An antenna array system and a method for making the antenna system. The system includes at least two antenna elements serving as transmitter elements, and at least two antenna elements serving as receiver elements. Each of the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna elements include a pair of curved arms, wherein a first arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected from a signal trace of the antenna system. The second arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected to a ground plane.
A communication system includes a first communication cable coupled with a first peer node of a data network, a first wireless host device including a first wireless interface and a second wireless interface, a first adapter coupled between the first wireless host device and an end point of the first communication cable, a second communication cable coupled with a second peer node of the data network, and a second wireless host device including a third wireless interface and a fourth wireless interface. The third wireless interface is configured to communicate with the first wireless interface via a first wireless communication channel, and the fourth wireless interface is configured to communicate with the second wireless interface via a second wireless communication channel. A second adapter is coupled between the second wireless host device and the second communication cable.
An antenna array system and a method for making the antenna system. The system includes at least two antenna elements serving as transmitter elements, and at least two antenna elements serving as receiver elements. Each of the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna elements include a pair of curved arms, wherein a first arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected from a signal trace of the antenna system. The second arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected to a ground plane.
An antenna array system and a method for making the antenna system. The system includes at least two antenna elements serving as transmitter elements, and at least two antenna elements serving as receiver elements. Each of the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna elements include a pair of curved arms, wherein a first arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected from a signal trace of the antenna system. The second arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected to a ground plane.
An antenna array system and a method for making the antenna system. The system includes at least two antenna elements serving as transmitter elements, and at least two antenna elements serving as receiver elements. Each of the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna elements include a pair of curved arms, wherein a first arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected from a signal trace of the antenna system. The second arm in the pair of curved arms is configured to be connected to a ground plane.
A circuit comprises a Sallen-Key filter, which includes a source follower that implements a unity-gain amplifier; and a programmable-gain amplifier coupled to the Sallen-Key filter. The circuit enables programmable gain via adjustment to a current mirror copying ratio in the programmable-gain amplifier, which decouples the bandwidth of the circuit from its gain settings. The programmable-gain amplifier can comprise a differential voltage-to-current converter, a current mirror pair, and programmable output gain stages. The Sallen-Key filter and at least one branch in the programmable-gain amplifier can comprise transistors arranged in identical circuit configurations.
A circuit comprises a Sallen-Key filter, which includes a source follower that implements a unity-gain amplifier; and a programmable-gain amplifier coupled to the Sallen-Key filter. The circuit enables programmable gain via adjustment to a current mirror copying ratio in the programmable-gain amplifier, which decouples the bandwidth of the circuit from its gain settings. The programmablegain amplifier can comprise a differential voltage-to-current converter, a current mirror pair, and programmable output gain stages. The Sallen-Key filter and at least one branch in the programmable-gain amplifier can comprise transistors arranged in identical circuit configurations.
Local oscillator (LO) leakage and Image are common and undesirable effects in typical transmitters. Typically, fairly complex hardware and algorithms are used to calibrate and reduce these impairments. A single transistor that draws essentially no dc current and occupies a very small area detects the LO leakage and Image signals. The single transistor operating as a square-law device is used to mix the signals at the input and output ports of a power amplifier. The mixed signal generated by the single transistor enables the simultaneous calibration of the LO leakage and Image Rejection.
H03D 7/18 - Modifications of frequency-changers for eliminating image frequencies
H03D 7/12 - Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing by means of semiconductor devices having more than two electrodes
A large gain is used to start up the oscillation of the crystal quickly. A control circuit disables a low resistance path based on the measured amplitude to reduce the power dissipation specification of the crystal. Another technique introduces a mixed-signal controlled power supply multi-path resistive array which tailors the maximum current to the crystal. A successive approximation register converts the amplitude into several partitions and enables/disables one of several power routing paths to the inverter of the oscillator. This allows a better match between the crystal selected by the customer and the on-chip drive circuitry to power up the oscillator without stressing the crystal. The "1/f" noise of the oscillator circuit is minimized by operating transistors in the triode region instead of the linear region.
