CN212543773U

CN212543773U - Radio frequency device and communication terminal

Info

Publication number: CN212543773U
Application number: CN202021335520.5U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谢卫博
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2020-07-07
Filing date: 2020-07-07
Publication date: 2021-02-12
Anticipated expiration: 2030-07-07

Abstract

The embodiment of the utility model provides a radio frequency device and communication terminal, this radio frequency device includes: the antenna comprises a main control circuit, a radio frequency circuit, a plurality of antennas, a plurality of first receiving channels, at least one bidirectional channel and a switch circuit. The main control circuit is used for determining one or more antennas with the maximum signal intensity value in the plurality of antennas as transmitting antennas, using the other antennas except the transmitting antennas in the plurality of antennas as receiving antennas, and controlling the switch circuit to enable the at least one bidirectional channel to be communicated with the transmitting antennas in a one-to-one correspondence mode and enable the plurality of first receiving channels to be communicated with the receiving antennas in a one-to-one correspondence mode. It can be seen that each antenna can be used as a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna through the switch circuit, and one or more antennas with the maximum signal strength can be automatically switched to the transmitting antenna through the main control circuit, so that the power consumption of the communication terminal can be reduced.

Description

Radio frequency device and communication terminal

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the field of communication technology, especially, relate to a radio frequency device and communication terminal.

Background

For example, the communication terminal includes a transmitting antenna and a plurality of receiving antennas, and the transmitting antenna is only used for transmitting the radio frequency carrier signal, and the receiving antennas are only used for receiving the radio frequency carrier signal, that is, the operation mode of each antenna is not switchable. In practical use of a communication terminal, if the signal strength of the transmitting antenna becomes weak, power consumption of the communication terminal increases. For example, assuming that the communication terminal includes an antenna 1 and an antenna 2, where the antenna 1 is a transmitting antenna and the antenna 2 is a receiving antenna, when the signal strength of the antenna 1 becomes small, an imbalance is generated between the link of the antenna 1 and the link of the antenna 2, and thus, in order to maintain the balance, the communication terminal increases the transmitting power through a power closed-loop control mechanism, thereby increasing the power consumption.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

Based on this, the application provides a radio frequency device and communication terminal, can automatic switch signal intensity value biggest antenna as transmitting antenna to reduce communication terminal's consumption.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a radio frequency device, comprising: a master control circuit; a radio frequency circuit for outputting a carrier signal and receiving a carrier signal; a plurality of antennas for transmitting carrier signals with a base station; a plurality of first receiving channels, connected to the radio frequency circuit, for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna to the radio frequency circuit; at least one bidirectional channel, which is connected to the radio frequency circuit and is used for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna to the radio frequency circuit and transmitting the carrier signal output by the radio frequency circuit to the antenna; a switch circuit connected to the master control circuit, the plurality of antennas, the plurality of first receive channels, and the at least one bi-directional channel; the master control circuit is configured to: and determining one or more antennas with the maximum signal strength value in the plurality of antennas as transmitting antennas, taking the other antennas except the transmitting antennas in the plurality of antennas as receiving antennas, and controlling the switch circuit to enable the at least one bidirectional channel to be in one-to-one corresponding communication with the transmitting antennas and enable the plurality of first receiving channels to be in one-to-one corresponding communication with the receiving antennas.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication terminal comprising a radio frequency device according to the first aspect.

