Coolteq.

L Single-Chip Envelope Tracking Supply Modulator

Jeremy Hendy Nujira
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Legal Disclaimer

The material contained herein is not a license, either expressly or impliedly, to any IPR owned or controlled by any of the authors or developers of this material or MIPI. The material contained herein is provided on an AS IS basis and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, this material is provided AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and the authors and developers of this material and MIPI hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, either express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence. ALSO, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION OR NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH REGARD TO THIS MATERIAL. All materials contained herein are protected by copyright laws, and may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, transmitted, displayed, broadcast or otherwise exploited in any manner without the express prior written permission of MIPI Alliance. MIPI, MIPI Alliance and the dotted rainbow arch and all related trademarks, tradenames, and other intellectual property are the exclusive property of MIPI Alliance and cannot be used without its express prior written permission. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY AUTHOR OR DEVELOPER OF THIS MATERIAL OR MIPI BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY FOR THE COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES WHETHER UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THIS OR ANY OTHER AGREEMENT RELATING TO THIS MATERIAL, WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PARTY HAD ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Nujira Company overview

Fabless IC vendor World leader in Envelope Tracking
The only technology for broadband, high efficiency PAs >250 man-years investment in High Accuracy Tracking Coolteq products cover power levels from <1W to 10kW+

133 patents granted & pending

Most extensive ET patent portfolio in the industry

Headquartered in Cambridge, UK
Design Centres in Edinburgh and Bath, UK

Founder member of OpenET Alliance Active participant in new MIPI ACI WG

Analog Control Interface Envelope Tracking subgroup Standardising physical interface between chips
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Envelope Tracking an overview

Conventional PA
Baseband / RF up converter DC/DC Converter

Fixed Supply Voltage

Dissipated as Heat

Power Amplifier

Planned standard from MIPI ACI Working Group

Transmitted ET Power Supply

Envelope signal

Supply Voltage

Dissipated as Heat

Baseband / RF Up converter

Power Amplifier

Envelope Tracking PA

Transmitted

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Envelope Tracking vs Average Power Tracking

Direct battery connection
Simple, but poor efficiency Efficiency is strong function of waveform PAPR LTE dissipation ~2x W-CDMA

3GPP power control slot time 0.5 ms / 1 ms

Average Power Tracking (APT) DC:DC

Per-slot tracking based on TX power control level Improves efficiency at low power Doesnt help at high power Same waveform dependence

Envelope Tracking
Dynamic, high bandwidth supply tracking of signal amplitude Improves efficiency in top 90% of TX power control range Waveform-independent; LTE dissipation ~1.2x W-CDMA
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

RF PA becoming the dominant consumer of power in handsets

LTE data = 10x 3G voice Less than 1 day between recharges More than 3W
Gets hot! Challenging thermal design High peak currents
4000 mW 3500 mW 3000 mW 2500 mW 2000 mW 1500 mW 1000 mW 500 mW 0 mW

RF PA Transceiver Modem WiFi/BT/GPS Audio Apps Processor Screen & backlight

W-CDMA voice 0 dBm

HSUPA 15 dBm

LTE 23 dBm

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

LTE PA spending significant time at maximum power

Data source: Signals Research Group, Signals Ahead report Volume 6, No. 11, Oct 7, 2010 (www.signalsresearch.com)

Short bursts of TX data at max power Highest spectral efficiency PA spends >50% of its time at maximum power
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

60x increase in RF PA energy consumption from 3G to LTE

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Waveform Peak-to-Average Power Ratio, dB

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0.1 1 10 100 Average Handset transmit power control level, mW 3G voice 26 mW HSUPA data 250 mW

Multiband LTE 1800 mW

LTE data 1600 mW

1000

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Envelope Tracking power savings

2500 mW 2000 mW 1500 mW 1000 mW 500 mW 0 mW
Measurements of commercial PA device at 23 dBm transmitted RF power, comparing traditional DC:DC converter and Coolteq.L Envelope Tracking

40% saving

45% saving

55% saving

DC:DC converter Coolteq ET modulator PA dissipation (DC:DC) PA dissipation (Coolteq) RF front end losses Transmitted RF (200 mW)

3G (W-CDMA)

3.5G (HSUPA)

4G (LTE)

Coolteq enables 4G transmissions using less power than todays 3G PAs

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

>50% reduction in PA heat dissipation simplifies thermal design

Fixed supply voltage
Average Output Power Dissipated Power (device) Measured Case Temperature 27.3 dBm 1180 mW 62.9 C

Envelope Tracking
Output Power Dissipated Power (device) Measured Case Temperature 27.3 dBm 487 mW 45.3 C

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

ET enables multiband PAs which ues less power than todays 3G PAs
3 broadband ET PAs cover 700 MHz 2.7 GHz

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

System Block Diagram

MIPI RFFE Control Interface
RF drive gain matching Shaping table
Post-envelope gain & offset

DAC

Envelope Tracking Modulator

Magnitude calculator

Transmit System

A B

C
Duplexer

I-DAC

Delay Balancing
Q-DAC

Power Amplifier

To Antenna To Rxr

Digital logic overhead: ~50K gates in transceiver Fast DAC needed similar spec to I/Q DACs Envelope Interface A differential analogue interface Specified by OpenET Alliance; also being worked on in MIPI ACI
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

PA efficiency and gain vary with supply voltage

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Under ET, a digital LUT controls the shape of the supply voltage

More gain

Higher Efficiency

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Nujiras patented ISOGAIN ET linearizes the PA without requiring DPD

Fixed supply Envelope Tracking

Result: 6-10 dB ACLR improvement 2-3 dB more linear power Deliver full power LTE to the antenna
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

ET delivers more power and cleaner signals, even into an antenna mismatch

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

So whats so difficult about Envelope Tracking?

High power supply bandwidth requirement
30-60 MHz for 20 MHz LTE Very high slew rates

Low noise power supply

ACLR spec is easy to hit RX-band noise (self desens) much harder

High efficiency ET supply modulator

Needs ~80% power conversion efficiency

ET<>PA supply feed is critical

ET chip replaces decoupling capacitor
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Envelope Tracking ecosystem status

12 of 14 platform chipset vendors are committed to include an Envelope Tracking interface
4 with silicon now 4 in silicon design phase 4 at specification / architecture phase

All PA vendors have an active ETPA program

First stage: ET Capable PAs available now Next step: ET Optimised PAs starting to show up

MIPI ACI working on interoperability standard Expect ET-enabled reference platforms 2H2012
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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

Coolteq.L Envelope Tracking chip for smartphones & terminals

Single chip ET supply modulator 0.18u CMOS process Replaces DC:DC converter to supply the RF PA Supports 20 MHz LTE bandwidths
Battery

Includes ET and APT operating modes MIPI RFFE V1 control interface OpenET analogue differential Envelope interface
Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.

MIPI RFFE Control

Smartphone Chipset

Envelope

RF

PA

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Thank you Questions?

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Copyright 2012 MIPI Alliance. All rights reserved.