Power supply circuit, communication apparatus, electronic device and control method

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application provide a power supply circuit, a communication apparatus, an electronic device and a control method. The power supply circuit receives control information by means of an input interface. The power supply circuit generates a plurality of voltages on the basis of the control information, and the plurality of voltages supply power to a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein the plurality of power amplifiers are configured to perform power amplification on signals of a plurality of beams of wireless communication, and each voltage among the plurality of voltages corresponds to one power amplifier among the plurality of power amplifiers and corresponds to one beam among the plurality of beams. In this way, in the present application, power is separately supplied to each of the plurality of power amplifiers, so as to adapt to a scenario in which a wireless communications system transmits a plurality of beams, thereby improving the beam transmission stability of the wireless communications system.

Description

Power supply circuit, communication device, electronic device and control method

[0001] The present application claims priority from the Chinese patent application No. 202410732424.0 filed on June 6, 2024, and entitled "Power supply circuit, communication device, electronic device and control method", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication technology, in particular to a power supply circuit, a communication device, an electronic device and a control method. BACKGROUND

[0003] In a wireless communication scenario, when a transmitting end transmits a signal to a receiving end, a power amplifier (PA) is a core device for the transmitting end to realize long-distance signal transmission. The PA can amplify a low-power signal generated by the transmitting end to a power level that can be transmitted over a long distance. However, when power amplification is performed, the PA will introduce nonlinear distortion, which will cause the performance indicators of the transmitted signal to deteriorate. Digital predistortion (DPD) technology is an effective means to improve the linearity of the PA output signal. The basic principle of DPD is to perform digital preprocessing on the signal before power amplification to improve the linearity of the PA output signal.

[0004] However, in an analog beam forming (ABF) or hybrid beam forming (HBF) architecture, a digital predistortion (DPD) module (or referred to as a DPD circuit) needs to correct the nonlinear output of multiple PAs. In general, the nonlinear characteristics of these PAs are different. In the prior art, multiple DPD parameter models (or DPD functions) are set to meet different PA nonlinear requirements. This approach will increase the storage overhead and calibration difficulty of the device (e.g., a terminal device). SUMMARY

[0005] The present application provides a power supply circuit, a communication device, an electronic device and a control method to adapt to a multi-beam wireless communication system.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a power supply circuit. The power supply circuit comprises an input interface. The input interface is configured to receive control information. The power supply circuit is configured to generate a plurality of voltages based on the control information, the plurality of voltages being used to supply power to a plurality of power amplifiers. The plurality of power amplifiers are used to perform power amplification on signals of a plurality of beams of wireless communication, and each voltage of the plurality of voltages corresponds to one power amplifier of the plurality of power amplifiers and corresponds to one beam of the plurality of beams. In this way, the present application supplies power to each power amplifier of the plurality of power amplifiers respectively to adapt to the scenario of transmitting multiple beams by the wireless communication system, thereby improving the stability of beam transmission of the wireless communication system.

[0007] In the present application, the multiple beams can be multiple beams transmitted at the same time, or multiple beams transmitted at different times. For example, in the beam scanning scenario, the present application provides corresponding voltages for each power amplifier, so that each voltage can drive the respective power amplifier to perform power amplification on the signals, and thus the wireless communication system can still stably transmit beams in the process of changing beam angles, so as to offset the power backoff caused by beam changes.

[0008] In the present application, the power supply circuit provides corresponding voltages for each power amplifier, so that the nonlinear characteristics of the multiple beams are consistent or approximately consistent, thereby offsetting the problem of distortion of nonlinear characteristics caused by changes in active impedance of the power amplifier.

[0009] In the present application, the power supply circuit provides corresponding voltages for each power amplifier, and the voltages correspond to the beams, so that in the scenario of transmitting multiple beams by the wireless communication system, the power supply voltage of each power amplifier can be adjusted according to the parameters of the corresponding beam, avoiding the problems of excessive supply voltage or insufficient supply voltage, and improving the utilization rate of system resources.

[0010] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a control circuit and the power supply circuit in the first aspect. The control circuit is configured to input control information to the power supply circuit. In this way, the present application controls the power supply circuit to supply power to each power amplifier of the plurality of power amplifiers respectively to adapt to the scenario of transmitting multiple beams by the wireless communication system, thereby improving the stability of beam transmission of the wireless communication system.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the control circuit is configured to determine the control information based on the beam power and the beam angle of each of the plurality of beams. In this way, the control circuit can determine the voltage value supplied by the power supply circuit to each power amplifier based on different beams (i.e., different beam angles and / or different beam powers), so as to provide a solution applicable to a wireless communication system with multiple beams, and enable the wireless communication system to stably transmit multiple beams while avoiding over-supply or under-supply of voltage, and enabling the nonlinear characteristics of the multiple beams to be consistent.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the control circuit is configured to determine the control information based on the beam power and the beam angle of each of the plurality of beams by using a corresponding relationship. The corresponding relationship includes the beam power, the beam angle, and the voltage of the power amplifier corresponding to each beam. In this way, the application can pre-obtain the supply voltage corresponding to different beam angles and different beam powers to form a corresponding relationship, for example, a lookup table, so that in actual application, the control circuit can determine the corresponding supply voltage for the current beam based on the pre-configured corresponding relationship.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a plurality of power amplifiers. In this way, the plurality of power amplifiers can be integrated into a chip together with the control circuit and the power supply circuit. Moreover, the power supply circuit supplies power to the plurality of power amplifiers respectively, so that the voltage drives each power amplifier to amplify the signal, and further enables the wireless communication system to transmit beams reaching a specified power.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes an antenna array including a plurality of antennas. The antenna array is configured to transmit a plurality of beams. In this way, the antenna array can be integrated into the same chip together with the control circuit and the power supply circuit. Moreover, the antenna array can transmit the signal amplified by the power amplifier in a specified beam direction.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a plurality of phase shift circuits. Each phase shift circuit is configured to receive a radio frequency signal and perform phase shift processing on the radio frequency signal to obtain a signal of one beam. In this way, the phase shift processing performed by the phase shift circuit on the signal can enable the signal to converge into one beam in the air interface, and realize beamforming.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a radio frequency signal generation circuit configured to receive a digital signal and generate a radio frequency signal based on the digital signal. In this way, the radio frequency signal generation circuit can perform corresponding processing on the digital signal. Exemplarily, the radio frequency signal generation circuit can include, but is not limited to, a DPD circuit, a digital-to-analog converter, a mixer, and the like.

[0017] In a third aspect, the present application provides an electronic device, comprising the communication device and the processor of any one of the second aspect and the second aspect, and the processor is configured to execute one or more computer programs to enable the electronic device to work.

[0018] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a control method, comprising: inputting control information from a control circuit to a power supply circuit. The power supply circuit receives the control information. The power supply circuit generates a plurality of voltages based on the control information, the plurality of voltages being used to supply power to a plurality of power amplifiers; wherein the plurality of power amplifiers are used to perform power amplification on signals of a plurality of beams of wireless communication, each voltage in the plurality of voltages corresponding to one power amplifier in the plurality of power amplifiers and corresponding to one beam in the plurality of beams.

[0019] In a possible implementation, before the control circuit inputs the control information to the power supply circuit, the method further comprises: the control circuit determines the control information based on the beam power and the beam angle of each beam in the plurality of beams.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the control circuit determines the control information based on the beam power and the beam angle of each beam in the plurality of beams, comprising: the control circuit determines the control information based on the beam power and the beam angle of each beam in the plurality of beams through a corresponding relationship; wherein the corresponding relationship comprises a corresponding relationship among the beam power, the beam angle and the voltage of the power amplifier corresponding to each beam. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a circuit structure;

[0022] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of PA efficiency;

[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of non-linear characteristics;

[0024] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of DPD technology;

[0025] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of APT and ET;

[0026] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of ABF or HBF transmission system architecture;

[0027] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of non-linear characteristics;

[0028] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a circuit structure;

[0029] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a test method flow;

[0030] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a circuit structure;

[0031] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an example subarray;

[0032] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of an example circuit structure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are some but not all of the embodiments of the present application.

