Triple-Band Concurrent Reconfigurable Matching Network

Jesus De Mingo,Pedro Luis Carro,Paloma Garcia-Ducar,Antonio Valdovinos

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3094028

Jesus De Mingo, Pedro Luis Carro + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3094028

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Journal: IEEE Access	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidad de Zaragoza

Abstract

Reconfigurable Matching Networks (RMN) have found a wide range of applications, such as antenna impedance matching (Antenna Tuning Units -ATU-), the design of reconfigurable power amplifiers, applications in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), adjustable low noise amplifier design, etc. In this paper, we propose the experimental design and verification of a reconfigurable impedance synthesis network that can simultaneously work in three different bands and is completely independent so that the impedance variations in a frequency band are approximately transparent to the rest. The variable elements used in this paper are varactors. To verify its operation, it is applied to a process of matching a laser modulator in three different frequency bands for C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Networks) applications. Experimental results demonstrate, as expected, that losses may depend on the state in which they are driven. Consequently, a state that can guarantee a good match could also imply greater losses, leading to a certain trade-off. The application of genetic algorithms in this context points out that it may be convenient to optimize the insertion losses of the complete chain instead of the return losses.

Highlights

Radio frequency front ends for current and future radio communication systems are expected to be reconfigurable as far as possible [1]
Examples of power amplifiers based on Doherty technology [4], Envelope Tracking (ET) [5], Dynamic Load Modulation [6] or in other applications such as Tunable Diplexer [7] or the design of reconfigurable transmitters [8] using Tunable Matching Networks (TMNs) ( known as reconfigurable matching networks (RMN) [21,28]) for reconfigurable amplifiers or in applications like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) [17] have been extensively studied and designed for multiple purposes
The design process of a multi-band Reconfigurable Matching Network (RMN), called Multiband Reconfigurable Matching Network (MB-RMN), has been presented, with the ability to concurrently work on different frequency bands, that is, the operation of the network in each band without the variations made in one band affecting the rest of the bands

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Radio frequency front ends for current and future radio communication systems are expected to be reconfigurable as far as possible [1]. There are multiple references related to “Reconfigurable Matching Networks” (RMNs) for different applications in a single band, explaining the simple process of adapting transmit and receive antenna impedances [2,3] as well as the search for improvement in transmission efficiency, both from the broadband, multiband or reconfigurable frequency band point of view. The article focuses on the design and assembly of a multiband RMN system which operates concurrently so that changes in the RMN in one band do not affect, as far as possible, to another band This assembly allows various applications, from simultaneous multiband system adaptation, to the design of power stages with tunable loads to first, second and third harmonic.

RMN BY BAND DESIGN

RADIO-OVER-FIBER ARCHITECTURE APPLICATION

CONCLUSIONS