PMOS transistor S7 and NMOS transistor S11, and is also coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S11 through a series-connected PMOS transistor S8, PMOS transistor S9 and NMOS transistor S10; the drain of PMOS transistor S9 is coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S11 through capacitor C2; the drain of PMOS transistor S9 is coupled to the first terminal of inductor L2 through NMOS transistor S12.

[0152] The drain of NMOS transistor S4 is coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S10, and is also grounded through the series-connected inductor L1 and capacitor C3.

[0153] One end of the inductor L1 and capacitor C3 is coupled as the control terminal of the switching power supply circuit, which is coupled to the output terminal of the controller and receives the control signal output by the controller to control the switching power supply circuit to output the first target voltage signal.

[0154] In the switching power supply circuit, inductor L2 mainly serves an isolation function and can be omitted.

[0155] As shown in Figure 13, in some embodiments, the LA circuit of the RF power supply may include:

[0156] The input terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 is coupled to the output terminal of the controller, and receives the control signal from the output terminal of the controller so that the output terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 outputs the second target voltage signal;

[0157] The first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply of the linear amplifier LA1.

[0158] In some embodiments, the controller may use the high-frequency signal decomposed from the first envelope signal corresponding to PA1 as a control signal, or the controller may use the first envelope signal corresponding to PA1 as a control signal and send it to the input terminal of the linear amplifier LA1; in other words, the control signal sent by the controller to the input terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 may be the first envelope signal or the high-frequency signal decomposed from the first envelope signal.

[0159] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG13, the output terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 can be coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply through capacitor C4.

[0160] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG13, the output terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 is coupled to the input terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 so that the voltage signal output by the output terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 is fed back to the input terminal of the linear amplifier LA1 as the feedback signal of the linear amplifier LA1, thereby improving the accuracy of the output voltage of the LA circuit.

[0161] The equivalent circuit diagram of the circuit shown in Figure 13 is shown in Figure 14. The switching power supply circuit can be equivalent to a current source, while the linear amplifier LA1 can be equivalent to a voltage source. The current on the load R_Load (corresponding to the first PA) can be represented by the equation: iPA=iL+V_LA / R_Load.

[0162] In addition to being coupled to the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply via inductor L2 (as shown in Figures 13, 15A, and 15B), as shown in Figures 15C and 15D, the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit can also be coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply via two inductors L01 and L02 connected in series. In this case, the connection point between the two inductors can be grounded through capacitor C01 to achieve the effect of capacitor filtering.

[0163] As shown in Figures 15A and 15C, one end of capacitor C4 coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply can be coupled to the input terminal of linear amplifier LA1, so that the voltage signal output by the LA circuit to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply can be used as the feedback signal of linear amplifier LA1. In some other embodiments, as shown in Figures 15B and 15D, the output terminal of linear amplifier LA1 can also be coupled to the input terminal of linear amplifier LA1, thereby using the voltage signal output by linear amplifier LA1 as the feedback signal of linear amplifier LA1.

[0164] The performance of the radio frequency power supply provided in the embodiments of this application will be illustrated by way of Figures 16A to 16C.

[0165] As shown in Figures 16A to 16C, the output voltage simulation diagrams of different circuit structures are compared. The RF power supply with only a switching power supply circuit and the RF power supply with both a switching power supply circuit and a high-frequency voltage generation circuit are compared. The RF power supply with only a switching power supply circuit provides a relatively higher amplitude of the supply voltage for the RF PA.

[0166] Figures 17A and 17B show the measured output voltage structures of different circuit configurations. Figure 17A shows the voltage output from the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, which includes only the switching power supply circuit, when the controller adopts the APT control strategy. Figure 17B shows the voltage output from the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, which includes both the switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit, when the controller adopts the APT control strategy. It can be seen that the voltage output from the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, which includes both the switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit, provided in this embodiment is closer to the waveform of the envelope signal, thus exhibiting better power supply performance.

[0167] In some embodiments, when the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented by the deviation voltage generation circuit, the circuit implementation structure between the controller, the switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is as shown in FIG18.

