HK1123135B

HK1123135B - Adjustable integrated circuit antenna structure

Info

Publication number: HK1123135B
Application number: HK08114129.7A
Authority: HK
Inventors: 阿玛德雷兹．罗弗戈兰
Original assignee: 美国博通公司
Priority date: 2006-12-29
Filing date: 2008-12-31
Publication date: 2013-08-23

Description

Tunable integrated circuit antenna structure

Technical Field

The present invention relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to an integrated circuit for supporting wireless communications.

Background

Communication systems are known to support wireless and wired communication between wireless and/or wired communication devices. Such communication systems range in coverage from national and/or international cellular telephone systems, to the internet, to point-to-point indoor wireless networks, to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. Each communication system is constructed and operates in accordance with one or more communication standards. For example, a wireless communication system may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE802.11, Bluetooth, Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), digital AMPS, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS), Multi-channel multipoint distribution System (MMDS), and/or improvements thereto.

Depending on the type of wireless communication system, wireless communication devices such as cellular telephones, walkie-talkies, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Personal Computers (PCs), notebook computers, home entertainment devices, and the like communicate directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. In the case of direct communication (also referred to as point-to-point communication), the participating wireless communication devices tune their transmitters and receivers to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of a plurality of Radio Frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and then communicate over the channel. For indirect wireless communication, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular service) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an indoor or in-building wireless network) over an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate directly with each other through the system controller, through the public switched telephone network, through the internet, and/or through some other wide area network.

Each wireless communication device participating in wireless communications may include a built-in wireless transceiver (i.e., a transmitter and a receiver) or be connected to an associated wireless transceiver (e.g., a base station, RF modem, etc. for an indoor and/or in-building wireless communication network). As is known, the receiver is connected to an antenna and comprises a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives the inbound RF signal through the antenna and then amplifies it. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signal into one or more local oscillations and convert the amplified RF signal to a baseband signal or an Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal. The filtering stage filters the baseband signal or the intermediate frequency signal to attenuate unwanted signals from the baseband signal and generate a filtered signal. The data recovery stage recovers the original data from the filtered signal in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard.

As is well known, a transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts the raw data to a baseband signal according to a particular wireless communication standard. One or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals into one or more local oscillators to generate RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signal before transmitting it through the antenna.

Currently, wireless communication may occur in licensed and unlicensed frequency spectrum (licensed and unlicensed frequency spectrum). For example, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communications may occur in the unlicensed Industrial and medical (ISM) spectrum at 900MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5 GHz. When the ISM spectrum is unlicensed, there are limits on power, modulation techniques, and antenna gain. Another unlicensed spectrum is the V-band at 55-64 GHz.

Designing a suitable antenna structure is an important component of a wireless communication device because the wireless portion of the wireless communication begins and ends with the antenna. Known antenna structures are designed to have a desired impedance at the operating frequency (e.g., 50Ohm), a desired bandwidth centered at the desired operating frequency, and a desired length (e.g., 1/4 for the wavelength of the operating frequency of the monopole antenna). It is further known that antenna structures may include a single monopole or dipole antenna, diversity antenna structures, the same polarization, different polarizations, and/or any number of other electromagnetic characteristics.

One commonly used antenna structure for RF transceivers is a three-dimensional in-air helix antenna (three-dimensional) that resembles an extended spring. The aerial helical antenna provides a magnetic omni-directional (magnetic) monopole antenna. Other types of the three-dimensional antenna include aperture antennas in the shape of a rectangle, a horn, etc.; the three-dimensional dipole antenna is in the shape of a cone, a cylinder, an ellipse, etc., and the reflecting surface antenna has a plane reflector, a corner reflector, or a parabolic reflector. A problem with these three-dimensional antennas is that they cannot be adequately implemented in the two-dimensional space of an Integrated Circuit (IC) and/or a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) supporting the IC.

Known two-dimensional antennas may include a meander pattern (meandering pattern) or microstrip configuration. For efficient antenna operation, the length of the monopole antenna should be 1/4 times its wavelength, and the length of the dipole antenna should be 1, 2 times its wavelength, where wavelength (λ) is c/f, where c is the speed of light and f is the frequency. For example, an 1/4 wavelength antenna has a total length of about 8.3 centimeters (i.e., 0.25 x (3 x 10) at 900MHz⁸m/s)/(900×10⁶c/s) ═ 0.25 × 33cm, where m/s is meters/second and c/s is cycles/second). Such asAs another example, an 1/4 wavelength antenna has a total length of about 3.1 centimeters (i.e., 0.25 x (3 x 10) at 2400MHz⁸m/s)/(2.4×10⁹c/s) 0.25 x 12.5cm, where m/s is meters per second and c/s is turns per second). Due to the size of the antenna it cannot be integrated on a chip because then a relatively complex IC with millions of transistors will have a size of 2 to 20 mm by 2 to 20 mm.

As IC fabrication technology continues to advance, ICs will become smaller and have more and more transistors. While this development has allowed electronic devices to reduce their size, design challenges arise that involve providing signals, data, clock signals, operational instructions, etc. to or from multiple ICs of the device. Currently, this problem is solved by IC packages and multilayer PCBs. For example, an IC may include a ball grid array (ball grid array) with 100-200 pins in a small space (e.g., 2-20 millimeters by 2-20 millimeters). The multi-layer PCB includes a trace for each pin of the IC to route it to at least one other component on the PCB. Clearly, the development of inter-IC communication requires improvements that adequately support the advent of IC manufacturing.

Accordingly, there is a need for an integrated circuit antenna structure and wireless communication applications thereof.

Disclosure of Invention

An apparatus and method of operation substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tunable Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna structure, comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements;

coupling circuitry for connecting at least one of the plurality of antenna elements to an antenna based on an antenna configuration characteristic signal, wherein the antenna has at least one of the following characteristics related to the antenna configuration characteristic signal: effective length, bandwidth, impedance, quality factor, and frequency band;

a ground plane adjacent to the plurality of antenna elements; and

a transmission line circuit that provides an outbound radio frequency signal to the antenna and receives an inbound radio frequency signal from the antenna.

Preferably, the transmission line circuit includes:

a plurality of transmission line elements; and

a transmission line coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of transmission line elements to a transmission line in accordance with a transmission line characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Preferably, the transmission line circuit includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit includes at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Preferably, the adjustable inductor comprises:

a plurality of inductive elements; and

an inductive coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of inductive elements to an inductance having at least one of the following characteristics in a given frequency band related to an impedance characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal: a desired inductance, a desired reactance, and a desired quality factor.

Preferably, the transmission line circuit includes:

a plurality of transformer elements; and

a transformer coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of transformer elements to a transformer in accordance with a transformer characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Preferably, the coupling circuit comprises at least one of: a plurality of magnetic coupling elements; and a switch.

Preferably, one of the plurality of magnetic coupling elements comprises:

a metal wire adjacent to first and second ones of the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the metal wire provides magnetic coupling between the first and second antenna elements when corresponding portions of an antenna structural characteristic signal are in a first state, and wherein the metal wire provides modular coupling between the first and second antenna elements when corresponding portions of the antenna structural characteristic signal are in a second state.

Preferably, the ground plane includes:

a plurality of ground planes located at different layers of the IC, an

A ground plane selection circuit for selecting at least one ground plane among the plurality of ground planes in accordance with the ground plane portion of the antenna configuration characteristic signal.

Preferably, the ground plane includes:

a plurality of ground plane elements, and

a ground plane coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of ground plane elements to the ground plane in accordance with a ground plane portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Preferably, the tunable IC antenna structure further comprises:

an array coupling circuit for connecting at least some of the plurality of antenna elements to the antenna array based on the antenna setting signal.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a tunable integrated circuit antenna comprises:

an antenna;

a ground plane adjacent to the antenna;

a plurality of transmission line circuit elements; and

a coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of transmission line circuit elements to a transmission line circuit in accordance with a transmission line characteristic signal; wherein the transmission line circuit has at least one of the following characteristics related to the transmission line circuit characteristic signal: bandwidth, impedance, quality factor, and frequency band.

Preferably, the plurality of transmission line circuit elements includes:

a plurality of transmission line elements, wherein the coupling circuit connects at least one of the plurality of transmission line elements to a transmission line according to a transmission line characteristic portion of the transmission line circuit characteristic signal.

Preferably, the plurality of transmission line circuit elements includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit comprises at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characterization portion of a transmission line circuit characterization signal.

Preferably, the adjustable inductor comprises:

a plurality of inductive elements; and

an inductive coupling circuit for connecting at least one of said plurality of inductive elements to an inductor, said connected inductive element having at least one of the following characteristics in a given frequency band related to an impedance characteristic portion of said antenna structure characteristic signal: a desired inductance, a desired reactance, and a desired quality factor.

Preferably, the plurality of transmission line circuit elements includes: a plurality of transformer elements, wherein the coupling circuit connects at least one of the plurality of transformer elements to a transformer according to a transformer characterization portion of the transmission line circuit characterization signal.

Preferably, one of the plurality of magnetic coupling elements comprises:

Preferably, the ground plane includes:

a plurality of ground planes located at different layers of the IC, an

And a ground plane selection circuit for selecting at least one ground plane among the plurality of ground planes based on the ground plane portion of the antenna configuration characteristic signal.

Preferably, the ground plane includes:

a plurality of ground plane elements, and

a ground plane coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of ground plane elements to the ground plane in accordance with the ground plane portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Preferably, the antenna comprises an antenna array.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a tunable integrated circuit antenna structure comprises:

a plurality of antenna elements; and

coupling circuitry for coupling at least one of a plurality of antenna elements to an antenna based on an antenna configuration characteristic signal, wherein the antenna has at least one of the following characteristics related to the antenna configuration characteristic signal: effective length, bandwidth, impedance, quality factor, and frequency band.

Preferably, the tunable integrated circuit antenna structure further comprises:

The coupling circuit includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit comprises at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characterization portion of the antenna structure characterization signal.

Preferably, the coupling circuit includes:

a plurality of transformer elements; and

Preferably, the coupling circuit comprises at least one of:

a plurality of magnetic coupling elements; and

a switch, wherein a magnetic coupling element of the plurality of magnetic coupling elements comprises: a metal wire adjacent to first and second ones of the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the metal wire provides magnetic coupling between the first and second antenna elements when corresponding portions of an antenna structure characteristic signal are in a first state, and wherein the metal wire provides modular coupling between the first and second antenna structures when corresponding portions of the antenna structure characteristic signal are in a second state.

Features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an apparatus including a plurality of integrated circuits according to the present invention;

FIGS. 2-4 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of an Integrated Circuit (IC) according to the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communication system according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

8-10 are schematic block diagrams of various embodiments of an up-conversion module, according to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic block diagram of yet another embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of yet another embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 13-16 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of ICs in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 17-20 are schematic block diagrams of various embodiments of ICs in accordance with the present invention;

figures 21 and 22 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of antenna structures according to the present invention;

fig. 23 and 24 are spectral diagrams of antenna structures according to the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

fig. 26 is a spectral diagram of an antenna structure according to the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

28-42 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of antenna structures according to the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure in accordance with the present invention;

44-46 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of antenna structures according to the present invention;

FIG. 47 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a coupling circuit according to the present invention;

FIG. 48 is a schematic diagram of impedance versus frequency for an embodiment of a coupling circuit according to the present invention;

FIGS. 49 and 50 are schematic block diagrams of various embodiments of transmission line circuits according to the present invention;

FIG. 51 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 52 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an IC in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 53-66 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of antenna structures according to the present invention;

FIG. 67 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure according to the present invention;

FIGS. 68 and 69 are schematic illustrations of various embodiments of antenna structures according to the present invention;

fig. 70 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a device 10, the device 10 including a device substrate 12 and a plurality of Integrated Circuits (ICs) 14-20. Each of the ICs 14-20 includes a package substrate (package substrate)22-28 and a chip (die) 30-36. The chips 30 and 32 of the ICs 14 and 16 include antenna structures 38, 40, Radio Frequency (RF) transceivers 46, 48, and functional circuits 54, 56. Chips 34 and 36 of ICs 18 and 20 include Radio Frequency (RF) transceivers 50, 52, and functional circuits 58, 60. The package substrates 26 and 28 of the ICs 18 and 20 include antenna structures 42, 44 connected to RF transceivers 50, 52.

Device 10 may be any type of electronic device that includes an integrated circuit. For example, but many more than listed below, the device 10 may be a personal computer, laptop computer, handheld computer, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point, WLAN base station, cellular telephone, audio entertainment device, video game controller and/or console, radio, wireless telephone, cable set-top box, satellite receiver, network infrastructure device, cellular telephone base station, and bluetooth headset. Thus, the functional circuits 54-60 may include one or more of a WLAN baseband processing module, a WLAN RF transceiver, a cellular voice baseband processing module, a cellular voice RF transceiver, a cellular data baseband processing module, a cellular data RF transceiver, a Local Infrastructure Communication (LIC) baseband processing module, a gateway processing module, a route processing module, a game controller circuit, a game console circuit, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, and memory.

