Toshiba develops power supply control technology that halves smartphone power consumption and improves continuous talk time

ByFabio Salmoirago

Toshiba developed a power supply control technology to improve the power efficiency of CMOS power amplifier necessary for transmitting signals such as WCDMA and LTE of smartphone, and by switching the power supply path in the amplifier according to the transmission power level, WCDMA · It reduces the power consumption when transmitting signals such as LTE by half, and contributes to the improvement of continuous talk time.

Toshiba: News Release (2013-02-19): Developed power control technology for CMOS power amplifier for smartphones
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2013_02/pr_j1901.htm


What kind of problem this power control technology solves is that when transmitting a signal such as WCDMA or LTE on a smartphone in the first place, the transmission power fluctuates depending on the communication distance with the base station and transmission information , Power of the power amplifier installed in the terminal maintains the power supply voltage constant assuming a state requiring high power such as long distance transmission, so when the transmission power such as short distance transmission is small power efficiency decreases There was a problem of doing. The solution is "improving power efficiency by controlling the power supply voltage", but in the conventional power control technology, since it is necessary to attach a power supply IC and an inductor element to the outside of the amplifier, it is necessary to miniaturize parts Application to smartphones and others was not advanced.

In response to this problem, Toshiba has developed a technology that improves the power efficiency by up to twice as much when the transmitted power is small, by applying its own power control scheme to the CMOS power amplifier, improves the power efficiency by up to twice , We succeeded in halving the power consumption at low transmit power. The new technology of this time is suitable for smartphones and so on where mounting space is limited, since it is unnecessary to attach exclusively power supply IC etc. to the outside.


Since we are planning to improve distortion performance and noise performance in the future and aim to develop practical technologies at around 3 years later, at that time it is common for smartphones nowadays. "Since the battery has no battery, it is outside It is highly possible that you will lose your sight such as "carrying a battery attached" and "changing the setting frequently to reduce power consumption" will disappear.