[0034] First, the background technology related to the present application is briefly introduced as follows:

[0035] 1. DPD technology.

[0036] A power amplifier (PA) is a key device in a transmission link of a modern communication system. The main function of the PA is to amplify a small power signal processed by a front end to generate a signal satisfying a rated power level specified by a communication system standard. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example circuit structure. Referring to FIG. 1, a digital baseband circuit is coupled to a transmission link and a receiving link in the circuit. The transmission link includes, but is not limited to, a digital-analog convertor (DAC), a low-pass filter (LPF), a mixer (MX), a PA, and an antenna. The receiving link includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, a band-pass filter (BPF), a mixer, an LPF, and an analogue-to-digital conversion (ADC). Optionally, the circuit structure can further include a local oscillator (LO).

[0037] The PA is an energy converter that converts a direct current power fed in to the energy of a signal. For an energy converter, the most important index is efficiency. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of PA efficiency. Referring to FIG. 2, the power of an input signal of the PA is P_in, and the power of an output signal is P_out. The efficiency of the PA is the ratio of the output power to the input power.

[0038] In order to obtain optimal efficiency, a system designer usually requires the PA to work in a high-efficiency region, i.e., a large-signal saturation region. The PA usually presents a nonlinear gain characteristic in the large-signal region. For most commercial PAs, the gain characteristic even presents a very obvious and complex nonlinear characteristic in the entire signal power region, as shown in FIG. 3.

[0039] The DPD technology is an effective means to improve the linearity of the PA output signal. The basic principle is to perform digital pre-processing on the signal before power amplification, improve the linearity of the PA output signal, reduce the nonlinear distortion introduced by the PA, and thus improve the efficiency or output power of the PA. In theory, the DPD corresponding function should be the inverse function of the PA response function. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example DPD technology. Referring to FIG. 4, the basic DPD technology is to add a DPD circuit (which can also be referred to as a DPD module, which is not limited in the present application) before the PA. The DPD circuit can perform DPD (or DPD processing) on the signal input to the DPD circuit to compensate for the nonlinear characteristics of the PA, so that the signal output by the PA is linear. It can be understood that the distortion characteristics of the PA are fitted by a nonlinear behavior model (which can also be referred to as a DPD model), and the DPD circuit can obtain an inverse function corresponding to the nonlinear distortion characteristics of the PA. In this way, the input signal passes through two nonlinear modules with opposite characteristics, the DPD circuit and the PA, and their distortion characteristics cancel each other out, that is, the nonlinear characteristics of the DPD and the PA are opposite.

[0040] 2. Average Power Tracking (APT) or Envelope Tracking (ET) technology.

[0041] For a PA, especially in the terminal field or the millimeter wave field, its power consumption is often related to its supply voltage strength. Under the premise that the system gain, transmission power and linearity index requirements can be met, the smaller the supply of the PA, the lower the power consumption and the higher the efficiency. In practical applications, the transmission power is usually dynamic. For example, when a UE is at the edge of the cell, the transmission power is likely to need to be increased to ensure communication with the base station. At this time, the Vcc supply needs to be increased to ensure the output power of the PA. When the UE is at the center of the cell, the transmission power is often significantly lower than the cell edge scenario, and the Vcc can be lowered to reduce power consumption. Therefore, for the two scenarios, if a high-power voltage is used, the power consumption of the low-power scenario will be too large, causing unnecessary waste, which can be referred to as voltage excess. Conversely, it will cause the output of the high-power scenario to be substandard, that is, the problem of voltage deficiency occurs. To solve this problem, the industry usually uses Supply Modulation, that is, the supply voltage modulation technology. This technology is usually divided into APT and ET according to the speed of voltage tracking changes. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example APT and ET, please refer to FIG. 5, the APT technology adjusts according to the average power change of the signal, and the requirement for power supply modulation hardware is low. The ET technology directly tracks the envelope of the radio frequency signal, and in the case of large signal change amplitude, the envelope change amplitude of the supply voltage signal also increases, so the way of tracking the envelope significantly increases the requirement for power supply modulation hardware. This challenge is more obvious when the signal bandwidth increases.

[0042] In addition to reducing the radio frequency power consumption, the supply modulation technology also has a certain auxiliary effect on the system linearization scheme (such as DPD). Taking APT as an example, for a PA, its nonlinear characteristics are different under the condition of the same power supply but different transmit power, at which time multiple nonlinear functions are needed to represent. Correspondingly, the nonlinear function of the PA increases to multiple, and the nonlinear function of the DPD is opposite to its characteristics in order to cancel it out, so the system needs to adopt multiple sets of DPD coefficients that can adapt to multiple PAs, which will lead to an increase in system calibration difficulty and storage cost. By adjusting the Vcc of the PA under the low-power scenario, the difference between the mathematical models of the two states can be significantly reduced, so that the system can use one set of DPD coefficients to represent the two states, thereby reducing the system cost. Taking Figure 4 as an example, the nonlinear function of the DPD is opposite to the nonlinear function of the PA, and under the condition of the same voltage but different transmit power (for example, power backoff), the nonlinear function of the PA changes (that is, the nonlinear curve (also referred to as nonlinear characteristics) shown in Figure 4 is not the same), and the current nonlinear function of the DPD does not match (that is, it cannot be completely canceled out). One solution is to use another set of DPD coefficients that match the nonlinear characteristics (that is, the nonlinear curve) of the current PA, that is, the nonlinear characteristics of the DPD coefficients and the nonlinear characteristics of the current PA cancel each other out. Another solution is to increase or decrease the power of the PA through APT voltage regulation to compensate for the nonlinear characteristics of the PA, so that the compensated nonlinear characteristics are opposite to the original nonlinear characteristics of the DPD (that is, the nonlinear characteristics shown in Figure 4) (that is, they cancel each other out) without another set of DPD coefficients.

[0043] 3. Analog Beamforming (ABF) and Hybrid Beamforming (HBF).

[0044] With the development of 5G mobile communications, base stations with directional antennas are used, which use beamforming to direct energy towards specific users. To facilitate the rapid redirection of beams so that the beams can follow user movements, active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas have been put into use. AESA has various variants, such as digital beamforming antennas (DBF), analogue beamforming antennas (ABF), and antennas combining analogue beamforming and digital beamforming, commonly known as hybrid beamforming (HBF) antennas.

[0045] Analog beamforming is to adjust the phase of the antenna by processing the weight of the radio frequency signal through the phase shifter, and the processing position is relatively late. The characteristic of analog beamforming is that the number of baseband processing channels is much smaller than the number of antenna elements.

[0046] Digital beamforming is to process the weight of the antenna at the baseband module, and the number of baseband processing channels is equal to the number of antenna elements.

[0047] Hybrid beamforming combines the advantages of both, the number of baseband processing channels is significantly smaller than the number of analog antenna elements, the complexity is greatly reduced, the cost is reduced, and the system performance is close to that of full-digital beamforming, which is very suitable for high-frequency systems.

[0048] Figure 6 is an exemplary ABF or HBF transmission system architecture diagram. Referring to Figure 6, this architecture is commonly used in millimeter wave frequency band wireless communication systems or phased array radars. The characteristic of the ABF and HBF architecture is to use an analog phase shifter (also referred to as an analog phase shift circuit or a phase shift circuit, which is not limited in the present application) or other phase shift devices on each sub-path to rotate the phase of the signal, and the amplifier amplifies the phase-shifted radio frequency signal and outputs it to the antenna array, so that the energy of the final air interface output signal is concentrated in a certain direction, achieving the effect of beamforming.