In one embodiment, the chips 30-36 may be fabricated using Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology and the package substrates 22-28 may be Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). In another embodiment, the chips 30-36 may be fabricated using gallium arsenide technology, silicon germanium (silicon germanium) technology, bipolar, dual CMOS, and/or other types of IC fabrication technologies. In these embodiments, the package substrates 22-28 may be Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), fiberglass boards, plastic boards, and/or some other sheet of non-conductive material. It should be noted that if the antenna structure is located on a chip, the package substrate may simply serve as a support structure for the chip and include little or no wiring.

In one embodiment, the RF transceivers 46-52 provide wireless local area communication (e.g., IC-to-IC communication). In this embodiment, when a functional circuit of an IC has information (e.g., data, operational instructions, files, etc.) to be sent to another functional circuit of another IC, the RF transceiver of the first IC forwards the information over the wireless path to the RF transceiver of the second IC. In this manner, some to all of the IC-to-IC communications are accomplished wirelessly. As such, device substrate 12 may include little or no conductive routing to provide a communication path between ICs 14-20. For example, the device substrate 12 may be a fiberglass sheet, a plastic sheet, and/or some other sheet of non-conductive material.

In one embodiment, a baseband processing module of the first IC converts outbound data (e.g., data, operational instructions, files, etc.) to an outbound symbol stream. The outbound data may be converted to an outbound symbol stream according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations thereof. For example, the conversion from outbound data to an outbound symbol stream includes one or more of the following operations: scrambling, coding, puncturing (puncturing), interleaving, constellation mapping, modulation, frequency-domain to time-domain conversion, space-time module coding, space-time frequency module coding, beamforming, and digital baseband to IF conversion.

The conversion of the outbound symbol stream into the outbound RF signal by the RF transceiver of the first IC will be described with reference to fig. 6-12 and 17-20. The antenna structure of the first IC is coupled to the RF transceiver and transmits an outbound RF signal having a carrier frequency in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. Thus, the antenna structure includes electromagnetic properties that operate in a frequency band. It should be noted that various embodiments of the antenna structure will be described in fig. 21-70. It should also be noted that frequency bands above 60GHz may be used for local communication.

The antenna structure of the second IC receives the RF signal as an inbound RF signal, which is then provided to the RF transceiver of the second IC. As will be described next with reference to fig. 6-12 and 17-20, the RF transceiver converts the inbound RF signal to an inbound symbol stream and provides the inbound signal stream to a baseband processing module of the second IC. The baseband processing module of the second IC converts the inbound symbol stream into inbound data according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from the inbound symbol stream to the inbound data includes one or more of the following operations: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing (depuncturing), deinterleaving, constellation mapping, demodulation, time-to-frequency domain conversion, space-time module decoding, spatial-frequency module decoding, de-beamforming, and IF-to-digital baseband conversion. It should be noted that the baseband processing modules of the first and second ICs may be located on the same chip as the RF transceiver or on different chips in the respective ICs.

In other embodiments, each IC14-20 may include Multiple RF transceiver and antenna structures disposed on a chip and/or Multiple RF transceiver and antenna structures disposed on a package substrate to support Multiple simultaneous RF communications (Multiple simultaneous RF communications) that may use one or more of the following: frequency offset, phase offset, waveguides (for example, using waveguides to include most of the RF energy), frequency-multiplexed fashion, frequency-multiplexed, time-multiplexed, null-peak multiple path fading (for example, IC attenuated signal strength of null and IC attenuated signal strength at peak), frequency hopping, spreading, space-time offset, and space-frequency offset. It should be noted that for simplicity of description, the illustrated device 10 includes only four ICs 14-20, which in practical applications may include more or less than the 4 ICs.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)70, which includes a package substrate 80 and a chip 82. The chip 82 includes a baseband processing module 78, an RF transceiver 76, a local antenna structure 72, and a remote antenna structure 74. The baseband processing module 78 may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a device may be a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that can process signals (analog or digital) based on hard coding of circuitry and/or operational instructions. The processing module 78 may have associated memory and/or storage elements, which may be a single memory device, multiple memory devices, and/or built-in circuitry of the processing module 78. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It should be noted that when the processing module 78 performs one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or storage elements storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. It should also be noted that hard coded and/or operational instructions corresponding to at least a portion of the steps and/or functions described in fig. 2-20 may be stored by the memory elements and executed by the processing module 78.

In one embodiment, IC 70 supports both local and remote communications, where local communications are of very short range (e.g., less than 0.5 meters) and remote communications are of longer range (e.g., greater than 1 meter). For example, the local communication may be an IC-to-IC communication, an IC-to-board communication, and/or a board-to-board communication within the device, and the remote communication may be a cellular phone communication, a WLAN communication, a bluetooth piconet communication, a walkie-talkie communication, and the like. Still further, the content of the telecommunication may include graphics, digitized voice signals, digitized audio signals, digitized video signals, and/or outbound text signals.

To support local communications, the baseband processing module 78 converts the local outbound data into a local outbound symbol stream. The local outbound data may be converted to a local outbound symbol stream according to one or more data modulation schemes such as Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), quadrature PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations thereof. For example, the conversion from outbound data to an outbound symbol stream includes one or more of the following operations: scrambling, coding, puncturing (puncturing), interleaving, constellation mapping, modulation, frequency-domain to time-domain conversion, space-time-module coding, spatial-frequency-module coding, beamforming, and digital baseband-to-IF conversion.

The RF transceiver 76 converts the local outbound symbol stream to a local outbound RF signal and provides it to the local antenna structure 72. The description of various embodiments of the RF transceiver 76 may refer to fig. 11-12.

The local antenna structure 72 transmits a local outbound RF signal 84, the RF signal 84 being located in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. Thus, the local antenna structure 72 includes electromagnetic properties that operate in a frequency band. It should be noted that various embodiments of the antenna structure will be described in fig. 21-70. It should also be noted that frequency bands above 60GHz may also be used for local communication.

For local inbound signals, the local antenna structure 72 receives a local inbound RF signal 84 having a carrier frequency in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. The local antenna structure 72 provides the local inbound RF signal 84 to the RF transceiver, which converts the local inbound RF signal to a local inbound symbol stream.

The baseband processing module 78 converts the local inbound symbol streams into local inbound data according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from the inbound symbol stream to the inbound data includes one or more of the following operations: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing (depuncturing), deinterleaving, constellation mapping, demodulation, time-to-frequency domain conversion, space-time module decoding, space-time-frequency module decoding, de-beamforming, and IF-to-digital baseband conversion.

To support remote communications, the baseband processing module 78 converts the remote outbound data into a remote outbound symbol stream. The remote outbound data may be converted to a remote outbound symbol stream according to one or more data modulation schemes such as Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), quadrature PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above. For example, the conversion from outbound data to an outbound symbol stream includes one or more of the following operations: scrambling, coding, puncturing (puncturing), interleaving, constellation mapping, modulation, frequency-domain to time-domain conversion, space-time module coding, space-time frequency module coding, beamforming, and digital baseband to IF conversion.

The RF transceiver 76 converts the remote outbound symbol stream to a remote outbound RF signal and provides it to the remote antenna structure 74. The remote antenna structure 74 transmits remote outbound RF signals 86 in a frequency band that may be 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. Thus, the remote antenna structure 74 includes electromagnetic properties that operate in a frequency band. It should be noted that various embodiments of the antenna structure will be described in fig. 21-70.

For the remote inbound signal, the remote antenna structure 74 receives a remote inbound RF signal 86, the carrier frequency of the RF signal 86 being in the frequency band described above. The remote antenna structure 74 provides the remote inbound RF signal 86 to the RF transceiver, which converts the remote inbound RF signal to a remote inbound symbol stream.

The baseband processing module 78 converts the remote inbound symbol streams into remote inbound data according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from the inbound symbol stream to the inbound data includes one or more of the following operations: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing (depuncturing), deinterleaving, constellation mapping, demodulation, time-to-frequency domain conversion, space-time module decoding, space-time-frequency module decoding, de-beamforming, and IF-to-digital baseband conversion.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)70, including a package substrate 80 and a chip 82. This embodiment is similar to fig. 2, except that the remote antenna structure 74 is located on a package substrate 80. Thus, the IC 70 includes connections from the remote antenna structure 74 on the package substrate 80 to the RF transceiver 76 on the chip 82.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)70, including a package substrate 80 and a chip 82. This embodiment is similar to fig. 2, except that the local antenna structure 72 and the remote antenna structure are both located on a package substrate 80. Thus, IC 70 includes connections from remote antenna structure 74 on package substrate 80 to RF transceiver 76 on chip 82, and from local antenna structure 72 on package substrate 80 to RF transceiver 76 on chip 82.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a wireless communication system 100, comprising: a plurality of base stations and/or access points 112, 116, a plurality of wireless communication devices 118, 132, and a network hardware component 134. It should be noted that the network hardware 134 may be a router, switch, bridge, modem, system controller, etc., which may provide the wide area network connection 142 for the communication system 100. It should also be noted that the wireless communication device 118 and 132 can be a wireless communication device that includes a built-in wireless transceiver and/or associated wireless transceiver as shown in fig. 2-4, such as the laptop hosts 118 and 126, the personal digital assistant hosts 120 and 130, the personal computer hosts 124 and 132, and/or the cellular telephone hosts 122 and 128.

The wireless communication devices 122, 123, and 124 may be built into an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) area 109 and communicate directly (i.e., point-to-point), which is remote communication, referring to fig. 2-4. In this configuration, devices 122, 123, and 124 may only communicate with each other. In order to communicate with other wireless communication devices in system 100, or to communicate externally to system 100, devices 122, 123, and/or 124 need to join one of base stations or access points 112 or 116.

Base stations or access points 112, 116 may be located in Basic Service Set (BSS) areas 11 and 13, respectively, and are operably connected by local area network connections 136, 138. Such connections connect the base stations or access points 112, 116 to other devices in the system 100 and provide connections to other networks through WAN connections 142. Each base station or access point 112 and 116 has an associated antenna or antenna array for communicating (e.g., remote communications) with wireless communication devices located within its BSS 111 or 113. For example, base station or access point 112 wirelessly communicates with wireless communication devices 118 and 120, while base station or access point 116 wirelessly communicates with wireless communication device 126 and 132. Generally, wireless communication devices register with a particular base station or access point 112, 116 to receive service from the communication system 100.

Typically, base stations are used in cellular telephone systems and similar systems, while access points or master transceivers are used in home or indoor wireless networks (e.g., IEEE802.11 and its various versions, bluetooth, RFID, and/or any other type of radio frequency based network protocol). Regardless of the particular communication system type, each wireless communication device includes built-in and/or is connected to a radio. It should be noted that one or more of these wireless communication devices may include an RFID reader and/or an RFID tag.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of ICs 14-20, which includes antenna structures 40-46 and RF transceivers 46-52. Antenna structures 40-46 include an antenna 150 and a transmission line circuit 152. The RF transceivers 46-52 include a transmit/receive (T/R) coupling module 154, a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)156, a down-conversion module 158, and an up-conversion module 160.

The antenna 150, which may be any of the antennas shown in fig. 21, 22, 28-32, 34-36, 53-56, and 58-70, receives an inbound RF signal and provides it to the transmission line circuit 152. Transmission line circuitry 152, as shown in fig. 21, 22, 28-32, 34, 42-50, 53-56, and 58-70, includes one or more transmission lines, transformers, and impedance matching circuits for providing inbound RF signals to T/R coupling modules 154 of RF transceivers 46-52. It should be noted that the antenna structures 40-46 may be located on the chip, the package substrate, or a combination thereof. For example, when the transmission line circuit is on the chip, the antenna 150 may be on the package substrate.

The T/R coupling module 154, which may be a T/R switch or transformer balun (transformer tank), provides an inbound RF signal 162 to the LNA 156. The LNA 156 amplifies the inbound RF signal 156 to provide an amplified inbound RF signal. The down conversion module 158 converts the amplified inbound RF signal to an inbound symbol stream 164 based on a receive local oscillation 166. In one embodiment, the down conversion module 158 includes a direct conversion topology such that the frequency of the received local oscillation 166 corresponds to the carrier frequency of the inbound RF signal. In another embodiment, the down conversion module 158 includes a superheterodyne topology. It should be noted that while the inbound RF signal 162 and inbound symbol stream 164 are shown as distinct signals, they may be single-ended signals.

