Duplexer-less RF Front-end for LTE Pico-Cell using a Dual Polarization Antenna

Inhalt:
This study aims at a global optimization of the Tx front-end with a focus on the opportunities offered at the antenna level to reduce the constraint on other components. More specifically, it deals with the improvement of the energy efficiency (EE) of the front-end in classical FDD architectures for LTE small cell applications. The key idea consists in eliminating the duplexer by using a dual polarization antenna which ensures a 30 dB isolation between Tx and Rx accesses. To reach the classical 50 dB Tx/Rx isolation level, additional filters with relaxed constraints are used. A detailled comparison between standard and proposed front-ends may provide a significant loss reduction of 1 to 3 dB on the Tx chain.