RF Front-End Tunability for LTE Handset Applications

Author

Whatley, Richard ; Ranta, Tero ; Kelly, Dylan

Author_Institution

Peregrine Semicond., San Diego, CA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

3-6 Oct. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The deployment of LTE in the frequency range of 700 - 800 MHz is now occurring widely to support increased data application demands. Extending handset operation to lower frequencies in addition to existing bands results in up to 10 dB degradation of the radio link performance due to fixed matching networks. Solutions for tunability of the handset RF Front-End have been slow to develop, mainly attributed to the high operating voltages and wide tuning range requirements of the handset application. This paper outlines the requirements for handset RF Front-End tunability and presents a reconfigurable front-end impedance matching network utilizing digitally tunable capacitors (DTCs). Through the use of this tunable matching network, mismatch loss between the RFFE and the antenna can be reduced by up to 5 dB.

Keywords

antennas; capacitors; radio links; radiofrequency spectra; LTE handset applications; RF front-end tunability; RFFE; antenna; data application demands; digitally tunable capacitors; fixed matching networks; frequency 700 MHz to 800 MHz; handset operation; mismatch loss; radio link; reconfigurable front-end impedance matching network; tunable matching network; Antennas; Bandwidth; Impedance; Impedance matching; Telephone sets; Tuners;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA

ISSN

1550-8781

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7437-0

Electronic_ISBN

1550-8781

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CSICS.2010.5619696

Filename

5619696