Simplified high frequency tuner and tuning method
DCFirst Claim
1. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest, said device comprising:
- a. an analog portion includingi. a local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal having a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal having the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal,ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest be low FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal,iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second-local oscillator signal,iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the first mixer output, andv. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and
b. a digital portion includingi. a first analog-to digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, andii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the output of the second filter converted from analog to digital format;
wherein the digital portion is adapted and arranged to (1) correct phase errors and amplitude between the first converter output and the second converter output and combine the first and second converter outputs to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selectable one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and (2) translate a selected portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal to baseband, and wherein the local oscillator is a coarse-tunable local oscillator having a step size S and where the near-baseband passband extends from F1 -FA to F2 +FA and F1 =k·
(F2 -F1) where F1 is a first frequency, F2 is a second frequency, k is a positive integer, and FA is a given frequency adjustment, and where S=2·
(F2-F1), and wherein said first and second analog-to-digital converters sample the output of the first and second bandpass filters at a sampling rate RA/D.
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Abstract
An RF tuner and tuning method employs analog quadrature mixing with a coarse-stepwise tunable local oscillator to a near-baseband passband region, followed by A/D conversion of the I and Q signals, correction of phase, group delay, and amplitude errors, image rejection, and translation to baseband by (1) fixed frequency translation, (2) stepwise channelized translation, or (3) essentially continuously variable tuning over a given digital tuning range. The near-baseband passband region is sized and located such that alternating image rejection provides non-redundant and complete tuning coverage of a desired high frequency spectrum with a local oscillator step size equal to about twice the digital tuning range or about twice the number of channels digitally stepwise tunable times the channel width, effectively doubling the typical local oscillator step size. The digital tuning is preferably performed by a continuously variable bandpass decimating filter with aliasing to within RD of baseband, where RD is the filter'"'"'s out put sampling rate, followed by fine-shifting to baseband by digital complex mixing. Demodulation is then accomplished according to signal type.
Image rejection and phase error and gain correction are preferably performed with a modified type III Hilbert transform pair with 90°±CF phase change and variable gain. The near-baseband passband is preferably centered at R/4 where R is the sampling rate entering the Hilbert transform.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest, said device comprising:
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a. an analog portion including i. a local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal having a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal having the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal, ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest be low FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal, iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second-local oscillator signal, iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the first mixer output, and v. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and b. a digital portion including i. a first analog-to digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, and ii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the output of the second filter converted from analog to digital format; wherein the digital portion is adapted and arranged to (1) correct phase errors and amplitude between the first converter output and the second converter output and combine the first and second converter outputs to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selectable one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and (2) translate a selected portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal to baseband, and wherein the local oscillator is a coarse-tunable local oscillator having a step size S and where the near-baseband passband extends from F1 -FA to F2 +FA and F1 =k·
(F2 -F1) where F1 is a first frequency, F2 is a second frequency, k is a positive integer, and FA is a given frequency adjustment, and where S=2·
(F2-F1), and wherein said first and second analog-to-digital converters sample the output of the first and second bandpass filters at a sampling rate RA/D. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 40)
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18. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest, said device comprising:
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a. an analog portion including i. a local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal having a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal having the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal, ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal, iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby- a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second-local oscillator signal, iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the first mixer output, and v. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and b. a digital portion including i. a first analog-to digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, and ii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the output of the second filter converted from analog to digital format; wherein the digital portion is adapted and arranged to (1) correct phase errors and amplitude between the first converter output and the second converter output and combine the first and second converter output to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selectable one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and (2) translate a selected portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal to baseband, and wherein the digital portion includes a variable bandpass decimating filter for selecting the desired portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal and translating the desired portion to within RD /2 of baseband where RD is the output sampling rate of the variable bandpass decimating filter. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest, said device comprising:
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a. an analog portion including i. a local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal having a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal having the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal, ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal, iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second local oscillator signal, iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the first mixer output; and v. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and b. a digital portion including i. a first analog-to digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, and ii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the output of the second filter converted from analog to digital format; wherein the digital portion is adapted and arranged to (1) correct phase errors and amplitude between the first converter output and the second converter output and combine the first and second converter outputs to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selectable one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and (2) translate a selected portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal to baseband, and wherein the digital portion includes a variable bandpass decimating filter for selecting the desired portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal and translating the desired portion to within RD /2 of baseband where RD is the output sampling rate of the variable bandpass decimating filter, and wherein the digital portion further includes a complex multiplier for rotating to baseband the output of the variable bandpass decimating filter.