[0168] The implementation structure of the switching power supply circuit is the same as that shown in Figure 13, and will not be described again here.

[0169] As shown in Figure 18, the deviation voltage generation circuit can be implemented using a high-frequency switching power supply circuit. Specifically, the deviation voltage generation circuit may include:

[0170] The voltage supply terminal VIN is grounded through PMOS transistors S14, S15, S16, and S18 connected in series, and is also coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S18 through PMOS transistor S17. The drain of PMOS transistor S15 is coupled to the drain of NMOS transistor S18 through capacitor C3.

[0171] The drain of NMOS transistor S16 serves as the control signal receiving terminal of the deviation voltage generation circuit, which is used to couple to the controller and receive the control signals sent by the controller.

[0172] The drain of PMOS transistor S15 is coupled to the output of the deviation voltage generation circuit through NMOS transistor S13.

[0173] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG18, the output terminal of the deviation voltage generation circuit can be coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply through inductor L3.

[0174] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG18, the deviation voltage generation circuit can also be replaced by other high-frequency switching power supply circuits (FIG18 only shows an equivalent diagram) or multi-level selection circuits.

[0175] As shown in Figure 18, the multi-level selection circuit may specifically include:

[0176] The output of the multilevel selection circuit is connected to PMOS transistors S19, S20 and S21 through inductor L4. A capacitor C4 is connected between PMOS transistors S19 and S20. PMOS transistor S20 is also connected to the voltage input of the multilevel selection circuit through capacitor C5.

[0177] PMOS transistor S21 is grounded through capacitor C7 and also connected to the voltage input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit through capacitor C6.

[0178] It is understood that the implementation structure of the multilevel selection circuit shown in Figure 18 is only an example, and the deviation voltage generation circuit of this application embodiment can also be implemented by other multilevel selection circuits.

[0179] The equivalent circuit diagram of the circuit shown in Figure 18 is shown in Figure 19. The switching power supply circuit can be equivalent to a current source, while the deviation voltage generation circuit can be equivalent to another small current source. The current on the load R_Load can be represented by the equation: iPA=iL+I_MV.

[0180] When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through a high-speed switching power supply circuit, the circuit connection relationship between the controller, the switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is shown in Figure 20A.

[0181] The low-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit is grounded, and the high-level output terminal is coupled to the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit. Thus, the high-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit can pull up the voltage of the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit, making the voltage of the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit the same as the voltage of the high-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit.

[0182] The high-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply, so the voltage of the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is the superposition voltage of the output voltage of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit and the output voltage of the switching power supply circuit.

[0183] Through the above connection relationship, the voltage signal output by the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply can be a voltage signal obtained by superimposing the second target voltage signal output by the high-frequency switching power supply circuit (i.e., the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit) and the first target voltage signal output by the switching power supply circuit.

[0184] It should be noted that in the circuit connection shown in Figure 20A, the high-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit can be considered to be coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply through the switching power supply circuit.

[0185] For example, Figure 20B shows the equivalent circuit structure of the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency switching power supply circuit in the circuit shown in Figure 20A. The specific circuit implementation structure of the two can be implemented by the switching power supply circuit in related technologies, such as shown in Figure 18, which will not be elaborated here.

[0186] Figure 21 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of the circuit connection relationship shown in Figures 20A and 20B. Taking a time slot as an example, the DC voltage signal of a time slot can be output by the switching power supply circuit. In each time slot, the high-frequency switching power supply circuit can output a stepped voltage signal. The stepped high-frequency voltage signal shown in ①②③④ is obtained by superimposing the voltage outputs of the two circuits. Thus, the superimposed signal of the voltage outputs of the two circuits corresponds to the first envelope signal of the first PA.

[0187] It should be noted that in some other embodiments, the positions of the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency switching power supply circuit can be interchanged. That is, the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is grounded, the high-level output terminal is coupled to the low-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit, and the low-level output terminal of the high-frequency switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0188] In this implementation, in each control time slot, a step-like voltage signal can be formed by the switching power supply circuit outputting a DC signal based on the low-frequency part of the first envelope signal, and the high-frequency switching power supply circuit outputting a high-frequency DC signal based on the first envelope signal or the high-frequency part of the first envelope signal. This allows the voltage signal obtained by superimposing the voltage signals processed by the two circuits to track the first envelope signal.

