Harmonic Rejection Mixer Architecture with Reduced Sensitivity to Gain and Phase Mismatches

• US 20120322398A1
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Maxlinear Incorporated
• Inventors: Pullela, Raja, Paidi, Vamsi, Bhatia, Rahul
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/302
• CPC Class Codes: H03D 2200/0086 Reduction or prevention of harmonic frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: H03D 7/1466 Passive mixer arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H03D 7/166 using two or more quadrature frequency translation stages

Abstract

A harmonic rejection mixer includes a first scaling circuit for scaling an RF signal to generate a plurality of scaled RF signals, a first switching stage for sampling the scaled RF signals using a first plurality of switching signals, and a second mixing stage for mixing the sampled RF signals with a second plurality of switching signals to generate a plurality of frequency translated signals having different phases. A combiner adds the frequency translated signals together to generate a first plurality of baseband versions of the RF signal. A first amplifier stage processes the first plurality of baseband versions to generate a second plurality of baseband versions. The mixer further includes a second scaling circuit for scaling the second plurality of baseband versions and a second amplifier stage to generate an in-phase baseband signal and a quadrature baseband signal from the scaled second plurality of baseband versions.

Claims

1. A radio frequency (RF) mixer for transforming a frequency of an RF input signal, the RF mixer comprising:

a first switching stage having a first plurality of switches configured to sample the RF input signal to produce a sampled RF signal in response to a first plurality of switching signals; and

a second switching stage having a second plurality of switches connected in parallel, the second plurality of switches being configured to receive the sampled RF signal and produce a plurality of frequency translated output signals in response to a second plurality of switching signals;

wherein each of the second plurality of switching signals is a phase-shifted version of a local oscillator (LO) signal having a LO frequency, the LO frequency being substantially equal to a frequency of the RF signal,

wherein the first plurality of switching signals have a frequency N times higher than the LO frequency, N being an integer greater than unity.

2. The RF mixer of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of switching signals comprises a plurality of true signals and a plurality of complement signals, wherein the true and complement signals do not overlap;

wherein the plurality of second switching signals comprises a plurality of parallel signals, wherein the parallel signals comprise asymmetric duty cycles, wherein each of the first plurality of true and complement signals has a 50% duty cycle.

3. The RF mixer of claim 2, wherein the first switching stage comprises:

a first switch controlled by the set of direct signals and configured to generate a first portion of the sampled RF signal; and

a second switch controlled by the inverted signal and configured to generate a second portion of the sampled RF signal.

4. The RF mixer of claim 3, wherein the RF input signal is a single-ended signal that is coupled to the first and second switches.

5. The RF mixer of claim 3, wherein the RF input signal is a differential signal comprising a direct RF signal and an inverted RF signal, the direct RF signal being coupled to the first switch and the inverted RF signal being coupled to the second switch.

6. The RF mixer of claim 3, wherein the second switching stage comprises:

a first bank of switches configured to mix the first portion of the sampled RF signal with a first portion of the second plurality of switching signals and generate a first portion of the frequency translated output signals; and

a second bank of switches configured to mix the second portion of the sampled RF signals with a first portion of the second plurality of switching signals and generate a second portion of the frequency translated output signals.

7. The RF mixer of claim 2, wherein one of the parallel signals completely covers one of the set of direct signals or one of the set of inverted signals.

8. The RF mixer of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of scaling elements, wherein the scaling elements are configured to scale the frequency translated output signals.

9. The RF mixer of claim 8 further comprising a combiner configured to combine the scaled frequency translated output signals to produce an in-phase baseband composite signal and a quadrature baseband composite signal.

10. A harmonic rejection mixer comprising:

a first scaling circuit having a first plurality of weighting factors and configured to scale an amplitude of an RF signal using the weighting factors and generate a plurality of scaled RF signals;

a first switching stage having a plurality of first switches connected in parallel and configured to sample the plurality of scaled RF signals and generate a plurality of sampled RF signals in response to a first plurality of switching signals; and

a second mixing stage having a plurality of second switches connected in parallel and configured to mix the plurality of sampled RF signals and generate a plurality of frequency translated output signals in response to a second plurality of switching signals.

11. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 10, wherein the first plurality of switching signals is a 50% duty cycle signal comprising a set of direct signals and a set of inverted signals, wherein the direct and inverted signals do not overlap.

12. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 11, wherein the first switching stage comprises:

a first bank of switches controlled by the set of direct signals; and

a second bank of switches controlled by the set of inverted signals.

13. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 10, wherein the plurality of second switching signals comprises a plurality of phase-shifted versions of a same local oscillator (LO) signal having a period substantially equal to N times a period of a first switching signal and a duty cycle substantially equal to the period of the first switching signal, N being an integer greater than unity.

14. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 13, wherein the LO signal comprises a frequency substantially equal to a frequency of the RF signal.

15. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 10 further comprising a combiner configured to combine the plurality of frequency translated output signals to produce a first plurality of baseband versions of the RF signal.

16. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 15 further comprising a first amplifier stage configured to receive the plurality of baseband versions and generate a second plurality of baseband versions.

17. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 16 further comprising a second scaling circuit configured to scale the second plurality of baseband versions using a second plurality weighting factors.

18. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 17 further comprising a second amplifier stage configured to receive the scaled second plurality of baseband versions and generate an in-phase baseband composite component and a quadrature baseband composite component.

19. The harmonic rejection mixer of claim 18, wherein the RF signal is a single-ended signal and the in-phase and quadrature baseband composite component are differential signals.

20. A method of down-mixing a radio frequency (RF) signal, the method comprising:

sampling the RF signal with a first plurality of switching signals to generate a sampled RF signal; and

mixing the sampled RF signal with a different one of a second plurality of parallel switching signals to produce a plurality of frequency translated output signals;

wherein each of the second plurality of switching signals is a phase-shifted version of a local oscillator (LO) signal having an LO frequency,

wherein a frequency of the first plurality of switching signals is N times higher than the LO frequency, N being an integer greater than unity.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein N is equal to 16.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising scaling the plurality of frequency translated output signals with a plurality of weighting factors.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising combining the scaled frequency translated output signals to generate an in-phase baseband signal and a quadrature baseband signal.

24. A method of down-mixing a voltage-domain RF signal having a RF frequency, the method comprising:

converting the voltage-domain RF signal into a current-domain RF signal;

scaling the current-domain RF signal using a plurality of resistive elements coupled in parallel to generate a plurality of weighted RF signals, each of the resistive elements representing a weighting factor;

sampling the weighted RF signals with a first plurality of switching signals to generate a plurality of sampled RF signals;

mixing the plurality of sampled RF signals with a second plurality of switching signals to generate a plurality of frequency translated signals; and

combining the plurality of frequency translated signals to generate an in-phase baseband signal and a quadrature baseband signal.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the first plurality of switching signals comprises a direct switching signal and an inverted switching signal, the direct and inverter switching signal having a frequency N times greater than the RF frequency, N being an integer greater than unity, and the second plurality of switching signals comprises a frequency that is substantially equal the RF frequency.

26. A method of down-mixing a radio frequency (RF) signal, the method comprising:

scaling the RF signal using a first plurality of weighting factors to generate a plurality of weighted RF signals;

sampling the plurality of weighted RF signals using a first plurality of switch signals to generate a plurality of sampled RF signals; and

mixing the plurality of sampled RF signals with a second plurality of switch signals to generate a plurality of frequency translated output signals;

wherein the second plurality of switch signals comprises a plurality of phase-shifted versions of a local oscillator signal having a frequency that is about a frequency of the RF signal.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising combining the plurality of frequency translated output signals to generate a plurality of baseband versions of the RF signal.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising:

combining the plurality of baseband versions of the RF signal to generate a second plurality of baseband versions;

weighting the second plurality of baseband versions with a second plurality of weighting factors to generate a plurality of weighted baseband versions; and

combining the plurality of weighted baseband versions to generate an in-phase baseband signal and a quadrature baseband signal.