102 results about "Envelope Tracking" patented technology

Aspects of this disclosure relate to a power amplifier system with symbol-based envelope tracking and fault protection. The system can include a power amplifier and a voltage modulator. The voltage modulator can include switches configured to provide the bias voltage and to provide electric circuit breaker protection. The voltage modulator can include a fault detection circuit that can cause a switch of the switches to provide electric circuit breaker protection in response to detecting a circuit fault. Related methods and voltage modulators are disclosed.

Methods and systems for NN-based digital pre-distortion for digital envelope tracking power amplifiers. A computer-implemented method includes receiving a measure of a digital envelope at a digital pre-distortion module having a neural network (NN)-based digital pre-distortion structure for digital envelope tracking (DET), receiving a transmit signal at the digital pre-distortion module, inputting the measure of the digital envelope and the transmit signal into the NN-based digital pre-distortion structure to produce a pre-distorted transmit signal, adjusting nonlinearity compensation of a power amplifier based on the measure of the digital envelope, and using the adjusted nonlinearity compensation of the power amplifier to produce an output signal.

The present disclosure is an open-loop digital PWM envelope tracking system with dynamic boost function. Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for dynamically boosting (increasing) the supply voltage of an envelope tracking (ET) modulator in a transmitter system when the target / desired PA supply voltage exceeds a pre-determined threshold (e.g., the pre-determined threshold is equal to the available supply voltage of the system, such as the battery voltage). By boosting the supply voltage input to the ET modulator, the modulated supply provided to the power amplifier (PA) is also increased. As such, voltage clipping, which typically occurs when the target / desired PA supply voltage is higher than the available supply voltage, is mitigated or avoided, and the distortion of the transmitted signal is reduced.

Aspects of this disclosure relate to voltage modulators with staged activation of switches. A voltage modulator can receive supply voltages and provide a selected one of the supply voltages as an output voltage. The voltage modulator can include switches in parallel where one of the switches in parallel activates before another switch in parallel in association by transitioning the output voltage between different supply voltages. Embodiments of this disclosure relate to symbol-based envelope tracking. Related systems and methods are disclosed.

Aspects described herein include devices and methods for an envelope tracking power supply. In some aspects, the envelope tracking power supply includes an envelope signal input port, an output power port, an input interface circuit coupled to the envelope signal input port, sensing and conditioning circuitry, and amplifier circuitry coupled between the input interface circuit and the sensing and conditioning circuitry, the amplifier circuitry having one or more control inputs. The envelope tracking power supply additionally includes switcher circuitry coupled to the output of the sensing and conditioning circuitry, and the output power port, and the supply further includes output filter circuitry coupled to the output power port and machine learning circuitry configured to receive state tracking data for performance of a transmit power amplifier (PA) that receives power via the output power port.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include adaptive bias control of cascode drivers in envelope tracking power amplifier devices, systems, and methods. In some aspects, a wireless communication device is disclosed that includes a power amplifier. The power amplifier may include a driver stage configured to receive a variable voltage supply signal, and a power amplifier stage following the driver stage. In some embodiments, the driver stage includes a cascode gate bias circuit configured to receive a first signal that is based on the variable voltage supply signal; and a cascode amplifier stage comprising a first field effect transistor (FET) and a second FET in a stacked configuration. The cascode gate bias circuit may be further configured to adaptively convert the first signal into a bias signal for a gate of the first FET. The power amplifier stage may be configured to generate an amplified signal based on the intermediate output.

Aspects of this disclosure relate to squelching a symbol at a symbol boundary. A transmit squelch block can squelch a portion of a symbol at a symbol boundary. The transmit squelch block can be included in a symbol based envelope tracking system. Transmit squelching can reduce spurious emissions associated a symbol based envelope tracking voltage toggling on a symbol boundary.

A power amplifier system is disclosed with a carrier amplifier having a carrier bias input and a carrier supply node and a peaking amplifier having a peaking bias input and a peaking supply node. Also included is an envelope tracking power supply having a modulated voltage supply output coupled to the peaking supply node. Further included is a peaking bias controller having a peaking bias control input coupled to the peaking supply node and a peaking bias control output coupled to the peaking bias input, wherein the peaking bias controller is configured to generate in response to a modulated peaking supply voltage generated by the envelope tracking power supply at the peaking supply node a modulated peaking bias signal that controls bias of the peaking amplifier.

A charge pump control circuit, comprising an internal reference voltage generator configured to generate a programmable reference voltage ramp, and a control circuit coupled to the internal reference voltage generator. The control circuit configured to control current of a charge pump circuit driving a load by controlling a duty cycle of a transfer phase of the charge pump circuit during a gain-up stage according to a first comparison between the programmable reference voltage ramp and an output voltage across an output capacitor of the charge pump circuit, and a second comparison between a fly capacitor reference voltage and a fly capacitor voltage of a fly capacitor of the charge pump circuit.

