Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above, the embodiment of the application provides a switching circuit capable of reducing loss and improving nonlinearity.
The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is realized as follows:
An embodiment of the present application provides a switching circuit including: a switching transistor and a unidirectional positive voltage dropping unit; the positive electrode of the unidirectional positive voltage drop unit is connected with the grid electrode of the switching transistor; the negative electrode of the unidirectional positive voltage drop unit is connected with the body end of the switching transistor; the source electrode and the drain electrode of the switching transistor are respectively used as an input end and an output end of the switching circuit; the gate of the switching transistor receives a switching control voltage.
In some embodiments of the application, the switching circuit further comprises: a unidirectional negative pressure drop unit; the positive electrode of the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit is connected with the body end of the switching transistor; and the negative electrode of the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit is connected with the grid electrode of the switching transistor.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units is a plurality; the unidirectional positive pressure drop units are sequentially connected in series; the positive electrode of the first unidirectional positive voltage drop unit is connected with the grid electrode of the switching transistor; and the negative electrode of the last unidirectional positive voltage drop unit is connected with the body end of the switching transistor.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units is greater than or equal to 3.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of the unidirectional negative pressure drop units is 1.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of the unidirectional negative pressure drop units is a plurality; the unidirectional negative pressure drop units are sequentially connected in series; the positive electrode of the first unidirectional negative pressure drop unit is connected with the body end of the switching transistor; and the negative electrode of the last unidirectional negative pressure drop unit is connected with the grid electrode of the switching transistor.
In some embodiments of the application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit comprises: parasitic diodes of the switching transistors.
In some embodiments of the application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit and the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit comprise: a diode, or a unidirectional transistor.
In some embodiments of the present application, the unidirectional positive voltage drop unit is used to raise the body terminal voltage of the switching transistor.
In some embodiments of the present application, when the unidirectional voltage drop unit is turned on, a body terminal voltage of the switching transistor is greater than a source voltage.
In some embodiments of the application, the switching circuit further comprises: a gate bias resistor; wherein the gate of the switching transistor receives a gate voltage via the gate bias resistor.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop cells is determined based on at least one of signal frequency, modulation mode, and device power.
It can be appreciated that the voltage division effect of the unidirectional voltage drop unit can make the body end bias potential of the switch transistor higher than the source electrode bias potential under the condition that the switch circuit is conducted, so that the threshold voltage can be reduced. In this way, the channel resistance when the switching transistor is turned on is reduced, and thus, loss can be reduced and nonlinearity can be improved. Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the application reduces the channel resistance in the on state by reducing the threshold voltage without increasing the switch area, thereby being beneficial to reducing the chip area and improving the integration level. Meanwhile, the unidirectional positive voltage drop unit has PN junction equivalent capacitance when forward biased, so that nonlinearity of parasitic capacitance of the switching transistor can be compensated, linearity of the switching circuit can be improved, and channel resistance of the switching transistor when the switching transistor is conducted can be further reduced.
Detailed Description
The technical solution of the present application will be further elaborated with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples, which should not be construed as limiting the application, but all other embodiments which can be obtained by one skilled in the art without making inventive efforts are within the scope of protection of the present application.
In the following description, reference is made to "some embodiments" which describe a subset of all possible embodiments, but it is to be understood that "some embodiments" can be the same subset or different subsets of all possible embodiments and can be combined with one another without conflict. The term "first/second/third" is merely to distinguish similar objects and does not represent a particular ordering of objects, it being understood that the "first/second/third" may be interchanged with a particular order or precedence, as allowed, to enable embodiments of the application described herein to be implemented in other than those illustrated or described herein.
Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing the application only and is not intended to be limiting of the application.
In the prior art, as shown in fig. 1, a transistor M is generally used as a switching circuit. The source and the drain of the transistor M are respectively used as an input terminal VIN and an output terminal VOUT of the signal; the gate of transistor M receives a gate voltage VG through a gate bias resistor RG; the body terminal of transistor M receives the body terminal voltage VB through the body terminal bias resistor RB. The two bias resistors RG and RB connected to the transistor M have larger resistance values, and the range of the resistance values is 50k to 500k ohms, so as to block leakage of radio frequency energy.
In the prior art, the loss and the nonlinearity of the switch are reduced by increasing the W/L ratio of the transistor, reducing the channel resistance when the transistor is turned on, or increasing the bias resistance and reducing the radio frequency signal leakage. But this increases the circuit area and switching time of the switch.