The embodiment of the application provides a radio frequency device and a communication terminal, wherein the radio frequency device comprises: the antenna comprises a main control circuit, a radio frequency circuit, a plurality of antennas, a plurality of first receiving channels, at least one bidirectional channel and a switch circuit. The main control circuit is used for determining one or more antennas with the maximum signal intensity value in the plurality of antennas as transmitting antennas, using the other antennas except the transmitting antennas in the plurality of antennas as receiving antennas, and controlling the switch circuit to enable the at least one bidirectional channel to be communicated with the transmitting antennas in a one-to-one correspondence mode and enable the plurality of first receiving channels to be communicated with the receiving antennas in a one-to-one correspondence mode. It can be seen that each antenna can be used as a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna through the switch circuit, and one or more antennas with the maximum signal strength can be automatically switched to the transmitting antenna through the main control circuit, so that the power consumption of the communication terminal can be reduced.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an alternative application scenario in accordance with embodiments of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of a radio frequency device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of a bidirectional channel in another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a circuit configuration of a multi-pole, multi-throw switch according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic circuit diagram of a matrix switch according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a structure of a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Some embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described below and the features of the embodiments can be combined with each other without conflict.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to the scene shown in FIG. 1. In this scenario, the radio frequency device 100 is disposed on the communication terminal 200, and the communication terminal 200 transmits a carrier signal, such as a radio frequency carrier signal, with the base station 300 through the radio frequency device 100. In some embodiments, the communication terminal 200 may comprise a mobile terminal. In the prior art, the rf device 100 includes a plurality of antennas, but each antenna is fixed as a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna, and in some cases, if the signal strength of the transmitting antenna becomes smaller, the power consumption of the communication terminal 200 is increased. The inventors have thus found that if each antenna can be used as a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna, and in the above case, the antenna with the highest signal strength can be automatically switched to the transmitting antenna, so that the power consumption of the communication terminal 200 can be reduced.

The radio frequency device provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 2, includes: a master control circuit 110, a radio frequency circuit 120, a plurality of antennas 130, a plurality of first receive channels 140, at least one bi-directional channel 150, and a switch circuit 160.

The antenna 130 is used for transmitting a carrier signal with the base station, and may transmit the carrier signal to the base station or receive the carrier signal transmitted by the base station. In some embodiments, the number of the antennas 130 may depend on a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) of the communication terminal, for example, the number of the antennas 130 may be 4 when the communication terminal is 4MIMO, that is, the communication terminal has 4 inputs and outputs.

The rf circuit 120 is configured to output a carrier signal and a receiving carrier signal, that is, the carrier signal may be output to the antenna 130, and the carrier signal output by the antenna 130 may also be received. In some embodiments, the radio frequency circuit 120 may include a radio frequency transceiver.

The rf circuit 120 is connected to a plurality of first receiving channels 140, and the first receiving channels 140 are used for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna 130 to the rf circuit 120. In some embodiments, the first receive path 140 includes a low noise amplifier. At least one bidirectional channel 150 is connected to the rf circuit 120, and the bidirectional channel 150 is used for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna 130 to the rf circuit 120 and transmitting the carrier signal output by the rf circuit 120 to the antenna 130. Illustratively, the communication terminal may be provided with 3 first receiving channels 140 and 1 bidirectional channel 150, or the communication terminal may be provided with 2 first receiving channels 140 and 2 bidirectional channels 150.

The switch circuit 160 is connected to the main control circuit 110, the plurality of antennas 130, the plurality of first receive channels 140, and the at least one bi-directional channel 150. The master control circuit 110 is configured to: one or more antennas with the largest signal strength value among the plurality of antennas 130 are determined as transmitting antennas, and the other antennas except the transmitting antennas among the plurality of antennas 130 are determined as receiving antennas, and the switch circuit 160 is controlled to enable the at least one bidirectional channel 150 to be in one-to-one communication with the transmitting antennas, and enable the plurality of first receiving channels 140 to be in one-to-one communication with the receiving antennas.

In some embodiments, the switch circuit 160 may connect any one of the receive channels 140 to any one of the antennas 130, and likewise, may connect any one of the bi-directional channels 140 to any one of the antennas 130. In some embodiments, the master control circuitry 110 may determine one or more antennas 130 with the greatest signal strength values as transmit antennas and the remaining antennas 130 as receive antennas. In this way, the main control circuit 110 can control the switch circuit 160 to operate, so that each of the bidirectional channels 150 is in one-to-one communication with the transmitting antenna, and each of the first receiving channels 140 is in one-to-one communication with the receiving antenna. In some embodiments, the main control circuit 110 may be a core processor, i.e., a CPU, within the communication terminal.

For example, assuming that the communication terminal includes 4 antennas 130, 3 first receiving channels 140 and 1 bidirectional channel 150, the main control circuit 110 may determine one of the 4 antennas with the largest signal strength value as a transmitting antenna, for example, determine the antenna 130 with the number of 1 as a transmitting antenna, so as to determine the antennas 130 with the numbers of 2,3 and 4 as receiving antennas. Thus, the main control circuit 110 can control the switch circuit 160 to operate, so that the bidirectional channel 150 is connected to the antenna 130 with the number 1, and the 3 first receiving channels 140 are respectively connected to the antennas 130 with the numbers 2,3, and 4.