H03B 5/32 - Generation of oscillations using amplifier with regenerative feedback from output to input with frequency-determining element being electromechanical resonator being a piezoelectric resonator
10.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING THE CLOCK KICK-BACK OF ADC COMPARATORS
The core concept of this ADC is the high-speed fully-differential comparators which are clocked at 2.64 GHz and used in a 60 GHz transceiver. The comparator consists of a pre-amplifier stage, a capture stage, a regeneration cell and an output latch. The pre-amplifier stage is not clocked; therefore, the pre-amplifier stage does not suffer initialization and transient behavior effects when the clock signal switches state. The transient response of being enabled and disabled is eliminated. Instead, a capture stage transfers the contents of the pre-amplifier stage into a memory regeneration stage. The capture stage is clocked by pulses that are timed to minimize the clock kick-back generated by the memory regeneration stage. The clock kick-back is reduced even when many comparators are coupled to the PGA. The comparators are also aligned right next to each other to minimize the mismatching layout effect.
The differential output of a Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA) is loaded by the input differential gate capacitance of a plurality of Analog to Digital convertors (ADC) comparators and the differential metal layer traces to interconnect these comparators to the PGA. The differential capacitive load presented to the PGA is quite large and reduces the bandwidth of this interconnect between the PGA and ADC. To overcome the performance degradation due to the differential capacitive load, an active negative-capacitor circuit cancels the effect of the large input capacitance of the ADC comparators. This cancelation extends the gain characteristics of the interconnect between the PGA's output and the inputs of the first stage of the comparators. The active negative-capacitance is comprised of a cross pair NMOS with a capacitor connecting their sources where each NMOS is biased by a current source.
The class-E amplifier can be tuned to pass only the fundamental frequency to the antenna by optimizing the second harmonics at the drain of the final PA driver transistor. A CPW in series with a capacitor between the PA transistor and the load forms a band pass filter that only allows the fundamental frequency to pass to the load of the antenna. A supply inductor to couple the drain of the final PA driver transistor to the power supply is tuned at the second harmonic with the parasitic capacitance of the drain of the PA transistor. A load capacitance is adjusted at the fundamental frequency to insure that the current waveform and voltage waveforms at the drain of the PA driver transistor do not overlap, thereby minimizing the parasitic power dissipation and allowing maximum energy to be applied to the antenna.
Herein is a low power on-die 60 GHz distribution network for a beamforming system that can be scaled as the number of transmitters increases. The transmission line based power splitters and quadrature hybrids whose size would be proportional to a quarter wavelength (~600 μm) if formed using transmission lines are instead constructed by inductors/capacitors and reduce the area by more than 80%. An input in-phase I clock and an input quadrature Q clock are combined into a single composite clock waveform locking the phase relation between the in-phase I clock and quadrature Q clock. The composite clock is transferred over a single transmission line formed using a Co-planar Waveguide (CPW) coupling the source and destination locations over the surface of a die. Once the individuals the in-phase I and quadrature Q clocks are required, they can be generated at the destination from the composite clock waveform.
The LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) substrate is used to form an antenna structure operating at 60 GHz. The dielectric constant is high and ranges from 5 to 8. The substrate thickness is fabricated with a thickness between 360μm to 700μm. The large dielectric constant and large thickness of the substrate creates a guiding wave in the LTCC that forms an endfire antenna. A high gain signal of 10 dB in a preferred direction occurs by placing the microstrip fed dipole structure in the center of the LTCC substrate creating a dielectric cavity resonator. The creation of a slot in the LTCC substrate between the two microstrip fed dipole structures eliminates beam tilting and allows for the two microstrip fed dipole structures to reduce the coupling to each other thereby providing substantially two isolated endfire antennas. These antennas can be used as multiple receive or transmit antennas.
A portable unit with an endfire antenna and operating at 60 GHz makes an optimum communication channel with an endfire antenna in an array of antennas distributed over the area of a ceiling. The portable unit is pointed towards the ceiling and the system controlling the ceiling units selects and adjusts the positioning of an endfire antenna mounted on a 3-D adjustable rotatable unit. Several transceivers can be mounted together, offset from one another, to provide a wide coverage in both azimuth direction and elevation direction. These units can be rigidly mounted as an array in a ceiling apparatus. The system controlling the ceiling array selects one of the transceivers in one of the units to make the optimum communication channel to the portable unit. The system includes the integration of power management features by switching between Wi-Fi in favor of the 60 GHz channel.
H01Q 21/10 - Collinear arrangements of substantially straight elongated conductive units
H01Q 21/08 - Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart the units being spaced along, or adjacent to, a rectilinear path
16.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF A DAC SWITCH ARRAY
A critical design parameter occurs when digital signals are converted into analog signals. Generating a relative large swing with a resistor-ladder DAC becomes more difficult as the supply voltage drops to less than 2 times the threshold voltage. For a 5 bit DAC, 32 sub-arrays select the appropriate voltage from the series coupled resistor network. Each sub-array uses p-channel transistors where the sub-array extracting the lowest voltage 700mV only has a 100mV of gate to source voltage. To compensate for the reduced gate to source voltage, the sub-arrays are partitioned into four groups. In each group, the p-channel width is increased from 2um to 5um, as the tap voltage drops from 1.2 V to 0.7 V. This allows the p-channel transistor with a small gate to source voltage to have a larger width thereby improving performance.