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an alternative structure of a switching circuit according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the switching circuit includes: a switching transistor M1 and a unidirectional positive voltage drop unit 10. The positive electrode of the unidirectional positive voltage dropping unit 10 is connected with the gate of the switching transistor M1. The negative electrode of the unidirectional positive voltage dropping unit 10 is connected with the body terminal of the switching transistor M1. The source and drain of the switching transistor M1 serve as the input terminal VIN and the output terminal VOUT of the switching circuit, respectively. The gate of the switching transistor M1 receives the switching control voltage VG.
The transistor in the application is a field effect transistor, wherein the field effect transistor can be a MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistor or a JFET (junction field effect transistor), and the application is not limited.
In the embodiment of the present application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit 10 has unidirectional conductivity; that is, current may flow from the positive electrode to the negative electrode of the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit 10, and current may hardly pass in the opposite direction.
In the embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 2, when the switching circuit is turned on, the unidirectional voltage drop unit 10 is in a forward bias state, and at this time, the unidirectional voltage drop unit is turned on, so that the body voltage of the switching transistor M1 is raised, for example, higher than the source voltage. Because the threshold voltage of the transistor is positively correlated with the source-body voltage, the single-phase positive voltage drop unit can increase the body-end voltage and reduce the source-body voltage, so that the threshold voltage of the switching transistor is reduced, and the channel resistance Ron of the switching transistor M1 when being conducted is reduced, thereby reducing loss and improving nonlinearity.
It can be appreciated that, compared to the "reducing the channel resistance Ron when on by increasing the switching area (increasing W/L)" in the related art, the embodiment of the present application reduces the channel resistance Ron when on by reducing the threshold voltage Vth without increasing the switching area. That is, in the embodiment of the application, the size of the switch transistor can be made smaller, which is beneficial to reducing the chip area and improving the integration level.
In some embodiments, the unidirectional positive voltage dropping unit 10 has a PN junction equivalent capacitance when forward biased, so that nonlinearity of the switching transistor M1 due to parasitic capacitance can be compensated, thereby improving linearity of the switching circuit and further reducing channel resistance Ron when the switching transistor M1 is turned on.
In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 3, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units 10 is plural. The plurality of unidirectional positive pressure drop units 10 are serially connected in sequence. Wherein the positive electrode of the first unidirectional positive voltage drop unit 10 is connected with the grid electrode of the switching transistor M1; the negative electrode of the last unidirectional positive voltage dropping unit 10 is connected with the body terminal of the switching transistor M1.
In the embodiment of the present application, a plurality of unidirectional positive voltage dropping units 10 connected in series can be arranged between the gate and the body of the switching transistor M1, so that the threshold voltage Vth can be reduced more effectively, the loss can be reduced more effectively, and the nonlinearity can be improved.
In some embodiments of the application, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units 10 is greater than or equal to 3. For example, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units 10 is 4, 5, 6, etc.
In some embodiments of the present application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit 10 includes: parasitic diode of switching transistor M1. That is, the parasitic diode of the switching transistor M1 may be equivalent to a certain number of unidirectional positive voltage drop units 10, and thus, the corresponding number may be reduced when the unidirectional positive voltage drop units 10 are provided. For example, the parasitic diode of the switching transistor M1 is equivalent to 1 unidirectional positive voltage drop unit 10, and then, it is originally required to provide 4 unidirectional positive voltage drop units 10, and then, it is reduced to provide 3 unidirectional positive voltage drop units 10.
In some embodiments, the body voltage after the voltage reduction by the unidirectional positive voltage reduction unit 10 is 30 to 300mv. For example, the body terminal voltage is 50mV, 80mV, 150mV, etc.
In some embodiments, the voltage of the gate of the transistor is 2.5V, and when the switching transistor M1 is turned on, the voltage of the body terminal of the switching transistor M1 is 100mV after the unidirectional voltage drop unit 10 drops.
In some embodiments of the present application, as shown in fig. 4, the switching circuit further includes: a one-way negative pressure drop unit 20. The positive electrode of the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 is connected with the body terminal of the switching transistor M1. The negative electrode of the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 is connected to the gate of the switching transistor M1. The negative voltage reducing unit is used for enabling the switching transistor to be stably closed.
In the embodiment of the application, under the condition that the switching circuit is conducted, the grid voltage of the switching transistor is larger than the source voltage, the single-phase voltage drop unit is conducted, and the single-phase voltage drop unit is disconnected. Under the condition that the switching circuit is disconnected, the grid voltage of the switching transistor is smaller than the source voltage, the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit is disconnected, the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 is conducted, at the moment, the body end of the switching transistor M1 is connected with the grid through the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20, so that the body end of the switching transistor M1 is close to the grid voltage, and therefore stable closing of the switching transistor is guaranteed, and a switching leakage signal cannot be caused due to rising of the body end voltage.
