Millimetre wave up-down conversion module

By employing a link structure with intermediate frequency and radio frequency transceiver switching in millimeter-wave radio frequency transceivers, combined with low-coupling transformers and active quadrature frequency converters, the problems of image suppression and local oscillator leakage are solved, achieving efficient broadband matching and small-area design, suitable for 5G communication systems.

WO2026086185A1PCT designated stage Publication Date: 2026-04-30ASR MICROELECTRONICS CO LTD
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Patent Information

Application Number
PCT/CN2025/097023
Authority / Receiving Office
WO · WO
Patent Type
Applications
Current Assignee / Owner
Priority Date
2024-10-25
Filing Date
2025-05-24
Publication Date
2026-04-30

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

Existing millimeter-wave radio frequency transceiver up-conversion modules face challenges in image suppression, local oscillator leakage suppression, bandwidth matching, and integration, making them particularly complex and costly to design in 5G communication systems.

Method used

The system employs an up-conversion link and down-conversion link structure between an intermediate frequency transceiver switch and an RF transceiver switch, using a low-coupling transformer and an active quadrature frequency converter, combined with a quadrature all-pass filter and a low-coupling transformer to achieve high image rejection, low local oscillator leakage, and wideband matching.

Benefits of technology

It achieves high image rejection ratio, low local oscillator leakage, wide bandwidth matching, and small area design, reducing design complexity and making it suitable for RF transceivers in the millimeter-wave band.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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Abstract

Disclosed in the present application is a millimetre wave up-down conversion module, comprising an intermediate-frequency transceiving change-over switch and a radio frequency transceiving change-over switch, wherein there are two links, i.e., an up-conversion link and a down-conversion link, between the two switches, the up-conversion link sequentially comprises an intermediate-frequency amplifier, a hybrid coupler and a quadrature up-converter, and the down-conversion link comprises a down-converter. Additionally, a local oscillator circuit provides a local oscillator signal to the quadrature up-converter and the down-converter. Additionally, a radio frequency Balun transformer II is connected to the radio frequency transceiving change-over switch. The millimetre wave up-down conversion module has two operating modes, i.e., a transmitting mode and a receiving mode, wherein in the transmitting mode, a signal travels through the up-conversion link, and in the receiving mode, the signal travels through the down-conversion link. In the present application, the up-down conversion module has excellent image rejection ratio, low local oscillator leakage, excellent broadband matching, small area and low design complexity.
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Description

A millimeter-wave up and down frequency conversion module Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to a wireless communication technology, and more particularly to an up-conversion module in a millimeter-wave radio frequency transceiver. Background Technology

[0002] The upconversion and downconversion modules in an RF transceiver include an upconverter and a downconverter. The upconverter is used to convert low-frequency or intermediate-frequency signals to high-frequency signals, which are then radiated through subsequent amplification circuits. The downconverter is used to convert high-frequency signals to low-frequency or intermediate-frequency signals, which are then processed by the baseband module.

[0003] With the development of wireless communication technology, the millimeter wave (mmWave) field, operating at higher frequencies, offers greater bandwidth. According to Shannon's theorem, millimeter wave systems are highly attractive for improving circuit bandwidth, speed, and other performance characteristics, and are commonly used in 5G communication systems. Millimeter wave systems extensively utilize passive components such as inductors and transformers; to increase integration, chip area needs to be reduced, thereby lowering costs. Performance considerations for millimeter wave systems focus on linearity, input-output matching, gain, and noise. Current technical challenges primarily lie in image rejection and local oscillator leakage in transmission mode; therefore, designing a high-performance up-conversion / down-conversion module is of significant practical importance.