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22. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest having a maximum bandwidth W, said device comprising:
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a. an analog portion including i. a tunable local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal at a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal at the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal, ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal, iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second local oscillator signal, iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and v. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum o the second mixer output; and b. a digital portion including i. a first analog-to-digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, ii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the second filter converted from analog to digital format, iii. a variable phase delay type III Hilbert transform in a signal path following the first converter output, iv. an allpass filter in a signal path following the second converter output having a nominal group delay equal to a group delay of the type III Hilbert transform, v. an adder for combining the output of the type III Hilbert transform with the output of the all-pass filter to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selected one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and vi. a digital fine-tuning device having a near-baseband tuning range extending from a lower frequency F1 to an upper frequency F2 for selecting the desired signal of interest from within the image-rejected signal and translating said signal of interest to baseband; wherein F1 =k·
(F2 -F1) where k is a positive integer, and R=(F1 +F2), where R is the sampling rate of signals entering the type III Hilbert transform and the allpass filter, and wherein the near-baseband passband extends from about F1 -W/2 to about F2 +W/2, whereby only the middle of the Nyquist frequency range relative to R is employed as a passband during digital processing before and through the Hilbert transform. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of tuning radio frequency signal of interest comprising the steps of:
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(a) subjecting the radio frequency signal to continuous-time quadrature mixing to produce I and Q signals in approximate quadrature relationship containing the signal of interest within a near-baseband passband; (b) converting said I and Q signals to digital I and Q signals (c) correcting errors between the digital I and Q signals and combining the digital I and Q signals so as to substantially reject an undesired mixing image, wherein the continuous-time quadrature mixing is performed by mixing with a signal from a coarse-tunable local oscillator tunable in steps of size S, and wherein the near-baseband passband includes a frequency range extending from a lower frequency F1 -FA to an upper frequency F2 +FA, where F1 is a first frequency, F2 is a second frequency, and FA is a given frequency adjustment, and wherein F1=k·
(F2 -F1) where k is a positive integer, and wherein S=2·
(F2 -F1). - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of tuning a radio frequency signal of interest comprising the steps of:
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(a) subjecting the radio frequency signal to continuous-time quadrature mixing to produce I and Q signals in approximate quadrature relationship containing the signal of interest within a near-baseband passband; (b) converting said I and Q signals to digital I and Q signals (c) correcting errors between the digital I and Q signals and combining the digital I and Q signals so as to substantially reject an undesired mixing image, wherein the step of combining the I and Q signals comprises;
subjecting one of said I and Q signals to filtration by a variable phase change type III Hilbert transform; and
subjecting the other signal to an allpass filter having the same nominal group delay as the variable phase change type III Hilbert transform. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method of tuning a radio frequency signal of interest comprising the steps of:
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(a) subjecting the radio frequency signal to continuous-time quadrature mixing to produce I and Q signals in approximate quadrature relationship containing the signal of interest within a near-baseband passband; (b) converting said I and Q signals to digital I and Q signals (c) correcting errors between the digital I and Q signals and combining the digital I and Q signals so as to substantially reject an undesired mixing image, wherein the step of translating the signal of interest to baseband is performed by a variable bandpass digital filtering and decimation process utilizing aliasing to alias the signal of interest to within RD /2 of baseband where RD is the sampling rate at the output of the variable bandpass digital filtering and decimation process, followed by digital quadrature mixing including multiplication by complex coefficients to rotate the signal of interest from within RD /2 of baseband to baseband.
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38. A device for effecting frequency translation and selection of a signal of interest, said device comprising:
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a. an analog portion including i. a local oscillator for providing a first local oscillator signal having a frequency FLO and a second local oscillator signal having the frequency FLO approximately in quadrature to the first local oscillator signal, ii. a first mixer for mixing the first local oscillator signal with an incoming signal providing thereby a first mixer output comprised of an upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and a lower high frequency spectrum of interest be low FLO both translated to a near-baseband passband by mixing with the first local oscillator signal, iii. a second mixer for mixing the second local oscillator signal with the incoming signal providing thereby, a second mixer output comprised of the upper high frequency signal spectrum of interest above FLO and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest below FLO translated to the near-baseband passband by mixing with the second local oscillator signal, iv. a first filter for providing a first filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the first mixer output, and v. a second filter for providing a second filter output by limiting the frequency spectrum of the second mixer output; and b. a digital portion including i. a first analog-to digital converter for providing a first converter output comprised of the first filter output converted from analog to digital format, and ii. a second analog-to-digital converter for providing a second converter output comprised of the output of the second filter converted from analog to digital format; wherein the digital portion is adapted and arranged to (1) correct phase errors and amplitude between the first converter output and the second converter output and combine the first and second converter outputs to provide an image-rejected signal within the near-baseband passband by substantially rejecting the near-baseband image of a selectable one of the upper high frequency spectrum of interest and the lower high frequency spectrum of interest, and (2) translate a selected portion of said near-baseband image-rejected signal to baseband, and wherein the digital portion includes a variable phase change type III Hilbert transform on one of the first and second converter outputs, and an allpass filter having the same nominal group delay as the variable phase change type III Hilbert transform on another of the first and second converter outputs. - View Dependent Claims (39)
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41. A tuner comprising:
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(a) a quadrature mixer responsive to an RF signal so as to produce therefrom in-phase and quadrature signals in approximate quadrature relation containing both a desired signal and an undesired mixing image, (i) the desired signal being within a first one of (1) a positive frequency range and (2) a negative frequency range, (ii) the undesired mixing image being within a second one of (1) the positive frequency range and (2) the negative frequency range, the second one being different from the first one; and (b) a digital signal processing device coupled to the quadrature mixer so as to receive the in-phase and quadrature signals wherein the digital signal processing device is structured and arranged so as to both (i) correct errors between the in-phase and quadrature signals and (ii) combine the in-phase and quadrature signals so as to substantially reject the undesired mixing image, wherein the digital signal processing device includes a variable bandpass decimating filter for selecting a desired portion of the combined in-phase and quadrature signals and translating the desired portion to within RD /2 of baseband where RD is the output sampling rate of the variable bandpass decimating filter. - View Dependent Claims (42)
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Specification