[0189] The simulation circuit structure and simulation results of the circuit in this embodiment are shown in Figures 22A and 22B. Figure 22A shows the voltage signals output by the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and the switching power supply circuit, respectively, while Figure 22B shows the voltage signal obtained by superimposing the voltage signals output by the two circuits, which is the first voltage signal output by the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0190] When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through a multi-voltage selection circuit, the circuit connection relationship between the controller, the switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is shown in Figure 23A.

[0191] As shown in Figure 23A, the switching power supply circuit may include a first switching power supply sub-circuit and a second switching power supply sub-circuit, and the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes a multi-level selection circuit; wherein...

[0192] The output of the multi-level selection circuit can be used as the output of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and coupled to the first output OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0193] The high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit, and the low-level output terminal is coupled to the low-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit.

[0194] The high-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the low-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit, which is also coupled to the low-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit; the low-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is grounded.

[0195] The control terminals of the first switching power supply sub-circuit, the second switching power supply sub-circuit, and the multi-level selection circuit are respectively coupled to the controller.

[0196] In some embodiments, the second switching power supply sub-circuit described above can also be combined with the multi-voltage selection circuit as the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the embodiments of this application do not impose any limitations.

[0197] In this embodiment, the high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit can be considered as the output terminal of the switching power supply circuit, and coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply through a multi-level selection circuit.

[0198] The working principle of the circuit implementation structure shown in Figure 23A will be illustrated below.

[0199] In the RF power supply shown in Figure 23A, the input voltage received by the multi-level selection circuit (the voltage between the high and low level input terminals) is the output voltage of the first switching power supply sub-circuit. The high-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit pulls up the low-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit (i.e., the voltage at the low-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit). In other words, the low-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is equal to the high-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit. Assuming that in one control cycle, the output voltage of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is V1 and the output voltage of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is V2, then the output voltage of the multi-level selection circuit is between V1 and V2.

[0200] Figure 23B shows the equivalent circuit diagram of the first switching power supply sub-circuit, the second switching power supply sub-circuit, and the multi-level selection circuit. The specific implementation structure can be found in Figure 18, and will not be elaborated here. Figure 23B uses the multi-level selection circuit, which can output four different levels, as an example.

[0201] As shown in Figure 24, assuming that the output voltage of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is V0 at a certain moment, and the output voltage of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is 3V, and the parameters of capacitors C11, C12, and C13 in Figure 23B are the same, then the output voltage of the multi-level selection circuit can be: V0, V0+1V, V0+2V, V0+3V.

[0202] Figure 24 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of the circuit connection relationship shown in Figure 23. Taking the control period as a time slot as an example, in one time slot, the DC voltage signal can be output through the first switching power supply sub-circuit and the second switching power supply sub-circuit, while the stepped high-frequency voltage signal shown in ①②③④ is output through the multi-level selection circuit. Thus, the superposition signal of the voltage signals output by the two circuits corresponds to the first envelope signal of the first PA.

[0203] It should be noted that in some other embodiments, the positions of the switching power supply circuit and the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be interchanged, as long as the superposition of the output voltages of the two circuits can be achieved. These will not be listed one by one here.

[0204] In this implementation, the high-frequency and low-frequency components of the first envelope signal can be separated by the controller. The low-frequency component is processed by the switching power supply circuit, and the high-frequency component is processed by the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, thereby reducing the voltage value of the voltage signal processed by the two circuits.

[0205] The simulation schematic diagram of the circuit structure shown in Figure 23B is shown in Figure 25. At this time, the first voltage signal output by the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is shown as the stepped lines in Figure 26.

[0206] When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through a multi-voltage selection circuit, the circuit connection relationship between the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit, the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit, and the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is as shown in Figure 27A.

[0207] In the RF power supply shown in Figure 27A, the switching power supply circuit includes three switching power supply sub-circuits, and the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes two multi-level selection circuits. Specifically, the RF power supply includes:

[0208] The high-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection circuit, and the low-level output terminal is coupled to the low-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection circuit; the output terminal of the first multi-level selection circuit is coupled to the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply.

