US 9,866,259 B1Granted

Transmitter/receiver module for millimeter wave 5G MIMO communication systems

AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG

InventorAlexandros Margomenos

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Abstract

A transmit/receive module includes an integrated control circuit that is configured to operate in transmit and receive modes. In the transmit mode, the integrated control circuit converts a digital input signal into a plurality of phase shifted RF transmit signals. In the receive mode, the integrated control converts an RF receive signal into a digital output signal. The transmit/receive module further includes a plurality of transmit/receive integrated circuits connected. Each of the transmit/receive integrated circuits amplify one of the RF transmit signals using a power amplifier during the transmit mode, and amplify one of the RF receive signals using a low noise amplifier during the receive mode. The integrated control circuit biases the power amplifier and calibrates a power level the power amplifier in the transmit mode. The integrated control circuit protects the integrated control circuit from damage by controlling the low noise amplifier during the receive mode.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A transmit/receive module, comprising:

an integrated control circuit that is configured to operate in a transmit mode and in a receive mode, wherein in the transmit mode, the integrated control circuit is configured to convert a digital input signal into a plurality of phase shifted RF transmit signals corresponding to a radiation pattern for a phased array, and wherein in receive mode, the integrated control circuit is configured to convert an RF receive signal that is received from a phased array into a digital output signal;
and
a plurality of transmit/receive integrated circuits connected to and controlled by the integrated control circuit, wherein each of the transmit/receive integrated circuits are configured to amplify one of the RF transmit signals using a power amplifier during the transmit mode, and to amplify one of the RF receive signals using a low noise amplifier during the receive mode,
wherein the integrated control circuit is configured to bias the power amplifier of each transmit/receive integrated circuit and to calibrate a power level of the power amplifier of each transmit/receive amplifier integrated circuit in the transmit mode, and
wherein the integrated control circuit is configured to protect the integrated control circuit from damaging power levels of the RF receive signal by biasing the low noise amplifier of each transmit/receive amplifier integrated circuit in the receive mode.

2 more elements

A method of transmitting and receiving RF signals across a phased array using a transmit/receive module, the transmit/receive module comprising an integrated control circuit and a plurality of transmit/receive integrated circuits, each of the transmit/receive integrated circuits comprising a power amplifier and a low noise amplifier, the method comprising:

operating the transmit/receive module in a transmit mode, the transmit mode comprising:
converting a digital input signal into a plurality of phase shifted RF transmit signals corresponding to a radiation pattern for a phased array using the integrated control circuit;
amplifying each of the phase shifted RF transmit signals using the power amplifier in the transmit/receive integrated circuits, wherein amplifying each of the phase shifted RF transmit signals comprises biasing the power amplifier of each transmit/receive integrated circuit and calibrating a power level of the power amplifier of each transmit/receive amplifier integrated circuit using the integrated control circuit;
operating the transmit/receive module in a receive mode, the receive mode comprising:
amplifying a plurality of phase shifted RF receive signal that are received from a phased array using the low noise amplifier in the transmit/receive integrated circuits;
converting the phase shifted RF receive signal into a digital output signal using the integrated control circuit;
and
protecting the integrated control circuit from damaging power levels of the RF receive signal by biasing the low noise amplifier in the transmit/receive integrated circuits using the integrated control circuit.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.