Transceiver calibration is a critical issue for proper transceiver operation. The transceiver comprises at least one RF transmit chain and one RF receive chain. A closed loop path is formed from the digital block, the RF transmit chain, the substrate coupling, the RF receive chain back to the digital block and is used to estimate and calibrate the transceiver parameters over the operating range of frequencies. The substrate coupling eliminates the need for the additional circuitry saving area, power, and performance. In place of the additional circuitry, the digital block which performs baseband operations can be reconfigured into a software or/and hardware mode to calibrate the transceiver. The digital block comprises a processor and memory and is coupled to the front end of the RF transmit chain and the tail end of the RF receive chain.
Capacitive adjustment in an RCL resonant circuit is typically performed by adjusting a DC voltage being applied to one side of the capacitor. One side of the capacitor is usually connected to either the output node or the gate of a regenerative circuit in an RCL resonant circuit. The capacitance loading the resonant circuit becomes a function of the DC voltage and the AC sinusoidal signal generated by the resonant circuit. By capacitively coupling both nodes of the capacitor, a DC voltage can control the value of the capacitor over the full swing of the output waveform. In addition, instead of the RCL resonant circuit driving a single differential function loading the outputs, each output drives an independent single ended function; thereby providing two simultaneous operations being determined in place of the one differential function.
H03L 7/099 - Details of the phase-locked loop concerning mainly the controlled oscillator of the loop
H03B 5/08 - Generation of oscillations using amplifier with regenerative feedback from output to input with frequency-determining element comprising lumped inductance and capacitance
19.
METHOD AND APPARATUS OF CAPACITIVELY COUPLING AN ADJUSTABLE CAPACITIVE CIRCUIT IN A VCO
Capacitive adjustment in an RCL resonant circuit is typically performed by adjusting a DC voltage being applied to one side of the capacitor. One side of the capacitor is usually connected to either the output node or the gate of a regenerative circuit in an RCL resonant circuit. The capacitance loading the resonant circuit becomes a function of the DC voltage and the AC sinusoidal signal generated by the resonant circuit. By capacitively coupling both nodes of the capacitor, a DC voltage can control the value of the capacitor over the full swing of the output waveform. In addition, instead of the RCL resonant circuit driving a single differential function loading the outputs, each output drives an independent single ended function; thereby providing two simultaneous operations being determined in place of the one differential function.
H03B 5/08 - Generation of oscillations using amplifier with regenerative feedback from output to input with frequency-determining element comprising lumped inductance and capacitance
H03L 7/099 - Details of the phase-locked loop concerning mainly the controlled oscillator of the loop
20.
AN INPUT RESISTANCE OF A PASSIVE MIXER TO BROADEN THE INPUT MATCHING BANDWIDTH OF AN LNA
A cascode common source and common gate LNAs operating at 60GHz are introduced and described. The cascode common source LNA is simulated to arrive at an optimum ratio of upper device width to the lower device width. The voltage output of the cascode common source LNA is translated into a current to feed and apply energy to the mixer stage. These input current signals apply the energy associated with the current directly into the switched capacitors in the mixer to minimize the overall power dissipation of the system. The LNA is capacitively coupled to the mixer switches in the I and Q mixers and are enabled and disabled by the clocks generated by the quadrature oscillator. These signals are then amplified by a differential amplifier to generate the sum and difference frequency spectra.
Injection locked dividers provide a divided clock signal after being driven by a injected clock signal that is a multiple of the divided clock signal. At injected clock signal at 60 GHz generates a differential 30 GHz clock signal. One innovative construction of the injection locked oscillator reduces the internal capacitive at a node by associating the parasitic capacitance at this node with the inductors of the tapped inductor resonant circuit. This provides more energy flow in the injection pulses applied to the legs of the injection locked circuit providing an increase locking range.
H03B 19/06 - Generation of oscillations by non-regenerative frequency multiplication or division of a signal from a separate source by means of discharge device or semiconductor device with more than two electrodes
H03L 7/18 - Indirect frequency synthesis, i.e. generating a desired one of a number of predetermined frequencies using a frequency- or phase-locked loop using a frequency divider or counter in the loop
22.
