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EP-4238223-B1 - TRANSCEIVER ASSEMBLY PROTECTION ELEMENT

EP4238223B1EP 4238223 B1EP4238223 B1EP 4238223B1EP-4238223-B1

Inventors

  • VARNAMKHASTI, SIAMAK

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20210610

Claims (12)

  1. A transceiver assembly (200), including: a radio frequency, RF, transceiver (201) configured to transmit and receive RF signals (108); a transceiver controller (202) operatively coupled with the transceiver (201) via a transmit path (204) and a receive path (206); a power amplifier (208) disposed along the transmit path (204) between the transceiver controller (202) and the transceiver (201), the power amplifier (208) configured to amplify RF signals (108) received from the transceiver controller (202) for transmission by the transceiver (201); a power detection line (210) independent from the receive path, the power detection line configured to provide power control feedback (212) to the transceiver controller (202) indicating an amplitude of current flowing from the power amplifier (208) to the transceiver (201); and a directionally-specific protection element (216) disposed along the power detection line (210), the directionally-specific protection element (216) configured to allow the power control feedback (212) to flow to the transceiver controller (202) over the power detection line (210) in a first direction, while preventing at least some electrical noise (214) originating from the transceiver controller (202) from flowing through the power detection line (210) in a second direction, thereby preventing the electrical noise (214) from entering the receive path (206).
  2. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, further comprising a low-noise amplifier disposed along the receive path between the transceiver and the transceiver controller, the low-noise amplifier configured to amplify RF signals received from the transceiver for processing by the transceiver controller.
  3. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, where the directionally-specific protection element includes a switch configured to close during transmission of RF signals by the transceiver, and configured to open during receiving of RF signals at the transceiver.
  4. The transceiver assembly of claim 3, where the electrical noise originating from the transceiver controller is redirected to ground while the switch is open.
  5. The transceiver assembly of claim 3, where the switch includes an OR gate configured to open or close depending on an active status of one or more inputs to the OR gate.
  6. The transceiver assembly of claim 5, where the OR gate receives two or more inputs indicating a transmission status of two or more different frequency bands of RF signals by the transceiver, and the OR gate is configured to close if any of the two or more inputs are active.
  7. The transceiver assembly of claim 6, where the two or more different frequency bands include a 2.4Ghz frequency band and a 5Ghz frequency band.
  8. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, where the directionally-specific protection element includes a transistor having a first impedance for current flowing in the first direction and a second, higher impedance for current flowing in the second direction.
  9. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, where the electrical noise is generated by a local oscillator included in the transceiver controller.
  10. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, where the transceiver controller is configured to change an amplitude of an RF signal sent to the power amplifier for transmission by the transceiver based on the power control feedback.
  11. The transceiver assembly of claim 1, wherein the transmit and receive paths intersect at a multiplexer, and wherein the power detection line is configured to provide power control feedback to the transceiver controller indicating electrical conditions at a monitoring node between the multiplexer and the RF transceiver.
  12. An electronic communications device (100), comprising: a housing (102); and a transceiver assembly according to any of the preceding claims, the transceiver assembly configured to enable wireless communications with other electronic devices (106).

Description

BACKGROUND Transceivers are electrical components that enable both transmission and reception of radio frequency (RF) signals. Transceivers may be used to enable wireless communication between electronic devices. US 2017302389 describes a wireless communication device including: a transmitting circuit that is connected to an antenna and includes a power amplifier that amplifies an input signal; a receiving circuit that is connected to the antenna and includes a switch that switches as to whether or not a signal is received; and a processor that executes a process including: acquiring timing information that indicates timing of a guard period when no signal is transmitted or received by the antenna; turning on the power amplifier and turning on the switch in the guard period based on the acquired timing information to input a noise signal of the transmitting circuit that is amplified by the power amplifier to the receiving circuit; measuring electrical power of a signal that is output from the receiving circuit in the guard period; and determining abnormality of the receiving circuit based on the measured electrical power. US 2019363743 describes methods, devices, and systems which may compensate input data for non-linear power amplifier noise to generate compensated input data. In compensating the noise, during an uplink transmission time interval (TTI), a switch path is activated to provide amplified input data to a receiver stage including a coefficient calculator. The coefficient calculator may calculate an error representative of the noise based partly on the input signal to be transmitted and a feedback signal to generate coefficient data associated with the power amplifier noise. The feedback signal is provided, after processing through the receiver, to a coefficient calculator. During an uplink TTI, the amplified input data may also be transmitted as the RF wireless transmission via an RF antenna. During a downlink TTI, the switch path may be deactivated and the receiver stage may receive an additional RF wireless trans mission to be processed in the receiver stage. US 2019386618 describes methods and apparatus for coexistent radio frequency (RF) systems in a wireless device. Control of a wireless device includes detecting when a turn on signal is issued to a first radio system, and then control ling the second radio system to either modify the operation of receiver circuitry in the second radio system to protect components within that system, or modify transmit circuitry to stop transmissions for protecting components within one radio system potentially affected by transmission from the other radio system in the wireless device. Disclosed also is monitoring of transmission states of the radio systems based on reading messages between the first and second radio systems and issuing a notification message based thereon such that one of the radio systems may suspend monitoring of a transmit channel for permission to transmit in order to reduce power consumption due to such monitoring of the channel. US 2018368082 describes an amplification circuit including a filter circuit, an amplifier, a capacitor, a bypass line, and a switch circuit that includes a first FET and a second FET connected in series between one end and the other end of the bypass line, a first resistance element connected in series to a gate of the first FET, and a second resistance element connected in series to a gate of the second FET. A first control signal is supplied to the gate of the first FET. A second control signal is supplied to the gate of the second FET. A product of a gate length and a gate width of the first FET and a resistance value of the first resistance element is smaller than a product of a gate length and a gate width of the second FET and a resistance value of the second resistance element. US 2013027110 describes a squaring circuit which has current mode triplet metal oxide semi-conductor (MOS) devices, including a first MOS device, a second MOS device and a third MOS device each having a source operably coupled to a first current source; and a fourth MOS device, a fifth MOS device and a sixth MOS device each having a source operably coupled to a second current source. The drain of the first and fourth MOS device is operably coupled to a first supply, the drain of the second and fifth MOS device is operably coupled to a first differential output port and the drain of the third and sixth MOS device is operably coupled to a second differential output port. The gate of the first, second and sixth MOS device is connected to a first differential input port, and the gate of the third, fourth and fifth MOS device is connected to a second differential input port. SUMMARY The invention is set out in the appended set of claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 schematically depicts wireless communication between electronic devices via a transceiver.FIG. 2 schematically depicts an example transceiver assembly.FIGS.