The up-conversion module 160 converts the outbound symbol stream 168 to an outbound RF signal 172 based on a transmit local oscillation 170. Various embodiments of the up-conversion module 160 will be described below with reference to fig. 8-10. In this embodiment, the up-conversion module 160 provides the outbound RF signal 172 directly to the T/R coupling module 154. In other words, because the transmit power of local communications is very small (e.g., < -25dBm), no power amplifier is needed. Thus, the up-conversion module 160 is directly connected to the T/R coupling module 154.

The T/R coupling module 154 provides the outbound RF signal 172 to the transmission line circuit 152, which in turn provides the outbound RF signal 172 to the antenna 150 for transmission.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of yet another embodiment of ICs 14-20, including antenna structures 40-46 and RF transceivers 46-52. The antenna structures 40-46 include a Receive (RX) antenna 184, a second transmission line circuit 186, a Transmit (TX) antenna 180, and a first transmission line circuit 182. The RF transceivers 46-52 include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)156, a down conversion module 158, and an up conversion module 160.

The RX antenna 184, which may be any of the antennas shown in fig. 21, 22, 28-32, 34-36, 53-56, and 58-70, receives an inbound RF signal and provides the inbound RF signal to a second transmission line circuit 186. The second transmission line circuit 186, shown in fig. 21, 22, 28-32, 34, 42-50, 53-56, and 58-70, includes one or more transmission lines, transformers, and impedance matching circuits for providing the inbound RF signal 162 to the LNA 156. The LNA 156 amplifies the inbound RF signal 162 to generate an amplified inbound RF signal. The down conversion module 158 converts the amplified inbound RF signal to an inbound symbol stream 164 based on a receive local oscillator 166.

The up-conversion module 160 converts the outbound symbol stream 168 to an outbound RF signal 172 based on a transmit local oscillation 170. The up-conversion module 160 provides the outbound RF signals 172 to the first transmission line circuitry 182. The first transmission line circuitry 182 includes one or more transmission lines, transformers, and impedance matching circuits as shown in fig. 21, 22, 28-32, 34, 42-50, 53-56, and 58-70 for providing the outbound RF signal 172 to the TX antenna 180 for transmission. It should be noted that the antenna structures 40-46 may be located on a chip, a package substrate, or a combination thereof. For example, when the transmission line circuits 182 and 186 are located on a chip, the RX and/or TX antennas 184 and/or 180 may be located on a package substrate.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of one embodiment of the up-conversion module 160, which includes a first mixer 190, a second mixer 192, a 90-degree phase shift module, and a combining module 194. In this embodiment, the up-conversion module 160 converts the Cartesian-based outbound symbol stream 168 into outbound RF symbols 172.

In one embodiment, the first mixer 190 mixes the in-phase component 196 of the outbound symbol stream 168 with the in-phase component of the transmit local oscillation 170 to generate a first mixed signal. The second mixer 192 mixes the integral component 198 of the outbound symbol stream 168 with the integral component of the transmit local oscillation 170 to generate a second mixed signal. The combining module 194 combines the first and second mixed signals to generate the outbound RF signal 172.

For example, if I component 196 is represented as A_Icos(ω_dn+Φ_n) Q component 198 is denoted A_Qsin(ω_dn+Φ_n) The I component of local oscillation 170 is denoted as cos (ω)_RF) And the Q component of the local oscillation 170 may be represented as sin (ω)_RF) Then the first mixing signal is^1/2A_Icos(ω_RF-ω_dn-Φ_n)+^1/2A_Icos(ω_RF+ω_dn+Φ_n) And the second mixing signal is^1/2A_Qcos(ω_RF-ω_dn-Φ_n)-^1/2A_Qcos(ω_RF+ω_dn+Φ_n). The two signals are then combined by a combining module 194 to generate the outbound RF signal 172, which may be denoted as Acos (ω)_RF+ω_dn+Φ_n). It should be noted that the combining module 194 may be a subtraction module, a filtering module, and/or any other circuitry for providing an outbound RF signal from the first and second mixed signals.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of one embodiment of the up-conversion module 160, which includes an oscillation module 200. In this embodiment, the up-conversion module 160 converts the phase modulation based outbound symbol stream into the outbound RF signal 172.

In operation, the oscillation module 200 may be a phase locked loop, fractional-N synthesizer, and/or other oscillation generating circuit that uses the transmit local oscillation 170 as a reference oscillation to generate an oscillation having the frequency of the outbound RF signal 172. The phase of the oscillation is adjusted in accordance with the phase modulation information 202 of the outbound symbol stream 168 to generate the outbound RF signal.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of one embodiment of up-conversion module 160, which includes oscillation module 200 and multiplier 204. In this embodiment, the up-conversion module converts the phase and amplitude modulation based outbound symbol stream into the outbound RF signal 172.

In operation, the oscillation module 200 may be a phase locked loop, fractional-N synthesizer, and/or other oscillation generating circuit that uses the transmit local oscillation 170 as a reference oscillation to generate an oscillation having the frequency of the outbound RF signal 172. The phase of the oscillation is adjusted in accordance with the phase modulation information 202 of the outbound symbol stream 168 to generate a phase modulated RF signal. A multiplier 204 multiplies the phase modulated RF signal with amplitude modulation information 206 of the outbound symbol stream 168 to generate an outbound RF signal.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of yet another embodiment of an IC 70 that includes a local antenna structure 72, a remote antenna structure 74, an RF transceiver 76, and a baseband processing module 78. The RF transceiver 76 includes a receiving portion 210, a transmitting portion 212, a first coupling circuit 214, and a second coupling circuit 216.

The baseband processing module 78 in this embodiment converts the local outbound data 218 into a local outbound symbol stream 220. The first coupling circuit 214 may be a switching network, a switch, a multiplexer, and/or any other type of selective coupling circuit. When the IC is in the local communication mode, the first coupling circuit 214 provides the local outbound symbol stream 220 to the transmit section 212. The transmit section 212 may include an up-conversion module, as shown in fig. 8-10, for converting the local outbound symbol stream 220 into a local outbound RF signal 222. The second coupling circuit 216 may be a switching network, a switch, a multiplexer, and/or any other type of selective coupling circuit. When the IC is in the local communication mode, the second coupling circuit 216 provides the local outbound RF signal 222 to the local communication antenna structure 72.

In the local communication mode 242, the second coupling circuit 216 may also receive the local inbound RF signal 224 from the local communication antenna structure 72 and provide it to the receive portion 210. The receive portion 210 converts the local inbound RF signal 224 into a local inbound symbol stream 226. The first coupling circuit 214 provides the local inbound symbol stream 226 to the baseband processing module 78, which baseband processing module 78 converts the local inbound symbol stream 226 into local inbound data 228.

In the remote communication mode 242, the baseband processing module 78 converts the remote outbound data 230 into a remote outbound symbol stream 232. When the IC is in a remote communication mode, the first coupling circuit 214 provides a remote outbound symbol stream 232 to the transmit section 212. The transmit section 212 converts the remote outbound symbol stream 232 into a remote outbound RF signal 234. The second coupling circuit 216 provides the remote outbound RF signal 232 to the remote communications antenna structure 74.

In the long-range communication mode 242, the second coupling circuit 216 may also receive the long-range inbound RF signal 236 from the long-range communication antenna structure 74 and provide it to the receive portion 210. The receive portion 210 converts the remote inbound RF signal 236 into a remote inbound symbol stream 238. The first coupling circuit 214 provides the local remote inbound symbol stream 238 to the baseband processing module 78, which baseband processing module 78 converts the remote inbound symbol stream 238 into remote inbound data 240. It should be noted that the local RF signals 84 include local inbound and outbound RF signals 222 and 224, and the remote RF signals 86 include remote inbound and outbound RF signals 234 and 236. It should also be noted that the remote inbound and outbound RF data 230 and 240 includes one or more of image, digitized voice signals, digitized audio signals, digitized video signals, and text signals, while the local inbound and outbound data 218 and 228 includes one or more of chip-to-chip communication data and chip-to-board communication data.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of yet another embodiment of an IC 70, including a local antenna structure 72, a remote antenna structure 74, an RF transceiver 76, and a baseband processing module 78. The RF transceiver 76 includes a local transmit section 250, a local receive section 252, a remote transmit section 254, and a remote receive section 256.

In this embodiment, the baseband processing module 78 converts the local outbound data 218 into a local outbound symbol stream 220. The local transmit section 250, including the up-conversion module as described in fig. 8-10, is used to convert the local outbound symbol stream 220 into the local outbound RF signal 222. When the IC is in the local communication mode 242, the local transmit section 250 provides the local outbound RF signal 222 to the local communication antenna structure 72.

In the local communication mode 242, the local receive portion 252 receives the local inbound RF signal 224 from the local communication antenna structure 72. The local receive portion 252 converts the local inbound RF signal 224 into a local inbound symbol stream 226. The baseband processing module 78 converts the local inbound symbol stream 226 into local inbound data 228.

In the remote communication mode 242, the baseband processing module 78 converts the remote outbound data 230 into a remote outbound symbol stream 232. The remote transmit section 254 converts the remote outbound symbol stream 232 into a remote outbound RF signal 234 and provides it to the remote communications antenna structure 74.

In the remote communication mode, the remote receive section 256 receives the remote inbound RF signal 236 from the remote communication antenna structure 74. The remote receive section 256 converts the remote inbound RF signal 236 into a remote inbound symbol stream 238. The baseband processing module 78 converts the remote inbound symbol stream 238 into remote inbound data 240.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)270, which includes a package substrate 80 and a chip 272. Chip 272 includes a baseband processing module 276, an RF transceiver 274, a local low-efficiency antenna structure 260, a local high-efficiency antenna structure 262, and a remote antenna structure 74. The baseband processing module 276 may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a device may be a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that can process signals (analog or digital) based on hard coding of circuitry and/or operational instructions. Processing module 276 may have associated memory and/or storage elements that may be a single storage device, multiple storage devices, and/or built-in circuitry of processing module 276. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It should be noted that when the processing module 276 performs one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or storage elements storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. It should also be noted that hard coded and/or operational instructions corresponding to at least a portion of the steps and/or functions described in connection with fig. 13-20 may be stored by a memory element and executed by processing module 276.

In one embodiment, IC 270 supports local low data rate, local high data rate, and long range communications, where local communications are of very short range (e.g., less than 0.5 meters) and long range communications are of longer range (e.g., greater than 1 meter). For example, the local communication may be IC-to-IC communication, IC-to-board communication, and/or board-to-board communication within the device, and the remote communication may be cellular telephone communication, WLAN communication, Bluetooth piconet communication, walkie-talkie communication, and so on. Still further, the content of the telecommunication may include graphics, digitized voice signals, digitized audio signals, digitized video signals, and/or outbound text signals.

To support low or high data rate local communications, the baseband processing module 276 converts the local outbound data into a local outbound symbol stream. The local outbound data may be converted to the local outbound symbol stream according to one or more data modulation schemes such as Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), quadrature PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations thereof. For example, the conversion from outbound data to an outbound symbol stream includes one or more of the following operations: scrambling, coding, puncturing (puncturing), interleaving, constellation mapping, modulation, frequency-domain to time-domain conversion, space-time-module coding, spatial-frequency-module coding, beamforming, and digital baseband-to-IF conversion.

RF transceiver 274 converts the low or high data rate local outbound symbol stream into low or high data rate local outbound RF signals 264 or 266. The RF transceiver provides the low data rate local outbound RF signal 264 to the local low-efficiency antenna structure 260, which may comprise a smaller antenna (e.g., length of 1/10 wavelength) or a very small antenna (e.g., length of 1/50 wavelength), and provides the high data rate local outbound RF signal 288 to the local high-efficiency antenna structure 262, which may comprise a 1/4 wavelength antenna or a 1/2 wavelength antenna.

The local inefficient antenna structure 260 transmits a low data rate local outbound RF signal 264, the carrier frequency of the RF signal 264 being in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64GHz, while the local efficient antenna structure 262 transmits a high data rate local outbound RF signal 266 in the same frequency band. Thus, the local antenna structures 260 and 262 include electromagnetic properties that operate in a frequency band. It should be noted that various embodiments of the antenna structures 260 and/or 262 will be described in fig. 21-70. It should also be noted that frequency bands above 60GHz may also be used for local communication.

For low data rate local inbound signals, the local inefficient antenna structure 260 receives a low data rate local inbound RF signal 264 having a carrier frequency in the frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. The local inefficient antenna structure 260 provides the low data rate local inbound RF signal 264 to the RF transceiver 274. For high data rate local inbound signals, the local high efficiency antenna structure 262 receives a high data rate local inbound RF signal 266 having a carrier frequency in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. The local high efficiency antenna structure 262 provides a high data rate local inbound RF signal 266 to the RF transceiver 274.