[0049] Continuing to refer to Figure 6, the antenna array receives the signals input by each amplifier and transmits one or more beams. In the embodiments of the present application, the scenario of the antenna array transmitting one beam at the same time is described, and it should be noted that multiple beams can also apply the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, and the implementation manner is the same as that of a single beam, which will not be described again. For example, the communication device shown in Figure 6 can perform phase shift processing on the radio frequency signal through the phase shifter, and perform amplification processing on the phase-shifted radio frequency signal through the power amplifier, and then input to the antenna array. Correspondingly, the antenna array can emit beams with different powers and different angles, thereby realizing beam scanning. That is, as shown in Figure 6, the antenna array can transmit different beams at different times. The different beams mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can be optionally different in beam power and / or beam angle. For example, the antenna array of the communication device (also referred to as a wireless communication system) can transmit beams with different powers in the same direction, or the antenna array can transmit beams with the same power in different directions, or the antenna array can also transmit beams with different powers in different directions. The above scenarios can be realized by performing corresponding processing on the radio frequency signal through the phase shifter and the power amplifier, and the specific implementation manner can be referred to the description of the ATF and HBF system architecture, which will not be described again.

[0050] In the ABF or HBF architecture, one digital channel (or digital link, digital circuit, etc.) corresponds to one analog channel (or analog link or analog circuit, etc.). One analog channel is linked to multiple sub-channels containing independent receiving and transmitting sub-channels after up-conversion. Among them, the sub-channels can be transmitting channels (also referred to as transmitting links) or receiving channels (also referred to as receiving links).

[0051] As shown in FIG. 6, each transmitting sub-channel includes a phase shifter and a PA. Each receiving sub-channel (not shown in FIG. 6) includes a phase shifter and a low noise amplifier (LNA). Each sub-channel is coupled to an antenna (also referred to as an antenna element), and multiple antenna elements form an antenna array.

[0052] In embodiments of the present application, a group of antenna elements driven by a signal generated by a common source in the form of a single D / A converter (DAC) is referred to as a sub-array (also referred to as a sub-array for short). In some examples, each sub-channel and the antenna to which it is coupled can be referred to as a sub-array. In some examples, a radio frequency circuit and multiple sub-channels (including transmitting sub-channels and receiving sub-channels) connected thereto and corresponding antennas can also be referred to as a sub-array. In other examples, a sub-array can refer to at least one sub-array in an antenna array, and the present application does not limit the same.

[0053] 4. ABF or HBF wireless system and corresponding DPD system scheme.

[0054] For different power amplifier individuals in the same system, the nonlinear transfer functions exhibited from input to output can be different. The variation between power amplifier dies and the end-to-end variation are caused by the differences in the commonly used semiconductor component manufacturing and process, or by the differences in temperature on the array, or by the differences in component aging rates. These are inevitable differences between different PAs, and therefore, the nonlinear transfer functions of these PAs are not exactly the same. Taking HBF as an example, as shown in FIG. 7, in the HBF array system, one digital data stream is used for each sub-array, and the same signal is input to multiple power amplifiers. Since a single compensation function of DPD cannot linearize the different nonlinear functions of all PAs at the same time. Therefore, when measuring the signal in the air interface in front of the antenna, the effect of distortion cancellation is not ideal.

[0055] In addition, in the array antenna, the coupling between the antenna units combined with the large-angle beam steering in the beam scanning process can cause the reverse power to enter the output end of the power amplifier. The power is coupled from all the simultaneously transmitting antenna units to one antenna unit. The influence varies with the beam angle excitation and is manifested as a rapid and dynamic change of the complex load impedance of each amplifier. Since the load impedance of the power amplifier can affect its nonlinear transfer function, this further increases the differences between the power amplifiers and changes the conditions of the DPD. The influence of the active load on certain power amplifiers on the array is greater than that on other amplifiers, depending on the beam steering angle. Therefore, if the system only uses a set of DPD coefficients (which can also be understood as a set of DPD models), the pre-distorter can be seriously misled and even reduced in performance.

[0056] To solve the above problems, the prior art mainly sets multiple sets of DPD coefficients to eliminate the influence of the active impedance of the PA. However, due to the differences between different PAs and the differences in different angles in the beam scanning process, a large number of DPD coefficients need to be configured, the storage amount is large, and the calibration difficulty is increased.

[0057] The present application provides a power supply circuit, a communication device and an electronic device using the communication device. The power supply circuit can provide voltage for multiple PAs in the beam scanning scene, so that the communication system can stably transmit beams through voltage regulation.

[0058] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary circuit structure. Referring to FIG. 8, the circuit includes but is not limited to a pre-stage processing circuit, a DPD circuit, a control circuit, a radio frequency processing circuit, a power supply circuit and multiple transmission sub-channels.

[0059] The input end of the control circuit is coupled to the pre-stage processing circuit, and the output end of the control circuit is coupled to the input interface (which can also be referred to as the input end or the input port) of the power supply circuit.

[0060] The power supply circuit is coupled to the multiple PAs. The channel to which the control circuit and the power supply circuit belong can be referred to as a voltage control channel or a power supply channel.

[0061] The input of the DPD circuit is coupled to the pre-stage processing circuit, and the output of the DPD circuit is coupled to the radio frequency processing circuit. The pre-stage circuit can include some circuits in the baseband, and the radio frequency processing circuit can include a DAC and the like, which are not limited in the present application. The radio frequency processing circuit is coupled to a plurality of sending sub-channels. Each sending sub-channel includes a phase shifter (which can also be referred to as a phase shift circuit or an analog phase shift circuit, which is not limited in the present application) and a PA. Each sending sub-channel is coupled to an antenna (which can also be referred to as an antenna unit), and a plurality of antenna units form an antenna array. Optionally, the circuits before the sub-channels can also be referred to as radio frequency signal generation circuits, which are used to receive digital signals and generate radio frequency signals based on the digital signals.

[0062] In some examples, the control circuit and the DPD and the pre-stage processing circuit can be integrated on the same chip or on different chips. The power supply circuit can be, for example, a separate chip. The power supply circuit can provide an input interface and an output interface, so as to receive the control signal (or control information) input by the control circuit through the input interface, and output the voltage through the output interface. The radio frequency processing circuit and the sub-channels can be integrated on the same chip or on different chips.

[0063] In some examples, the control circuit and the power supply circuit are integrated on the same chip, and the control circuit provides an input interface for receiving the control information input by the pre-stage processing circuit. The control circuit can input the control information to the power supply circuit through the input interface of the power supply circuit. The power supply circuit outputs the voltage through the output port. The DPD and the pre-stage processing circuit are integrated on the same or different chips, and the radio frequency processing circuit and the sub-channels can be integrated on the same chip or on different chips.

[0064] In some examples, the control circuit and the DPD and the pre-stage processing circuit can be integrated on the same chip or on different chips. The power supply circuit can be integrated inside the PA, and the output interface of each power supply circuit can receive the control information input by the control circuit.

[0065] In the embodiments of the present application, the power supply circuit can be an overall circuit for supplying power to each of the plurality of PAs. In some examples, the power supply circuit can also include a plurality of sub-power supply circuits inside, and each sub-power supply circuit is used to supply power to a corresponding PA.

[0066] In the embodiments of the present application, the power supply circuit can provide the same size of power supply for the plurality of PAs, that is, the sizes of the plurality of voltages provided for each PA are the same. However, more commonly, the power supply circuit can also provide different sizes of power supply for the plurality of PAs, that is, the voltages provided for each PA can not be the same (which can be understood as not completely the same, or not completely the same).

[0067] In the embodiments of the present application, a set of antenna elements driven by signals generated by a common source in the form of a single D / A converter (DAC) is referred to as a subarray, for example, one subarray is shown in FIG. 8. In one example, the wireless communication system can include one or more subarrays. In another example, the wireless communication system can be provided with one or more control circuits, each subarray can correspond to one control circuit, or multiple subarrays can correspond to one control circuit. A single control circuit is used to control the power supply circuit to supply power to each PA in the one or more subarrays corresponding thereto.