Envelope tracking power amplifiers with advanced gain shaping are provided. In certain implementations, a power amplifier system includes a power amplifier that amplifies a radio frequency (RF) signal and an envelope tracker that controls a voltage level of a supply voltage of the power amplifier based on an envelope of the RF signal. The power amplifier system further includes a gain shaping circuit that generates a gain shaping current that changes with the voltage level of the supply voltage from the envelope tracker. For example, the gain shaping circuit can include an analog look-up table (LUT) mapping a particular voltage level of the supply voltage to a particular current level of gain shaping current. Additionally, the gain shaping circuit biases the power amplifier based on the gain shaping current.

A transmitter is provided that determines a compression of an envelope-tracking amplifier using a function of the amplifier's power supply voltage, input signal voltage, and output signal voltage. An input signal adjustment circuit adjusts the input signal to the envelope-tracking amplifier responsive to a difference between the compression and a desired fixed value for the compression.

Voltage ripple reduction in a power management circuit is disclosed. The power management circuit includes a power amplifier circuit configured to amplify a radio frequency (RF) signal based on a modulated voltage and an envelope tracking integrated circuit (ETIC) configured to provide the modulated voltage to the power amplifier circuit via a conductive path. Notably, an output impedance presenting at an input of the power amplifier circuit can interact with a modulated load current in the power amplifier circuit to create a voltage ripple in the modulated voltage to potentially cause an undesirable error in the RF signal. In this regard, a notch circuit is provided, preferably in the ETIC, to reduce the voltage ripple within a modulation bandwidth of the RF signal. As a result, it is possible to minimize the undesirable error, such as root-mean-square (RMS) error vector magnitude (EVM), within the modulation bandwidth of the RF signal.

A power amplification system is provided herein. In certain embodiments, the power amplification system comprises: a power amplifier configured to amplify an input radio frequency (RF) signal to generate an output RF signal when powered by a supply voltage and biased by a biasing signal; an envelope tracker configured to generate an envelope signal that changes in relation to an envelope of the input RF signal; a mode controller configured to set an envelope tracking (ET) mode of the power amplification system based on a modulation bandwidth of the input RF signal; a supply voltage controller configured to control the supply voltage based on the envelope signal when the ET mode is set to a first mode; and a bias controller configured to control the biasing signal based on the envelope signal when the operation mode is set to a second mode.

An RF circuit is disclosed that may include a driver stage. The driver stage may include a gate bias circuit configured to receive a variable voltage supply signal; and an amplifier stage comprising a FET, wherein the gate bias circuit is configured to adaptively convert the variable voltage supply signal into a bias signal. The RF circuit may further include a circuit component configured to combine the bias signal and a radio frequency input signal to generate a combined signal, and wherein the amplifier stage is configured to receive the combined signal at a gate of the FET and to produce an intermediate output, and wherein the gate bias circuit is configured to generate the bias signal such that the bias signal increases as the variable voltage supply signal decreases to compensate for a tendency of a current through the FET to decrease as the variable voltage supply signal decreases.

An envelope tracking (ET) radio frequency (RF) front-end circuit receives a single tracking signal (e.g., Vramp) from a baseband transceiver and generates a plurality of control signals (Vcc). The control signals are created by a multiple control signal generator circuit based on a calculated load estimate for each relevant power amplifier. The load estimate may be calculated from a sensed current and voltage. By providing control signals optimized for loads presented to the power amplifiers, the overall efficiency of the transmitter is improved.

A wireless communication circuit for use in an electronic device may include: a power amplifier (PA) configured to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals in a first frequency band of a first radio access technology (RAT) in a first communication mode and to amplify RF signals in a second frequency band of a second RAT in a second communication mode; and a switch including a first input terminal connectable to receive an envelope tracking (ET) power supply signal, a second input terminal connectable to receive an average power tracking (APT) power supply signal, and an output terminal connected to the PA. The switch may be configured to switchably connect one of the first input terminal and the second input terminal to the output terminal in response to a switching control signal.

An apparatus for reducing power consumption in a speaker system includes a voltage output module and a signal generation module. The voltage output module is configured to convert the power supply voltage output by the power supply module into a power amplifier supply voltage and supply power to the power amplifier module. The signal generation module is configured to generate a feedback signal corresponding to the audio signal amplitude and output it to the voltage output module. This allows the power amplifier supply voltage to be converted into a follower supply voltage and supply power to the power amplifier module, or the follower supply voltage to be restored to the power amplifier supply voltage and supply power to the power amplifier module. Simultaneously, the follower supply voltage is less than the power amplifier supply voltage. A control method and a wearable device are also disclosed. This invention can automatically adjust the output voltage of the voltage output module in advance according to the audio signal amplitude, reducing system losses and extending battery life by using envelope tracking while ensuring audio signal transmission quality.