[0004] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a system block diagram of a traditional millimeter-wave RF transceiver. The upconversion and downconversion modules are located between the intermediate frequency chip and the RF front-end chip, realizing upconversion and downconversion functions. Currently, common upconversion and downconversion modules mainly have the following structures: Reference 1 adopts a direct upconversion and downconversion structure, with the local oscillator signal generated by a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator; for the upconverter, a digital-to-analog converter is used to calibrate the local oscillator leakage; while for the downconverter, an inductor is used at the transconductance stage output; overall, the area is large, the local oscillator link power consumption is high, and a calibration module is required to achieve good image suppression and local oscillator leakage suppression, making the overall design difficult. Reference 2 uses a passive inverter structure with negative gain. In order to suppress the image frequency, a two-stage passive notch filter is used. Due to the influence of the inductor Q value, the loss is large, the suppression bandwidth is narrow, and the area is large. Reference 3 requires an off-chip filter to achieve image suppression, which is not conducive to high integration.

[0005] Reference 1: "A 28-GHz CMOS Direct Conversion Transceiver With Packaged 2×4 Antenna Array for 5G Cellular System", published in Volume 53, Issue 5 of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits on April 23, 2018, authored by Hong-Teuk Kim et al.

[0006] Reference 2: "A 28-GHz CMOS Phased-Array Transceiver Based on LO Phase-Shifting Architecture With Gain Invariant Phase Tuning for 5G New Radio", published in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Volume 54, Issue 5, March 7, 2019, authored by Jiang Pang et al.

[0007] Reference 3: The paper "A High-Linearity, 24–30 GHz RF, Beamforming and Frequency-Conversion IC for Scalable 5G Phased Arrays" was published at the 2021 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC) held from June 7 to 9, 2021. The authors are Arun Paidimarri et al. Technical issues

[0008] The technical problem to be solved by this application is how to make the up and down conversion modules have high image rejection, high local oscillator leakage rejection, wide bandwidth matching, a certain dynamic range, and no need for calibration circuits, so as to be suitable for RF transceivers in the millimeter wave band. Technical solutions

[0009] To address the aforementioned technical issues, this application proposes a millimeter-wave up-conversion / down-conversion module, comprising an intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch and an radio frequency (RF) transceiver switch, with two links between these two switches—an up-conversion link and a down-conversion link. The up-conversion link sequentially includes an IF amplifier, a hybrid coupler, and a quadrature up-converter. The down-conversion link includes a down-converter. Both the quadrature up-converter and down-converter are active structures. A local oscillator circuit provides the local oscillator signal to both the quadrature up-converter and down-converter. An RF balun transformer is connected to the RF transceiver switch. The hybrid coupler has two input terminals, two isolation terminals, and four output terminals. The two input terminals receive the differential IF signal output from the IF amplifier; the two isolation terminals are connected to the two ends of a resistor characterizing the load of the isolation terminals; the hybrid coupler converts the two differential IF signals into four quadrature IF signals, which are then output through the four output terminals. Each of the four output terminals is connected to a DC blocking capacitor to remove the DC component from the four quadrature IF signals. The millimeter-wave up and down conversion module has two operating modes—transmit mode and receive mode.

[0010] In transmit mode, the intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch sends the IF signal input from the IF port to the upconverter link. The IF input signal is first converted from a single-ended IF signal to a differential IF signal by an IF amplifier and then amplified. The amplified differential IF signal is then converted to a quadrature IF signal by a hybrid coupler and provided to the quadrature upconverter. The local oscillator circuit converts the single-ended local oscillator signal input from the local oscillator port into a quadrature local oscillator signal and provides it to the quadrature upconverter. The quadrature upconverter mixes the quadrature IF signal and the quadrature local oscillator signal to obtain the radio frequency (RF) signal and outputs it differentially. The radio frequency (RF) transceiver switch outputs the differential RF signal from the quadrature upconverter to the second RF balun transformer. The second RF balun transformer converts the differential RF signal from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and outputs it to the antenna at the RF port.