[0209] The low-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit.

[0210] The low-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the output terminal of the second multi-level selection circuit;

[0211] The high-level output terminal of the fifth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the second multi-level selection circuit, and the low-level output terminal is grounded.

[0212] The low-level input of the second multi-level selection circuit is grounded;

[0213] The control terminals of the three switching power supply sub-circuits and the two multi-level selection circuits are respectively coupled to the controller.

[0214] In this circuit, the second multi-level selection circuit can output multiple voltages based on the output voltage of the fifth switching power supply sub-circuit. The specific output voltage can be controlled by the controller. The voltage output by the second multi-level selection circuit can pull up the voltage of the low-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit, thereby pulling up the voltage of the high-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit. Specifically, the voltage of the high-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit is the voltage obtained by superimposing the output voltage of the second multi-level selection circuit and the output voltage of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit.

[0215] The working principle of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit, the third switching power supply sub-circuit, and the first multi-level selection circuit can be referred to the description in Figure 23A, and will not be repeated here.

[0216] It is understandable that in the RF power supply shown in Figure 27A, assuming that the output voltage of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is V3, the output voltage of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit is V4, and the output voltage of the fifth switching power supply sub-circuit is V5, the voltage signal output by the first output terminal OUT1 can vary in a stepwise manner between V4 and V3+V4+V5. The specific output voltage signal depends on the voltage values ​​that can be output by the two multi-level selection circuits and the control of the controller.

[0217] Figure 27B shows a schematic diagram of the equivalent circuit structure of the RF power supply shown in Figure 27A. The specific implementation structure can be referenced from the circuit structures of the switching power supply circuit, high-frequency switching power supply circuit, and multi-level selection circuit shown in Figure 18, which will not be elaborated here.

[0218] Figure 28 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of the circuit connection relationship shown in Figure 27. In this circuit, the DC voltage signal of each time slot can be output through the switching power supply circuit, while the stepped high-frequency voltage signal shown in ①②③④ is output through the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit. Thus, the superposition signal of the voltage signals output by the two circuits corresponds to the first envelope signal of the first PA.

[0219] The simulation schematic diagram of the circuit structure shown in Figure 27 is shown in Figure 29. At this time, the first voltage signal output by the first output terminal OUT1 of the RF power supply is shown as the uppermost stepped line in Figure 30.

[0220] As can be seen from the above embodiments, in the RF power supply provided in this application embodiment, the switching power supply circuit can be shared by multiple high-frequency voltage generation circuits. Therefore, the switching power supply circuit can supply power to multiple PAs, thereby forming the concept of a power resource pool and reducing the cost of the multi-PA power supply system solution.

[0221] In some embodiments, such as shown in FIG31, a switching power supply circuit and multiple high-frequency voltage generation circuits can be integrated as an RF power supply for powering multiple PAs.

[0222] In some other embodiments, as shown in FIG32, the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be separated; the switching power supply circuit can be separated out and can be used as a traditional switching power supply or as a power supply for the DC part in AET and DET; while the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be integrated with the corresponding PA to form a module.

[0223] For example, in some embodiments, considering that broadband requirements are mostly found in systems operating in TDD mode, as shown in Figure 32, the deviation voltage generation circuit mainly works with the TDD PA to improve the efficiency of the TDD system. Therefore, it can be integrated with the TDD PA to form a TDD PA chip.

[0224] For example, in some embodiments, considering that the FDD mode system has relatively high noise requirements, as shown in Figure 32, the LA circuit is mainly used in conjunction with the FDD PA and integrated with the FDD PA to obtain the FDD PA chip.

[0225] For example, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG32, the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be separated, and the switching power supply circuit is integrated into a single chip, which simultaneously powers both the TDD PA chip and the FDD PA chip.

[0226] For example, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG33, the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be separated. The switching power supply circuit is integrated into a single chip, which simultaneously powers both the TDD PA chip and the FDD PA chip. Furthermore, it can also function as a conventional switching power supply, in conjunction with an LA circuit or a bias voltage generation circuit, to power the RFPA.

