Frequency Combiner With Adjustable Tuning Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Frequency-dependent combiners in telecommunications systems lack flexibility and incur insertion loss when handling unsupported frequency bands, limiting their ability to combine signals effectively across multiple frequency bands.
Innovation Solution
A frequency combiner with adjustable tuning elements, such as phase shifters and electric length tuners, allows for manual or automatic adjustment of signal-processing parameters, enabling the combination of signals across various frequency bands without the need for frequency-dependent multiplexers, and supports the exchange of RF modules to accommodate different frequencies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a frequency-dependent frequency combiner is used to combine signals, then signal combination is achieved for supported frequency bands, but flexibility is lost when unsupported frequency bands are used and insertion loss occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency combiner is designed with adjustable tuning elements that enable it to operate across multiple frequency bands by modifying its electrical characteristics. This universal design allows the same combiner hardware to handle different frequency ranges (e.g., low band 791-895 MHz, high band 1850-2170 MHz) without requiring frequency-specific hardware, thereby eliminating insertion loss associated with unsupported bands and improving flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The frequency combiner incorporates adjustable tuning elements that dynamically modify the electrical length and impedance characteristics of transmission lines within the combiner circuit. By changing these parameters, the combiner adapts its frequency response to match the required operating band, enabling seamless transition between supported and unsupported frequency bands without energy loss.
2Reliability
If frequency-dependent multiplexers are used for each frequency band, then signals are combined effectively for specific bands, but device complexity increases and field upgrades become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of deploying separate frequency-dependent multiplexers for each frequency band, the invention uses a single universal frequency combiner with adjustable tuning elements. This single device can be reconfigured to handle multiple frequency bands, reducing the total number of multiplexers from several frequency-specific units to one multi-functional unit, thereby simplifying device complexity while maintaining signal combination effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the functions of multiple frequency-dependent multiplexers into a single frequency combiner unit. By combining the signal combination capabilities for multiple frequency bands into one device with adjustable parameters, the system reduces component count and simplifies the overall architecture while maintaining reliable signal combination across different bands.
3Ease of manufacture
If fixed frequency combiners are deployed, then initial configuration is simple, but adaptability to new frequency bands and field upgrades are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The frequency combiner employs adjustable tuning elements that allow dynamic reconfiguration of electrical parameters such as transmission line length and impedance. This dynamic capability enables the combiner to be initially deployed in a simple fixed configuration and later reconfigured in the field to support new frequency bands, thereby achieving both ease of initial deployment and adaptability for future upgrades without requiring hardware replacement.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables field upgrades by allowing changes in electrical parameters (such as effective electrical length and characteristic impedance) of the combiner's transmission lines through adjustable tuning elements. These parameter changes permit the same physical hardware to adapt to new frequency bands, providing both simple initial deployment and flexible future adaptability.
Data Source
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AI summary
Certain features relate to a telecommunications system with a modular frequency combiner combining multiple received signals at different frequency bands without using frequency-dependent multiplexers. The frequency combiner can include adjustable tuning elements for adjusting various signal-processing parameters of the frequency combiner while the frequency combiner is in the telecommunications system. For example, adjustable tuning elements can adjust the phases of phase shifters of each RF path so that the RF paths are matched for combining the received signals and outputting them through an output port. The adjustable tuning elements can also adjust the electrical length or physical length of the transmission lines that carry the received signals. The adjustable tuning elements can be adjusted manually or automatically while the frequency combiner is deployed in the field in the telecommunications system.