[0011] In receive mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the single-ended RF signal received from the antenna at the RF port into a differential RF signal. The RF transceiver switch sends the differential RF signal from the second RF balun transformer to the downconverter link, specifically to the downconverter. The local oscillator circuit converts the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port into a differential local oscillator signal, which is then provided to the downconverter. The downconverter mixes the differential RF signal and the differential local oscillator signal to obtain a differential intermediate frequency (IF) signal, which is then converted into a single-ended IF signal. The intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch outputs the single-ended IF signal from the downconverter at the IF port.

[0012] Furthermore, the intermediate frequency transceiver switch consists of switch one and switch two; in transmit mode, switch one is turned on and switch two is turned off, and the single-ended intermediate frequency signal input to the intermediate frequency port is sent to the intermediate frequency amplifier in the upconversion link via switch one; in receive mode, switch two is turned on and switch one is turned off, and the single-ended intermediate frequency signal output by the downconverter in the downconversion link is output to the intermediate frequency port via switch two.

[0013] Furthermore, the intermediate frequency amplifier is composed of a transformer and an intermediate frequency variable gain amplifier cascaded together; the transformer is used to realize the conversion from single-ended intermediate frequency signal to differential intermediate frequency signal, and the intermediate frequency variable gain amplifier is used to amplify the differential intermediate frequency signal.

[0014] Furthermore, the quadrature upconverter receives four quadrature intermediate frequency signals and four quadrature local oscillator signals from the local oscillator circuit. After the quadrature intermediate frequency signals and quadrature local oscillator signals are mixed by the quadrature upconverter, two differential radio frequency signals are output.

[0015] Optionally, the two output terminals of the orthogonal upconverter are connected to the first radio frequency balun transformer; the primary coil of the first radio frequency balun transformer is connected in parallel with a capacitor array, and the capacitor array is adjusted to cover different frequency bands.

[0016] Furthermore, the local oscillator circuit includes transformer two, local oscillator input buffer, switch three and switch four, down-conversion link buffer, quadrature all-pass filter, and up-conversion link buffer.

[0017] In transmit mode, the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer two. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer and sent to switch three and switch four. When switch three is turned on and switch four is turned off, the differential local oscillator signal is transmitted to the quadrature full-pass filter via switch three. The quadrature full-pass filter converts the two differential local oscillator signals into four quadrature local oscillator signals, which are amplified by the up-converter link buffer and then output to the quadrature up-converter.

[0018] In receive mode, the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer two. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer and sent to switch three and switch four. When switch four is turned on and switch three is turned off, the differential local oscillator signal is transmitted to the downconverter link buffer via switch four. The downconverter link buffer amplifies the two differential local oscillator signals and outputs them to the downconverter.

[0019] Furthermore, the radio frequency transceiver switching switch consists of switch five and switch six; in transmit mode, switch five is turned on and switch six is ​​turned off, and the differential radio frequency signal output by the quadrature upconverter is transmitted to the radio frequency balun transformer two after passing through switch five; in receive mode, switch six is ​​turned on and switch five is turned off, and the differential radio frequency signal output by the radio frequency balun transformer two is sent to the downconverter via switch six.

[0020] Furthermore, the second RF balun transformer is used to convert between differential RF signals and single-ended RF signals. In transmit mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the differential RF signal output from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and sends it to the RF port output. In receive mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the single-ended RF signal input from the RF port into a differential RF signal and sends it to the RF transceiver switch.

[0021] Furthermore, the output of the downconverter is also connected to transformer three; the downconverter is used to downconvert the differential radio frequency signal output by the radio frequency transceiver switch into a differential intermediate frequency signal based on the differential local oscillator signal; transformer three is used to convert the differential intermediate frequency signal into a single-ended intermediate frequency signal, and then send it to the intermediate frequency transceiver switch.

[0022] Preferably, transformer one, transformer two, transformer three, radio frequency balun transformer one, and radio frequency balun transformer two are all low-coupling transformers used to achieve broadband matching.

