Electronic devices

Electronic device technology field

[0001] The present invention relates to a printed circuit board (PCB) layout, and more specifically, to a co-layout footprint of a multi-frequency power amplifier.

Background technique

[0002] A radio-frequency (RF) power amplifier is an electronic amplifier used to convert a low-power RF signal into a larger signal with significant power, and is generally used to drive an antenna of a transmitter. The RF power amplifier can be optimized to have high efficiency, high output power compression, good return loss on input/output, good gain, and best heat dissipation performance.

[0003] There are various UMTS frequency bands deployed around the world in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). For example, UMTS Band I (W-CDMA 2100) used in Europe, India, Africa, and Asia, UMTS Band II (W-CDMA1900) used in North and South America, and UMTS Band IV (W-CDMA 1700 or W-CDMA 1700) used in the United States and Canada Advanced wireless services), UMTS band V (W-CDMA 850) used in Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, New Zealand and other places, and UMTS band VIII (W-CDMA900) used in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and other places.

[0004] In order to support multi-band operation (for example, support up to 4 UMTS frequency bands), the designer must reserve a PCB area for multiple power amplifiers, each of which is used to amplify RF signals for a specific UMTS frequency band. Different types of power amplifiers, such as single-frequency and multi-frequency power amplifiers, can be mounted on the PCB area according to system requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a PCBo compatible with different types of power amplifiers in a relatively small area.

[0005] Therefore, there is a need to propose a novel power amplifier joint layout pad and system architecture.

Summary of the invention

[0006] In view of this, the present invention provides an electronic device.

[0007] The present invention provides an electronic device, including: a circuit board, including a power amplifier pad, for welding a first power amplifier or a second power amplifier on the power amplifier pad, wherein the power amplifier pad includes: One part and a second part, wherein the first part includes a plurality of input/output pads, and when the first power amplifier is soldered on the circuit board, the plurality of input/output pads in the first part are coupled to the first part A power amplifier; the second part includes a plurality of input/output pads, when the second power amplifier is soldered on the circuit board, the plurality of input/output pads in the first part and the second part A plurality of input/output pads are all coupled to the second power amplifier.

[0008] The multi-frequency power amplifier bonding pads of the electronic device provided by the present invention are common layout bonding pads, which can significantly reduce the layout area of the printed circuit board under multi-band operation.

Description of the drawings

[0009] The present invention can be fully understood by reading the subsequent specific embodiments and examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0010] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a power amplifier pad according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a power amplifier pad according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a power amplifier pad along the line XXaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0014] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of pin settings of a single-frequency power amplifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of pin settings of a multi-frequency power amplifier according to another embodiment of the present invention. [0016] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a part of the layout of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

[0017] The following description is a preferred embodiment of the implementation of the present invention. The following embodiments are only used to illustrate the general principles of the present invention, and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be defined by the appended claims.

[0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device module according to an embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 100 may be a notebook computer, a mobile phone, a portable game device, a tablet computer, etc. The electronic device 100 may include a circuit board 110 and a plurality of devices soldered on the circuit board 110. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of devices soldered on the circuit board 110 may include a baseband processing device 200, an RF transceiver 220, a power amplifier 240, one or more switches (based on how many UMTS frequency bands are implemented) , Which will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs), one or more duplexers (based on how many UMTS bands are implemented, which will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs), and an antenna switch module (ASM) ) 380o In one embodiment of the present invention, the baseband processing device, RF transceiver, power amplifier, switch, duplexer and ASM can be implemented in separate hardware devices (such as separate integrated circuits (Integrated Circuit, IC ) Or passive components, etc.), soldered on the circuit board 110, and coupled to adjacent devices through one or more traces.

[0019] Please note that in order to clearly illustrate the concept of the present invention, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the electronic device 100 is designed to support 4 UMTS frequency bands. Therefore, as shown in Figure 1, there are two switches 260, 280 and four duplexers 300, 320, 340, and 360, and each duplexer is used to transmit (transmission, TX) and receive (reception, RX) signals. Duplex for specific UMTS frequency bands. It should be noted that it is also possible to reduce or increase the number of switches, duplexers, frequency band selection signals, frequency band enabling signals and/or the number of signal processing branches (discussed in detail in the following paragraphs) to design the electronic device It can support less than 4 or more than 4 UMTS frequency bands. Therefore, it can be understood that the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in FIG. 1. On the contrary, the present invention can expand to cover various modifications and similar arrangements that are obvious to those skilled in the art, and the scope of the subsequent claims should be understood in the broadest sense to cover all such modifications and similar arrangements.