[0068] The implementation of the present application mainly includes two parts, the first part is the test phase, and the second part is the use phase. Alternatively, the test phase can also be referred to as the production line phase or the laboratory phase, which is used to generate the correspondence between the beam and the voltage. The use phase is the online business use scenario of the chip, circuit or communication device.

[0069] The above two phases will be described in detail below.

[0070] Test phase:

[0071] In the embodiments of the present application, the test phase is tested according to different beam angles and array specifications to obtain the voltage mapping relationship under different beams and different array specifications. Alternatively, the array specification can include two modes of uniform voltage regulation or distributed voltage regulation. The uniform voltage regulation mode is that the power supply circuit outputs multiple voltages of the same size for multiple PAs, that is, the power supply circuit outputs multiple voltages of the same size for each PA. The distributed voltage regulation mode is that the power supply circuit provides multiple voltages of different sizes for each PA.

[0072] Alternatively, as described above, the wireless communication system can include one or more subarrays. In the scenario where the wireless communication system includes multiple subarrays, the uniform voltage regulation mode described in the present application can be for all subarrays, that is, the multiple voltages received by all PAs in the multiple subarrays of the wireless communication system are of the same size. In one example, the distributed voltage regulation mode can be adjusted in units of subarrays, that is, the power supply circuit outputs multiple voltages of the same size for each PA in a single subarray, and the supply voltage sizes corresponding to different subarrays can not be the same. In another example, the distributed voltage regulation mode can also be adjusted for PAs, that is, the power supply circuit can provide multiple voltages of different sizes for each PA.

[0073] In the embodiments of the present application, the voltage mapping relationship can include the correspondence between the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage. The voltage mapping relationship can also include the correspondence between the DPD coefficient, the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage. Alternatively, the above correspondence can be stored in the form of a lookup table (also referred to as a correspondence table), and each table entry in the lookup table is used to record the correspondence between a set of beam angles, beam powers and voltages. The test stages corresponding to different scenarios are described in detail below.

[0074] First, the test scenario of the subarray unified voltage regulation mode is described.

[0075] In this example, the antenna array can be a spliced array (i.e., multiple independent subarrays spliced together) or a whole antenna array. The power supply of the PA of all subarrays is uniformly adjusted by the power supply circuit. FIG. 9 is an exemplary flowchart of a test method, and please refer to FIG. 9, which specifically includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0076] S901, obtaining the correspondence table of the power and the voltage of the normal beam direction.

[0077] Exemplarily, the computer device (which can also be referred to as an electronic device, a test device, etc., which is not limited in the present application) can control the communication device (which can also be referred to as a wireless communication system, which is not limited in the present application) to send a beam in the normal direction. Alternatively, the normal direction can be determined according to different antenna arrays, for example, the normal direction of the circularly polarized antenna plane is the propagation direction of the circularly polarized electromagnetic wave, which is not limited in the present application.

[0078] Exemplarily, as described above, the wireless communication transmission beam is formed by the phase shifters performing phase shift on the signal and converging on the air interface. The computer device can control the baseband circuit in the wireless communication system to control the phase shifters to perform phase shift on the signal, so that the antenna array transmits the normal beam. Wherein, each PA performs power amplification on the received phase-shifted radio frequency signal and outputs it to the antenna array.

[0079] Alternatively, in the scenario of sending the normal beam, the weight corresponding to each phase shifter is optionally 0.

[0080] For example, the computer device controls the power of the normal beam output by the wireless communication system to perform power backoff, so as to obtain the corresponding power calibration codeword and voltage value. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, the wireless communication system transmits a normal beam, the beam angle is a first angle, the beam power is a first power, and the voltage value supplied by the power supply circuit to each PA is a first voltage. The computer device controls the wireless communication system to perform power backoff, that is, the wireless communication system transmits a normal beam, the beam angle is the first angle, the beam power is a second power, the second power is less than the first power, and the voltage value supplied by the power supply circuit to each PA is a second voltage. The second voltage is optionally less than the first voltage. In the above manner, the computer device controls the wireless communication system to continue to perform power backoff until the power backoff is 0 (of course, it can also be other values, which can be set according to actual needs, and the present application is not limited). The computer device can obtain the voltage values corresponding to different powers of the normal beam (that is, the beam angle is the first angle). The computer device records the correspondence between the first angle, the power, and the voltage. In the embodiment of the present application, the correspondence can be recorded in the form of a list, and in other embodiments, it can also be in other forms, which are not limited in the present application.

[0081] For example, as shown in FIG. 10, assuming that the maximum output power (referring to the power of the signal (that is, the beam) output) of the wireless communication system is 23 dBm (the value is only illustrative, and the present application is not limited), the computer device can perform power backoff according to a preset amplitude (which can be set according to actual needs, and the present application is not limited), for example, the beam power corresponding to the normal beam is 23 dBm, 22 dBm, 21 dBm, …, 0 dBm. The computer device obtains the power calibration codeword and the voltage value corresponding to different powers of the normal beam. The power calibration codeword is used to indicate the output power (referring to the power of the signal output by each device) of each device in front of the antenna array, and can also be understood as the input power (referring to the power of the signal input into the antenna array) of the antenna array.

[0082] For example, the computer device establishes a correspondence table of the beam angle, the power, the power calibration codeword, and the voltage, wherein, in the embodiment of the present application, only a list is taken as an example for illustration, and in other embodiments, it can also be in other forms, which are not limited in the present application, as shown in Table 1:

[0083] Table 1

[0084] The computer device can control the voltage value output by the power supply circuit through the control circuit, so that the normal beam (that is, the beam angle is 0) reaches a specified power value, and records the corresponding voltage value and power calibration codeword.

[0085] For example, assume that the output power of the specified antenna array in the normal beam direction is 23 dBm, and the corresponding power supply circuit provides a voltage of 5 V to each PA. The input power of the antenna array corresponds to a power calibration code word of 13 (e.g., the power of the phase shifter) + 10 (e.g., the output power of the PA). The computer device records the correspondence between the output power (also referred to as the power of the beam or the power of the transmitted signal) of the antenna array 23 dBm, the power calibration code word (13 + 10), and the voltage (5 V). The computer device continues to control the wireless communication system to adjust the output power in the normal beam direction to 21 dBm, and the computer device can record the correspondence as: output power 21 dBm, power calibration code word (12 + 10), and voltage (4.9 V).

[0086] Alternatively, as described above, the beam angle change is caused by the phase shift of the signal by the phase shifter, and therefore, the beam angle described in the embodiments of the present application is represented using the weight of each phase shifter. That is, the computer device can record the correspondence between the weight of the phase shifter (e.g., a matrix formed by the corresponding weight of each phase shifter), the power, the power calibration code word, and the voltage.

[0087] S902, obtaining a correspondence table of powers and voltages in different beam directions.

[0088] For example, the computer device obtains a correspondence table of different powers and voltages, power calibration code words in different beam directions. Specifically, the wireless communication system transmits a second beam, and the beam angle of the second beam is a second angle (also referred to as a second beam angle). The computer device controls the wireless communication system to perform power backoff. For example, during the power backoff process, the computer device takes the power of the normal beam as the target power, and the wireless communication system adjusts the voltage supplied to the PA so that the second beam can reach the target power during power backoff. The computer device obtains the voltage value corresponding to the target power during power backoff, and records the correspondence between the second angle, the power, and the voltage. In this way, the wireless communication system transmits different beams at third, fourth, and other angles, and performs power backoff. The computer device obtains the correspondence between the beam angle, the beam power, and the voltage of different beams.

