Providing a programmable inductor to enable wide tuning range
AssigneeSilicon Laboratories Inc.
InventorsRuifeng Sun, Abdulkerim Coban
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a tuning network includes: a controllable capacitance; a first switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a reference voltage node; a second switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a third switch; the third switch coupled between the second switch and a second voltage node; a fourth switch coupled between the second voltage node and a first inductor; the first inductor having a first terminal coupled to the fourth switch and a second terminal coupled to at least the second switch; and a second inductor having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first inductor and a second terminal coupled to the controllable capacitance.
Claims18
A tuning network comprising:
- a first inductor formed on a first conductive layer of a semiconductor die;
- a second inductor formed on a second conductive layer of the semiconductor die;
- at least one via to couple the first inductor with the second inductor;
- a controllable capacitance;
- and
- a plurality of switches, wherein the plurality of switches comprises:
- a first switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a reference voltage node;
- a second switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a third switch;
- the third switch coupled between the second switch and a second voltage node;
- and
- a fourth switch coupled between the second voltage node and the first inductor, the plurality of switches controllable to cause the tuning network to:
- operate in a first sub-range of a frequency range, via a parallel coupling of the second inductor and the controllable capacitance, and a decoupling of the first inductor;
- and
- operate in a second sub-range of the frequency range, via a parallel coupling of the first inductor, the second inductor, and the controllable capacitance.
An apparatus comprising:
- a programmable capacitance;
- a programmable inductance coupled to the programmable capacitance, wherein the programmable inductance comprises a first inductor formed on a first conductive layer of a semiconductor die and a second inductor formed on a second conductive layer of the semiconductor die;
- a plurality of switches coupled to at least one of the programmable capacitance and the programmable inductance;
- and
- a controller coupled to the plurality of switches, wherein the controller is to control at least some of the plurality of switches to couple a maximum value of the programmable inductance to the programmable capacitance in a first mode of operation and to couple a lesser value of the programmable inductance to the programmable capacitance in a second mode of operation,
- wherein the plurality of switches comprises:
- a first switch to couple the maximum value of the programmable inductance to the programmable capacitance in the first mode of operation;
- a second switch to couple the lesser value of the programmable inductance to the programmable capacitance in the second mode of operation;
- a third switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and a reference voltage node;
- and
- a fourth switch coupled between the controllable capacitance and the second switch.
A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause a radio device to:
- in response to an indication of a desired channel, determine a sub-band of operation in which the desired channel is located, the sub-band having a frequency range less than a total frequency range of the radio device;
- and
- responsive to determining the sub-band of operation is a first sub-band of operation extending from a minimum frequency of the total frequency range to a first maximum frequency less than a maximum frequency of the total frequency range, couple, via at least a first switch, a second switch, and a third switch, a maximum value of a programmable inductance to a programmable capacitance to form a resonant tank circuit comprising a load for at least one radio frequency circuit, the first switch coupled between the programmable inductance and a first voltage node, the second switch coupled between the first voltage node and the third switch, the third switch coupled between the second switch and the programmable capacitance, to cause the resonant tank circuit to operate having a resonant frequency within the first sub-band of operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.