[0020] The baseband processing device 200 may include multiple hardware devices to perform baseband signal processing, where the baseband signal processing may include analog to digital conversion (ADC/Digital to Analog Conversion, DAC). ), gain adjustment, modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, etc. For example, the baseband processing device 200 may include a processor for performing baseband signal processing, issuing a frequency band selection signal and/or a frequency band enabling signal, and so on. The RF transceiver 220 may receive an RF signal in the RX operation, convert the received RF signal into a baseband signal, and then the baseband processing device 200 processes the converted baseband signal. Alternatively, the RF transceiver 220 may receive a baseband signal from the baseband processing device 200 in the TX operation, convert the received baseband signal into an RF signal, and then transmit the converted RF signal. The RF transceiver 220 may also include multiple hardware devices to perform signal transceiving and radio frequency conversion. For example, the RF transceiver 220 may include a mixer module to mix the baseband signal with a radio frequency oscillating in a wireless communication system, where the radio frequency may be 900 MHz used in the UMTS system, 1900MHz, 2100MHz, etc., or 900MHz>2100MHz or 2.6GHz used in Long Term Evolution (LTE), or other radio frequencies used in radio access technology (RAT).

[0021] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a power amplifier, a switch, a duplexer, and an ASM can be regarded as an RF front-end for processing RF front-end signals. In the embodiment of the present invention, the power amplifier 240 may be implemented as a single-frequency power amplifier or a multi-frequency power amplifier (which will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs). To support multi-frequency operation, there may be two signal processing branches separate from the output of the power amplifier 240, one branch is used to process high-band RF signals, and the other branch is used to process low-band RF signals. According to an aspect of the present invention, "high frequency" refers to a frequency band higher than a preset frequency, and "low frequency" refers to a frequency band not higher than the preset frequency. For example, the preset frequency may be set to 1700 MHz. According to another aspect of the present invention, "high frequency" and "low frequency" may be general terms representing one or more UMTS frequency bands. The UMTS frequency band is the frequency band used by the UMTS network. For example, the shared UMTS frequency band I, UMTS frequency band II, and UMTS frequency band IV can be regarded as "high frequency", and the UMTS frequency band V and UMTS frequency band VIII can be regarded as "low frequency". Therefore, when the power amplifier 240 is a single-frequency power amplifier, the power amplifier 240 may be a single-frequency power amplifier ICo that is only suitable for processing high-frequency signals or only suitable for processing low-frequency signals. In addition, when the power amplifier 240 is a multi-frequency power amplifier , The power amplifier 240 can be the same The multi-frequency power amplifier ICo, which is suitable for processing high-frequency signals and low-frequency signals, is to simplify and unified description. In the following paragraphs, the power amplifier 240 is designated to only process low-frequency signals. However, it should be understood that the power amplifier 240 may also be implemented as a single-frequency power amplifier used only for processing high-frequency signals, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

[0022] In TX operation, the power amplifier 240 may receive the high-frequency enabling signal HB_EN or the low-frequency enabling signal LB_EN from the baseband processing device 200 to enable the corresponding power amplifier circuit for amplifying the high-frequency or low-frequency RF signal. In response to the high-frequency enable signal HB_EN, the power amplifier 240 may further transmit the amplified high-frequency RF signal to one of the switches (such as switch 260). On the other hand, in response to the low-frequency enable signal LB_EN, the power amplifier 240 may further The amplified low frequency RF signal is passed to another switch (such as switch 280). The switch 260 may receive at least one frequency band selection signal (for example, the frequency band selection signal B1_SEL and/or the frequency band selection signal B2_SEL) from the baseband processing device 200 to selectively transfer the amplified high frequency RF signal to the duplexer 300 or 320. For example, when the amplified high-frequency RF signal is a UMTS band I signal, the baseband processing device 200 may send the band selection signal B1_SEL to the switch 260. In response to the band selection signal B1_SEL, the switch 260 may transfer the amplified high frequency RF signal to the duplexer 300, where the duplexer 300 is used for duplexing the TX and RX signals of the UMTS band 1. The switch 280 can also receive at least one frequency band selection signal (for example, frequency band The selection signal B3_SEL and/or the frequency band selection signal B4_SEL) is used to selectively transmit the amplified low-frequency RF signal to the duplexer 340 or 360. It can also transmit the amplified high-frequency or low-frequency RF signal from the corresponding duplexer 300, 320, 340 or 360 to the ASM and finally to the air interface through the antenna.

