SIGNAL DECIMATION TECHNIQUES

• US 20110143689A1
• Filed: 12/15/2009
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sun, Bo, Ballantyne, Gary J., Geng, Jifeng
• Granted Patent: US 8,588,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/75
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 19/00 Generation of oscillations by non-regenerative frequency multiplication or division of a signal from a separate source transference of modulation from one carrier to another H03D7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H03D 7/165 at least two frequency changers being located in different paths, e.g. in two paths with carriers in quadrature combined with amplitude demodulation H03D1/2245, combined with angle demodulation H03D3/007; N-path filters H03H19/002
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/16 Indirect frequency synthesis, i.e. generating a desired one of a number of predetermined frequencies using a frequency- or phase-locked loop

Abstract

Techniques for decimating a first periodic signal to generate a second periodic signal. In an exemplary embodiment, the first periodic signal is divided by a configurable integer ratio divider, and the output of the divider is delayed by a configurable fractional delay. The configurable fractional delay may be noise-shaped using, e.g., sigma-delta modulation techniques to spread the quantization noise of the fractional delay over a wide bandwidth. In an exemplary embodiment, the first and second periodic signals may be used to generate the transmit (TX) and receive (RX) local oscillator (LO) signals for a communications transceiver from a single phase-locked loop (PLL) output.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

decimating a first periodic signal to generate a second periodic signal, the decimating comprising;

dividing the frequency of the first periodic signal by a configurable integer ratio to generate an intermediate signal; and

delaying the intermediate signal by a configurable delay to generate the second periodic signal.

2. The method of claim 1, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the method further comprising varying the configurable integer ratio if the first ratio has a non-zero fractional portion.

3. The method of claim 2, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the method further comprising storing an incrementing cycle index, the varying the configurable integer ratio comprising:

subtracting a second coefficient from a first coefficient, the second coefficient comprising the floor function of the first ratio times one less than the cycle index, the first coefficient comprising the floor function of the first ratio times the cycle index.

4. The method of claim 1, the delaying by the configurable delay comprising:

delaying by less than one period of the first periodic signal.

5. The method of claim 4, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the method further comprising storing an incrementing cycle index, the delaying by less than one period comprising delaying the intermediate signal by one period of the first periodic signal times the fractional portion of the first ratio times the cycle index.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal;

storing an incrementing cycle index;

accumulating the first ratio with a delayed signal once per cycle index;

computing the floor function of the output of the accumulating to generate the configurable integer ratio;

subtracting the output of the floor function from the output of the accumulating to generate the configurable delay; and

delaying the configurable delay to generated the delayed signal.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal;

storing an incrementing cycle index;

accumulating the first ratio with a delayed signal once per cycle index;

computing the floor function of the output of the accumulating to generate the configurable integer ratio;

subtracting the output of the floor function from the output of the accumulating to generate a first delay;

delaying the first delay to generated the delayed signal; and

noise-shaping the first delay to generate the configurable delay.

8. The method of claim 7, the noise-shaping comprising applying a first-order sigma-delta modulation to the first delay.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mixing a received signal with a product of the first and second periodic signals.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

mixing a signal to be transmitted with the first periodic signal.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mixing a signal to be transmitted with a product of the first and second periodic signals; and

mixing a received signal with the first periodic signal.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mixing a received signal with the first periodic signal;

processing the output of the mixing with the first periodic signal; and

mixing the output of the processing with the second periodic signal.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decimating the first periodic signal to generate a second quadrature periodic signal, the decimating to generate the second quadrature signal comprising;

dividing the frequency of the first periodic signal by a configurable quadrature integer ratio to generate an intermediate quadrature signal; and

delaying the intermediate quadrature signal by a configurable quadrature delay to generate the second quadrature periodic signal.