[0227] For example, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG34, the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be separated, and the switching power supply circuit is integrated into a single chip to power multiple TDD PA chips.

[0228] For example, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG35, the switching power supply circuit and the high-frequency voltage generation circuit can be separated, and the switching power supply circuit is integrated into a single chip to power multiple FDD PA chips.

[0229] The RF power supply provided in this application embodiment can combine the parasitic LA circuit with the FDD PA, thereby effectively reducing the impact of parasitic parameters on power supply performance and improving the performance of the RF power supply.

[0230] In this embodiment, the RF power supply is controlled by a controller based on the low- and high-frequency characteristics of the first envelope signal to control the voltage signals output by the switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit. This is a feedforward control method, which can avoid the hysteresis effect introduced by the feedback control loop and is beneficial to improving the performance and efficiency of the RF power supply. Moreover, using a feedforward control method to control the switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit can simplify the hardware design.

[0231] The switching power supply circuit and the LA circuit can use different chip processes, which can reduce the implementation cost of the RF power supply while taking into account the performance of the RF unit.

[0232] It is compatible with existing platforms. For example, the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit can be controlled by APT or other methods (such as SPT).

[0233] The switching power supply circuit for generating low-frequency DC voltage can reuse the existing APT Buck-Boost power supply or other more advanced switching power supplies such as SPT power supply.

[0234] LA circuits and switching power supplies can maintain different technological evolution paths.

[0235] The RF power supply provided in this application embodiment can combine a parasitic bias voltage generation circuit with an FDD PA, thereby effectively reducing the impact of parasitic parameters on power supply performance and improving the performance of the RF power supply.

[0236] In this embodiment, the RF power supply is controlled by a controller based on the low- and high-frequency characteristics of the first envelope signal to control the voltage signals output by the switching power supply circuit and the deviation voltage generation circuit. This is a feedforward control method, which can avoid the hysteresis effect introduced by the feedback control loop and is beneficial to improving the performance and efficiency of the RF power supply. Moreover, using a feedforward control method to control the switching power supply circuit and the deviation voltage generation circuit can simplify the hardware design.

[0237] The switching power supply circuit and the deviation voltage generation circuit can use different chip processes, which can reduce the implementation cost of the RF power supply while taking into account the performance of the RF unit.

[0238] It is compatible with existing platforms. For example, the above-mentioned switching power supply circuit can be controlled by APT or other methods (such as SPT).

[0239] The switching power supply circuit for generating low-frequency DC voltage can reuse the existing APT Buck-Boost power supply or other more advanced switching power supplies such as SPT power supply.

[0240] Deviation voltage generation circuits and switching power supplies can maintain different technological evolution paths.

[0241] This application provides an electronic device including the radio frequency power supply shown in the above embodiments.

[0242] This application provides a chip, including any of the chips provided in the above embodiments.

[0243] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method provided in this application.

[0244] This application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in this application.

[0245] The coupling referred to in the embodiments of this application can be a direct connection, an indirect connection through devices (such as capacitors, resistors, or inductors) or circuits, or an indirect coupling connection, etc., and the embodiments of this application are not limited thereto. The aforementioned indirect coupling connection refers to the interaction between two devices through the transmission of electromagnetic fields or electromagnetic waves. For example, the interaction between devices such as transformers and inductive couplers in a circuit is indirect coupling.

[0246] In this application embodiment, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "more than one" refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent the existence of A alone, A and B simultaneously, or B alone. A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" and similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of singular or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, and c can represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0247] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the units and algorithm steps described in the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of electronic hardware and software. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0248] Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0249] In the several embodiments provided in this application, any function, if implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0250] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of this application. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in this application should be included within the protection scope of this application. The protection scope of this application should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A radio frequency power supply characterized by, include: A switching power supply circuit includes a first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and a second high-frequency voltage generation circuit; wherein... The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, and outputs a first target voltage signal to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply. The output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, and outputs a second target voltage signal to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply. The first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply is used to power the first PA and output a first voltage signal obtained by superimposing the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal to the first PA; the first target voltage signal and the second target voltage signal are determined according to the first envelope signal corresponding to the first PA; The second output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the second output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, and outputs a third target voltage signal to the second output terminal of the radio frequency power supply. The voltage output terminal of the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the second output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, and outputs a fourth target voltage signal to the second output terminal of the radio frequency power supply; The second output terminal of the radio frequency power supply is used to power the second PA and outputs a second voltage signal obtained by superimposing the third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal to the second PA; the third target voltage signal and the fourth target voltage signal are determined according to the second envelope signal corresponding to the second PA.