[0023] In the RX operation, the RF signal received from the antenna for a specific UMTS frequency band can be transmitted to the corresponding duplexer 300, 320, 340 or 360 through the ASM. Then the duplexer 300, 320, 340 or 360 can pass the received RF signal to the RF transceiver 220 for frequency down conversion.

[0024] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the circuit board 110 may include a plurality of component pads, and each component pad is used for soldering a corresponding device thereon. For example, power amplifier pads can be used to weld power amplifiers, switch pads can be used to weld switches 260 and/or 280, duplexer pads can be used to weld duplexers 300, 320, 340, and/or 360, and so on. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a power amplifier bonding pad according to an embodiment of the present invention. The power amplifier bonding pad is used for welding the power amplifier thereon. The power amplifier pads may include a ground plane 20 and a plurality of input/output (Input/Output, 1/0) pads 30, the plurality of input/output pads 30 are used for welding a single-frequency power amplifier or a multi-frequency power amplifier thereon . The power amplifier pad can be separated into two parts, as shown in Figure 2 part A and part Bo. In this embodiment, part B can be regarded as a basic part (basic part), and part B is used for welding on it Single-frequency power amplifier, in addition, part A can be regarded as an extended part (extended part), connected with part B, and part A is used to weld a multi-frequency power amplifier on it. More

Specifically, when soldering a single-frequency power amplifier (for example, a low-frequency power amplifier that can amplify low-frequency RF signals) on the circuit board, the I/O pads in part B are used to couple the corresponding pins of the single-frequency power amplifier . On the other hand, when soldering a multi-frequency power amplifier (for example, a multi-frequency power amplifier that can amplify high-frequency and low-frequency RF signals) on the circuit board, the I/O pads in part A and part B are used for coupling. Connect to the corresponding pin of the multi-frequency power amplifier. Therefore, the power amplifier pads shown in FIG. 2 are common layout pads, and are used to flexibly solder different types of power amplifiers on them according to the requirements of products with different pins. Please note that the number shown in FIG. 2 only represents an exemplary layout size of the power amplifier, and the present invention should not be limited to this.

[0025] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a power amplifier bonding pad according to another embodiment of the present invention, the power amplifier bonding pad is used to solder different types of power amplifiers thereon. In this embodiment, the power amplifier pad is separated into two parts, namely part A'and part B'as shown in FIG. 3, and the ground plane 20-1 of the part A'and the ground plane 20- of the part B' 2 is separated. Although the ground plane 20-1 of the partial piece is separated from the ground plane 20-2 of the portion B, in some embodiments of the present invention, the ground plane of the portion A'can be connected through one or more conductive lines. 20T and the ground plane 20-2 of the part B'are electrically connected to each other. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the power amplifier bonding pad along the line XXaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of conductive wires 40 are soldered on the circuit board 101, and the plurality of conductive wires 40 are used to electrically connect the ground plane 20-1 of the part Aand the ground plane 20-2 of the part B. Please note that the layout of conductive lines can be flexibly designed. For example, the layout of the conductive lines can be designed as a straight line as shown in FIG. 3, and in another embodiment, it can be designed as an X shape where one conductive line crosses another conductive line, and so on.

[0026] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of I/O pads in the part B or the part B of the power amplifier pad may include at least a first I/O pad, a second I/O pad, and a third I/O pad. I/O pad, where the first I/O pad is used to receive RF signals in a specific frequency band (for example, low frequency band) from the RF transceiver 220, and the second I/O pad is used to apply amplified signals in a specific frequency band ( For example, the low-band amplified signal) is output to the subsequent device, and the third I/O pad is used to receive an enable signal (for example, the low-frequency enable signal LB_EN), where the enable signal is used to enable welding on part B or Part B, part of the power amplifier circuit in the single-frequency power amplifier or multi-frequency power amplifier. In addition, a plurality of I/O pads in part A or part A of the power amplifier pad may include at least a fourth I/O pad, a fifth I/O pad, and a sixth I/O pad, where the fourth I/O pad The /O pad is used to receive an RF signal in another frequency band (for example, a high frequency band) from the RF transceiver 220, and the fifth I/O pad is used to amplify signals in this frequency band (for example, a high frequency band amplifies signals) Output to subsequent devices, and the sixth I/O pad is used to receive another enabling signal (for example, high-frequency enabling signal HB_EN), where the enabling signal is used to enable welding on part A or part A. The other part of the power amplifier circuit in the high-frequency power amplifier.