The RF transceiver 274 converts the low data rate or high data rate local inbound RF signals into a local inbound symbol stream. The baseband processing module 276 converts the local inbound symbol streams into local inbound data according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from the inbound symbol stream to the inbound data includes one or more of the following operations: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing (depuncturing), deinterleaving, constellation mapping, demodulation, time-to-frequency domain conversion, space-time module decoding, space-time-frequency module decoding, de-beamforming, and IF-to-digital baseband conversion.

To support remote communications, the baseband processing module 276 converts the remote outbound data into a remote outbound symbol stream. Remote outbound data may be converted to a remote outbound symbol stream according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), quadrature PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from outbound data to an outbound symbol stream includes one or more of the following operations: scrambling, coding, puncturing (puncturing), interleaving, constellation mapping, modulation, frequency-domain to time-domain conversion, space-time-module coding, spatial-frequency-module coding, beamforming, and digital baseband-to-IF conversion.

The RF transceiver 274 converts the remote outbound symbol stream into the remote outbound RF signal 86 and provides it to the remote antenna structure 74. The remote antenna structure 74 transmits the remote outbound RF signals 86 in a frequency band that may be 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. Thus, the remote antenna structure 74 includes electromagnetic properties that operate in a frequency band. It should be noted that various embodiments of the antenna structure will be described in fig. 21-70.

For the remote inbound signal, the remote antenna structure 74 receives a remote inbound RF signal 86, the carrier frequency of the RF signal 86 being in the frequency band described above. The remote antenna structure 74 provides the remote inbound RF signal 86 to the RF transceiver 274, and the RF transceiver 274 converts the remote inbound RF signal into a remote inbound symbol stream.

Baseband processing module 276 converts the remote inbound symbol streams into remote inbound data according to one or more data modulation schemes, which may be Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), integral PSK (qsk), 8-PSK, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), gaussian MSK (gmsk), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), combinations and/or variations of the above modulation schemes. For example, the conversion from the inbound symbol stream to the inbound data includes one or more of the following operations: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing (depuncturing), deinterleaving, constellation mapping, demodulation, time-to-frequency domain conversion, space-time module decoding, spatial-frequency module decoding, de-beamforming, and IF-to-digital baseband conversion.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)270, including a package substrate 80 and a chip 272. This embodiment is similar to fig. 13, except that the remote antenna structure 74 is located on a package substrate 80. Thus, the IC 270 includes connections from the remote antenna structure 74 on the package substrate 80 to the RF transceiver 274 on the chip 272.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)280, including a package substrate 284 and a die 282. Chip 282 includes a control module 288, an RF transceiver 286, and a plurality of antenna structures 290. The control module 288 may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a device may be a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that can process signals (analog or digital) based on hard coding of circuitry and/or operational instructions. Control module 288 may have associated memory and/or storage elements that may be a single memory device, multiple memory devices, and/or built-in circuitry of control module 288. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It should be noted that when the control module 288 performs one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or storage elements storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. It should also be noted that hard coded and/or operational instructions corresponding to at least a portion of the steps and/or functions described in connection with fig. 15-20 may be stored by a memory element and executed by a control module.

In operation, the control module 288 may configure the one or more antenna structures 290 to provide the inbound RF signals 292 to the RF transceiver 286. Additionally, the control module 288 may configure the plurality of antenna structures 290 to receive the outbound RF signals 294 from the RF transceiver 286. In this embodiment, a plurality of antenna structures 290 are located in the chip 282. In an alternative embodiment, a first antenna structure of the plurality of antenna structures 290 is located in the chip 282 and a second antenna structure of the plurality of antenna structures 290 is located in the package substrate 284. It should be noted that one antenna structure of the plurality of antenna structures 290 may include one or more of the antennas, transmission lines, transformers, and impedance matching circuits described with reference to fig. 21-70.

The RF transceiver 286 converts the inbound RF signal 292 into an inbound symbol stream. In one embodiment, the carrier frequency of the inbound RF signal 292 is located in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. In addition, the RF transceiver 286 converts the outbound symbol stream into an outbound RF signal 294, the carrier frequency of the outbound RF signal 294 lying in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz.

Fig. 16 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC)280, including a package substrate 284 and a die 282. This embodiment is similar to fig. 15, except that a plurality of antenna structures 290 are located on the package substrate 284. Thus, IC 280 includes connections from a plurality of antenna structures 290 on package substrate 284 to RF transceiver 286 on chip 282.

Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of IC 280 that includes a baseband processing module 300, an RF transceiver 286, a control module 288, an antenna coupling circuit 316, and a plurality of antenna structures 290. The baseband processing module 300 may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a device may be a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that can process signals (analog or digital) based on hard coding of circuitry and/or operational instructions. The baseband processing module 300 may have associated memory and/or storage elements that may be a single storage device, multiple storage devices, and/or built-in circuitry of the baseband processing module 300. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It should be noted that when baseband processing module 300 performs one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or storage elements storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded within, or externally connected to, the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. It should also be noted that hard coded and/or operational instructions corresponding to at least a portion of the steps and/or functions described in fig. 13-20 may be stored by a memory element and executed by the processing module 300.

In this embodiment, control module 288 (which may be a common processing device for baseband processing module 300 and a separate device from baseband processing module 300) is used to place IC 280 into multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication mode 336. In this mode, the baseband processing module 300 includes an encoding module 302, an interleaving module 304, a plurality of symbol mapping modules 306, a plurality of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) modules 308, a space-time and space-frequency module encoder 310 for converting outbound data 316 into an outbound space-time or space-frequency module encoded symbol stream 320. In one embodiment, the encoding module 302 accomplishes one or more of the following: scrambling, encoding, puncturing, and any other type of data encoding.

The plurality of transmit sections 314 of RF transceiver 286 convert the outbound space-time or space-frequency block encoded symbol stream 320 into a plurality of outbound RF signals. The antenna coupling circuitry 316 may include one or more T/R switches, one or more transformer balun, and/or one or more switching networks for providing a plurality of outbound RF signals to at least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 in accordance with the MIMO settings 336 provided by the control module 288. At least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 transmit the plurality of outbound RF signals as outbound RF signals 294.

The plurality of antenna structures 290 receives an inbound RF signal 292, which includes a plurality of inbound RF signals. At least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 are coupled to the plurality of receive portions 312 of the RF transceiver 286 via the coupling circuit 316. Receive portion 312 converts the inbound RF signal into an inbound space-time or space-frequency block coded symbol stream 322.

The baseband processing module includes a space-time or space-frequency decoding module 326, a plurality of inverse fft (ifft) modules 328, a plurality of symbol demapping modules 330, a de-interleaving module 322, and a decoding module 334 to convert the inbound space-time or space-frequency module encoded symbol stream 322 into inbound data 324. The decode module 334 may accomplish one or more of the following: descrambling, decoding, depuncturing, and any other type of data decoding.

Fig. 18 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of IC 280, including baseband processing module 300, RF transceiver 286, control module 288, antenna coupling circuit 316, and plurality of antenna structures 290. In this embodiment, the control module 288 places the IC 280 into a diversity mode (diversity mode) 354. In this mode, the baseband processing module 300 includes an encoding module 302, an interleaving module 304, a symbol mapping module 306, and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) module 308 to convert the outbound data 316 into an outbound symbol stream 350.

One of the plurality of transmit sections 314 of the RF transceiver 286 converts the outbound symbol stream 320 into an outbound RF signal 294. Antenna coupling circuitry 316 provides outbound RF signals to at least one of the plurality of antenna structures 290 in accordance with diversity arrangement 354 provided by control module 288. In one embodiment, the multiple antenna structure 290 has multiple antennas with physical separation of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or 1 wavelength in a multipath environment to receive and/or transmit RF signals.

The plurality of antenna structures 290 receives an inbound RF signal 292. At least one of the plurality of antenna structures 290 is coupled to one of the plurality of receive portions 312 of the RF transceiver 286 via a coupling circuit 316. The receive portion 312 converts the inbound RF signal 292 into an inbound symbol stream 352.

The baseband processing module 300 includes an inverse fft (ifft) module 328, a symbol demapping module 330, a de-interleaving module 322, and a decoding module 334 to convert the inbound encoded symbol stream 352 into inbound data 324.

Fig. 19 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of IC 280, including baseband processing module 300, RF transceiver 286, control module 288, antenna coupling circuit 316, and plurality of antenna structures 290.

In this embodiment, control module 288 places IC 280 into baseband (BB) beamforming mode 366. In this mode, the baseband processing module 300 includes an encoding module 302, an interleaving module 304, a plurality of symbol mapping modules 306, a plurality of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) modules 308, and a beamforming encoder 310 to convert outbound data 316 into an outbound beamformed encoded symbol stream 364.

The plurality of transmit sections 314 of the RF transceiver 286 convert the outbound beamformed encoded symbol stream 364 into a plurality of outbound RF signals. Antenna coupling circuitry 316 provides a plurality of outbound RF signals to at least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 in accordance with beamforming settings 366 provided by control module 288. At least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 transmit the plurality of outbound RF signals as outbound RF signals 294.

The plurality of antenna structures 290 receives an inbound RF signal 292. The inbound RF signals 292 include a plurality of inbound RF signals. At least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 are coupled to the plurality of receive portions 312 of the RF transceiver 286 via the coupling circuit 316. The receive portion 312 converts the plurality of inbound RF signals 292 into inbound beamformed encoded symbol streams 365.

The baseband processing module 300 includes a beamforming decoding module 326, a plurality of inverse fft (ifft) modules 328, a plurality of symbol demapping modules 330, a de-interleaving module 322, and a decoding module 334 to convert the inbound beamformed encoded symbol stream 365 into inbound data 324.

Fig. 20 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of IC 280, including baseband processing module 300, RF transceiver 286, control module 288, antenna coupling circuit 316, and plurality of antenna structures 290. In this embodiment, the control module 288 places the IC 280 into the air beamforming mode 370. In this mode, the baseband processing module 300 includes an encoding module 302, an interleaving module 304, a symbol mapping module 306, and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) module 308 for converting the outbound data 316 into an outbound symbol stream 350.

The multiple transmit sections 376 of the RF transceiver 286 convert the outbound symbol stream 320 into a phase-shifted outbound RF signal of the outbound RF signal 394. For example, one phase-shifted outbound RF signal may have a phase shift of 0, while another may have a phase shift of 90, such that the signals are combined 45 in air. In addition to providing a phase offset, the transmit section 376 may adjust the amplitude of the phase-offset outbound RF signal to generate a desired phase offset. The antenna coupling circuitry 316 provides phase-shifted outbound RF signals to at least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 in accordance with the aerial beamforming settings 370 provided by the control module 288.

The plurality of antenna structures 290 receives an inbound RF signal 292. The inbound RF signal 292 includes a plurality of inbound phase shifted RF signals. At least two of the plurality of antenna structures 290 are coupled to a plurality of receiving portions 378 of the RF transceiver 286 via the coupling circuit 316. The receive portion 378 converts the plurality of inbound phase shifted RF signals into an inbound symbol stream 352.

Fig. 21 and 22 are schematic diagrams of an embodiment of an antenna structure of a plurality of antenna structures 290, including an antenna 380, a transmission line 382, and a transformer 384. The antenna 380 is shown as a dipole antenna, but other configurations may be used. For example, antenna 380 may be any of the antennas shown in fig. 35-47, 53, 54, and 58-70. The transmission line 382 may be a tuned transmission line that substantially matches the impedance of the antenna 380 or include an impedance matching circuit. The bandwidth of the antenna structure 290-a of fig. 21 is extremely narrow (e.g., < 5% of the center frequency), and the bandwidth of the antenna structure 290-B of fig. 22 is narrow (approximately 5% of the center frequency).

The bandwidth of an antenna whose length is 1/2 wavelengths or less depends primarily on the quality factor (Q) of the antenna, which is mathematically represented in equation 1, where v₀2 δ v, the resonant frequency, is the frequency difference (i.e., bandwidth) between the two half-power points.

Equation 1

Equation 2 provides the basic quality factor for an antenna structure, where R is the resistance of the antenna structure, L is the inductance of the antenna structure, and C is the capacitance of the antenna structure.

Equation 2

In this way, by adjusting the resistance, inductance, and/or capacitance of the antenna structure, the bandwidth can be controlled. In particular, the smaller the figure of merit, the narrower the bandwidth. In the present discussion, the antenna structure 290-a of fig. 21 includes a greater resistance and capacitance than the antenna structure 290-B of fig. 22, such that it has a lower quality factor. It should be noted that the capacitance is primarily dependent on the length of the transmission line 382, the distance between the elements of the antenna 380, and the capacitance added to the antenna structure. It is further noted that the lines of the transmission line 382 and those of the antenna 380 may be at the same layer of the IC and/or package substrate, and/or at different layers of the IC and/or package substrate.