2. The radio frequency power supply of claim 1, wherein, Also includes: Controller; The controller is coupled to the switching power supply circuit and the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit respectively, and is used to control the switching power supply circuit to output a first target voltage signal according to the low-frequency signal of the first envelope signal, and to control the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output a second target voltage signal according to the first envelope signal or the high-frequency signal of the first envelope signal. And / or, The controller is coupled to the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit and is used to control the switching power supply circuit to output a third target voltage signal according to the low-frequency signal of the second envelope signal, and to control the second high-frequency voltage generation circuit to output the fourth target voltage signal according to the second envelope signal or the high-frequency signal of the second envelope signal.

3. The radio frequency power source of claim 1 or 2, wherein, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is an LA circuit or a deviation voltage generation circuit.

4. The radio frequency power supply of claim 3, wherein, The deviation voltage generation circuit is specifically a multi-voltage selection circuit or a high-frequency switching power supply circuit.

5. The radio frequency power supply of claim 3, wherein, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is an LA circuit, and the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply, including: The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply through a first inductor; or... The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the RF power supply through a second inductor and a third inductor connected in series, and the coupling terminal of the second inductor and the third inductor is grounded through a first capacitor.

6. The radio frequency power supply of claim 5, wherein, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes: The output of the linear amplifier is coupled to the output of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit via a second capacitor; the input of the linear amplifier serves as the input of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit and is used to couple to the controller.

7. The radio frequency power supply according to claim 6, characterized in that, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit further includes: The output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the input terminal of the linear amplifier; or, The output terminal of the linear amplifier is coupled to the input terminal of the linear amplifier.

8. The radio frequency power supply according to claim 4, characterized in that, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a high-frequency switching power supply circuit; The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, including: The high-level output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply. The output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, including: The high-level output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is coupled to the low-level output terminal of the switching power supply.

9. The radio frequency power supply according to claim 4, characterized in that, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a multi-level selection circuit; the switching power supply circuit includes: a first switching power supply sub-circuit and a second switching power supply sub-circuit; the high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is used as the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit. The radio frequency power supply also includes: The low-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit and the low-level voltage input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit; the low-level output terminal of the second switching power supply sub-circuit is grounded. The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, including: The high-level output terminal of the first switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the multi-level selection circuit.

10. The radio frequency power supply according to claim 4, characterized in that, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit includes: a first multi-level selection sub-circuit and a second multi-level selection sub-circuit, wherein the output terminal of the first multi-level selection circuit is used as the output terminal of the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit. The switching power supply circuit includes: a third switching power supply sub-circuit, a fourth switching power supply sub-circuit, and a fifth switching power supply sub-circuit; the high-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is used as the first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit. The radio frequency power supply also includes: The low-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit and the low-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection sub-circuit. The low-level output terminal of the fourth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level output terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit; the low-level input terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit is grounded; the high-level output terminal of the fifth switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the second multi-level selection sub-circuit, and the low-level output terminal is grounded. The first output terminal of the switching power supply circuit is coupled to the first output terminal of the radio frequency power supply, including: The high-level output terminal of the third switching power supply sub-circuit is coupled to the high-level input terminal of the first multi-level selection sub-circuit.

11. The radio frequency power supply according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that, The first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is integrated with its corresponding PA to form a PA module.

12. The radio frequency power supply according to claim 11, characterized in that, When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through an LA circuit, the PA corresponding to the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a PA that supports FDD; or... When the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is implemented through a deviation voltage generation circuit, the PA corresponding to the first high-frequency voltage generation circuit is a PA that supports TDD.

13. An electronic device, characterized in that, Includes the radio frequency power supply as described in any one of claims 1 to 12.

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