14. An apparatus comprising:

an integer division block configured to divide the frequency of a first periodic signal by a configurable integer ratio to generate an intermediate signal; and

a delay block configured to delay the intermediate signal by a configurable delay to generate the second periodic signal.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the configurable integer ratio being varied when the first ratio has a non-zero fractional portion.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the apparatus configured to store an incrementing cycle index, the apparatus further comprising a ratio generation block configured to subtract a second coefficient from a first coefficient, the second coefficient comprising the floor function of the first ratio times one less than the cycle index, the first coefficient comprising the floor function of the first ratio times the cycle index.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, the delay block configured to delay the intermediate signal by a configurable delay less than one period of the first periodic signal.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the apparatus configured to store an incrementing cycle index, the delay block configured to delay the intermediate signal by one period of the first periodic signal times the fractional portion of the first ratio times the cycle index.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the apparatus configured to store an incrementing cycle index, the apparatus further comprising:

a clocked summer configured to accumulate the first ratio with a delayed signal once per cycle index;

a floor function block configured to compute the floor function of the output of the clocked summer to generate the configurable integer ratio;

a summer configured to subtract the output of the floor function block from the output of the clocked summer to generate the configurable delay; and

a delay block configured to delay the configurable delay to generated the delayed signal.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, a first ratio comprising a ratio of the frequency of the first periodic signal to the frequency of the second periodic signal, the apparatus configured to store an incrementing cycle index, the apparatus further comprising:

a clocked summer configured to accumulate the first ratio with a delayed signal once per cycle index;

a floor function block configured to compute the floor function of the output of the clocked summer to generate the configurable integer ratio;

a summer configured to subtract the output of the floor function block from the output of the clocked summer to generate a first delay; and

a delay block configured to delay the first delay to generated the delayed signal; and

a noise-shaping block configured to noise-shape the first delay to generate the configurable delay.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, the noise-shaping block comprising a first-order sigma delta modulator.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a mixer configured to mix a received signal with a product of the first and second periodic signals.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

a mixer configured to mix a signal to be transmitted with the first periodic signal.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a mixer configured to mix a signal to be transmitted with a product of the first and second periodic signals; and

a mixer configured to mix a received signal with the first periodic signal.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a first mixer configured to mix a received signal with the first periodic signal;

a second mixer configured to mix a processed output of the first mixer with the second periodic signal.

26. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a quadrature integer division block configured to divide the frequency of the first periodic signal by a configurable quadrature integer ratio to generate an intermediate quadrature signal; and

a quadrature delay block configured to delay the intermediate quadrature signal by a configurable quadrature delay to generate a second quadrature periodic signal.

27. An apparatus comprising means for decimating a first periodic signal to generate a second periodic signal.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, the means for decimating comprising means for delaying a signal by a configurable delay to generate the second periodic signal, the means for delaying comprising a means for noise-shaping the delay.

29. A device for wireless communications, the device comprising at least one baseband TX amplifier for amplifying an analog TX signal, an LO signal generator comprising a TX LO signal generator and an RX LO signal generator, an upconverter coupled to the TX LO signal generator and the at least one baseband TX amplifier, a TX filter coupled to the output of the upconverter, a power amplifier (PA) coupled to the TX filter, an RX filter, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) coupled to the RX filter, a downconverter coupled to the RX LO signal generator and the RX filter, and at least one low-pass filter coupled to the output of the downconverter, the LO signal generator comprising:

an integer division block configured to divide the frequency of a first periodic signal by a configurable integer ratio to generate an intermediate signal; and

a delay block configured to delay the intermediate signal by a configurable delay to generate the second periodic signal;

at least one of the TX LO signal generator and the RX LO signal generator configured to buffer the first periodic signal as the LO signal.

30. The device of claim 29, the LO signal generator further comprising a mixer for mixing the first and second periodic signals, at least one of the TX LO signal generator and the RX LO signal generator configured to buffer an output product of the mixer as the LO signal.

31. The device of claim 29, the LO signal generator further comprising a quadrature integer division block configured to divide the frequency of the first periodic signal by a configurable quadrature integer ratio to generate an intermediate quadrature signal;

and a quadrature delay block configured to delay the intermediate quadrature signal by a configurable quadrature delay to generate a second quadrature periodic signal.

32. A computer program product storing code for causing a computer to decimate a first periodic signal to generate a second periodic signal, the code comprising:

code for causing a computer to divide the frequency of the first periodic signal by a configurable integer ratio to generate an intermediate signal; and

code for causing a computer to delay the intermediate signal by a configurable delay to generate the second periodic signal.