[0089] For example, the wireless communication system transmits a beam in a specified beam direction, and adjusts the voltage to adjust the beam power to a target power. The target power can be set to 23 dBm, 22 dBm, 21 dBm, 0 dBm, etc., and can be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in the present application.

[0090] For example, the specified beam direction can be set according to actual requirements, for example, in the embodiment of the present application, the specified beam can be a 120-degree beam scanning range, and every 10 degrees is a specified beam. That is, the computer device can obtain a corresponding beam and its corresponding correspondence table every 10 degrees. That is, the computer device can obtain 12 different beam direction corresponding correspondence tables. Of course, if the interval between the beams corresponding to the obtained correspondence table is large, in the use scenario, if the actual beam direction does not fall into the test data, for example, the test data includes a 60-degree direction beam corresponding correspondence table and a 70-degree direction corresponding correspondence table, and the actual use beam direction can be between 60 degrees and 70 degrees, the correspondence table corresponding to the beam angle with the smallest difference value is used to adjust the voltage of the beam.

[0091] Specifically, still referring to FIG. 10, the computer device controls the wireless communication system to emit a beam in a second beam direction (for example, with an angle of 45° with the normal beam). For example, the computer device can control the power supply circuit to supply power to each PA according to the voltage value of the normal beam, and detect whether the antenna array output power reaches the power value of the normal beam under the same voltage. If it is reached, the corresponding relationship can be recorded, and if it is not reached, the voltage value can be adjusted (for example, increased) and the power calibration code word is increased, so that the output signal in the beam direction reaches the target power (that is, the power value of the normal beam at the voltage).

[0092] For example, the power of the normal beam in Table 1 is 23dBm, the voltage is 5V, and the power calibration codeword is 13+10. The power supply circuit supplies a voltage of 5V to each PA, and the wireless communication system transmits a beam in the second beam direction (for example, 45°). The computer device obtains the power of the beam in the second beam direction. If the power reaches the target power (i.e., 23dBm), the corresponding relationship is recorded. If the target power is not reached, the supply voltage of each PA and the power calibration codeword of the PA can be gradually increased until the output power reaches the target power, and the corresponding relationship is recorded. For example, the computer device gradually adjusts the output voltage of the power supply circuit to 5.2V, and the power calibration codeword is adjusted to 10. Among them, after the beam changes, the power calibration codeword of the PA may be lower than the value corresponding to the normal beam. For example, the power calibration codeword of the PA corresponding to the normal beam is 10, and the power calibration codeword of the PA may be reduced to 8 in the case of changing the beam angle and keeping the voltage unchanged (for example, 5V). At the same time, the computer device gradually increases the power calibration codeword of the PA, for example, by 1 each time (which can be set according to actual needs, and the present application is not limited). When the voltage is adjusted to 5.2V, the value of the power calibration codeword of the PA after the increase may be equal to the value corresponding to the normal direction (which can also be different, which is only for example, and the present application is not limited), that is, still 10. The computer device records the corresponding relationship of the second beam direction (for example, the weights of each phase shifter, which may be different), the beam power, the power calibration codeword, and the voltage, for example, as shown in Table 2:

[0093] Table 2

[0094] Alternatively, the computer device can also only record the voltage increment between the current beam and the normal beam when recording the voltage. For example, when the target power is 23dBm, the computer device only records the voltage increment value (which can also be referred to as the voltage compensation value) as 0.2V. In this way, during use, the control circuit can determine the voltage value corresponding to the first beam direction according to the voltage corresponding to the normal beam and the voltage increment corresponding to the first beam under the same power, that is, the sum of the voltage value corresponding to the normal beam and the voltage increment.

[0095] For the above-mentioned mode, it can be understood that the smaller the power supply of the PA is, the lower the power consumption is, and the higher the efficiency is. In the beam scanning process, the power of the PA is dynamically changed. For example, when the beam is in the normal direction, the supply voltage is 5V, which can make the antenna array emit a 23dBm beam in the normal direction. When the beam is at an angle of 45 degrees or more, the supply voltage is also 5V, and the power of the beam emitted by the antenna array can be 20dBm. The supply voltage may be insufficient, resulting in insufficient transmission power. Conversely, assuming that the beam angle is 45 degrees, the supply voltage is 5.2V, and the power of the beam emitted by the antenna array can reach 23dBm, but if the voltage is still used to send the beam in the normal direction, the problem of excessive voltage will occur. To solve this problem, the present application obtains the voltage value corresponding to different beams (i.e. different beam angles and beam powers) in the test stage, and in the actual use stage, the electronic equipment (or communication device) can adapt the corresponding voltage according to the demand of the wireless communication system for the beam power and / or the beam angle, and adjust the supply voltage of the power supply circuit for each PA, so that the wireless communication system can emit a beam with a specified power at a specified beam angle. Avoid the problem of excessive voltage or insufficient voltage in the beam scanning process.

[0096] S903, based on the nonlinear characteristics of the beam, optimizing the correspondence table.

[0097] In the embodiments of the present application, the correspondence table obtained in S901 and S902 can also be referred to as the corresponding relationship between the basic power and the supply voltage. It can be understood that if the power supply circuit supplies power to the PA according to the voltage in the correspondence table, the beam emitted by the wireless communication system can reach the specified power, which can also be referred to as the basic power. The optimized correspondence table can be the lookup table mentioned earlier, which is used for final communication use.

[0098] In the embodiments of the present application, by adjusting the supply voltage to enable the wireless communication system to stably emit signals, the supply voltage can be further adjusted to enable the wireless communication system to output the nonlinear curves of each beam of the antenna array to be approximately consistent when using the same set of DPD coefficients. That is, in the experimental stage, the embodiments of the present application can obtain the corresponding relationship between the power (i.e. beam power) and the voltage based on the nonlinear characteristics (or nonlinear characteristics) of the synthesis (i.e. beam) of the PA output signal in the air interface as the calibration target, i.e. obtain the voltage compensation value of the beam domain DPD. In the embodiments of the present application, the nonlinear characteristics of the beam emitted by the antenna array can also be referred to as the nonlinear characteristics of the air interface signal, which is the ratio of the power (i.e. output power) of the air interface signal to the power (i.e. input power) of the baseband signal (which can also be the power of the radio frequency signal before inputting each sub-channel).

[0099] Specifically, the computer device can set a target nonlinear characteristic, so as to fine-tune the voltage in each corresponding relationship table, so that the nonlinear characteristics of the plurality of beams meet (or satisfy) the target nonlinear characteristic, which can also be understood as the nonlinear characteristics of the plurality of beams reaching consistency (or approximate consistency).

[0100] For example, the computer device can set the nonlinear characteristic of the beam with a beam power of 25 dBm and a voltage of 5V as the target nonlinear characteristic, so as to adjust the voltage corresponding to different powers of each beam, so that the nonlinear curves of each beam at different beam powers are consistent with the target nonlinear curve. Of course, in some examples, the computer device can also set the nonlinear characteristic corresponding to any power of any beam as the target nonlinear characteristic, which is not limited in the present application.

[0101] Specifically, in the normal beam direction, the computer device performs DPD algorithm parameter calculation to obtain the DPD parameters in the normal beam direction. The DPD parameter calculation method can use adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLRA) and error vector magnitude (EVM), which is not limited in the present application.

[0102] In the case that the wireless communication system uses the DPD parameters (which can also be referred to as DPD model or DPD coefficient, which is not limited in the present application), the computer device optimizes and adjusts the voltage value (for the purpose of distinguishing the optimized voltage, the present application refers to the voltage value before optimization as the basic voltage value (which can also be referred to as basic mapping voltage value)) in the corresponding relationship table (for example, table 1) of the normal direction beam, so that the nonlinear curves of the normal direction beam under power backoff are approximately consistent.