[0023] Preferably, switches one, two, three, four, five, and six are all switches with low insertion loss and high isolation. Beneficial effects

[0024] The technical effect achieved by this application is that the up and down frequency conversion modules have good image rejection ratio, low local oscillator leakage, wide bandwidth matching, small area and low design complexity. Attached Figure Description

[0025] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the up and down conversion module in an existing millimeter-wave radio frequency transceiver.

[0026] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the millimeter-wave up and down frequency conversion module proposed in this application.

[0027] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an intermediate frequency transceiver switch.

[0028] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an intermediate frequency amplifier.

[0029] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a hybrid coupler and a quadrature upconverter.

[0030] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the local oscillator circuit.

[0031] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the radio frequency transceiver switch and the radio frequency balun transformer II.

[0032] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a downconverter.

[0033] Explanation of the symbols in the diagram: IF is the intermediate frequency port, LO is the local oscillator port, RF is the radio frequency port, T1 and T2 are both RF balun transformers, sw1 to sw6 are all switches, Tr1 to Tr3 are all transformers, IF VGA is the intermediate frequency variable gain amplifier, R... ISO For resistors, C1 to C4 are DC blocking capacitors, C arr This is a variable capacitor array, where VDD is the power supply voltage, B1 is the local oscillator input buffer, B2 is the down-conversion link buffer, and B3 and B4 are both up-conversion link buffers. p1 and C p2 All of them are capacitors. Embodiments of the present invention

[0034] Referring to Figure 2, the millimeter-wave up-conversion module proposed in this application includes an intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch and an radio frequency (RF) transceiver switch. Between these two switches are two links—an up-conversion link and a down-conversion link. The up-conversion link sequentially includes an IF amplifier, a hybrid coupler, and a quadrature up-converter. The down-conversion link mainly includes a down-converter (only the main components are listed here; as shown in Figure 8, the down-converter also includes transformer Tr3). A local oscillator circuit provides the local oscillator signal to both the quadrature up-converter and down-converter. An RF balun (Balanced to Unbalanced) transformer T2 connects to the RF transceiver switch and is located between the RF transceiver switch and the antenna (not shown).

[0035] The millimeter-wave up and down conversion module shown in Figure 2 has two operating modes—transmit mode and receive mode.

[0036] In transmit mode, the intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch sends the IF signal input at the IF port to the upconverter link. The IF input signal is first converted from a single-ended IF signal to a differential IF signal by an IF amplifier and then amplified. The amplified differential IF signal is then converted to a quadrature IF signal by a hybrid coupler and provided to the quadrature upconverter. The local oscillator (LO) circuit converts the single-ended LO signal input at the LO port into a quadrature LO signal and provides it to the quadrature upconverter. The quadrature upconverter mixes the quadrature IF signal and the quadrature LO signal (specifically, upconverts) to obtain the RF signal, which is then output differentially. The RF transceiver switch outputs the differential RF signal from the quadrature upconverter to the RF balun transformer T2. The RF balun transformer T2 converts the differential RF signal from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and outputs it at the RF port, for example, to the RF front-end chip in Figure 1.

[0037] In receive mode, RF balun transformer T2 converts the single-ended RF signal received at the RF port into a differential RF signal. The RF transceiver switch sends the differential RF signal from RF balun transformer T2 to the downconverter link, specifically to the downconverter. The local oscillator circuit converts the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port LO into a differential local oscillator signal, which is then provided to the downconverter. The downconverter mixes the differential RF signal and the differential local oscillator signal (specifically, downconverts) to obtain a differential intermediate frequency (IF) signal, which is then converted into a single-ended IF signal. The intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch outputs the single-ended IF signal from the downconverter at the IF port.

[0038] Referring to Figure 3, the intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch consists of two switches, sw1 and sw2. In transmit mode, switch sw1 is on and switch sw2 is off. The single-ended IF signal input to the IF port is sent to the IF amplifier in the upconversion link via switch sw1. In receive mode, switch sw2 is on and switch sw1 is off. The single-ended IF signal output from the downconverter in the downconversion link is output to the IF port via switch sw2. The IF transceiver switch can also be replaced by a single-pole double-throw switch.