[0027] FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of the pin arrangement of a single-frequency power amplifier according to an embodiment of the present invention. The single-frequency power amplifier is suitable for welding on the pads of the power amplifier shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Please note that when the single-frequency power amplifier is soldered, each pin shown in FIG. 5 can be coupled to an I/O pad of the power amplifier solder pad. The Vccl and Vcc2 pins are used to connect to the power supply voltage. The RF_In pin is used to receive the RF signal in a specific frequency band from the RF transceiver 220. The RF_0ut pin is used to output the amplified signal. The Vbp and Vmode pins are used to receive the gain control signal, which is used to control the gain of the power amplifier. The ISO and CPL pins are used to form a coupling path. The GND pin is used to connect to the ground plane. The Ven pin is used to receive an enable signal (for example, a low-frequency enable signal LB_EN), which is used to enable a single-frequency power amplifier. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the pin setting of a multi-frequency power amplifier according to another embodiment of the present invention. The multi-frequency power amplifier is suitable for welding on the power amplifier pads shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Most of the pin settings are the same as the single-frequency power amplifier. It should be noted that the Ven pin of the multi-frequency power amplifier is used to receive the enable signal (for example, the low-frequency enable signal LB_EN), which is used for

Enable a part of the power amplifier circuit in the multi-frequency power amplifier (that is, the low-frequency part). In addition, the RF_In2 pin is used to receive an RF signal in another frequency band from the RF transceiver 220. The RF_0ut pin is used to output the amplified signal. The Ven_2 pin is used to receive another enable signal (for example, the high-frequency enable signal HB_EN), and the other enable signal is used to enable another part of the power amplifier circuit in the multi-frequency power amplifier (ie, the high-frequency part).

[0028] As mentioned above, in order to support multi-frequency operation, the number of switches and duplexers welded on the circuit board can be flexibly increased or decreased according to product requirements. Taking the structure shown in FIG. 1 as an example, the electronic device 100 can support a maximum of 4 UMTS frequency bands. Therefore, during manufacturing, there may be at most two switch pads and four duplexer pads on the circuit board 110 to reserve an area for welding the corresponding switches and duplexers when needed. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, in the low-frequency signal processing branch, the circuit board 110 may include a switch pad soldered on the circuit board 110, and the switch pad is used to solder a switch (for example, Switch 280). When the switch 280 and the single-frequency power amplifier are soldered on the circuit board 110, the switch 280 may be coupled to the single-frequency power amplifier through at least one transmission line to receive the amplified low-band RF signal from the single-frequency power amplifier. On the other hand, when the switch 280 and the multi-frequency power amplifier are soldered on the circuit board 110, the switch 280 may be coupled to the multi-frequency power amplifier through at least one transmission line to receive the amplified low-band RF signal from the multi-frequency power amplifier. Those skilled in the art should understand that related variants of the structure shown in FIG. 1 can support more than 4 UMTS frequency bands. The present invention should not limit the specific number of UMTS frequency bands that can be supported.

[0029] In the high-frequency signal processing branch, the circuit board 110 may further include another switch pad provided on the circuit board 110, and the other switch pad is used to weld another switch (such as a switch) on it. 260). When the switch 260 and the multi-frequency power amplifier are soldered on the circuit board 110, the switch 260 may be coupled to the multi-frequency power amplifier through at least one transmission line to receive the amplified high-band RF signal from the multi-frequency power amplifier. In addition to the switch pads, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, in the low-frequency signal processing branch, the circuit board 110 may further include a first duplexer pad and a second duplexer pad disposed on the circuit board 110. Soldering pad, wherein the first duplexer soldering pad is used for soldering a first duplexer (for example, duplexer 340) thereon, and the second duplexer soldering pad is used for soldering a second duplexer thereon Duplexer (for example, duplexer 360). In the high-frequency signal processing branch, the circuit board 110 may further include a third duplexer pad and a fourth duplexer pad provided on the circuit board 110, Wherein, the third duplexer pad is used to weld a third duplexer (for example, duplexer 300) thereon, and the fourth duplexer pad is used to weld a fourth duplexer ( For example, the duplexer 320) ο