A multi-mode power management integrated circuit (PMIC) is provided. Specifically, the multi-mode PMIC can be provided in a wireless communication device to generate an output voltage, which can be an envelope tracking (ET) voltage or an average power tracking (APT) voltage, for amplifying a radio frequency (RF) signal. According to an embodiment disclosed herein, the PMIC replaces a conventional all-analog control circuit with a multi-input hybrid control circuit that includes both analog and digital circuitries. By incorporating the digital circuitry to perform certain processing tasks digitally, it is possible to improve efficiency and reduce the footprint of the multi-mode PMIC.

This invention discloses a GaN power amplifier system and control method based on envelope tracking and thermal feedback. The system includes a system control module, and an audio signal conditioning module, a programmable power supply module, a thermal feedback module, and a GaN power output module, all communicatively connected to the control module. The system control module executes dual closed-loop control logic: the first closed loop dynamically adjusts the output voltage of the programmable power supply module using envelope tracking technology, ensuring it closely follows changes in the amplitude of the audio signal, thus reducing power consumption and heat generation at the source; the second closed loop, based on real-time temperature data collected by the thermal feedback module, prioritizes dynamic compression of the low-frequency band of the audio signal or smoothly reduces the overall main volume when overheating occurs, achieving intelligent thermal derating protection without interrupting playback. This invention significantly improves the energy efficiency and reliability of the power amplifier system.

Systems and methods for pulse shaping voltage transitions in envelope tracking systems are provided. In one aspect, a radio frequency module includes a power amplifier configured to receive a radio frequency input signal and a voltage source. The power amplifier further configured to amplify a radio frequency input signal using the voltage source to generate an output radio frequency signal. The radio frequency module further includes a multi-level switch modulator configured to receive an envelope signal indicative of an envelope of the radio frequency input signal and generate the voltage source based on the envelope signal at one of a plurality of discrete voltage levels. The multi-level switch modulator is further configured to generate the voltage source using an analog component during transitions between discrete voltage levels and a digital component following the transitions.

An equalizer circuit in an envelope tracking (ET) integrated circuit (ETIC) is disclosed. The ETIC (26) is configured to generate an ET voltage based on a target voltage (VTGT) for amplifying a radio frequency (RF) signal(s). Since the ETIC has inherent impedance and group delay that can cause distortion in the ET voltage, an equalizer circuit (24) is provided in the ETIC to equalize the target voltage prior to generating the ET voltage. Specifically, the equalizer circuit generates an equalized target voltage to offset the inherent impedance and a modified target voltage to mitigate the group delay. Accordingly, the equalizer circuit can output a processed target voltage, which can include the equalized target voltage and / or the modified target voltage, for generating the ET voltage. As a result, it is possible to reduce distortion resulted from the inherent impedance and group delay, especially when the RF signal(s) is modulated in a wide modulation bandwidth.

Bandwidth adaptation in a transmission circuit is provided. The transmission circuit includes a power amplifier circuit that amplifies a radio frequency (RF) signal based on a modulated voltage, an envelope tracking integrated circuit (ETIC) that generates the modulated voltage based on a modulated target voltage, and a transceiver circuit that generates the RF signal and the modulated target voltage. The RF signal may have a wide modulation bandwidth but the ETIC may have a lower bandwidth limit, which can cause distortion in the modulated voltage and the RF signal. In this regard, the transceiver circuit is configured to generate the modulated target voltage in a lower bandwidth than the bandwidth limit when the modulation bandwidth of the RF signal exceeds the bandwidth limit of the ETIC. As such, the transmission circuit can process the RF signal across the wide modulation bandwidth without causing distortion in the RF signal.

A power management circuit operable with a reduced voltage range is provided. Herein, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) is configured to generate an envelope tracking (ET) voltage whereby a power amplifier circuit can amplify a radio frequency (RF) signal for transmission. Specifically, the power management circuit can be configured according to various embodiments to achieve the reduced voltage range by applying a combination of load modulation and supply modulation across a larger voltage range (e.g., a peak-to-peak voltage range) required for amplifying the RF signal between a peak-to-peak power range (a.k.a. minimum to maximum power range). By dynamically reducing the voltage range of the RF signal, the PMIC and / or the power amplifier circuit in the power management circuit can operate with an improved efficiency to thereby provide an improvement in the user experience.