[0039] Referring to Figure 4, the intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier consists of a cascaded transformer Tr1 and an IF variable gain amplifier VGA. Transformer Tr1 is used to convert the single-ended IF signal to a differential IF signal, while the IF VGA amplifies the differential IF signal. Transformer Tr1 is preferably a low-coupling transformer to achieve good broadband matching. The gain of the IF VGA is adjustable, providing a certain dynamic range for the upconversion link.

[0040] Referring to Figure 5, the hybrid coupler has two input terminals, two isolation terminals, and four output terminals. The two input terminals receive the differential intermediate frequency (IF) signal output from the IF amplifier. The two isolation terminals are connected to resistor R. ISO The two ends of the resistor R ISO This indicates the load at the isolation terminal. The hybrid coupler converts two differential intermediate frequency (IF) signals (180 degrees out of phase) into four quadrature IF signals (90 degrees out of phase), which are then output through four terminals. Each output terminal is connected to a DC blocking capacitor, C1 to C4, to remove the DC component from the four quadrature IF signals. Preferably, the hybrid coupler employs an on-chip transformer structure, using only the top layer metal and capacitors, which helps reduce sensitivity to process, voltage, and temperature variations.

[0041] Referring to Figure 5, the quadrature upconverter receives four quadrature intermediate frequency (IF) signals from four DC blocking capacitors C1 to C4, and also receives four quadrature local oscillator (LO) signals (90 degrees out of phase) from the LO circuit. The quadrature IF and LO signals are mixed by the quadrature upconverter, outputting two differential radio frequency (RF) signals. Due to its quadrature characteristics, the differential RF signals output by the quadrature upconverter are single-sideband, effectively suppressing image signals. The two output terminals of the quadrature upconverter are connected to an RF balun transformer T1 (optional). The primary coil of the RF balun transformer T1 is connected in parallel with a capacitor array C. arr By adjusting the capacitor array C arr It can cover a wide range of frequency bands. For example, capacitor array C arr It is a programmable capacitor array, and the programmable capacitor array C is adjusted. arr To cover different frequency bands, the RF balun transformer T1 is preferably a low-coupling transformer to achieve good broadband matching. The center tap of the primary coil of the RF balun transformer T1 is connected to the power supply voltage VDD.

[0042] Please refer to Figure 6. The local oscillator circuit includes transformer Tr2, local oscillator input buffer B1, switches sw3 and sw4, down-conversion link buffer B2, quadrature all-pass filter (QAF), and up-conversion link buffers B3 and B4.

[0043] In transmit mode, the local oscillator circuit operates as follows: The single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port LO is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer Tr2. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer B1 and sent to switches sw3 and sw4. Because the RF traces are relatively long, high-frequency signals are attenuated, so the local oscillator input buffer B1 is inserted to compensate for amplitude loss and drive the next stage circuit. Switch sw3 is turned on, and switch sw4 is turned off. The differential local oscillator signal is transmitted to the quadrature full-pass filter via switch sw3. The function of the quadrature full-pass filter is to generate quadrature signals. A single-stage quadrature full-pass filter can generate wideband quadrature signals. The quadrature full-pass filter converts two differential local oscillator signals (180 degrees out of phase) into four quadrature local oscillator signals (90 degrees out of phase). Because it operates in the millimeter-wave band, the inductor size is small, making it easy to design. The four quadrature local oscillator signals generated by the quadrature all-pass filter are amplified by upconversion link buffers B3 and B4 and then output to the quadrature upconverter. To ensure that the quadrature upconverter has sufficient conversion gain, the amplitude of the quadrature local oscillator signals needs to be large enough, so upconversion link buffers B3 and B4 are needed to drive the amplification.

