Direct conversion receiver with DC offset compensation

• US 20060073803A1
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Collabo Innovations, Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Komori, Hiroshi, Igarashi, Masatoshi, Watanabe, Takeaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,199 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/296
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/30 for homodyne or synchrodyne receivers demodulator circuits H03D1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/061 providing hard decisions only; arrangements for tracking or suppressing unwanted low frequency components, e.g. removal of dc offset removal of dc offset in coupling arrangements H04L25/029, H04L25/0296

Abstract

A direct conversion receiver includes a mixer for converting an RF signal into a baseband signal, a dynamic DC offset compensator for compensating for a dynamic DC offset caused by the effect of second order nonlinear distortion of the mixer on an interfering wave that enters the input terminals of the mixer, and a static DC offset compensator for compensating for a static DC offset caused by self-mixing of a local signal and a leakage component of the local signal that appears at the input terminals of the mixer. The static DC offset compensation starts at a time t1 after a DC offset compensation operation has started. The static DC offset compensation is finished at the next time t2, and then the dynamic DC offset compensation starts. The dynamic DC offset compensation is finished at the next time t3. With this configuration, only a change in DC offset due to the dynamic DC offset is compensated after compensating for the static DC offset component. The dynamic DC offset compensator does not have an element for storing the magnitude of the static DC offset.

Claims

1. A direct conversion receiver with a DC offset compensation function comprising:

a mixer for converting an RF signal into a low-frequency baseband signal by mixing the RF signal and a local signal;

a dynamic DC offset compensator for compensating for a dynamic DC offset caused by an effect of second order nonlinear distortion of the mixer on an interfering wave that enters input terminals of the mixer; and

a static DC offset compensator for compensating for a static DC offset caused by self-mixing of a local signal and a leakage component of the local signal that appears at the input terminals of the mixer,

wherein, the static DC offset compensator starts compensating for the static DC offset at a first time t1 after a DC offset compensation operation has started,

the static DC offset compensation is finished at a second time t2, and then the dynamic DC offset compensator starts compensating for the dynamic DC offset, and

the dynamic DC offset compensation is finished at a third time t3, thereby compensating for only a change in DC offset due to the dynamic DC offset after compensation of the static DC offset component, and

wherein the dynamic DC offset compensator does not have an element for storing magnitude of the static DC offset.

2. The direct conversion receiver according to claim 1, comprising:

an RF amplifier composed of a low noise amplifier for amplifying an RF signal;

a local signal generator for generating a local signal;

the mixer for converting the RF signal output from the RF amplifier into a low-frequency baseband signal by mixing the RF signal and the local signal;

a baseband block comprising a LPF for attenuating an interfering wave and a variable gain amplifier, wherein the interfering wave is removed from the RF signal, and magnitude of the baseband signal is maintained constant regardless of magnitude of the RF signal;

a successive approximation A/D converter comprising a comparator and a successive approximation register (referred to as “

SAR”

in the following), wherein the comparator detects polarity of a DC offset appearing at output terminals of the baseband block, and the SAR compares an output of the comparator with the polarity of initial discrimination and outputs zero if the polarity is changed, and outputs 1 if the polarity is unchanged;

a first D/A converter for outputting a compensation current corresponding to a digital signal output from the SAR and supplying it as a compensation signal to output terminals of the mixer;

a second D/A converter for outputting a compensation current corresponding to a digital signal output from the SAR;

a detector for detecting magnitude of the RF signal entering the mixer;

a controller for controlling a value of the second D/A converter in accordance with magnitude of an output of the detector and generating a compensation current for the mixer; and

a test signal generator for generating a test signal that causes the dynamic DC offset to occur at the output terminals of the mixer and supplying the test signal to output terminals of the RF amplifier,

wherein the static DC offset compensator is composed of the successive approximation A/D converter and the first D/A converter, and compensates for the static DC offset at the output terminals of the baseband block,

the dynamic DC offset compensator is composed of the successive approximation A/D converter, the second D/A converter, the detector, and the controller, and compensates for the dynamic DC offset in the mixer, and

the dynamic DC offset and the static DC offset are compensated in a time-division manner, so that the successive approximation A/D converter is shared between the static DC offset compensator and the dynamic DC offset compensator.