Fig. 23 is a spectral diagram of the antenna structures 290-a and 290-B of fig. 21 and 22 centered on a carrier frequency of a desired channel 400, which may be located in a frequency range of 55GHz to 64 GHz. As described above, the antenna structure 290-a has a very narrow bandwidth 404 and the antenna structure 290-B has a narrower bandwidth 402. In one embodiment, the antenna structure 290-A may be used as a transmit antenna structure and the antenna structure 290-B may be used as a receive antenna structure. In another embodiment, the first antenna structure 290-A may have a first polarization and the second antenna structure 290-A may have a second polarization.

In another embodiment, the antenna structures 290-A and 290-B may be used for signal combining of inbound RF signals. In this embodiment, the first and second antenna structures 290-A and 290-B receive inbound RF signals. The two representations of the inbound RF signal may then be combined (e.g., summed, provided data using one when there is a potential invalid (or null), etc.) to provide a combined inbound RF signal. This combination may be done on one of the first and second antenna structures 290-a and 290-B (note: one of which will further include a summing module). This combination may be done in the RF transceiver or at the baseband of the control module or baseband processing module.

Fig. 24 is a spectral diagram of a narrower bandwidth 402 of the antenna structure 290-B centered on the carrier frequency of the desired channel 410, which may be in the frequency range of 55GHz to 64GHz, and a very narrow bandwidth 404 of the antenna structure 290-a centered on the interference 412. Interference 412 may be adjacent channel interference, interference from other systems, noise, and/or any undesired signals. The circuit of fig. 25 uses this antenna arrangement to cancel interference 410 without affecting reception of the desired channel 410.

Fig. 25 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an IC 280 that includes a plurality of antenna structures 290, an antenna coupling circuit 316, and a receive portion 312. The receive section 312 includes two low noise amplifiers 420 and 422, a subtraction module 425, a Band Pass Filter (BPF)424, and a down conversion module 158. In this embodiment, the control module may implement antenna structures 290-A and 290-B.

In operation, the narrower bandwidth antenna structure 290-B receives an inbound RF signal, which includes the desired channel 410 and the jammer 412, and provides the inbound signal to the first LNA 420. The very narrow bandwidth antenna structure 290-a receives the jammer 412 and provides the inbound signal to the second LNA 422. The gains of the first and second LNAs 420 and 422, respectively, may be controlled such that the magnitudes of the jammers 412 output by the LNAs 420 and 422 are approximately equal. Still further, the LNAs 420 and 422 may include a phase adjustment module for phase adjusting the amplified jammers output by the LNAs 420 and 422.

The subtraction module 425 subtracts the output of the second LNA 422 (i.e., the amplified jammer) from the output of the first LNA 420 (i.e., the amplified desired channel and the amplified jammer) to generate the amplified desired channel. A bandpass filter 424 that is tunable to the desired channel, further filters out undesired signals, and provides filtered amplified desired channel components of the inbound RF signal to the down-conversion module 158. The down conversion module 158 converts the filtered and amplified desired channel components to the inbound symbol stream 164 based on the received local oscillation 166.

Fig. 26 is a spectral diagram of a narrower bandwidth 402 with antenna structure 290-B centered on the carrier frequency of the desired channel 410, a very narrow bandwidth 404 with antenna structure 290-a centered on the interference 412, and another very narrow bandwidth with antenna structure 290-C centered on the desired channel 410. The circuit of fig. 27 uses this antenna arrangement to combine the desired channel and cancel the interference 410 without affecting the reception of the desired channel 410.

Fig. 27 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an IC 280 that includes a plurality of antenna structures 290, an antenna coupling circuit 316, and a receive portion 312. The receiving section 312 includes three low noise amplifiers 420, 422, and 426, a subtraction module 425, an adder 427, a Band Pass Filter (BPF)424, and a down conversion module 158. In this embodiment, the control module may implement antenna structures 290-A, 290-B, and 290-C.

In operation, the narrower bandwidth antenna structure 290-B receives an inbound RF signal, which includes the desired channel 410 and the jammer 412, and provides the inbound signal to the first LNA 420. The very narrow bandwidth antenna structure 290-a receives the interference 412 and provides it to the second LNA 422. The very narrow bandwidth antenna structure 290-C receives the desired channel and provides it to the third LNA 426. The gains of the first, second, and third LNAs 420, 422, 426, respectively, may be controlled such that the magnitudes of the jammers 412 output by the LNAs 420 and 422 are approximately equal. Still further, the LNAs 420 and 422 may include a phase adjustment module for phase adjusting the amplified jammers output by the LNAs 420 and 422.

The subtraction module 425 subtracts the output of the second LNA 422 (i.e., the amplified jammer) from the output of the first LNA 420 (i.e., the amplified desired channel and the amplified jammer) to generate the amplified desired channel. The adder 427 adds the output of the subtraction module 425 (i.e., the desired channel) to the third LNA 426 (i.e., the desired channel) to generate a combined desired channel. A band pass filter 424 that is tunable to the desired channel, further filters out undesired signals from the combined desired channel, and provides it to the down conversion module 158. The down conversion module 158 converts the filtered and amplified desired channel components to the inbound symbol stream 164 based on the received local oscillation 166.

Fig. 28 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes one or more antennas 430, a transmission line 432, conductors 434, 436, an impedance matching circuit 438, and a switching circuit 440. The antenna 430 may be a microstrip located on a chip and/or package substrate to provide a half-wavelength dipole antenna or an 1/4 wavelength monopole antenna. In other embodiments, antenna 430 may be one or more of the antennas shown in FIGS. 35-46, 51, and 53-57.

The transmission line 432, which may be a microstrip line pair on a chip and/or package substrate, is electrically connected to the antenna 430 and electromagnetically connected to an impedance matching circuit 438 via first and second conductors 434 and 436. In one embodiment, the electromagnetic connection of the first conductor 434 and the first line of the transmission line 432 forms a first transformer, while the electromagnetic connection of the second conductor 434 and the second line of the transmission line 432 forms a second transformer.

Impedance matching circuit 438, which may include one or more of variable inductor circuits, variable capacitor circuits, variable register circuits, inductors, capacitors, and registers. An impedance matching circuit 438 combines the transmission line 432 and the first and second transformers to establish an impedance match with the antenna 430. The impedance matching circuit 438 may be implemented as in fig. 43-50.

Switching circuit 440 includes one or more switches, transistors, tri-state buffers, and tri-state drivers to connect impedance matching circuit 438 to RF transceiver 286. In one embodiment, the switching circuit 440 receives a coupling signal from the RF transceiver 286, the control module 288, and/or the baseband processing module 300, wherein the coupling signal indicates whether the switching circuit 440 is open (i.e., the impedance matching circuit 438 is not connected to the RF transceiver 286) or closed (i.e., the impedance matching circuit 438 is connected to the RF transceiver 286).

Fig. 29 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna (i.e., an antenna radiating section 452 and an antenna ground plane 454), a transmission line 456, and a transformer circuit 450. Antenna radiating portion 452 may be a microstrip located on a chip and/or package substrate to provide a half-wavelength dipole antenna or an 1/4 wavelength monopole antenna. In other embodiments, antenna radiating portion 452 may be the antenna shown in fig. 35-46, 51, and 53-70.

The antenna ground plane is located at different layers of the chip and/or different layers of the package substrate and it substantially surrounds the antenna radiating portion 452 and may surround the transmission line 456 from a first axial direction (e.g., parallel to the surface of the chip and/or package substrate), parallel to the antenna radiating portion 452 and from a second axial direction (e.g., perpendicular to the surface of the chip and/or package substrate).

The transmission line 456 includes a pair of microstrips on a chip and/or package substrate that are electrically connected to the antenna radiating portion 452 and the transformer circuit 460. The connection of the transformer circuit to the second line is further connected to the antenna ground plane 454. Various embodiments of transformer circuit 460 have been shown in fig. 30-32.

Fig. 30 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna (i.e., an antenna radiating portion 452 and an antenna ground plane 454), a transmission line 456, and a transformer circuit 450.

In this embodiment, the electromagnetic coupling of the first inductive conductor 458 (which may be a microstrip) and the first line of the transmission line 456 forms a first transformer, while the electromagnetic coupling of the second inductive conductor 460 and the second line of the transmission line 456 forms a second transformer. The first and second transformers of transformer circuit 450 are used to connect transmission line 456 to an RF transceiver and/or impedance matching circuit.

Fig. 31 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna (i.e., an antenna radiating portion 452 and an antenna ground plane 454), a transmission line 456, and a transformer circuit 450.

In this embodiment, transformer circuit 450 includes a first inductive conductor 462 and a second inductive conductor 464. The first sensing conductor 462 and the first and second wires are connected to form a single-ended winding (single-ended winding) of the transformer, and the second sensing conductor 464 includes a center tap (center tap) connected to ground. In addition, the second inductive conductor 464 is electromagnetically connected to the first inductive conductor to form a differential coil of the transformer. The transformer may be used to connect the transmission line 456 to an RF transceiver and/or an impedance matching circuit.

Fig. 32 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna (i.e., an antenna radiating portion 452 and an antenna ground plane 454), a transmission line 456, and a transformer circuit 450.

In this embodiment, transformer circuit 450 includes a first inductive conductor 476, a second inductive conductor 478, a third inductive conductor 480, and a fourth inductive conductor 482. Any of the sensing conductors 476 and 482 may be a microstrip located on the chip and/or package substrate. The first inductive conductor 476 is located in a first layer (i.e., chip and/or package substrate) of the integrated circuit and is electromagnetically coupled to the first line of transmission lines 456 to form a first transformer of the transformer circuit 450. As shown, the first wire and antenna are located on a second layer of the integrated circuit.

A second inductive conductor 478 is located in the first layer of the integrated circuit and electromagnetically coupled to the second line of the transmission line 456 to form a second transformer. A third inductive conductor 480 is located on a third layer of the integrated circuit and is electromagnetically coupled to the first line of transmission line 456 to form a third transformer. A fourth inductive conductor 480 is located in a third layer of the integrated circuit and electromagnetically coupled to the second line of the transmission line 456 to form a fourth transformer. In one embodiment, the first and second transformers support inbound radio frequency signals and the third and fourth transformers support outbound radio frequency signals.

Fig. 33 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. The antenna element 490 may be one or more microstrips for providing a half-wavelength dipole antenna or an 1/4-wavelength monopole antenna for RF signals in the 55GHz to 64GHz band, the microstrips having a length in the range of approximately 1-1/4 millimeters to 2-1/2 millimeters. In one embodiment, the antenna element 490 may be shaped to provide a horizontal dipole antenna or a vertical dipole antenna. In other embodiments, the antenna element 490 may be implemented in accordance with one or more of the antennas shown in fig. 34-46, 51, and 53-70.

The surface area of the ground plane 492 is greater than the surface area of the antenna element 490. The ground plane 492, which is parallel to the antenna element 490 when viewed in the first axial direction and, when viewed in the second axial direction, substantially surrounds the antenna element 490. The transmission line comprises first and second substantially parallel lines. In one embodiment, the first line of the transmission line 494 is electrically connected to the antenna element 490.

Fig. 34 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the antenna element 490 and the transmission line 494 are located at a first layer 500 of the chip and/or package substrate, and the ground plane 492 is located at a second layer 502 of the chip and/or package substrate.

Fig. 35 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the antenna element 490 is vertically positioned relative to the ground plane 492 and has a length of about 1/4 times the wavelength of the RF signal it transmits. The ground plane 492 may be circular, elliptical, rectangular, or other shape and is used to provide an effective ground for the antenna element 490. The ground plane 492 includes an opening for connecting the transmission line 494 with the antenna element 490.

Fig. 36 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 of fig. 35 on the chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or the package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the antenna element 490 is vertically positioned relative to the ground plane 492 and has a length of about 1/4 times the wavelength of the RF signal it transmits. As shown, the ground plane 492 includes an opening for connecting the transmission line 494 with the antenna element 490.

Fig. 37 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes a plurality of discrete antenna elements 496, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the plurality of discrete antenna elements 496 comprise either a plurality of very small antennas (i.e., length "1/50 wavelengths), or a plurality of smaller antennas (i.e., length" 1/10 wavelengths) to provide a discrete antenna structure that functions similar to a continuous horizontal dipole antenna. The ground plane 492 may be circular, elliptical, rectangular, or other shape and is used to provide effective ground for the plurality of discrete antenna elements 496.

Fig. 38 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282, and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the antenna element 490 includes a plurality of substantially surrounding metal traces 504 and 505, and a patch cord (via) 506. The substantially surrounding metal wires 504 and 506 may be circular, oval, rectangular, or other shapes.

