RF/mm-Wave Peak Detector with High-Dynamic Range Calibration
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsVito Giannini, Brian Paul Ginsburg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit (IC) is provided with a plurality of diode based mm-wave peak voltage detectors (PVD)s. During a testing phase, a multi-point low frequency calibration test is performed on one or more of the PVDs to determine and store a set of alternating current (AC) coefficients. During operation of the IC, a current-voltage sweep is performed on a selected one of the PVDs to determine a process and temperature direct current (DC) coefficient. A peak voltage produced by the PVD in response to a high frequency radio frequency (RF) signal is measured to produce a first measured voltage. An approximate power of the RF signal is calculated by adjusting the first measured voltage using the DC coefficient and the AC coefficient.
Claims12
A method comprising:
- determining a first coefficient for a peak voltage detector by applying a plurality of direct current (DC) levels to an input of the peak voltage detector and measuring an output voltage for each DC level;
- determining a second coefficient for the peak voltage detector by applying an alternating current (AC) test signal at one or more calibrated power levels to the input of the peak voltage detector and measuring a peak voltage for each calibrated power level;
- and
- calculating an approximate power of an input radio frequency (RF) signal received at the peak voltage detector using the first and second coefficients.
A system on an integrated circuit comprising:
- a mm-wave peak voltage detector formed on a substrate of the integrated circuit (IC), the peak voltage detector having an input coupled to receive a mm-wave radio frequency (RF) signal, and an output for providing a measured peak voltage signal corresponding to a power level of the RF signal received at its input;
- a built in self test (BIST) network coupled to read the measured peak voltage signal on the output of the peak voltage detector, in which the BIST includes a processing module and a memory module having a non-volatile memory portion, in which the processing module is operable to:
- determine a first coefficient for the mm-wave peak voltage detector by applying a plurality of direct current (DC) levels to an input of the peak voltage detector and measuring an output voltage for each DC level;
- determine a second coefficient for the mm-wave peak voltage detector by applying an alternating current (AC) test signal at one or more calibrated power levels to the input of the peak voltage detector and measuring a peak voltage for each calibrated power level;
- and
- calculate an approximate power of the mm-wave RF signal received at the mm-wave peak voltage detector using the first and second coefficients.
The system of claim 14, further including a mm-wave module that has an output coupled to an input of the peak voltage detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.