For example, assuming that the communication terminal includes 4 antennas 130, 2 first receiving channels 140 and 2 bidirectional channels 150, the main control circuit 110 may determine two antennas with the largest signal strength value among the 4 antennas as transmitting antennas, for example, determine the antennas 130 numbered 1 and 2 as transmitting antennas, so as to determine the antennas 130 numbered 3 and 4 as receiving antennas. Thus, the main control circuit 110 can control the switch circuit 160 to operate, so that the 2 bidirectional channels 150 are respectively connected to the antennas 130 numbered 1 and 2, and the 2 first receiving channels 140 are respectively connected to the antennas 130 numbered 3 and 4.

It can be seen that each antenna 130 can be used as a transmitting antenna or a receiving antenna through the switch circuit 160, and one or more antennas 130 with the highest signal strength can be automatically switched to be the transmitting antenna through the main control circuit 110, so that the power consumption of the communication terminal can be reduced.

In some embodiments, the master circuit 110 is connected to the rf circuit 120, and the master circuit 110 is configured to obtain the current signal strength value of each antenna 130 from the rf circuit 120.

In some embodiments, the main control circuit 110 may obtain the current signal of each antenna 130 from the rf circuit 120 and process the signal, such as demodulating the signal, so as to obtain the current signal strength value of each antenna 130. In some embodiments, after obtaining the current signal strength value of each antenna 130, if the current signal strength value can be maintained for a predetermined time period, for example, 1dB, the main control circuit 110 controls the switching circuit 106 to operate, so that a malfunction caused by external burst interference can be reduced.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 3, the bi-directional channel 150 includes a transmit channel 151, a second receive channel 152, and a combiner 153.

In some embodiments, the transmit channel 151 is connected between the rf circuit 120 and the combiner 153, the second receive channel 152 is connected between the rf circuit 120 and the combiner 153, and the combiner 153 is further connected to the switch circuit 160. Based on this, the carrier signal output by the rf circuit 120 may be transmitted to the antenna 130 through the transmitting channel 151 and the combiner 153, and the carrier signal output by the antenna 130 may be transmitted to the rf circuit 120 through the combiner 153 and the second receiving channel 152. In some embodiments, the transmit channel 151 may include a power amplifier, the second receive channel 152 may include a low noise amplifier, and the combiner 153 may include a single pole double throw switch or a duplexer.

In some embodiments, the number of antennas 130 is equal to the sum of the number of bi-directional channels 150 and the number of first receive channels 140. For example, assuming that the communication terminal includes 4 antennas 130, the bidirectional channel 150 and the first receiving channel 140 may be 1 and 3, respectively, or the bidirectional channel 150 and the first receiving channel 140 are 2.

In some embodiments, the switching circuit 160 includes a multi-channel switch. For example, as shown in fig. 4, assuming that the communication terminal includes 1 bidirectional channel 150, 3 first receiving channels 140 and 4 antennas 130, the multi-channel switch may include a four-channel switch 161, and in some embodiments, the four-channel switch 161 may include a four-pole four-throw switch. If the four-channel switch 161 operates under the control of the main control circuit 110, the bidirectional channel 150 can be connected to any antenna 130, and similarly, any first receiving channel 140 can also be connected to any antenna 130 (not shown).

