INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION AND IMPROVED SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS

• US 20150180520A1
• Filed: 12/19/2014
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics Incorporated (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics Incorporated (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Mascioli, Antonio, Lima, Jose Augusto
• Granted Patent: US 9,450,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/10 Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0328 with interference cancellation circuitry adaptations for interference cancellation within a sequence estimator H04L25/03305; interference related aspects of direct sequence spread spectrum H04B1/7097; interference related aspects of frequency hopping spread spectrum H04B1/715; see also H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/233 using non-coherent demodulation

Abstract

Interference cancellation for wideband and narrowband communications systems is provided without apriori knowledge of statistical information about an interfering signal. In one embodiment a demodulator circuit can operate in an environment where a “no lock” situation would normally occur to remove the interference and acquire signals in low signal-to-noise ratio conditions and high signal-to-interference ration conditions. In other embodiments, performance is improved by introducing statistics of the interfering signal, and these statistics regarding the communications channel and interference properties (i.e., characteristics of the interfering signal) can be adaptive or “learned” in other embodiments.

Claims

1. A demodulation circuit, comprising:

an interference estimation circuit adapted to receive an input signal and adapted to generate an interference estimation signal from the input signal; and

an adaptive filtering circuit coupled to the interference estimation circuit and operable to perform spectral inversion on the estimation signal to obtain an inverted signal, the inverted signal applicable to the input signal to substantially cancel interference contained in the input signal.

2. The demodulation circuit of claim 1, wherein the adaptive filtering circuit is operable to generate the inverted signal to cancel both in band and out of band interference present on the input signal.

3. The demodulation circuit of claim 2, wherein the adaptive filtering circuit is operable to cancel one of two adjacent interfering signals.

4. The demodulation circuit of claim 3, wherein the adaptive filtering circuit is operable to cancel both adjacent interfering signals.

5. The demodulation circuit of claim 1, wherein the interference estimation circuit and adaptive filtering circuits are entirely digital circuits.

6. The demodulation circuit of claim 1, wherein the interference estimation circuit comprises:

an analog-to-digital converter adapted to receive a first signal having a desired signal and an interfering signal;

a complex multiplier circuit coupled to the analog-to-digital converter;

an adaptive low pass filter having an input and an output, the input of the adaptive low pass filter coupled to the complex multiplier circuit; and

an I-Q phase order circuit having an input and an output, the input of the I-Q phase order circuit coupled to the output of the adaptive low pass filter.

7. The demodulation circuit of claim 6, further comprising an I-Q delay circuit coupled to the output of the I-Q phase order circuit.

8. A method of demodulation, comprising:

receiving an input signal at an input of an interference estimation circuit

generating from the input signal, with the interference estimation circuit, an interference estimation signal;

performing, with an adaptive filtering circuit, a spectral inversion on the interference estimation signal to obtain an inverted signal;

applying the inverted signal to the input signal to substantially cancel interference contained in the input signal.

9. The method of demodulation of claim 8, wherein applying the inverted signal to the input signal cancels both in band and out of band interference present on the input signal.

10. The method of demodulation of claim 9, wherein applying the inverted signal to the input signal cancels one of two adjacent interfering signals.

11. The method of demodulation of claim 10, wherein applying the inverted signal to the input signal cancels both adjacent interfering signals.

12. The method of demodulation of claim 8, comprising:

forming the interference estimation circuit and the adaptive filtering circuit from entirely digital circuitry.

13. The method of demodulation of claim 8, comprising:

passing the input signal to an analog-to-digital converter, the input signal having a desired signal component and an interfering signal component;

passing a digital signal produced by the analog-to-digital converter to a complex multiplier circuit;

producing, with the complex multiplier circuit, a baseband signal; and

generating the interference estimation signal from the baseband signal.

14. A method to detect and remove an interfering portion of a signal having the interfering portion and a desired portion, the method comprising:

receiving an input signal at an input of an analog-to-digital converter, the input signal having a desired signal component and an interfering signal component;

sampling the input signal with the analog-to-digital converter to produce a plurality of digital values;

performing a first complex multiplication on the plurality of digital values;

filtering values produced by the complex multiplication to isolate an estimate of the interfering signal component;

re-modulating the estimate of the interfering signal component to produce a representation of the input signal;

performing a second complex multiplication on the estimate of the interfering signal component;

filtering product values from the second complex multiplication to isolate an in-band portion of the interfering signal component;

performing spectral and amplitude inversion of the in-band portion of the interfering signal component to produce a spectrally inverted in-band interference signal;

re-modulating the spectrally inverted in-band interference signal to produce a representation of an interference signal to be removed; and

summing the representation of the input signal with the representation of the interference signal to be removed to produce an interference-corrected signal.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising:

producing the input signal from a variable filter, the variable filter receiving a composite signal having the desired signal component, the interfering signal component, and at least one other undesirable signal component.

16. The method claim 14, wherein sampling the input signal with the analog-to-digital converter includes adhering to a Nyquist sampling theorem.

17. The method claim 14, wherein performing the first complex multiplication produces a baseband I-Q sample set.

18. The method claim 14, wherein filtering values produced by the complex multiplication includes filtering with an adaptive low pass filter, an I-Q phase order filter, or both the adaptive low pass filter and the I-Q phase order filter.

19. The method claim 14, wherein re-modulating the estimate of the interfering signal component comprises:

performing a third complex multiplication with the estimate of the interfering signal component;

compensating the product of the third complex multiplication with a sin(x)/x compensation circuit; and

passing an output of the sin(x)/x compensation circuit through a digital-to-analog circuit.

20. The method claim 19, wherein re-modulating the spectrally inverted in-band interference signal comprises:

performing a fourth complex multiplication with the spectrally inverted in-band interference signal;

compensating the product of the fourth complex multiplication with a second sin(x)/x compensation circuit; and

passing an output of the second sin(x)/x compensation circuit through a second digital-to-analog circuit.