In one embodiment, a first substantially surrounding metal wire 504 is located at first metal layer 500, a second substantially surrounding metal wire 506 is located at second metal layer 502, and a patch cord 506 connects first substantially surrounding metal wire 504 and second substantially surrounding metal wire 506 to provide a helical antenna structure. The ground plane 492 may be circular, elliptical, rectangular, or other shape and is used to provide an effective ground for the antenna element 490. The ground plane 492 includes an opening for connecting the transmission line 494 with the antenna element 490.

Fig. 39 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282 (referenced collectively or alternatively to chip 514 of this figure or fig. 40-40), and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284 (referenced collectively or alternatively to package substrate 512 of this figure or fig. 40-40). The antenna structure 38, 40, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, an antenna ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, antenna element 490 includes a plurality of antenna portions 516 to form a horizontal dipole antenna; the antenna portions 516 may be microstrip and/or metal wiring. As shown, some antenna portions 516 may be located on the chip 514, and other antenna portions 516 may be located on the package substrate 512. As further shown, package substrate 512 is supported by board 510. It should be noted that the board 510 may be a printed circuit board, a fiberglass board, a plastic board, and/or some other sheet of non-conductive material.

Fig. 40 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 514 and/or a package substrate 512. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, antenna element 490 includes a plurality of antenna portions 516 to form a vertical dipole antenna. The antenna portions 516 may be microstrips, patch cords, and/or metal wiring. As shown, some antenna portions 516 may be located on the chip 514, and other antenna portions 516 may be located on the package substrate 512. As further shown, the package substrate 512 is supported by a plate 510, which plate 510 may include a ground plane 492. Optionally, a ground plane 492 may be included on the package substrate 512.

Fig. 41 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 located on a chip 514 and/or a package substrate 512. The antenna structure 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 includes an antenna element 490, a ground plane 492, and a transmission line 494. In this embodiment, the antenna element 490 includes a plurality of substantially surrounding metal wires 504, 505, and 518, and patch cords 506 and 520. The substantially surrounding metal wires 504, 505, and 518 may be circular, oval, rectangular, or other shapes.

In one embodiment, a first substantially surrounding metal wire 504 is located at a first metal layer 524 of the chip 514, a second substantially surrounding metal wire 505 is located at a second metal layer 522 of the package substrate 512, and a third substantially surrounding metal wire 518 is located at a second metal layer 526 of the chip 514, and the patch cords 506 and 520 connect the first, second, and third substantially surrounding metal wires 504, 505, and 518 to provide a spiral antenna structure. The ground plane 492 may be circular, elliptical, rectangular, or other shape and is used to provide an effective ground for the antenna element 490. The ground plane 492 includes an opening for connecting the transmission line 494 with the antenna element 490. It should be appreciated that more or fewer substantially surrounding metal wires may be included on chip 514 and/or package substrate 512.

Fig. 42 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a tunable Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna structure that may be used for antennas 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290. The tunable IC antenna structure includes a plurality of antenna elements 534, a coupling circuit 536, a ground plane 540, and a transmission line circuit 538. In this illustration, the plurality of antenna elements 534, the coupling circuit 536, and the transmission line circuit 538 are located on the chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282 and/or the first layer 530 of the IC on the package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The ground plane 540 is adjacent the plurality of antenna elements 534 but is located at the chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282 and/or the second layer 532 of the package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. In another embodiment, the ground plane 540 may be located on the same layer as the plurality of antenna elements 534, on a different layer than the plurality of antenna elements 534, and/or on a board supporting the IC as shown.

Each of the plurality of antenna elements 534 may be a metal wire on a metal layer on a chip or package substrate that may or may not have the same geometry as the other antenna elements (e.g., square, rectangular, coil-shaped, spiral, etc.), may or may not have the same geometry as the other antenna elements, may or may not be horizontal with respect to a supporting surface of the chip and/or package substrate, may or may not have the same electromagnetic properties (e.g., impedance, inductance, reactance, capacitance, quality factor, resonant frequency, etc.) as the other antenna elements, and/or may not have the same electromagnetic properties as the other antenna elements.

The coupling circuit 536 may include a plurality of magnetic coupling elements and/or a plurality of switches. The coupling circuit 536 connects at least one of the plurality of antenna elements to the antenna based on the antenna configuration characteristic signal. The control module 288, the RF transceivers 46-52, 76, 274, 286, and/or the baseband processing modules 78, 276, 300 may generate antenna configuration characteristic signals for controlling the coupling circuit 536 such that the coupling circuit 536 connects the antenna element 534 to an antenna having a desired effective length, a desired bandwidth, a desired impedance, a desired quality factor, and/or a desired frequency band. For example, the antenna element 534 may be configured to produce an antenna having a frequency band of about 55GHz to 64GHz, an impedance of about 50Ohms, an effective length of a very small antenna, an effective length of a smaller antenna, an effective length of 1/4 wavelengths, an effective length of 1/2 wavelengths or longer, and so forth. Embodiments of the coupling circuit 536 will be described in more detail with reference to fig. 47-48.

Is connected to the transmission line circuit 538 to provide outbound Radio Frequency (RF) signals to the antenna and receive inbound RF signals from the antenna. It should be noted that the antenna element 534 may be provided as any type of antenna, including, but not limited to: a minimum antenna, a smaller antenna, a microstrip antenna, a curved antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a helical antenna, a horizontal antenna, a vertical antenna, a reflector antenna, a lenticular antenna, and an aperture antenna.

Fig. 43 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure of a tunable Integrated Circuit (IC) that may be used for antennas 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290. The tunable IC antenna structure includes an antenna 544 and a transmission line circuit 538. The transmission line circuit 538 includes a transmission line 542 and an impedance matching circuit 546. In another embodiment, the transmission line circuit 538 further includes a transformer circuit connected to the impedance matching circuit 546 or between the impedance matching circuit 546 and the transmission line 542.

The antenna 544 includes multiple impedances, multiple capacitances, and/or multiple inductances, one or more of which may be adjustable. These impedances, capacitances, inductances can be generated by a plurality of antenna elements 534 connected to the antenna. Thus, by connecting different antenna elements 534 to the antenna, the impedance, capacitance, inductance of the antenna 544 can be adjusted.

The transmission line 542 includes a plurality of impedances, a plurality of capacitances, and/or a plurality of inductances, one or more of which are adjustable. These impedances, capacitances, inductances, can be generated by a plurality of transmission line elements connected to the transmission line 542. In this way, by connecting different transmission line elements to the transmission line 542, the impedance, capacitance, inductance of the transmission line 542 can be adjusted. Each of the plurality of transmission line elements may be a metal wiring located on a metal layer on a chip or package substrate, may be a microstrip, may be the same as the geometry of the other transmission line elements (e.g., square, rectangular, coil-shaped, spiral, etc.), may be different from the geometry of the other transmission line elements, may have the same electromagnetic properties (e.g., impedance, inductance, reactance, capacitance, quality factor, resonant frequency, etc.) as the other transmission line elements, and/or may have different electromagnetic properties than the other transmission line elements.

The impedance matching circuit 546 includes multiple impedances, multiple capacitances, and/or multiple inductances, one or more of which may be adjustable. The impedances, capacitances, inductances, and/or impedance matching elements (e.g., impedance elements, inductance elements, and/or capacitance elements) connected to the impedance matching circuit 546 may result. In this way, by connecting different impedance matching elements to the impedance matching circuit 546, the impedance, capacitance, and inductance of the impedance matching circuit 546 can be adjusted. Each of the plurality of impedance matching elements may be a metal wiring located on a metal layer on the chip or package substrate, may be a microstrip, may be the same geometry as the other impedance matching elements (e.g., square, rectangular, coil-shaped, spiral, etc.), may be different from the geometry of the other impedance matching elements, may have the same electromagnetic properties as the other impedance matching elements (e.g., impedance, inductance, reactance, capacitance, quality factor, resonant frequency, etc.), and/or may have different electromagnetic properties than the other impedance matching elements.

If the transmission line circuit 538 includes a transformer circuit that includes multiple impedances, multiple capacitances, and/or multiple inductances, one or more of these may be adjustable. These impedances, capacitances, inductances can be generated by a plurality of transformer elements connected to the transformer circuit. By connecting different transformer elements to the transformer circuit in this way, the impedance, capacitance, inductance of the transformer circuit can be adjusted. Each of the plurality of transformer elements may be a metal wiring located on a metal layer on a chip or package substrate, may be a microstrip, may be the same as the geometry of the other transformer elements (e.g., square, rectangular, coil-shaped, spiral, etc.), may be different from the geometry of the other transformer elements, may have the same electromagnetic properties (e.g., impedance, inductance, reactance, capacitance, quality factor, resonant frequency, etc.) as the other transformer elements, and/or may have different electromagnetic properties than the transformer elements.

Through the adjustable characteristics of the antenna 544 and the transmission line circuit 538, the control module 288, the RF transceivers 46-52, 76, 274, 286, and/or the baseband processing modules 78, 276, 300 may set one or more antenna structures to achieve a desired effective length, a desired bandwidth, a desired impedance, a desired quality factor, and/or a desired frequency band. For example, the control module 288, the RF transceivers 46-52, 76, 274, 286, and/or the baseband processing modules 78, 276, 300 may configure one antenna structure to have a very narrow bandwidth and another antenna structure to have a narrower bandwidth. In another embodiment, the control module 288, the RF transceivers 46-52, 76, 274, 286, and/or the baseband processing modules 78, 276, 300 may set one antenna for one frequency range (e.g., a transmit frequency range) and another antenna for another frequency range (e.g., a receive frequency range). As another example, the control module 288, RF transceivers 46-52, 76, 274, 286, and/or baseband processing modules 78, 276, 300 may be configured to have one antenna structure with a first polarization and another antenna with a second polarization.

Fig. 44 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure that may be used for the antenna 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 tunable Integrated Circuits (ICs). The tunable IC antenna structure includes an antenna 544, a transmission line 542, and an impedance matching circuit 546 at the same layer of the chip and/or package substrate. It should be noted that the antenna structure further includes a transformer circuit connected to the impedance matching circuit 546 or connected between the impedance matching circuit 546 and the transmission line 542.

In this example, the transmission line 542 includes a plurality of transmission line elements 550 and a transmission line coupling circuit 552. Transmission line coupling circuit 552 couples the plurality of transmission line elements 550 to the transmission line 542 according to the transmission line characteristics of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

The adjustable impedance matching circuit 546 includes a plurality of impedance matching elements 550 and a coupling circuit 552 to generate an adjustable inductance (tunable inductor) and/or an adjustable capacitance from an impedance signature portion of an antenna structure signature signal. In one embodiment, the adjustable inductor includes a plurality of inductive elements 550 and inductive coupling circuit 552. Inductive coupling circuit 552 connects at least one of the plurality of inductive elements 550 to an inductor based on an impedance characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal, the inductor having at least one of the following characteristics over a given frequency range: desired inductance, desired reactance, desired quality factor.

If the transmission line circuit includes a transformer, the transformer includes a plurality of transformer elements 550 and a transformer coupling circuit 552. Transformer coupling circuit 552 connects at least one of the plurality of transformer elements 550 to a transformer according to a transformer characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal. It should be noted that each of the coupling circuits 552 may include a plurality of magnetic coupling elements and/or a plurality of switches or transistors.

Fig. 45 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a tunable Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna structure that may be used for antennas 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290. The tunable IC antenna structure includes antenna elements and transmission line circuit elements 550 of chip layers 560 and 562, coupling circuit 552 on chip layer 561, and tunable ground plane 572 at one or more layers of package substrates 564, 566 and/or at one or more layers of support plates 568, 570.

In this embodiment, since the elements 550 are located in different layers, their electromagnetic connection through the coupling circuit 552 is different from that of the elements located in the same layer shown in fig. 44. Thus, different desired effective lengths, different desired bandwidths, different desired impedances, different desired quality factors, and/or different desired frequency bands may be obtained. In another embodiment, an antenna structure may include a combination of element 550 and coupling circuit 552 of fig. 44 and 45.

In this example embodiment, the adjustable ground plane 572 may include a plurality of ground planes and ground plane selection circuitry. The ground plane is located at one or more layers of the package substrate and/or one or more layers of the support board. The ground plane selection circuit is operable to select at least one of the plurality of ground planes based on a ground plane characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal and provide it to the ground plane 540 of the antenna structure.

In another embodiment of this example, the adjustable ground plane 572 may include a plurality of ground plane elements and ground plane selection circuitry. The ground plane connection circuit is for connecting at least one of the plurality of ground plane elements to the ground plane in accordance with the ground plane portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

Fig. 46 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of an antenna structure that may be used for the antenna 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 74, 282, or 290 tunable Integrated Circuits (ICs). The tunable IC antenna structure includes an antenna element and transmission line circuit element 550 of a chip layer 560 and package substrate 564, a coupling circuit 552 located on the chip layer 562, and one or more tunable ground plane layers 572 located on one or more layers above the package substrate 566 and/or support plates 568, 570.