[0044] In receive mode, the local oscillator circuit operates as follows: The single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port LO is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer Tr2. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer B1 and sent to switches sw3 and sw4. Because the RF traces are relatively long, the high-frequency signal is attenuated, so the local oscillator input buffer B1 is inserted to compensate for the amplitude loss and drive the next stage circuit. Switch sw4 is turned on, and switch sw3 is turned off. The two differential local oscillator signals are transmitted to the downconversion link buffer B2 via switch sw4. The downconversion link buffer B2 amplifies the two differential local oscillator signals and outputs them to the downconverter. To ensure that the downconverter has sufficient conversion gain, a sufficiently large differential local oscillator signal amplitude is required, so the downconversion link buffer B2 is needed to drive the amplification.

[0045] In the local oscillator circuit shown in Figure 6, transformer Tr2 is preferably a low-coupling transformer to achieve good broadband matching. Only one quadrature full-pass filter is needed to convert the differential local oscillator signal into a broadband quadrature local oscillator signal output. This approach is characterized by small area, a wide frequency range covered by the local oscillator signal, zero power consumption, and low design complexity. An up-conversion link buffer is inserted after the quadrature full-pass filter to achieve better signal quality, i.e., to provide sufficient drive voltage to the quadrature up-mixer.

[0046] Referring to Figure 7, the RF transceiver switching switch consists of two switches, SW5 and SW6. In transmit mode, switch SW5 is on and switch SW6 is off. The differential RF signal output from the quadrature upconverter is transmitted to the RF balun transformer T2 after passing through switch SW5. In receive mode, switch SW6 is on and switch SW5 is off. The differential RF signal output from the RF balun transformer T2 is sent to the downconverter via switch SW6.

[0047] Referring to Figure 7, the RF balun transformer T2 is used to convert between differential RF signals and single-ended RF signals. In transmit mode, the RF balun transformer T2 converts the differential RF signal output from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and sends it to the RF port output. In receive mode, the RF balun transformer T2 converts the single-ended RF signal input to the RF port into a differential RF signal and sends it to the RF transceiver switch. Preferably, the RF balun transformer T2 is a low-coupling on-chip transformer, with a capacitor C connected in parallel to the primary coil. p1 The secondary coil is connected in parallel with capacitor C. p2 Because of the low coupling coefficient, plus the two parallel capacitors C p1 and C p2Two transmission poles are formed, and the RF balun transformer T2 achieves broadband matching. The center tap of the primary coil of the RF balun transformer T2 is grounded, thus providing a fixed potential to the center tap and reducing the phase and amplitude errors of the differential signal.

[0048] Referring to Figure 8, the output of the downconverter is also connected to transformer Tr3 (not shown in Figure 2). The downconverter is used to downconvert the differential RF signal output from the RF transceiver switch to a differential IF signal based on the differential local oscillator signal. Transformer Tr3 is used to convert the differential IF signal to a single-ended IF signal, which is then sent to the IF transceiver switch. Transformer Tr3 is preferably a low-coupling transformer to achieve good broadband matching.

[0049] Preferably, switches sw1 and sw2 in the intermediate frequency transceiver switch, switches sw3 and sw4 in the local oscillator circuit, and switches sw5 and sw6 in the radio frequency transceiver switch all have low insertion loss and high isolation performance in both transmit and receive modes.

[0050] Preferably, the impedances of the intermediate frequency port IF, the radio frequency port RF, and the local oscillator port LO are all matched to 50 ohms.

[0051] Compared with existing technologies, the millimeter-wave up and down frequency conversion module proposed in this application has the following advantages.

[0052] First, it uses only a single-stage orthogonal all-pass filter to generate a wideband orthogonal local oscillator signal, which has a small area, a large frequency range covered by the orthogonal local oscillator signal (i.e., wideband characteristics), no power consumption, and low design complexity.