[0103] For example, the computer device can calculate the DPD parameter corresponding to the normal beam with the beam power of 23 dBm in Table 1, and the DPD parameter can be represented as F(x(n)). The computer device can use the DPD parameter to adjust the voltage so that the nonlinear characteristics of the normal beams with different powers are consistent (or approximately consistent) in the case of power backoff of the normal beam. For example, in the case of power backoff of the normal beam to 22 dBm, the corresponding voltage value is 5.2 V and the voltage compensation value (or can be referred to as the voltage increment value) is 0.2 V in Table 1. As described above, the voltage increment value is the difference between the voltage after power backoff and the voltage corresponding to the power of 23 dBm. The power supply circuit adjusts the supply voltage, and detects the nonlinear characteristics of the beams emitted by the antenna array. If the difference between the nonlinear characteristics of the beam and the target nonlinear characteristics (for example, the nonlinear characteristics corresponding to the normal beam with the power of 23 dBm) is greater than a threshold value, that is, the difference between the two nonlinear characteristics is large, the supply voltage is continuously adjusted (may be increased or decreased, which is not limited in the present application), until the difference between the nonlinear characteristics of the beam and the target nonlinear characteristics is less than or equal to the threshold value (the threshold value can be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in the present application), that is, the two nonlinear characteristics are approximately consistent. For example, in the case of power backoff of the normal beam to 22 dBm, the computer device adjusts the supply voltage of the power supply circuit for each PA, and when the supply voltage is adjusted from 4.9 V in Table 1 to 4.7 V, the computer device detects that the nonlinear characteristics of the beam are approximately consistent with the target nonlinear characteristics. The computer device records that the voltage value corresponding to the 22 dBm normal beam is 4.7 V when the DPD parameter is F(x(n)). Of course, as described above, the computer device can also record only the voltage increment value, for example, -0.3 V. The computer device adjusts the voltage in the above manner to make the nonlinear characteristics of the beams corresponding to different powers consistent with the target nonlinear characteristics.

[0104] In the same way, the computer device performs power backoff on each beam to obtain the voltage value corresponding to different powers of each beam, so that the nonlinear characteristics corresponding to different beams (including different beam angles and / or different beam powers) are approximately consistent, that is, consistent or approximately consistent with the target nonlinear characteristics, as shown in Table 3:

[0105] Table 3

[0106] As shown in Table 3, for example, taking the 45° angle beam as an example, in Table 2, the voltage value corresponding to the 23dBm power of the beam is 5.2V, in the case of DPD coefficient F(x(n)), the computer device adjusts the supply voltage of the power supply circuit from 5.2V, when the supply voltage is adjusted to 4.9V, it is detected that the nonlinear characteristics of the antenna array beam are consistent with the target nonlinear characteristics, and then the voltage value corresponding to the 45° angle beam and 23dBm is recorded as 5.1V. That is, in the use scenario, when the power supply circuit supplies each PA with a voltage of 5.1V, the beam angle of the antenna array beam is 45°, the power can reach 23dBm, and the nonlinear curve can meet the target nonlinear curve. Moreover, during the beam scanning process, as the beam angle and power change, the power supply circuit can provide corresponding voltages for each PA, so that the nonlinear characteristics of each beam output by the antenna array remain consistent, that is, the target nonlinear characteristics are met.

[0107] In a possible implementation, if the predetermined algorithm performance cannot be obtained through voltage adjustment, which can also be understood as the difference between the nonlinear characteristics of the beam and the target nonlinear characteristics is large, the DPD coefficient of this state can be recalculated, and the voltage of the DPD coefficient scene in this state can be adjusted to achieve the predetermined algorithm performance. For example, taking the beam angle of 80° and the power of 19dBm as an example, in this state, the computer device cannot obtain the predetermined algorithm performance through voltage traversal. Then the computer device recalculates the DPD coefficient in this state, i.e., the beam angle of 80° and the power of 19dBm, for example, the obtained DPD coefficient is denoted as F'(x(n)). The computer device can traverse the voltage in this state based on the method described above until the predetermined algorithm performance is achieved, that is, the nonlinear characteristics of the transmitted beam meet the target nonlinear characteristics. It can be understood that if the wireless communication system has only one set of DPD coefficients, the corresponding relationship of the DPD coefficients does not need to be recorded in the test phase, and correspondingly, in the use phase, the control circuit can determine the corresponding voltage value based on the beam angle and the beam power. In some examples, the wireless communication system can correspond to multiple sets of DPD coefficients, and correspondingly, in the test phase, the computer device can record the corresponding relationship between the DPD coefficients while recording the corresponding relationship between the beam power, the beam angle and the voltage (which can also be a voltage compensation value), as shown in Table 4, so that in the use phase, the control circuit can determine the corresponding voltage value based on the DPD parameter, the beam angle and the beam power.

[0108] Table 4

[0109] The test scenario of the subarray distributed voltage adjustment is described as follows:

[0110] In the embodiments of the present application, the antenna array can be a patch array, that is, composed of multiple sub-arrays, and each sub-array (may also be at least one) is independently powered. It can be understood that each PA (may also be at least one PA, which will not be repeated hereinafter) in the multiple PAs can be independently powered. In this example, the power supply circuit can provide different voltage values to each PA to achieve differentiated adjustment of PA power supply, thereby improving the degree of freedom of voltage adjustment, and further improving the consistency of the nonlinear characteristics of the beam and the power consumption benefit.

[0111] In this scenario, as described above, the wireless communication system performs phase shift processing on the radio frequency signal through the phase shifter, which can make the energy of the final air interface output signal concentrated in a certain direction, thereby achieving the effect of beam forming. Alternatively, the weights of each phase shifter can be different. For example, if the beam direction is the normal direction, the weights of each phase shifter are 0, so that the air interface output signal is concentrated in the normal direction to emit a normal direction beam. If the beam direction is 45 degrees, the weights of the phase shifters can be 20, 0, 40, and 80 respectively (only for illustrative purposes), so that the air interface output signal is concentrated in the 45-degree direction to emit a beam with an angle of 45 degrees with the normal beam. Because the weights of different phase shifters are different, the distortion degree of the nonlinear characteristics of each PA is also different, resulting in different nonlinear characteristics of the signals output by the antenna elements corresponding to the PAs. The computer device in the embodiments of the present application can determine the corresponding voltage value for each PA according to different beam angles (which can be specific to the weights of each phase shifter) and beam powers, to further improve the consistency of the nonlinear characteristics of the antenna transmitting beam.

[0112] The steps performed by the computer device for testing can still refer to FIG. 9. In the process of performing S901, obtaining the corresponding relationship table of the power, power calibration codeword, and voltage of the normal beam direction, the computer device can obtain the corresponding relationship of the beam angle, beam power, power calibration codeword, and voltage corresponding to each PA. Specifically, still taking FIG. 10 as an example, the system includes three PAs, denoted as PA1, PA2, and PA3. In the scenario of the antenna array outputting a normal beam, the beam angle corresponding to each PA is the weight of the phase shifter coupled to the PA, for example, all 0. When the output voltage is 5V, the computer device obtains the nonlinear characteristics of the antenna array transmitting beam as the target nonlinear characteristics. Similar to the uniform voltage regulation scenario, the computer device performs power backoff on the normal beam and obtains the corresponding voltage value. For example, Table 5 is the corresponding relationship between the beam angle (that is, the phase shifter weight), beam power, and voltage of PA1 corresponding to the normal beam, and Table 6 is the corresponding relationship between the beam angle (that is, the phase shifter weight), beam power, and voltage of PA2 corresponding to the normal beam.

[0113] Table 5 Table 5

[0114] Table 6

[0115] Exemplarily, the computer device can set a list for each PA, and the computer device can also record the correspondence between the PA in the list, which is not limited in the present application.