In some embodiments, the switch circuit 160 includes a matrix switch including a plurality of first pins and a plurality of second pins, the plurality of first pins are connected to the at least one bidirectional channel 150 and the plurality of first receiving channels 140 in a one-to-one correspondence, and the plurality of second pins are connected to the plurality of antennas 130 in a one-to-one correspondence, based on which the matrix switch can be controlled by the main control circuit 110 to connect the plurality of first pins and the plurality of second pins in a one-to-one correspondence.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, assuming that the communication terminal includes 2 bidirectional channels 150, 2 first receiving channels 140 and 4 antennas 130, the matrix switch 162 may include 2 first dual-channel switches 163 and 2 second dual-channel switches 164, that is, the matrix switch 162 includes 4 first pins and 4 second pins, and in some embodiments, the dual-channel switches may include double-pole double-throw switches. Therefore, 4 input pins of the 2 first dual-channel switches 163 are connected to the 2 bidirectional channels 150 and the 2 first receiving channels 140 in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and 4 output pins of the 2 second dual-channel switches 164 are connected to the 4 antennas 130 in a one-to-one correspondence manner. For example, 2 input pins of one first dual-channel switch 163 are connected to 2 bidirectional channels 150, and 2 input pins of the other first dual-channel switch 163 are connected to 2 first receiving channels 140. In addition, 4 output pins of the 2 first dual-channel switches 163 are connected to 4 input pins of the 2 second dual-channel switches 164 in a one-to-one correspondence manner, for example, one output pin of the first dual-channel switch 163 may be connected to one input pin of one second dual-channel switch 164, and the other output pin of the first dual-channel switch 163 may be connected to one input pin of the other second dual-channel switch 164, as shown in the specific figure. Based on this, the four dual-channel switches can be operated under the control of the main control circuit 110, so that the bidirectional channel 150 can be connected to any one of the antennas 130, for example, the lowest bidirectional channel 150 in the figure can be connected to any one of the antennas, and similarly, other channels can be connected to any one of the antennas 130 (not shown in the figure). It can be understood that if the number of the antennas 130 is 6, the matrix switch may include 3 first dual-channel switches, 3 second dual-channel switches, and 3 third dual-channel switches, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a communication terminal, as shown in fig. 6, where the communication terminal includes the radio frequency device as described above, and please refer to the above discussion for specific implementation.

While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art can easily conceive various equivalent modifications or substitutions within the technical scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A radio frequency device, comprising:

a master control circuit;

a radio frequency circuit for outputting a carrier signal and receiving a carrier signal;

a plurality of antennas for transmitting carrier signals with a base station;

a plurality of first receiving channels, connected to the radio frequency circuit, for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna to the radio frequency circuit;

at least one bidirectional channel, which is connected to the radio frequency circuit and is used for transmitting the carrier signal received by the antenna to the radio frequency circuit and transmitting the carrier signal output by the radio frequency circuit to the antenna;

a switch circuit connected to the master control circuit, the plurality of antennas, the plurality of first receive channels, and the at least one bi-directional channel;

the master control circuit is configured to: and determining one or more antennas with the maximum signal strength value in the plurality of antennas as transmitting antennas, taking the other antennas except the transmitting antennas in the plurality of antennas as receiving antennas, and controlling the switch circuit to enable the at least one bidirectional channel to be in one-to-one corresponding communication with the transmitting antennas and enable the plurality of first receiving channels to be in one-to-one corresponding communication with the receiving antennas.

2. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the main control circuit is connected to the radio frequency circuit, and the main control circuit is configured to obtain a current signal strength value of each of the antennas from the radio frequency circuit.

3. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the bidirectional channel comprises a transmit channel, a second receive channel and a combiner; the transmitting channel is connected between the radio frequency circuit and the combiner, the second receiving channel is connected between the radio frequency circuit and the combiner, and the combiner is further connected with the switch circuit.

4. The radio frequency device according to claim 1, wherein the number of antennas is equal to the sum of the number of bidirectional channels and the number of first receiving channels.

5. The radio frequency device according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the switching circuit comprises a multi-channel switch.

6. The radio frequency device according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the switching circuit comprises a matrix switch comprising a plurality of first pins and a plurality of second pins; the plurality of first pins are connected with the at least one bidirectional channel and the plurality of first receiving channels in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the plurality of second pins are connected with the plurality of antennas in a one-to-one correspondence manner;

the matrix switch is controlled by the main control circuit to correspondingly communicate the plurality of first pins and the plurality of second pins one by one.

7. The radio frequency device according to claim 5, wherein the number of the antennas is four, and the multi-channel switch comprises a four-channel switch.

8. The radio frequency device according to claim 6, wherein the number of the antennas is four, and the matrix switch includes two first dual-channel switches and two second dual-channel switches;

four input pins of the two first dual-channel switches are connected with the at least one bidirectional channel and the plurality of first receiving channels in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and four output pins of the two second dual-channel switches are connected with the plurality of antennas in a one-to-one correspondence manner;

and four output pins of the two first double-channel switches are correspondingly connected with four input pins of the two second double-channel switches one by one.

9. A communication terminal, characterized in that it comprises a radio frequency device according to any one of claims 1-8.