In this embodiment, since the elements 550 are located in different layers, the electromagnetic connection between them through the coupling circuit 552 is different from the elements located in the same layer as shown in fig. 44. Thus, different desired effective lengths, different desired bandwidths, different desired impedances, different desired quality factors, and/or different desired frequency bands may be obtained. In another embodiment, an antenna structure may include a combination of element 550 and coupling circuit 552 of fig. 44 and 46.

In this example embodiment, the adjustable ground plane 572 may include a plurality of ground planes and ground plane selection circuitry. The ground plane is located at one or more layers of the package substrate and/or one or more layers of the support board. The ground plane selection circuit is operable to select at least one of the plurality of ground planes based on a ground plane characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal and to provide the selected ground plane to the ground plane 540 of the antenna structure.

In another embodiment of this example, the adjustable ground plane 572 may include a plurality of ground plane elements and ground plane coupling circuits. The ground plane coupling circuit is for coupling at least one of the plurality of ground plane elements to the ground plane in accordance with a ground plane characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal.

FIG. 47 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the coupling circuits 552 and/or 536 that includes a plurality of magnetic coupling elements 574 and switches T1 and T2. In one embodiment, one of the plurality of magnetic coupling elements 574 includes metal wiring adjacent to the first and second antenna elements 534 of the plurality of antenna elements. The metal wiring provides magnetic coupling between the first and second antenna elements 534 when the corresponding portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal is in a first state (e.g., available); the metal routing provides modular coupling between the first and second antenna elements 534 when the corresponding portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal is in the second state (e.g., not available).

For example, the first magnetic coupling element L1 is located between two elements of the antenna: a transmission line, an impedance matching circuit, or a transformer. The first magnetic coupling element L1 may be located on the same layer as the two elements 534 or on a layer between layers that support the two elements 534, respectively. After positioning, the first magnetic coupling element L1 has an inductance and creates a first capacitance C1 between it and the first element and a second capacitance C2 between it and the second element. The second magnetic coupling element L2 is connected in parallel with the first magnetic coupling element L1 through switches T1 and T2. The values of L1, L2, C1, C2 may be designed such that when switches T1 and T2 are available, they generate a lower impedance relative to the impedance of the antenna, and when switches T1 and T2 are unavailable, they generate a higher impedance relative to the impedance of the antenna.

As a specific example, the antenna may be designed and configured to have an impedance of approximately 50Ohms at a frequency of 60 GHz. In this example, when a switch is available, C1 andthe series combination of C2 has a capacitance of about 0.1 picofarad, and the parallel combination of L1 and L2 has an inductance of about 70 picohenries, so that the series combination of C1 and C2 resonates at about 60GHz with the parallel combination of L1 and L2 (e.g., (2 π f)²1/LC). When the switch is not available, the impedance of L1 at 60GHz is substantially greater than the impedance of the first and second antennas 534. For example, at 60GHz, the impedance of the 1.3 nanohenries inductor is approximately 500 Ohms. Such an inductor may be a coil on one or more layers of the chip and/or substrate.

Fig. 48 is a schematic diagram of impedance versus frequency for an embodiment of coupling circuit 536 and/or 552. In this figure, the impedance at RF frequency (e.g., 60GHz) is approximately 50 Ohms. When a switch is available, the impedance of coupling circuit 536 and/or 552 is much less than the 50Ohms impedance of the antenna. When the switch is not available, the impedance of the coupling circuit 536 and/or 552 is much greater than the 50Ohms impedance of the antenna.

Fig. 49 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmission line circuit 538 that includes a transmission line 542, a transformer circuit 450, and an impedance matching circuit 546. In this embodiment, the transformer circuit 450 is connected between the impedance matching circuit 546 and the transmission line 542. It should be noted that the transmission line circuit 538 may be shared by multiple antennas or used by only one antenna. For example, when multiple antennas are used, each antenna has its own transmission line circuit.

Fig. 50 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmission line circuit 538 that includes a transmission line 542, a transformer circuit 450, and an impedance matching circuit 546. In this embodiment, the transformer circuit 450 is connected after the impedance matching circuit 546, which includes a single-ended coil connected to the impedance matching circuit, and a differential coil connected to the RF transceiver.

Figure 51 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna array configuration including multiple tunable antenna configurations. Each tunable antenna structure includes a transmission line circuit 538, an antenna structure 550, and a coupling circuit 552. When the antenna structure is illustrated as having a dipole shape, it may be any type of shape including, but not limited to: a minimum antenna, a smaller antenna, a microstrip antenna, a curved antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a helical antenna, a horizontal antenna, a vertical antenna, a reflector antenna, a lenticular antenna, and an aperture antenna.

In this embodiment, the antenna array includes four Transmit (TX) antenna structures and four Receive (RX) antenna structures, where the RX antenna structures are interleaved with the TX antenna structures. In this arrangement, the RX antenna has a first direction circular polarization and the TX appears to have a second direction circular polarization. It should be noted that the antenna array may include more or fewer RX and TX antennas than the number of antennas shown in the figure.

Fig. 52 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an IC 580 that includes a plurality of antenna elements 588, a coupling circuit 586, a control module 584, and an RF transceiver 582. Each of the plurality of antenna elements may operate in a frequency range of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. Antenna element 588 is any type of antenna including, but not limited to: a minimum antenna, a smaller antenna, a microstrip antenna, a curved antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a helical antenna, a horizontal antenna, a vertical antenna, a reflector antenna, a lenticular antenna, and an aperture antenna.

The coupling circuit 586 may be a switching network, a transformer balun, and/or a transmit/receive switching circuit for coupling the plurality of antenna elements 588 to the antenna structure in accordance with an antenna setting signal. The connection control module 584 generates the antenna configuration signal 600 based on the operating mode 598 of the IC. The control module 584 may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a device may be a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that can process signals (analog or digital) based on hard coding of circuitry and/or operational instructions. The control module 584 may have associated memory and/or storage elements that may be a single storage device, multiple storage devices, and/or embedded circuitry of the control module 584. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It should be noted that when the control module 584 performs one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or storage elements storing the corresponding operational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. It should also be noted that hard coded and/or operational instructions corresponding to at least a portion of the steps and/or functions described in FIGS. 52-57 may be stored by the memory element and executed by the control module 584.

The RF transceiver 582 is coupled to convert the outbound signal stream 590 into an outbound RF signal 592 and to convert the inbound RF signal 594 into an inbound symbol stream 596 depending on the mode of operation 598 of the IC. It should be noted that the RF transceiver 582 may be implemented by one or more of the RF transceiver embodiments discussed above. It is further noted that the antenna configuration signal 600 may adjust characteristics of the antenna structure (e.g., desired effective length, desired bandwidth, desired impedance, desired quality factor, and/or desired frequency band) for various operating modes 598. For example, the characteristics of the antenna structure may be adjusted when the mode of operation is changed from one frequency band to another (e.g., from the TX band to the RX band). In another embodiment, changes in the wireless communication system environment (e.g., attenuation, transmit power level, received signal strength, baseband modulation scheme, etc.) cause changes in the operating mode, which may also adjust the characteristics of the antenna structure. In another embodiment, the mode of operation is changed from local to remote communications, which benefits from the change in antenna structural characteristics. In yet another embodiment, the mode of operation may be changed from low data local communication to high data rate local communication, which benefits from the change in the characteristics of the antenna structure. In yet another embodiment, the antenna configuration signal 600 may cause a change in antenna characteristics, which may be for one or more of the following modes of operation: half-duplex air-beamforming communication, half-duplex multiple-input multiple-output communication, full-duplex polarization communication, and full-duplex frequency-offset communication.

In one embodiment, a first antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements 588 is connected to receive the inbound RF signal 594 and a second antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements 588 is connected to transmit the outbound RF signal 592. Additionally, the first antenna element 588 may receive an inbound RF signal 594 in a receive frequency band of the frequency band, while the second antenna element 588 may transmit an outbound RF signal 592 in a transmit frequency band of the frequency band.

In another embodiment, a first antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements 588 has a first polarization and a second antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements 588 has a second polarization. In addition, the first and second polarizations include left-hand circular polarization and right-hand circular polarization. In this example, the second antenna element includes a phase shifting module coupled to shift the phase of the inbound or outbound RF signals by a phase shift amount. Further, the first antenna element is orthogonal to the second antenna element.

In one embodiment of IC 580, IC 580 includes a chip that supports coupling circuit 586, control module 584, RF transceiver 582, and a package substrate that supports a plurality of antenna elements 588. In another embodiment, the chip supports a plurality of antenna elements 588, coupling circuit 586, control module 584, RF transceiver 582. And the package substrate supports the chip.

Fig. 53 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure including a pair of microstrip antenna elements 602 and a transmission line 606. In this embodiment, each of the microstrip antenna elements 602 includes a feed point 604, the feed point 604 selectively connecting a transmission line 606 according to the antenna configuration signal 600. For example, each feed point 604 corresponds to a different antenna structure characteristic (e.g., a different effective length, a different bandwidth, a different impedance, a different radiation direction, a different quality factor, and/or a different frequency band).

Fig. 54 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure that includes a pair of microstrip antenna elements 602 and a transmission line 606. In this embodiment, each of the microstrip antenna elements 602 includes a plurality of feed points 604, the feed points 604 selectively connected to a transmission line 606 according to the antenna configuration signal 600. In this embodiment, different feed points 604 cause different polarizations of the microstrip antenna element 602.

Fig. 55 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure that includes a plurality of antenna elements 588 and a coupling circuit 586. Coupling circuit 586 includes a plurality of transmission lines 606 and switching modules 610. It should be noted that coupling circuit 586 may further include a plurality of transformer modules connected to the plurality of transmission lines, and/or a plurality of impedance matching circuits connected to the plurality of transformer modules.

In this embodiment, the switching module 610 may be a switch network, a multiplexer, a switch, a transistor network, and/or combinations thereof. The switching module 610 connects one or more of the plurality of transmission lines 606 with the RF transceiver according to the antenna configuration signal 600. For example, in half-duplex mode, the switching module 610 connects one transmission line 606 with the RF transceiver to transmit outbound RF signals 592 and receive inbound RF signals 594. In another embodiment, for half-duplex mimo communications, the switching module 610 connects two or more transmission lines 606 with the RF transceiver to transmit outbound RF signals 592 and receive inbound RF signals 594. In yet another embodiment, for full-duplex polarized communications, the switching module 610 connects one transmission line 606 with an RF transceiver to transmit the outbound RF signal 592 and another transmission line with the RF transceiver to receive the inbound RF signal 594, which may be located at the same or a different frequency band than the outbound RF signal 592.

Fig. 56 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna structure that includes a plurality of antenna elements 588 and a coupling circuit 586. The coupling circuit 586 includes a plurality of transmission lines 606 and two switching modules 610. It should be noted that coupling circuit 586 may further include a plurality of transformer modules connected with the plurality of transmission lines, and/or a plurality of impedance matching circuits connected with the plurality of transformer modules.

In one embodiment, the switching module 610 connects one or more transmission lines 606 with the RF transceiver and with the plurality of antenna elements according to the antenna configuration signal 600. In this manner, if the antenna elements have different characteristics, coupling circuit 586 will select an antenna element for a particular mode of operation of IC 580 under the control of control module 584 to achieve a desired level of RF communication. For example, one antenna element having a first polarization and a second antenna element having a second polarization may be selected. In another embodiment, one antenna element having a first radiation direction and a second antenna element having a second radiation direction may be selected.

Figure 57 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an antenna array structure including a plurality of tunable antenna structures and a coupling circuit 586. Each tunable antenna structure includes a transmission line circuit 538, an antenna structure 550, and a coupling circuit 552. Although the antenna structure as illustrated has a dipole shape, it may be any other type of antenna structure, including but not limited to: a minimum antenna, a smaller antenna, a microstrip antenna, a curved antenna, a monopole antenna, a dipole antenna, a helical antenna, a horizontal antenna, a vertical antenna, a reflector antenna, a lenticular antenna, and an aperture antenna.

In this embodiment, the antenna array includes four Transmit (TX) antenna structures and four Receive (RX) antenna structures, where the RX antenna structures are interleaved with the TX antenna structures. In this arrangement, the RX antenna has a first direction circular polarization and the TX antenna has a second direction circular polarization. It should be noted that the antenna array may include more or fewer RX and TX antennas than the number of antennas shown in the figure.

Coupling circuit 586 connects one or more TX antenna structures with the RF transceiver and one or more RX antenna structures with the RF transceiver in accordance with antenna configuration signal 600. The RF transceiver converts the outbound symbol stream into an outbound RF signal and the inbound RF signal into an inbound symbol stream, wherein carrier frequencies of the outbound and inbound RF signals are located in a frequency band of approximately 55GHz to 64 GHz. In one embodiment, coupling circuitry 586 includes receive coupling circuitry to provide inbound RF signals from multiple receive antenna elements to an RF transceiver, and transmit coupling circuitry to provide outbound RF signals from the RF transceiver to multiple transmit antenna elements.