[0116] The computer device performs S902, that is, obtaining a correspondence table of power, power calibration codeword and voltage of different beam directions. The computer device can adjust the voltage so that the power of the beam under different beam angles can reach the target power. For example, taking the beam angle of the antenna array transmitting beam as 45 degrees, the weight of the phase shifter of PA1 (that is, the corresponding beam angle of PA1) is 20, the weight of the phase shifter of PA2 is 0, and the weight of the phase shifter of PA3 is 40. When the computer device adjusts the power supply of PA1 to 5.2V, the power supply of PA2 to 5.3V, and the power supply of PA3 to 5.1V (the numerical value is only illustrative, which is not limited in the present application), the computer device detects that the beam power reaches the target power, that is, 23dBm. The computer device performs power backoff on the beam with a beam angle of 45 degrees, and adjusts the voltage to obtain the corresponding voltage value after power backoff of different PAs. The computer device can update the correspondence table of PA1, PA2 and PA3. Taking PA1 and PA2 as examples, the results are shown in Table 7 and Table 8:

[0117] Table 7

[0118] Table 8

[0119] Exemplarily, the computer device performs S903, and optimizes the correspondence table based on the nonlinear characteristics of the beam. Specifically, the computer device can further adjust the voltage value of different beams (that is, different beam angles and / or different power) based on the nonlinear curve of the beam, so that the nonlinear curves of the beams are approximately consistent. The implementation manner can refer to the uniform voltage regulation mode, which is not repeated here.

[0120] In a possible implementation manner, since the distributed voltage regulation mode has large freedom, the efficiency of voltage regulation by traversal mode is low, and the computer device can set an algorithm efficient search engine to complete the most voltage search. The algorithm can be set according to actual needs, which is not limited in the present application.

[0121] In the embodiments of the present application, the computer device can control the power supply circuit to adjust the supply voltage by running a computer program to output a corresponding control signal to the power supply circuit. Alternatively, the computer device can also output a control signal to the control circuit, so that the control circuit outputs a control signal to the power supply circuit for adjusting the voltage. The present application does not make any limitation.

[0122] In a possible implementation, the unified voltage regulation mode can also be similar to the distributed voltage regulation mode, and each PA corresponds to a lookup table. The present application does not make any limitation.

[0123] The communication use stage (which can also be referred to as the application stage) will be described in detail below.

[0124] For example, after the computer device obtains the correspondence between the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage, or the correspondence between the DPD parameter, the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage in the test stage, the computer device can store the correspondence in the form of a lookup table in the memory of the control circuit of the circuit or built-in the control circuit, so that the control circuit obtains the lookup table from the internal circuit or by reading the memory, and finds the corresponding voltage value based on the lookup table.

[0125] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary circuit structure. Please refer to FIG. 12. The circuit structure shown in FIG. 12 can be described with reference to FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here. The power supply voltage control method of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 12. The front-end processing circuit inputs a first control signal (which can also be referred to as control information) to the control circuit. The first control signal is used to indicate the beam angle and the beam power of the beam transmitted by the antenna array, or the first control signal can also be used to indicate the beam angle, the beam power and the currently used DPD coefficient. In the embodiments of the present application, as described above, the change of the beam angle is actually realized by the phase shifter to perform phase shift processing on the signal. The representation of the beam angle can be the weight of the phase shifter. For example, the beam angle can include the weights corresponding to all phase shifters. The representation of the beam angle can be set according to actual needs, and the present application does not make any limitation. Alternatively, the beam angle, the beam power and the DPD coefficient can also be collectively referred to as beam information.

[0126] The control circuit receives the first control signal. The control circuit determines the voltage value supplied by the power supply circuit to each PA for each beam in one or more beams.

[0127] Specifically, the control circuit determines the voltage value based on the beam angle and the beam power corresponding to the beam, or determines the voltage value based on the DPD coefficient, the beam angle and the beam power corresponding to the beam. For example, the control circuit stores a correspondence relationship between the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage (e.g., the lookup table described above), or a correspondence relationship between the DPD parameter, the beam angle, the beam power and the voltage. The control circuit can determine the voltage value corresponding to each PA based on the beam angle and the beam power corresponding to each of the one or more beams indicated by the first control signal, or the beam angle, the beam power and the DPD coefficient, and the stored correspondence relationship. Alternatively, the plurality of beams described in the embodiments of the present application can refer to a plurality of beams transmitted simultaneously, and / or a plurality of beams transmitted at different time instants. For example, in the process of beam scanning, the wireless communication system transmits a first beam at a first time instant and transmits a second beam at a second time instant, and the beam angle and / or the beam power of the first beam and the second beam are different.

[0128] In one example, if the array is in the uniform voltage regulation mode, the control circuit can determine, through the lookup table, that the power supply circuit provides a plurality of voltages of the same size (which can also be referred to as a uniform voltage value) for all PAs. For example, the control circuit can determine, based on Table 3 or Table 4, that when the beam power is 23 dBm and the beam angle is normal (i.e., the beam angle is normal), the corresponding voltage value is 5V, that is, the plurality of voltages output by the power supply circuit, that is, the voltage provided for each PA is 5V. In another example, if the array is in the distributed voltage regulation mode, the control circuit can determine, through the lookup table, the voltage value corresponding to each PA. For example, the control circuit can determine, based on the correspondence relationship table of PA1, the correspondence relationship table of PA2 and the correspondence relationship table of PA3, that when the beam angle is 45 degrees and the beam power is 23 dBm, the voltage value corresponding to PA1 is 5.1V, the voltage value corresponding to PA2 is 4.6V, and the voltage value corresponding to PA3 is 4.7V (the values are only illustrative examples). Correspondingly, the power supply circuit supplies 5.1V to PA1, 4.6V to PA2 and 4.7V to PA3.

[0129] Still referring to FIG. 12, the control circuit inputs a second control signal to the power supply circuit, and the second control signal is used to indicate the voltage value. In one example, if it is in the uniform voltage regulation mode, the second control signal can indicate a plurality of voltage values (the plurality of voltage values have the same value) or can indicate one voltage value. In another example, if it is in the distributed voltage regulation mode, the second control signal is used to indicate the power supply voltage corresponding to each PA.

[0130] In a possible implementation, the power supply circuit can internally include a plurality of sub-power supply circuits, each of which is configured to supply power to one PA, and the control circuit can send a second control signal to each power supply circuit, which is configured to indicate the voltage value required by the sub-power supply circuit to supply to the PA. Optionally, the sub-power supply circuits can be integrated together, or can be independent, or can be integrated in the PA, which is not limited in the present application.

[0131] The power supply circuit receives the second control signal. The power supply circuit supplies a corresponding voltage to the PA coupled thereto based on the voltage value indicated by the second control signal. In one example, if it is a unified voltage regulation mode, the power supply circuit supplies a voltage with the same size to each PA according to the voltage value indicated by the second control signal. In another example, if it is a distributed voltage regulation mode, the power supply circuit supplies power to each PA based on the voltage value corresponding to the PA. For example, each sub-circuit in the power supply circuit can obtain a corresponding voltage value, and the voltage value obtained by each sub-circuit can be different. Each sub-circuit can supply a voltage to one PA coupled thereto based on the obtained voltage value.

[0132] Please continue to refer to FIG. 12. The DPD circuit receives a first signal input by the pre-stage processing circuit, which is optionally a baseband signal. The DPD circuit performs pre-distortion processing on the first signal based on the DPD coefficient (or DPD model) to generate a second signal. The DPD circuit inputs the second signal to the radio frequency processing circuit. The radio frequency processing circuit processes the second signal to generate a radio frequency signal. For example, the radio frequency processing circuit includes a DAC circuit, a low-pass filter, and a mixer, wherein the DAC circuit is configured to perform digital-to-analog conversion on the signal, the low-pass filter is configured to filter the signal, and the mixer is configured to mix the signal. The radio frequency processing circuit inputs the radio frequency signal to each sub-path. FIG. 12 only takes one sub-path as an example for description, and other sub-paths are processed in the same manner.