A power amplifier system for amplifying a radio frequency signal can have a driver transistor coupled to a radio frequency signal input. The system can also have a transformer balun with a main primary coil connected between the driver transistor and a voltage supply node of the power amplifier system, a secondary coil magnetically coupled to the main primary coil, and an additional primary coil configured to generate a feedback signal related to a signal induced in the main primary coil. A neutralization diode can be configured to use the feedback signal to reduce a gain variation resulting from variations in a voltage supplied from the voltage supply node of the power amplifier system. The neutralization diode can be connected between the additional primary coil and the driver transistor. Through envelope tracking, voltage supplied through the voltage supply node can change in relation to an envelope of the radio frequency signal.

A power amplifier system is disclosed having a carrier amplifier having a first supply node, a peaking amplifier having a second supply node, and an envelope tracking (ET) circuit. The ET circuit has a first tracking amplifier that generates a first voltage signal at the first supply node, a second tracking amplifier that generates a second voltage signal at the second supply node, and a transistor coupled between the first supply node and the second supply node. A control circuit has a first input coupled to the output of either or both the first tracking amplifier and the second tracking amplifier, and a control output terminal coupled to the control input terminal of the transistor. The control circuit is configured to gradually turn on the transistor to pass current from the first supply node to the second supply node as the peaking amplifier is gradually activated.

An electronic device includes a processor, a modulator, and a power amplifier. The processor receives a baseband signal and executes a first ET shaping function on the baseband signal. The modulator receives the baseband signal, detects the magnitude of the baseband signal, and outputs the first voltage according to the magnitude of the baseband signal. The power amplifier outputs an amplified signal based on the first voltage. The first ET shaping function enables the relationship between the baseband signal and the first voltage to be Vpa=a|X|2+b. X is the baseband signal, Vpa is the first voltage, and a and b are constants. The look-up table records the relation curve between the power of the amplified signal and the first voltage when the second ET shaping function is used for envelope tracking.

A multi-mode power management device is provided. In embodiments disclosed herein, the multi-mode power management device may be configured to operate in different power management modes across a wide modulation bandwidth range (e.g., 80 KHz to 200 MHz or more). The multi-mode power management device includes a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) and an envelope tracking integrated (ET) circuit (ETIC) implemented in a separate die. The PMIC is configured to generate a low frequency current and a low frequency voltage. The ETIC is configured to generate a pair of ET voltages. Depending on the power management mode, the multi-mode power management device may selectively output one or more of the ET voltage and the low frequency voltage to different stages (e.g., a driver stage and an output stage) of a power amplifier circuit, therefore, the optimal efficiency and linearity of the power amplifier circuit can be maintained across the wide modulation bandwidth range.

A device including a first circuit, a second circuit, and a third circuit. The first circuit to receive a first signal and a second signal, and the first circuit to provide a third signal. The second circuit to receive a fourth signal and a fifth signal, and the second circuit to provide a sixth signal. The third circuit to receive the third signal and the sixth signal, and the third circuit to provide a seventh signal to indicate whether to track a difference between an amount of voltage provide to a driver and an amount of voltage provided by the driver or track a difference between an amount of voltage provided by a source and the amount of voltage provided to the driver.

An envelope tracking system includes an envelope signal generator; a power modulator coupled to the envelope signal generator, the power modulator including a switching regulator path configured to provide an output voltage at an output node to a power amplifier when in an average power tracking (APT) mode, the switching regulator path configured to operate with a linear path to provide the output voltage at the output node to the power amplifier when in an envelope tracking (ET) mode; a capacitor having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal coupled to ground; a switch coupled between the output node and the second terminal of the capacitor, the switch configured to selectively disconnect the capacitor from the output node; and a circuit coupled between the output node and the second terminal of the capacitor, the circuit including a bidirectional current limiting switch, the circuit configured to charge or discharge the capacitor such that a voltage across the capacitor changes from a first voltage to a second voltage.

An RF circuit is disclosed that may include a driver stage. The driver stage may include a gate bias circuit configured to receive a variable voltage supply signal; and an amplifier stage comprising a FET, wherein the gate bias circuit is configured to adaptively convert the variable voltage supply signal into a bias signal. The RF circuit may further include a circuit component configured to combine the bias signal and a radio frequency input signal to generate a combined signal, and wherein the amplifier stage is configured to receive the combined signal at a gate of the FET and to produce an intermediate output, and wherein the gate bias circuit is configured to generate the bias signal such that the bias signal increases as the variable voltage supply signal decreases to compensate for a tendency of a current through the FET to decrease as the variable voltage supply signal decreases.