3. A direct conversion receiver comprising:

a first RF amplifier composed of a low noise amplifier for amplifying an RF signal in a first RF band;

a second RF amplifier composed of a low noise amplifier for amplifying an RF signal in a second RF band that differs from the first RF band;

a local signal generator for generating a local signal in the first RF band and a local signal in the second RF band;

a first mixer for converting the RF signal output from the first RF amplifier into a low-frequency baseband signal by mixing the RF signal and the local signal in the first RF band;

a second mixer for converting the RF signal output from the second RF amplifier into a low-frequency baseband signal by mixing the RF signal and the local signal in the second RF band;

a baseband block comprising a LPF for attenuating an interfering wave and a variable gain amplifier, to which output signals from the first mixer and the second mixer are supplied, wherein the interfering wave is removed from each of the RF signal in the first RF band and the RF signal in the second RF band, and magnitude of the baseband signal is maintained constant regardless of magnitude of the RF signal in the first RF band and the RF signal in the second RF band;

a successive approximation A/D converter comprising a comparator and a successive approximation register (referred to as “

SAR”

in the following), wherein the comparator detects polarity of a DC offset appearing at output terminals of the baseband block, and the SAR compares an output of the comparator with the polarity of initial discrimination and outputs zero if the polarity is changed, and outputs 1 if the polarity is unchanged;

a first D/A converter for outputting a compensation current corresponding to a digital signal output from the SAR and supplying it as a compensation signal to output terminals of the first mixer and the second mixer;

a second D/A converter for outputting a compensation current corresponding to a digital signal output from the SAR;

a first detector for detecting magnitude of the RF signal entering the first mixer;

a first controller for controlling a value of the second D/A converter in accordance with magnitude of an output of the first detector and generating a compensation current for the first mixer;

a third D/A converter for outputting a compensation current corresponding to a digital signal output from the SAR;

a second detector for detecting magnitude of the RF signal entering the second mixer;

a second controller for controlling a value of the third D/A converter in accordance with magnitude of an output of the second detector and generating a compensation current for the second mixer; and

a test signal generator for generating test signals that cause the dynamic DC offset of the first RF band and the dynamic DC offset of the second RF band to occur at the output terminals of the first mixer and the second mixer and supplying the test signals to output terminals of the first RF amplifier and the second RF amplifier, respectively,

wherein the successive approximation A/D converter and the first D/A converter constitute a static DC offset compensator that compensates for the static DC offsets of the first RF band and the second RF band at the output terminals of the baseband block,

the successive approximation A/D converter, the second D/A converter, the first detector, and the first controller constitute a first dynamic DC offset compensator that compensates for the dynamic DC offset of the first RF band in the first mixer, and

the successive approximation A/D converter, the third D/A converter, the second detector, and the second controller constitute a second dynamic DC offset compensator that compensates for the dynamic DC offset of the second RF band in the second mixer,

wherein the static DC offset compensator starts compensating for the static DC offset of the first RF band at a first time t1 after a DC offset compensation operation has started,

the static DC offset compensation in the first RF band is finished at a second time t2, and then the first dynamic DC offset compensator starts compensating for the dynamic DC offset of the first RF band,

the dynamic DC offset compensation in the first RF band is finished at a third time t3, and then the static DC offset compensator starts compensating for the static DC offset of the second RF band,

the static DC offset compensation in the second RF band is finished at a fourth time t4, and then the second dynamic DC offset compensator starts compensating for the dynamic DC offset of the second RF band, and

the dynamic DC offset compensation in the second RF band is finished at a fifth time t5, and

wherein the dynamic DC offset and the static DC offset in each of the RF bands are compensated in a time-division manner, and the dynamic DC offset of the second RF band is compensated after compensating for the dynamic DC offset of the first RF band, so that the successive approximation A/D converter is shared between the static DC offset compensator and the first and second dynamic DC offset compensators.