[0053] Secondly, excellent image suppression and local oscillator leakage suppression can be achieved without calibration circuitry, significantly reducing the complexity of circuit design. Image suppression is achieved due to the quadrature characteristics of the quadrature up-converter; the differential RF signal output by the quadrature up-converter is single-sideband, effectively suppressing image signals. Local oscillator leakage suppression is due to the quadrature up-converter employing a four-channel quadrature mixer structure (I-channel differential and Q-channel differential), while the down-converter uses a two-channel differential structure. This differential structure better suppresses local oscillator signal leakage.

[0054] Third, transformers Tr1 and Tr3 near the intermediate frequency (IF) port, transformer Tr2 near the local oscillator (LO) port, and RF balun transformers T1 and T2 near the radio frequency (RF) port are all low-coupling transformers. Therefore, matching networks based on low-coupling transformers are formed at the IF, LO, and RF ports, achieving broadband matching. Generally, transformers with coupling coefficients between 0.1 and 0.6 are called low-coupling transformers.

[0055] Fourth, both the quadrature up-converter and down-converter are based on active structures, and their gain is greater than that of traditional passive structures.

[0056] The above are merely preferred embodiments of this application and are not intended to limit this application. Various modifications and variations can be made to this application by those skilled in the art. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of this application should be included within the protection scope of this application.

Claims

1. A millimeter-wave up / down converter module, characterized in that, It includes an intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver switch and an radio frequency (RF) transceiver switch, with two links between these two switches—an upconversion link and a downconversion link. The upconversion link sequentially includes an IF amplifier, a hybrid coupler, and a quadrature upconverter; the downconversion link includes a downconverter. Both the quadrature upconverter and downconverter are active structures. A local oscillator circuit provides the local oscillator signal to the quadrature upconverter and downconverter. An RF balun transformer is connected to the RF transceiver switch. The hybrid coupler has two input terminals, two isolation terminals, and four output terminals; the two input terminals receive the differential intermediate frequency signal output from the intermediate frequency amplifier. The two isolation terminals are connected to the two ends of a resistor characterizing the load at the isolation terminals; The hybrid coupler converts two differential intermediate frequency signals into four quadrature intermediate frequency signals and outputs them through four output terminals. The four output terminals are connected to four DC blocking capacitors to remove the DC component in the four quadrature intermediate frequency signals. The millimeter-wave up and down conversion module has two working modes: transmit mode and receive mode. In transmit mode, the intermediate frequency transceiver switch sends the intermediate frequency signal input at the intermediate frequency port to the upconverter link; The intermediate frequency input signal is first converted from a single-ended intermediate frequency signal to a differential intermediate frequency signal by an intermediate frequency amplifier and then amplified. The amplified differential intermediate frequency signal is then converted into a quadrature intermediate frequency signal by a hybrid coupler and provided to the quadrature upconverter. The local oscillator circuit converts the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port into a quadrature local oscillator signal and provides it to the quadrature up-converter; the quadrature up-converter mixes the quadrature intermediate frequency signal and the quadrature local oscillator signal to obtain the radio frequency signal and then outputs it differentially. The RF transceiver switch outputs the differential RF signal from the quadrature upconverter to the second RF balun transformer; the second RF balun transformer converts the differential RF signal from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and outputs it to the antenna at the RF port. In receive mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the single-ended RF signal received from the antenna at the RF port into a differential RF signal; the RF transceiver switch sends the differential RF signal from the second RF balun transformer to the downconverter link, specifically to the downconverter; the local oscillator circuit converts the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port into a differential local oscillator signal and provides it to the downconverter; the downconverter mixes the differential RF signal and the differential local oscillator signal to obtain a differential intermediate frequency signal, which is then converted into a single-ended intermediate frequency signal. The intermediate frequency transceiver switch outputs the single-ended intermediate frequency signal from the downconverter at the intermediate frequency port.

2. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The intermediate frequency transceiver switch consists of switch one and switch two. In transmit mode, switch one is turned on and switch two is turned off. The single-ended intermediate frequency signal input to the intermediate frequency port is sent to the intermediate frequency amplifier in the upconversion link via switch one. In receive mode, switch two is turned on and switch one is turned off. The single-ended intermediate frequency signal output by the downconverter in the downconversion link is output to the intermediate frequency port via switch two.

3. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The intermediate frequency amplifier is composed of a transformer and an intermediate frequency variable gain amplifier cascaded together; the transformer is used to convert the single-ended intermediate frequency signal to the differential intermediate frequency signal, and the intermediate frequency variable gain amplifier is used to amplify the differential intermediate frequency signal.

4. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The quadrature upconverter receives four quadrature intermediate frequency signals and four quadrature local oscillator signals from the local oscillator circuit. After the quadrature intermediate frequency signals and quadrature local oscillator signals are mixed by the quadrature upconverter, two differential radio frequency signals are output.

5. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 4, characterized in that, The two output terminals of the quadrature upconverter are connected to the first radio frequency balun transformer; the primary coil of the first radio frequency balun transformer is connected in parallel with a capacitor array, and the capacitor array is adjusted to cover different frequency bands.

6. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The local oscillator circuit includes transformer two, local oscillator input buffer, switch three and switch four, down-conversion link buffer, quadrature all-pass filter, and up-conversion link buffer; In transmit mode, the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer two. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer and sent to switches three and four. When switch three is turned on and switch four is turned off, the differential local oscillator signal is transmitted to the quadrature full-pass filter via switch three. The quadrature full-pass filter converts the two differential local oscillator signals into four quadrature local oscillator signals, which are then amplified by the up-converter link buffer and output to the quadrature up-converter. In receive mode, the single-ended local oscillator signal input at the local oscillator port is first converted into a differential local oscillator signal by transformer two. The differential local oscillator signal is then amplified by the local oscillator input buffer and sent to switch three and switch four. When switch four is turned on and switch three is turned off, the differential local oscillator signal is transmitted to the downconverter link buffer via switch four. The downconverter link buffer amplifies the two differential local oscillator signals and outputs them to the downconverter.

7. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The radio frequency transceiver switching switch consists of switch five and switch six. In transmit mode, switch five is turned on and switch six is ​​turned off. The differential radio frequency signal output by the quadrature upconverter is transmitted to the radio frequency balun transformer two after passing through switch five. In receive mode, switch six is ​​turned on and switch five is turned off. The differential radio frequency signal output by the radio frequency balun transformer two is sent to the downconverter via switch six.

8. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The second RF balun transformer is used to convert between differential RF signals and single-ended RF signals. In transmit mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the differential RF signal output from the RF transceiver switch into a single-ended RF signal and sends it to the RF port output. In receive mode, the second RF balun transformer converts the single-ended RF signal input from the RF port into a differential RF signal and sends it to the RF transceiver switch.

9. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 1, characterized in that, The output of the downconverter is also connected to transformer three; the downconverter is used to downconvert the differential radio frequency signal output by the radio frequency transceiver switch into a differential intermediate frequency signal based on the differential local oscillator signal; transformer three is used to convert the differential intermediate frequency signal into a single-ended intermediate frequency signal and then send it to the intermediate frequency transceiver switch.

10. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 3, characterized in that, The transformer is a low-coupling transformer used to achieve broadband matching.

11. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 5, characterized in that, The radio frequency balun transformer is a low-coupling transformer used to achieve broadband matching.

12. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 6, characterized in that, The second transformer is a low-coupling transformer used to achieve broadband matching.

13. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 8, characterized in that, The second radio frequency balun transformer is a low-coupling transformer used to achieve broadband matching.

14. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 9, characterized in that, The third transformer is a low-coupling transformer used to achieve broadband matching.

15. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 2, characterized in that, Both switch one and switch two are switches with low insertion loss and high isolation.

16. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 6, characterized in that, Both switches three and four are switches with low insertion loss and high isolation.

17. The millimeter-wave up / down converter module according to claim 7, characterized in that, Both switches five and six are switches with low insertion loss and high isolation.