[0030] Please note that in order to support less than 4 UMTS frequency bands, the circuit board 110 may further include a first bypass resistor (bypass resistor) pad and/or a second bypass resistor pad. The pad is arranged between the power amplifier solder pad and the first duplexer solder pad, and the first bypass resistor solder pad is used to solder the first bypass resistor on it when needed (for example, the resistor shown in FIG. 1 400), the second bypass resistance welding pad is arranged between the power amplifier welding pad and the third duplexer welding pad, and the second bypass resistance welding pad is used to weld the second bypass resistance on it when necessary ( For example, the resistor 420 shown in Figure 1) ο

[0031] For example, when the electronic device 100 is designed to support only 3 UMTS frequency bands, only one switch IC (for example, switch 260) and three duplexer ICs (for example, duplexers 300, 320, and 340) can be soldered on the circuit board 110. ). In order to bypass the switch pad for the welding switch 280, the resistor 420 may be soldered on the corresponding resistance pad to form a bypass path separate from the switch pad. In this way, the amplified RF signal can be directly transmitted from the multi-frequency power amplifier IC to the duplexer ICo through the bypass resistor 420. For example, when the electronic device 100 is designed to support only one UMTS frequency band, the circuit board 110 can be Weld only one duplexer IC (for example, duplexer 300). In order to bypass the switch pad for welding the switch 260, the resistor 400 can be soldered on the corresponding resistance pad to form a separate side from the switch pad. Road path. In this way, the amplified RF signal can be directly transmitted from the single-frequency power amplifier IC to the duplexer ICo through the shunt resistor 400

[0032] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a part of the layout of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. To simplify the description, FIG. 7 only shows one switch pad 710, one bypass resistance pad 740, and two duplexer pads 720 and 730. The switch on the switch pad 710 can receive the amplified high-frequency or low-frequency RF signal HB_RF/LB_RF from the single-frequency or multi-frequency power amplifier through the transmission line coupled between the corresponding I/O pads. The switch on the pad 710 can further receive the frequency band selection signal B1_SEL and/or B2_SEL from the baseband processing device through the transmission line coupled between the corresponding multiple I/O pads. The bypass resistance pad 740 is provided between the switch pad 710 and the power amplifier pad (not shown), and the bypass resistance pad 740 is used to solder a bypass resistor on it when needed. The duplexer soldered on the duplexer pad 720 can receive a high-frequency or low-frequency RF signal HB_RF from the switch soldered on the switch pad 710 through a transmission line coupled between a plurality of corresponding I/O pads /LB_RFo The duplexer soldered on the duplexer pad 730 can receive a specific switch from the switch soldered on the switch pad 710 through a transmission line coupled between a plurality of corresponding I/O pads. The high frequency or low frequency RF signal HB_RF/LB_RF of the UMTS band is welded on the duplexer pad 720 and the duplexer welded on the duplexer pad 730 The above duplexer can transmit the high frequency or low frequency RF signal HB_RF/LB_RF to the ASM through the transmission line coupled between the corresponding I/O pads. It should be noted that there may be some matching components arranged on the transmission line.

[0033] Traditionally, in order to achieve various system requirements in different countries or regions, mobile phone manufacturers can design specific PCB layouts for each country or region, which will increase the design cost. To solve the above shortcomings, mobile phone manufacturers can design a general PCB layout to reserve a large space for the maximum number of single-frequency power amplifier pads, which can support any combination of possible UMTS frequency bands. However, when there are few UMTS frequency bands supported in a country or region, a common PCB layout will waste a lot of space. For example, when the general PCB layout reserves 4 single-frequency power amplifier pads and the electronic device only needs to support one UMTS frequency band in a country, at least three single-frequency power amplifier areas will be wasted. According to the concept of the present invention, since the power amplifier pads shown in Figures 2 and 3 are common layout pads, different power amplifiers can be flexibly welded on them according to product requirements, so the circuit board area is larger than the traditional common PCB The layout design is much smaller. According to the aforementioned layout, by reducing or increasing the number of switches (and corresponding switch pads), duplexers (and corresponding duplexer pads), frequency band selection signals, frequency band enabling signals, and/or signal processing branches The electronic device can be designed to support less than 4 or more than 4 UMTS frequency bands. Please note that the structure shown in FIG. 1 is only to clearly illustrate the concept of the present invention, and the present invention should not be limited thereto.

[0034] The use of ordinal numbers such as "first", "second", and "third" used to modify elements in the claims does not in itself indicate any priority, order of priority, precedence between components, or methods The order of the steps performed is only used as an identifier to distinguish different elements with the same name (with different ordinal numbers).

[0035] Although the present invention is disclosed as above in a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can make slight changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. And retouching. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention is subject to the claims.