[0133] Each phase shifter receives the radio frequency signal. The phase shifter performs phase shift processing on the radio frequency signal to generate a third signal. The weight of each phase shifter can be the same or different, which is not limited in the present application. The phase shifter inputs the third signal to the PA.

[0134] Each PA receives the voltage input by the power supply circuit. In addition, the PA receives the third signal. The PA performs power amplification processing on the third signal to generate a fourth signal. The antenna unit coupled to each PA inputs the power-amplified signal.

[0135] The antenna array receives the signals input by the PAs and transmits the fifth signal in the first beam direction. The beam angle and the beam power of the first beam are the same as the beam angle and the beam power indicated in the first control signal. That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the control circuit controls the power supply circuit to input the specified voltage to each PA, so that the antenna array can emit a beam with the specified power in the specified beam direction.

[0136] Still referring to FIG. 12, in the beam scanning scenario, when the wireless communication system needs to transmit the sixth signal in the second beam direction, the control circuit can determine the voltage value corresponding to each PA based on the beam angle, the beam power (which can also include the DPD coefficient) corresponding to the second beam to be transmitted. The control circuit inputs the control signal to the power supply circuit to indicate the corresponding voltage value. The power supply circuit can supply power to each PA based on the control signal, so that the signal amplified by the PA converges into a beam with the specified power on the air interface. It can be understood that, before the use of the scheme of the present application, in the beam scanning process, the power supply circuit provides a constant voltage to each PA, which will cause the problem of insufficient or excessive supply voltage. Moreover, the way of offsetting the nonlinear characteristics of the PA by the DPD coefficient will increase the processing pressure and storage overhead of the DPD circuit for frequently switching the DPD coefficient. The present application provides the corresponding supply voltage for each PA for different beams (which can be a single beam or multiple beams), so that one or more beams output by the antenna can reach the expected power value in the specified direction without frequently switching the DPD coefficient, that is, the consistency of the nonlinear characteristics of different beams in the beam scanning (i.e., beam transformation) process can be realized.

[0137] In a possible implementation, in the scenario of the distributed voltage regulation mode, as described above, in the array, voltage regulation can be performed in a single sub-array (i.e., the power supply circuit outputs multiple voltages of the same size for each PA in the single sub-array, and the power supply circuit can output voltages of different sizes for different sub-arrays), or voltage regulation can be performed in a single PA (i.e., the power supply circuit can output multiple voltages of different sizes for each PA). In the scenario of the distributed voltage regulation mode, an array shutdown scenario can occur, that is, part of the array is turned on, and part of the array is turned off (i.e., stops being powered). FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an example sub-array. Referring to FIG. 11, the antenna array includes a sub-array 1 (referred to as sub-array 1), a sub-array 2 (referred to as sub-array 2), a sub-array 3 (referred to as sub-array 3), and a sub-array 4 (referred to as sub-array 4). Each sub-array includes 4*4 antenna elements. When sub-arrays 1 to 3 are turned off, the original 4*4 array surface including 4 array surfaces becomes only one array surface that is turned on. In this scenario, because the number of turned-on array elements in the array surface changes, the DPD coefficients that have been calibrated can no longer be suitable for the radio frequency characteristics after splitting, that is, the DPD coefficients in the array surface can not be suitable for the new array surface specification, causing the beam nonlinearity of the antenna array to be distorted. In this embodiment of this application, the computer device can perform the process in FIG. 9 in different scenarios by turning off different sub-arrays in the test phase, to obtain the corresponding voltage values under the changes of the beam angle and the beam power in different array surface specifications (i.e., in the case of turning off different sub-arrays). In the actual use phase, once the array is split (i.e., the sub-arrays are turned off), the corresponding power supply voltage of each PA can be adjusted according to the corresponding relationship between the beam power, the beam angle, and the voltage.

[0138] In several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, device, and method can be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described device embodiment is merely illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There can be another division manner for actual implementation. For example, multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections between different units, or the among indirect couplings or communication connections, can be implemented in electronic, mechanical, or other forms.

[0139] The units described as separate components can or can not be physically separate, and the components shown as units can or can not be physical units, that is, can be located in one place, or can be distributed on a plurality of network units. Part or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiments.

[0140] In addition, each function unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit can be physically present separately, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of a software function unit.

[0141] When the integrated unit is realized in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present application essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art or the whole or part of the technical solutions can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, and includes a number of instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), a random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media that can store program codes.

[0142] The term "and / or" in this paper is only to describe the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent the three cases of A alone, A and B together, and B alone.

[0143] The terms "first" and "second" and the like in the specification and claims of the present application are used to distinguish different objects, and are not used to describe the specific order of the objects. For example, the first target object and the second target object are used to distinguish different target objects, and are not used to describe the specific order of the target objects.

[0144] In the embodiments of the present application, the words "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design presented as "exemplary" or "for example" in the embodiments of the present application should not be interpreted as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or design solutions. Rather, the use of "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present relevant concepts in a specific manner.

[0145] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, "a plurality of" means two or more. For example, a plurality of processing units means two or more processing units; a plurality of systems means two or more systems.

[0146] The embodiments of the present application are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present application is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the specific embodiments described above are merely illustrative, but not restrictive, and a person of ordinary skill in the art can make many forms under the inspiration of the present application without departing from the purpose of the present application and the scope protected by the claims.

Claims

1. A power supply circuit, characterized by comprising: The method comprises: receiving, by an input interface, control information; generating, by a power supply circuit, a plurality of voltages based on the control information, the plurality of voltages being used to power a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein each voltage of the plurality of voltages corresponds to one power amplifier of the plurality of power amplifiers and corresponds to one beam of a plurality of beams for wireless communication, and wherein the plurality of power amplifiers are used to perform power amplification on signals of the plurality of beams.

2. A communication device, characterized by The method further comprises: receiving, by the control circuit, the control information from the power supply circuit.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein determining, by the control circuit, the control information based on a beam power and a beam angle of each beam of the plurality of beams.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein determining, by the control circuit, the control information based on a beam power and a beam angle of each beam of the plurality of beams by a correspondence relationship, wherein the correspondence relationship comprises a correspondence relationship between the beam power, the beam angle and a voltage of a power amplifier corresponding to each beam.

5. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that, The method further comprises:

6. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein, further comprising the plurality of power amplifiers. The method further comprises:

7. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 6, characterized in that, further comprising an antenna array, wherein the antenna array comprises a plurality of antennas. The method further comprises:

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 7, wherein further comprising: a plurality of phase shift circuits, wherein each phase shift circuit is configured to receive a radio frequency signal and perform phase shift processing on the radio frequency signal to obtain a signal of one beam.

9. An electronic device, comprising: The method further comprises:

10. A control method characterized by, a radio frequency signal generation circuit configured to receive a digital signal and generate the radio frequency signal based on the digital signal. The method further comprises: a processor configured to execute one or more computer programs to cause the electronic device to operate. The method comprises:

11. The method of claim 10, wherein, receiving, by an input interface, control information; generating, by a power supply circuit, a plurality of voltages based on the control information, the plurality of voltages being used to power a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein each voltage of the plurality of voltages corresponds to one power amplifier of the plurality of power amplifiers and corresponds to one beam of a plurality of beams for wireless communication, and wherein the plurality of power amplifiers are used to perform power amplification on signals of the plurality of beams.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein, The method further comprises: determining, by the control circuit, the control information based on a beam power and a beam angle of each beam of the plurality of beams. The method further comprises: determining, by the control circuit, the control information based on a beam power and a beam angle of each beam of the plurality of beams by a correspondence relationship, wherein the correspondence relationship comprises a correspondence relationship between the beam power, the beam angle and a voltage of a power amplifier corresponding to each beam.

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