International Business Machines Corporation

Mixcomm, Inc.

Mediatek Corporation

California Institute of Technology

Oregon State University

Arun Sridhar Natarajan

Scott Kevin Reynolds

Alberto Valdes Garcia

Harish Krishnaswamy

Mark Ferriss

Benjamin D Parker

Duixian Liu

Brian Allan Floyd

Alexander V Rylyakov

Jose A Tierno

Soner Yaldiz

Seyed Ali Hajimiri

Frank A Lane

Jean-Olivier Plouchart

Abbas Komijani

Herschel Akiba Ainspan

Jing-Hong Conan Zhan

Ming-Da Tsai

Mihai A Sanduleanu

Jean-Oliver Plouchart

Daniel Joseph Friedman

Yasunao Katayama

Aristotele Hadjichristos

Nicholas C M Fuller

Alberto Valdes-Garcia

Xiaoxiong Gu

Jie-Wei Lai

Sean Timothy Nicolson

Ping-Yu Chen

Vikas Vinayak

Vipul Jain

Mehmet Soyuer

Abhishek Agrawal

Dong Gun Kam

Xiang Guan

Aydin Babakhani

Kang Ning

Ming-Dai Tsai

Mahmood Baraani Dastjerdi

Syed Rahman

Manoj Johnson

Aristotele Hadjichirstos

Sanket Jain

Robin Garg

Methods and apparatus for implementing an arrangement of antennas in an apparatus are described. The combining of antennas and related components using Ball Grid Array (BGA) technology and various spacing/heat routing techniques allows for a group of antennas and related ICs to be implemented as a printed circuit board mountable package. Multiple antenna packages can be mounted on a printed circuit board to allow for different numbers of antennas to be included in a device depending on communications needs. The antenna package is well suited for mm-wave applications.

Methods and apparatus for implementing antenna assemblies and/or combining antenna assemblies to form arrays

Methods and apparatus for implementing a phase shifter in a space, e.g., chip surface area, efficient manner is described. In various embodiments a combination of switches, capacitors and a transformer are used in combination as a controllable phase shifter. In some embodiments the phase shifter supports a phase shift of 0 degrees or 180 degrees depending on the position of one or more switches. The mutual inductance of the transformer in at least some embodiments emulates one or more capacitors in a phase shift network making for an implementation that can be implemented on a semiconductor in an area efficient manner as compared to implementations using more capacitors and independent inductors.

Space efficient controllable switch type phase shifter

Methods and apparatus for implementing passive wideband phase shifters are described. The phase shifters exhibit good linearity over a wide range of frequencies. Furthermore at least some features are directed to allowing the phase shifters to be implemented in some embodiments in a relatively compact manner making such embodiments well suited for supporting arrays and/or other implementations where a large number of phase shifters are to be implemented in a relatively small chip area.

Wideband vector modulator phase shifter

Methods and apparatus for calibrating signal processing chains using cross coupling between polarizations are described. Various exemplary methods and apparatus, in accordance with the present invention, are well suited for use in communications devices using beamforming and including arrays of TX/RX front ends, e.g., a first plurality of horizontal polarization front ends and a second plurality of vertical polarization front ends.

Array calibration thru polarization cross-coupling

A controllable reflection type phase shifter that includes an adjustable hybrid coupler and controllable adjustable reflection load circuit is described and used in some embodiments to implemented a communication system. In some embodiments the communication system supports beam forming through the use of a plurality of TX/RX signal processing chains (SPCs), each SPC including at least one reflection type phase shifter, e.g., a controllable reflection type phase shifter. The controllable reflection type phase shifters in different SPCs of the array are configured, e.g., differently, based on the particular beam pattern being used to transmit or receive signals at a given time. Control information, e.g., control values, are stored in memory with the control values corresponding to an antenna pattern to be used at a given time being retrieved from memory and to control the circuits, e.g., controllable reflection type phase shifters, in the system.

Method and apparatus for implementing reflection type phase shifters (RTPS) in a communication system

A communications apparatus which supports beamforming is described. The communications apparatus includes an array of N beam forming circuits, each of the N beamforming circuits including an RF signal input coupled to a phase shifter, an attenuator and a power amplifier. The communications apparatus further includes an array of antenna elements, each one of the N beamforming circuits including an output coupled to a different one of the antenna elements in the array of antenna elements; and a set of beam tables including control values used to selectively control elements of the beamforming circuits. The beam tables include sets of control values which are accessed and used to control components of the beamforming circuits depending on the beam angle to be used during a given time period. A feedback circuit generate EVM control information based on output signals from the beam forming circuits.