In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 4, the number of unidirectional negative pressure drop units 20 is 1.
In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 5, the number of the unidirectional negative pressure drop units 20 is plural. The plurality of unidirectional negative pressure drop units 20 are sequentially connected in series. Wherein the positive electrode of the first unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 is connected with the body end of the switching transistor M1; the negative electrode of the last unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 is connected with the gate of the switching transistor M1.
It should be noted that, the provision of a reasonable number of unidirectional negative voltage drop units 20 can ensure that the single-phase negative voltage drop unit path can be stably closed under the condition that the switching circuit is turned on, and can also enable the body terminal voltage of the switching transistor M1 to be close to the gate voltage, thereby ensuring that the switching circuit can be effectively turned off.
In some embodiments, the body voltage is negative when the switching transistor M1 is turned off. For example, -0.5V to-4V; and further, the voltage is-1.2V, -1V, -2V, etc.
In some embodiments, the gate voltage of the switching transistor is-2.5V and the body terminal voltage is-1.85V.
In some embodiments of the application, referring to fig. 2 or 4, the switching circuit further comprises: gate bias resistor RG. The gate of the switching transistor M1 receives the gate voltage VG via the gate bias resistor RG.
In the embodiment of the present application, the body terminal of the switching transistor M1 is connected to the gate of the switching transistor M1 through the unidirectional positive voltage drop unit 10 or the unidirectional negative voltage drop unit 20; therefore, there is no need to provide a body bias resistor for the body of the switching transistor M1 to receive the body voltage. That is, compared with the prior art, the switching circuit of the embodiment of the application can omit the body-side bias resistor, thereby reducing or not increasing the occupied area of the circuit and being beneficial to integration.
In some embodiments of the application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit and the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit comprise: a diode, or a unidirectional transistor.
In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 6, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit 10 may include a diode D10, and the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 may include a diode D20.
In the embodiment of the present application, the unidirectional positive pressure drop unit 10 and the unidirectional negative pressure drop unit 20 may further include unidirectional transistors. It may be a diode-connected transistor, for example, shorting the gate and source of a MOS transistor, or shorting the base and emitter of a transistor. The unidirectional transistors may be connected by referring to the diode connection in fig. 6, and will not be described herein.
In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 6, the number of unidirectional positive pressure drop cells 10 is determined based on at least one of signal frequency, modulation mode, and device power. That is, if the rf front end is provided with a plurality of switching circuits provided by the embodiments of the present application; the number of unidirectional voltage dropping units 10 in the switching circuit may then be determined according to at least one of the signal frequency, modulation mode and device power corresponding to each switching circuit. The number of unidirectional positive pressure drop units 10 may be different in different switching circuits.
Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an alternative rf front end according to the present application. As shown in fig. 7, the radio frequency front end 50 includes: at least one communication link IN/OUT1 and IN/OUT2. Each communication link includes: a switching circuit 40. Wherein the switching circuit 40 comprises the technical features of the previous embodiments.
It should be noted that, referring to fig. 7, a plurality of switch circuits 40 may be disposed on each communication link, and the switch circuits 40 may be combined in series-parallel. The serial-parallel combination of the switch circuit 40 in fig. 7 may refer to the serial-parallel combination shown in fig. 3, and will not be described herein.
Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an alternative terminal provided by the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal 60 includes: a radio frequency front end 50. The rf front end 50 includes the technical features of the previous embodiments.
It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence number of each step/process described above does not mean that the execution sequence of each step/process should be determined by its functions and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application. The foregoing embodiment numbers of the present application are merely for the purpose of description, and do not represent the advantages or disadvantages of the embodiments.
It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.
In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. The above described device embodiments are only illustrative, e.g. the division of the units is only one logical function division, and there may be other divisions in practice, such as: multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. In addition, the various components shown or discussed may be coupled or directly coupled or communicatively coupled to each other via some interface, whether indirectly coupled or communicatively coupled to devices or units, whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise.
The units described above as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and components shown as units may or may not be physical units; can be located in one place or distributed to a plurality of network units; some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.
In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may be separately used as one unit, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit; the integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in hardware plus software functional units. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that: all or part of the steps for implementing the above method embodiments may be implemented by hardware related to program instructions, and the foregoing program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, where the program, when executed, performs steps including the above method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: a mobile storage device, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, or the like, which can store program codes.
Or the above-described integrated units of the application may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the related art in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including all or part of the method described in the embodiments of the present application if the instructions are executed by a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.). And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a removable storage device, a ROM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.
The foregoing is merely an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to be covered by the scope of the present application.