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US 10,951,179 B2Granted
Impedance control unit
AssigneeAmpleon Netherlands B.V.
InventorsLei Zhou, John Gajadharsing
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An impedance control unit is disclosed. Also disclosed are a balun unit, an electronic device, and a Doherty amplifier, each comprising the impedance control unit. The impedance control unit comprises a pair of re-entrant type coupled lines, and further comprises an electrical short between the intermediate plane and the ground plane arranged locally inside the pair of coupled lines.
Claims21
An impedance control unit comprising:
- a pair of re-entrant type coupled lines through which odd mode signals and even mode signals can propagate, the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines comprising:
- a first conductive strip and a second conductive strip spaced apart from the first conductive strip, wherein the first and second conductive strips are electromagnetically coupled;
- a conductive intermediate plane;
- and
- a conductive ground plane;
- an electrical connection between the conductive intermediate plane and the conductive ground plane, the electrical connection comprising a conductive via;
- wherein the conductive intermediate plane laterally extends beyond the first and second conductive strips and wherein the electrical connection is configured to provide a radio frequency (RF) short or at least a small impedance for even mode signals propagating through the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines, and wherein the electrical connection is configured such that its arrangement does not significantly change the odd mode signals behavior of the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines.
4 more elements
A balun unit, comprising:
- a balun having a first balanced port, a second balanced port, and an unbalanced port;
- and
- an impedance control unit comprising:
- a pair of re-entrant type coupled lines through which odd mode signals and even mode signals can propagate, the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines comprising:
- a first conductive strip and a second conductive strip spaced apart from the first conductive strip, wherein the first and second conductive strips are electromagnetically coupled;
- a conductive intermediate plane;
- and
- a conductive ground plane;
- an electrical connection between the conductive intermediate plane and the conductive ground plane, the electrical connection comprising a conductive via;
- wherein the conductive intermediate plane laterally extends beyond the first and second conductive strips and wherein the electrical connection is configured to provide a radio frequency (RF) short or at least a small impedance for even mode signals propagating through the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines, and wherein the electrical connection is configured such that its arrangement does not significantly change the odd mode signals behavior of the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines;
- wherein the first conductive strip is connected to the first balanced port and wherein the second conductive strip is connected to the second balanced port.
8 more elements
A Doherty amplifier, comprising:
- a pair of main amplifying elements balun unit that are operated in a push-pull configuration;
- a pair of peak amplifying elements that are operated in a push-pull configuration;
- a splitter for splitting an RF input signal and for feeding the split RF input signal to the pairs of main and peak amplifying elements;
- a Doherty combiner configured for combining signals from a first main amplifying element and a first peak amplifying element, and for combining signals from a second main amplifying element and a second peak amplifying element;
- and
- a balun having a first balanced input port configured for receiving the combined signals from the first main amplifying element and the first peak amplifying element, a second balanced input port configured for receiving the combined signals from the second main amplifying element and the second peak amplifying element, and an output port;
- wherein the Doherty combiner comprises an impedance control unit comprising:
- a pair of re-entrant type coupled lines through which odd mode signals and even mode signals can propagate, the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines comprising:
- a first conductive strip and a second conductive strip spaced apart from the first conductive strip, wherein the first and second conductive strips are electromagnetically coupled;
- a conductive intermediate plane;
- and
- a conductive ground plane;
- an electrical connection between the conductive intermediate plane and the conductive ground plane, the electrical connection comprising a conductive via;
- wherein the conductive intermediate plane laterally extends beyond the first and second conductive strips and wherein the electrical connection is configured to provide a radio frequency (RF) short or at least a small impedance for even mode signals propagating through the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines, and wherein the electrical connection is configured such that its arrangement does not significantly change the odd mode signals behavior of the pair of re-entrant type coupled lines;
- and wherein one or more of the pairs of amplifying elements is/are configured to operate in class E or inverse class F.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.