Envelope Tracking Amplifier Circuit for Peak Current and Heat Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
5G-NR capable mobile communication devices face inefficiencies in power amplifiers, leading to excessive heat dissipation due to suboptimal operating efficiency, particularly when transmitting RF signals in the mmWave spectrum.
Innovation Solution
An envelope tracking (ET) amplifier apparatus with an integrated circuit (ETIC) that generates ET voltages based on target voltages, allowing for opportunistic reduction or shutdown of voltage circuits to minimize peak battery current and improve heat dissipation by using a reference ET voltage derived from the maximum ET target voltage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple voltage circuits are operated simultaneously to provide ET voltages to multiple amplifier circuits, then the amplifiers can be driven efficiently, but peak battery current increases and heat dissipation worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic control of voltage circuits by selectively enabling or disabling specific voltage circuits based on real-time operating conditions. The system dynamically determines which voltage circuits are needed at any given moment, allowing the amplifier to maintain high efficiency while reducing unnecessary power consumption and heat generation in circuits that are not currently required for operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system selectively disables (discards) voltage circuits that are not currently needed for the present operating condition, and can re-enable (recover) them when needed. This allows the system to eliminate unnecessary power consumption and heat generation from idle voltage circuits while maintaining the capability to activate them when required for optimal amplifier performance.
2Productivity
If multiple voltage circuits are operated simultaneously to provide ET voltages to multiple amplifier circuits, then the amplifiers can be driven efficiently, but peak battery current increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts which voltage circuits are active based on real-time demands, enabling the amplifiers to operate efficiently only when needed while minimizing peak battery current by keeping unnecessary voltage circuits disabled. This dynamic allocation ensures power is drawn only for essential operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards (disables) voltage circuits that are not currently required, thereby reducing peak battery current draw, and can recover (re-enable) them when the operational conditions require their functionality for maintaining amplifier efficiency.
3Reliability
If all voltage circuits are kept operational to ensure ET voltage availability, then amplifier performance is maintained, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic control mechanisms that adjust the operational state of voltage circuits based on real-time requirements. This dynamic approach maintains amplifier performance by activating only the necessary voltage circuits while keeping others disabled, thereby reducing the effective complexity of the voltage circuit configuration without sacrificing reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards unnecessary voltage circuits from active operation to simplify the effective configuration, and can recover them when needed to maintain amplifier performance. This selective discarding and recovering reduces the operational complexity while preserving the capability to maintain high amplifier performance when required.
Data Source
AI summary
An envelope tracking (ET) amplifier apparatus is provided. The ET amplifier apparatus includes an ET integrated circuit (ETIC) having a number of voltage circuits coupled to a common port and configured to generate an ET voltage(s) based on a number of ET target voltages, respectively. In examples discussed herein, a selected voltage circuit(s) in the ETIC receives a maximum ET target voltage among all the ET target voltages and is configured to generate a reference ET voltage based on the maximum ET target voltage. As such, another voltage circuit(s), which happens to receive the maximum ET target voltage, may simply treat the reference ET voltage as a respective ET voltage(s) instead of generating the respective ET voltage(s). As a result, it may be possible to opportunistically turn off or reduce functionality of the voltage circuit(s) to help reduce peak battery current and improve heat dissipation in the ET amplifier apparatus.