A DIFFERENTIAL SOURCE FOLLOWER HAVING 6dB GAIN WITH APPLICATIONS TO WiGig BASEBAND FILTERS
A Sallen-Key filter requires an operational amplifier with a large input impedance and a small output impedance. The operational amplifier requires an internal feedback path for stability that limits performance. This invention eliminates the need for internal feedback and increases the gain of a source follower which has characteristics matching the operational amplifier in the Sallen-Key filter. The source follower provides 6dB of AC voltage gain and is substituted for the operational amplifier. The Sallen-Key filter requires a differential configuration to generate all the required signals with their compliments and uses these signals in a feed forward path. Furthermore, a two n-channel stacked device maximizes the headroom voltage to several hundred millivolts for a 1.2V voltage supply in a 40nm CMOS technology. Thus, the required 880MHz bandwidth of the Sallen-Key filter can be easily met using the innovative source follower.
Very high frequency circuits suffer from parasitic resistances. At 60 GHz, conventional layout techniques can introduce loss into the circuit at critical locations. One critical interconnect between the output of a pre-driver and the gate of the final output stage causes 1 or 2 dB of loss due to the layout. By minimizing the number of via contacts, this conventional loss can be recovered using this new layout technique. In addition, a tap point of a via stack is used to modify the resonant characteristics of the interconnect. Finally, cross coupled devices in a resonant circuit are used to reduce the common mode noise at the expense of the common mode gain.
H01L 23/52 - Arrangements for conducting electric current within the device in operation from one component to another
H01L 27/02 - Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate including integrated passive circuit elements with at least one potential-jump barrier or surface barrier
24.
A HIGH PERFORMANCE DIVIDER USING FEED FORWARD, CLOCK AMPLIFICATION AND SERIES PEAKING INDUCTORS
A phase lock loop (PLL) is an important component in wireless systems. CMOS technology offers voltage controlled oscillator designs operating at 60 GHz. One of the difficulties is dividing the high frequency clock down to a manageable clock frequency using conventional CMOS. Although injection locked dividers can divide down this clock frequency, these dividers have limitations. A divide by 2 is presented that uses several techniques; feed forward, clock amplification and series peaked inductors to overcome these limitations.
This invention eliminates the need for "capacitor coupling" or "transformer coupling," and the associated undesirable parasitic capacitance and inductance associated with these coupling techniques when designing high frequency (~60GHz) circuits. At this frequency, the distance between two adjacent stages needs to be minimized. A resonant circuit in series with the power or ground leads is used to isolate a biasing signal from a high frequency signal. The introduction of this resonant circuit allows a first stage to be "directly coupled" to a next stage using a metallic trace. The "direct coupling" technique passes both the high frequency signal and the biasing voltage to the next stage. The "direct coupling" approach overcomes the large die area usage when compared to either the "AC coupling" or "transformer coupling" approach since neither capacitors nor transformers are required to transfer the high frequency signals between stages.
A medical sensor system comprises a gateway comprising a wideband receiver and a narrow band transmitter, the each gateway configured to receive a wideband positioning frame using the wideband receiver from one or more wearable sensors and to transmit acknowledgement frames using the narrow band transmitter that include timing and control data for use by the sensors to establish timing for transmission of the positioning frame; and at least one wearable sensor comprising a wideband transmitter and a narrow band receiver, the sensor configured to transmit a sensor data frame to the gateway using the wideband transmitter and to receive an acknowledgement frame from the gateway using the narrow band receiver, extract timing and control information from the frame, and adjust the timing and synchronization of the wideband transmitter using the timing and control information.
G06Q 50/00 - Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
H04B 7/24 - Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field for communication between two or more posts
A positioning system comprises a plurality of controllers, each controller comprising a wideband receiver and a narrow band transmitter, the each controller configured to receive a wideband positioning frame using the wideband receiver from one or more devices and to transmit acknowledgement frames using the narrow band transmitter that include timing and control data for use by the devices to establish timing for transmission of the positioning frame; and at least one device comprising a wideband transmitter and a narrow band receiver, the device configured to transmit a positioning frame to the plurality of controllers using the wideband transmitter and to receive an acknowledgement frame from one or more controllers using the narrow band receiver, extract timing and control information from the frame, and adjust the timing and synchronization of the wideband transmitter using the timing and control information.
G01S 5/02 - Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position-line determinationsPosition-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
G01S 11/08 - Systems for determining distance or velocity not using reflection or reradiation using radio waves using synchronised clocks
H04W 64/00 - Locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
patents