Fig. 58 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna structure including a micro-electromechanical (MEM) region 620 located on a chip 30, 32, 34, 36, 82, 272, or 282 and/or a package substrate 22, 24, 26, 28, 80, 284. The IC antenna structure further includes a feed point 626 and a transmission line 624 connected to an RF transceiver 628. The RF transceiver 628 may be implemented by any of the RF transceivers described above. It should be noted that the connection of the transmission line 624 and the RF transceiver 628 may include an impedance matching circuit and/or a transformer.

The MEM region 620 comprises a three-dimensional shape that may be cylindrical, spherical, box-like, pyramidal, and/or combinations thereof in shape, which may enable electromechanical functionality on the chip and/or package substrate. The MEM region 620 also includes an antenna structure 622 located within its three-dimensional structure. The feed point 626 may be connected to provide an outbound Radio Frequency (RF) signal to the antenna structure 622 for transmission and to receive an inbound RF signal from the antenna structure 622. The transmission line 624 includes substantially parallel first and second lines, at least the first line being electrically coupled to a feed point 626. It should be noted that the antenna structure may further include a ground plane 625 adjacent to the antenna structure 622. It should also be noted that such antenna structures may be used for point-to-point RF communications, which may be local communications and/or remote communications.

In one embodiment, the chip supports the MEM region 620, the antenna structure, the feed point 626, and the transmission line 624, while the package substrate supports the chip. In another embodiment, the chip supports an RF transceiver, and the package substrate supports the chip, the MEM region 620, the antenna structure, the feed point 626, and the transmission line 624.

Fig. 55-66 are schematic diagrams of various embodiments of an antenna structure 622, which may be implemented in the MEM three-dimensional region 620. The aperture antenna structure shown in fig. 59-60 includes a rectangular antenna 630 and a horn antenna 632. In these embodiments, feed point 626 is connected with the aperture antenna point. It should be noted that other aperture antenna structures are created in the MEM three-dimensional region 620, such as a waveguide.

Fig. 61 shows a lens antenna structure 634 having a lens shape. In this embodiment, the feed point is located at the focal point of the lens antenna structure 634. It should be noted that the shape of the lens may be different from that shown. For example, the lens shape may be one-sided convex, one-sided concave, two-sided convex, two-sided concave, and/or combinations thereof.

Fig. 62 and 63 illustrate a three-dimensional dipole antenna that may be implemented in the MEM three-dimensional region 620. Fig. 62 illustrates a biconical antenna structure 636, while fig. 63 illustrates a dual cylinder or dual oval antenna structure 638. In these embodiments, the feed point 626 is electrically connected to the three-dimensional dipole antenna. Other three-dimensional dipole antenna shapes include bowtie shapes, yagi antennas, and the like.

Fig. 64-66 illustrate a reflective surface antenna that may be implemented in the MEM three-dimensional region 620. Fig. 64 shows a planar antenna structure 640; fig. 65 shows an angled antenna structure 642; fig. 66 shows a parabolic antenna structure 644. In these embodiments, the feed point 626 is located at the focal point of the antenna structure.

Fig. 67 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a low-efficiency Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna, including an antenna element 650 and a transmission line 652. The antenna element 650 is located at a first metal layer of the chip of the IC. In one embodiment, the length of the antenna element 650 is less than about 1/10 wavelengths (e.g., a very small dipole antenna, a small dipole antenna) for transceiving RF signals in a frequency band of about 55GHz to 64 GHz. In another embodiment, the antenna element 650 has a length greater than about 3/2 wavelengths (e.g., a longer dipole antenna) for transceiving RF signals in a frequency band of about 55GHz to 64 GHz. Regardless of the length of the antenna element 650, the antenna element 650 may be implemented as a microstrip, a plurality of microstrips, a curve, and/or a plurality of curves. It should be noted that in embodiments, the antenna element may be a monopole antenna element or a dipole antenna.

The transmission line 652 on the chip may be electrically connected to a first feeding point of the antenna element 650. In one embodiment, transmission line 652 (comprising two lines) may be directly connected to the RF transceiver. In another embodiment, the low efficiency IC antenna structure further comprises a ground trace located in the second metal layer of the chip, wherein the ground trace is adjacent to the antenna element.

Low efficiency IC antenna structures may be used for such an IC, including RF transceivers, chips, and package substrates. The chip supports the RF transceiver and the package substrate supports the chip. The RF transceiver is operative to convert the outbound symbol stream into an outbound RF signal and to convert the inbound RF signal into an inbound symbol stream, wherein a transceiving range of the RF transceiver is located entirely within the device in combination with the IC and carrier frequencies of the inbound and outbound RF signals are located substantially in a frequency range of 55GHz to 64 GHz.

The antenna structure includes an antenna element 650 and a transmission line circuit. The antenna structure 650 has a length less than about 1/10 wavelengths or greater than 3/2 wavelengths for transceiving inbound and outbound RF signals in a frequency band of about 55GHz to 64 GHz. The transmission line circuitry includes transmission line 652 and may include a transformer and/or impedance matching circuitry for connecting the RF transceiver to the antenna element. In one embodiment, the chip supports an antenna element and transmission line circuitry.

Fig. 68 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a low-efficiency Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna, including an antenna element 650 and a transmission line 652. The antenna element 650 includes first and second metal wirings. The first metal wiring has a first feeding point portion and a first radiating portion, wherein the first radiating portion is at an angle (greater than 0 °, less than 90 °) with respect to the first feeding point. The second metal wiring has a second feeding point portion and a second radiating portion, wherein the second radiating portion is at an angle (greater than 0 DEG, less than 90 DEG) with respect to the second feeding point. In this embodiment, the magnetic fields generated by each metal wire do not cancel completely, thus resulting in a net radiation.

Fig. 69 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a low-efficiency Integrated Circuit (IC) antenna, including an antenna element 650 and a transmission line 652. The antenna element 650 includes first and second metal wirings. The first metal wiring has a first feeding point portion and a first radiating portion, wherein the first radiating portion is at an angle (greater than 0 °, less than 90 °) with respect to the first feeding point. The second metal wiring has a second feeding point portion and a second radiating portion, wherein the second radiating portion is at an angle (greater than 0 DEG, less than 90 DEG) with respect to the second feeding point. In this embodiment, the magnetic fields generated by each metal wire do not cancel completely, thus creating a net radiation.

The low efficiency IC antenna further includes first and second transformer lines connected to the first and second lines of the transmission line. In this embodiment, the first and second transformer lines form a transformer for providing outbound RF signals to the transmission line and receiving inbound RF signals from the transmission line.

Fig. 70 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a low-efficiency antenna structure including an antenna element 650, a transmission line 652, and a transformer 656. In one embodiment, the transformer 656 includes a single-ended transformer coil and a differential transformer coil. The single-ended transformer coil is connected to the first and second lines of the transmission line and is located in the same metal layer of the chip as transmission line 652. The differential transformer coil is electromagnetically connected with the single-end transformer coil and is positioned on different metal layers of the chip.

The transformer 656 may further comprise a second differential transformer coil electromagnetically coupled to the single-ended transformer coil. In another embodiment, a second differential transformer coil is located in a third metal layer of the chip, wherein the second differential transformer coil provides outbound RF signals to the transmission line and receives inbound RF signals from the transmission line.

As used herein, the term "substantially" or "approximately" provides an industry-accepted tolerance to the corresponding term and/or relationship between the terms. Such an industry-accepted tolerance ranges from less than 1% to 50% and corresponds to, but is not limited to, component values, integrated circuit process fluctuations, temperature fluctuations, rise and fall times, and/or thermal noise. These relationships between terms range from a few percent difference to a very large difference. As may be used herein, the term "operably coupled" includes both direct and indirect connections (terms including, but not limited to, components, elements, circuits, and/or modules) between which the intervening term(s) does not alter the information of a signal but may adjust its current level, voltage level, and/or power level. As further used herein, inferred coupling (i.e., where one element is coupled to another element by inference) includes direct and indirect coupling between two elements in the same manner as "coupled". As further used herein, the term "available to" is meant to include one or more power connections, inputs, outputs, etc. to perform one or more corresponding functions, as well as to include inferred connections to one or more other terms. As further used herein, the term "and". . . Related includes terms that are directly or indirectly connected or separated and/or that one term is embedded in another. As further used herein, the term "compares favorably", indicates that a comparison between two or more elements, items, signals, etc., provides a desired relationship. For example, when the desired relationship is that signal 1 has a greater amplitude than signal 2, favorable comparison results may be obtained when the amplitude of signal 1 is greater than the amplitude of signal 2 or the amplitude of signal 2 is less than the amplitude of signal 1.

The transistors in the above figures are Field Effect Transistors (FETs), and those skilled in the art will recognize that any type of transistor structure may be used, including but not limited to: diodes, Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs), N-well transistors, P-well transistors, enhancement, depletion, 0 Voltage Threshold (VT) type transistors.

The invention has been described above with the aid of method steps illustrating the execution of specific functions and relationships thereof. The boundaries of these functional building blocks and method steps have been defined herein specifically for the convenience of the description. Selective boundaries and sequences may also be appropriately implemented so long as the specific functions and relationships are appropriately performed. Any such selective boundaries and sequences are within the scope and spirit of the present invention.

The invention has also been described above with the aid of functional blocks illustrating some important functions. For convenience of description, the boundaries of these functional building blocks have been defined specifically herein. Selective boundaries can also be defined so long as the essential functions are appropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocks may be specifically defined herein to illustrate certain important functions, and the boundaries and sequence of the flow diagram blocks may be otherwise defined for general application so long as the important functions are still achieved. Variations in the boundaries and sequence of the above described functional blocks, flowchart functional blocks, and steps may be considered within the scope of the following claims. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the functional blocks described herein, and other illustrative blocks, modules, and components, may be implemented as discrete components, special purpose integrated circuits, processors with appropriate software, and the like.

Claims

1. An adjustable integrated circuit antenna structure, comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements;

a ground plane adjacent to the plurality of antenna elements; and

a transmission line circuit that supplies an outbound radio frequency signal to the antenna and receives an inbound radio frequency signal from the antenna;

the transmission line circuit includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit includes at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal;

the adjustable inductor comprises:

a plurality of inductive elements; and

an inductive coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of inductive elements to an inductance having at least one of the following characteristics in a given frequency band related to an impedance characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal: a desired inductance, a desired reactance, and a desired quality factor;

the transmission line circuit further includes:

a plurality of transformer elements; and

a transformer coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of transformer elements to a transformer in accordance with a transformer characteristic portion of the antenna structure characteristic signal;

the coupling circuit includes a plurality of magnetic coupling elements, one of the plurality of magnetic coupling elements including:

a metal wire adjacent to first and second ones of the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the metal wire provides magnetic coupling between the first and second antenna elements when the corresponding portion of the antenna structural characteristic signal is in the first state, and wherein the metal wire provides modular coupling between the first and second antenna elements when the corresponding portion of the antenna structural characteristic signal is in the second state.

2. An adjustable integrated circuit antenna, comprising:

an antenna;

a ground plane adjacent to the antenna;

a plurality of transmission line circuit elements; and

a coupling circuit for connecting at least one of the plurality of transmission line circuit elements to a transmission line circuit in accordance with a transmission line characteristic signal; wherein the transmission line circuit has at least one of the following characteristics related to the transmission line circuit characteristic signal: bandwidth, impedance, quality factor, and frequency band;

the plurality of transmission line circuit elements includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit comprises at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the adjustable impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characterization portion of the transmission line circuit characterization signal;

the adjustable inductor comprises:

a plurality of inductive elements; and

the transmission line circuit further includes:

a plurality of transformer elements; and

3. An adjustable integrated circuit antenna structure, comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements; and

coupling circuitry for coupling at least one of a plurality of antenna elements to an antenna based on an antenna configuration characteristic signal, wherein the antenna has at least one of the following characteristics related to the antenna configuration characteristic signal: effective length, bandwidth, impedance, quality factor, and frequency band;

an array coupling circuit for connecting at least some of the plurality of antenna elements to an antenna array based on an antenna setting signal,

the coupling circuit includes:

a transmission line; and

an adjustable impedance matching circuit coupled to the transmission line, wherein the impedance matching circuit includes at least one of an adjustable inductance and an adjustable capacitance, wherein the impedance matching circuit determines an impedance based on an impedance characterization portion of the antenna structure characterization signal;

the adjustable inductor comprises:

a plurality of inductive elements; and

the coupling circuit further comprises:

a plurality of transformer elements; and