Methods and apparatus for beamforming

Controllable radio frequency power amplifiers (RFPAs), e.g., in a Hybrid-MIMO array, which are being driven at lower power levels, are operated at conditions such that their inherent EVM and ACLR are intentionally further increased. This increase of inherent EVM and ACLR is done in a precise manner, and the increased inherent EVM and ACLR are cancelled or reduced by the EVM and ACLR of the input Array DPD signal. The net result is improved EVM and ACLR performance over a broader range of angles. Exemplary methods and apparatus for increasing distortion include individual or combinations of: i) changing the DC bias a RFPA based on average operating power level; ii) changing supply voltage, e.g. Vcc, of a RFPA based on average operating power level, iii) adding a controllable non-linear element, such as a diode or varactor, at the input of the RFPA, based on the average operating power.

Methods and apparatus for using signal pre-distortion with individual power amplifier (PA) control

Polarimetric transceiver front-ends and polarimetric phased array transceivers include two receive paths configured to receive signals from an antenna, each including a respective variable phase shifter. A first transmit path is connected to the variable phase shifter of one of the two receive paths and is configured to send signals to the antenna. A transmit/receive switch is configured to select between the first transmit path and the two receive paths for signals. The transmit/receive switch has an element that adds a high impedance to the transmit path when the transmit/receive switch is in a receiving state.

Scalable polarimetric phased array transceiver

An apparatus for simultaneous transmit and receive is provided. The apparatus is capable of rejecting or passing transmitter and receiver signals. The apparatus includes: a transmitter; an antenna (e.g., a shared antenna); a receiver including switches controllable by time varying signals; and a quadrature coupler including first, second, third, and fourth ports, wherein the first port is coupled to the transmitter, wherein the second port is coupled to the antenna, and wherein the third and fourth ports are coupled to the receiver.

Shared-antenna interface apparatus for simultaneous transmit and receive

Antenna devices, antenna systems and methods of their fabrication are disclosed. One such antenna device includes a semiconductor chip and a chip package. The semiconductor chip includes at least one antenna that is integrated into a dielectric layer of the semiconductor chip and is configured to transmit electromagnetic waves. In addition, the chip package includes at least one ground plane, where the semiconductor chip is mounted on the chip package such that the ground plane(s) is disposed at a predetermined distance from the antenna to implement a reflection of at least a portion of the electromagnetic waves.

Hybrid-on-chip and package antenna

A polarimetric transceiver front-end includes two receive paths configured to receive signals from an antenna, each receive path corresponding to a respective polarization. Each front-end includes a variable amplifier and a variable phase shifter; a first transmit path configured to send signals to the antenna, where the transmit path is connected to the variable phase shifter of one of the two receive paths and includes a variable amplifier; and a transmit/receive switch configured to select between the first transmit path and the two receive paths for signals, where the transmit/receive switch includes a quarter-wavelength transmission line that adds a high impedance to the transmit path when the transmit/receive switch is in a receiving state.

A method and system are disclosed for measuring a specified parameter in a phase-locked loop frequency synthesizer (PLL). In one embodiment, the method comprises introducing multiple phase errors in the PLL, measuring a specified aspect of the introduced phase errors, and determining a value for the specified parameter using the measured aspects of the introduced phase errors. In one embodiment, the phase errors are introduced repetitively in the PLL, and these phase errors produce a modified phase difference between the reference signal and the feedback signal in the PPL. In one embodiment, crossover times, when this modified phase difference crosses over a preset value, are determined, and these crossover times are used to determine the value for the specified parameter. In an embodiment, the parameter is calculated as a mathematical function of the crossover times. The parameter may be, for example, the bandwidth of the PLL.

Loop parameter sensor using repetitive phase errors

Hybrid on-chip and package antenna

Methods and systems for phase shifting include a hybrid quadrature coupler having an input, an output, and two termination loads. Each termination load includes multiple terminations, each termination having a varactor; and one or more transmission lines separating the terminations. A control module is configured to determine a phase shift and gain to apply to the input and to independently control a capacitance of each varactor such that the output of the hybrid quadrature coupler is shifted by the determined phase shift relative to the input with the determined gain.

Variable load for reflection-type phase shifters

Growing community of inventors

White Plains, NY, United States of America

Arun Sridhar Natarajan