Dual automatic gain control in a QAM demodulator

• US 6,160,443 A
• Filed: 09/08/1999
• Issued: 12/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Atmel Corporation (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Atmel Corporation (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hamman, Emmanuel, Maalej, Khaled, Demol, Amaury, Levy, Yannick
• Primary Examiner(s): MIS, DAVID C
• Application Number:
  US09/396,555
• Time in Patent Office: 461 Days
• Field of Search: 329/304-310, 375/261, 375/324-329, 375/345
• US Class Current: 329/304
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0071 Use of interleaving interleaving per se H03M13/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0032 at baseband and passband
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0036 using a recovered symbol clock
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0038 using an equaliser
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0055 single phase
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0057 quadrature phase
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0071 Control of loops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0081 between loops of different bandwidths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/3809 Amplitude regulation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/3827 in which the carrier is recovered using only the demodulated baseband signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/3872 Compensation for phase rotation in the demodulated signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0029 interpolation of received data signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0058 detection of error based on equalizer tap values

Abstract

A QAM demodulator having a first automatic gain control circuit which outputs a first signal that is a function of the received signal, the first signal being used to control the gain of an amplifier which supplies the input of an A/D converter, and a second automatic gain controller which outputs a second signal derived from the QAM circuit after filtering, the second signal controlling the gain of a digital multiplier which produces a signal which feeds into a equalizer by way of a receive filter. The dual automatic gain control circuits, situated before and after the receive filters, allow for better resistance to non-linearity caused by signals in adjacent channels. Additionally, the dual automatic gain control circuits allow for the amplification level of the signal to be limited before the demodulator to eliminate signal distortion and to be set to the correct level internally with digital gain. Also, there is no saturation of the A/D converter since there is no QAM feedback to analog circuits. This architecture is particularly efficient in a variable rate transmission scheme.

Claims

1. A quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) type demodulator comprising:

a first automatic gain control (AGC) circuit outputting a first signal, the first signal being a function of a second signal from an analog-to-digital converter and being used to control an amount of gain of an amplifier, the amplifier being electrically coupled to and supplying an input signal to the analog-to-digital converter,

a baseband conversion circuit electrically coupled to the analog-to-digital converter,

a second automatic gain control (AGC) circuit including a digital multiplier, the second AGC circuit being electrically coupled to the baseband conversion circuit and outputting a third signal, the third signal being derived from a QAM signal after filtering and controlling an amount of gain of the digital multiplier,

a receive filter electrically coupled to the digital multiplier,

a carrier recovery circuit being electrically coupled to the receive filter and producing a fourth signal which is the QAM signal after filtering, the fourth signal being supplied to the second AGC circuit, and

a symbol detection circuit being electrically coupled to the carrier recovery circuit and receiving the fourth signal,

whereby a fifth signal on the output side of the symbol detection circuit is a demodulated data output signal.

2. A demodulator, as in claim 1, wherein the first AGC circuit further includes:

a power estimation circuit for estimating a signal level of the second signal and comparing the signal level of the second signal with a reference signal level,

a detection of saturation counter within the power estimation circuit for counting the number of saturation of the second signal and adjusting the level of the reference signal

a digital loop filter electrically coupled to an output of the power estimation circuit, and

a pulse width modulation (PWM) generator electrically coupled to an output of the digital loop filter for generating the first signal in a PWM format.

3. A demodulator, as in claim 2, wherein the power estimation circuit estimates an entire range of the second signal including adjacent channels.

4. A demodulator, as in claim 1, wherein the second AGC circuit includes a power comparator circuit electrically coupled to the carrier recovery circuit for comparing the fourth signal received from the carrier recovery circuit with a set of optimal QAM values.

5. A demodulator, as in claim 4, wherein the second AGC circuit includes a digital loop filter electrically coupled to an output of the power comparator circuit.

6. A demodulator, as in claim 1, further comprising a timing recovery circuit electrically coupled between the baseband conversion circuit to receive a signal therefrom and the second AGC circuit to provide a signal based on interpolated samples of the received signal thereto.

7. A demodulator, as in claim 1, further comprising an equalizer electrically coupled between the receive filter and the carrier recovery circuit.

8. A demodulator, as in claim 1, further comprising a forward error correction circuit electrically coupled to the symbol detection circuit for receiving an output signal therefrom, said forward error correction circuit producing said fifth signal.

9. A quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) type demodulator comprising:

an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving a first signal from a first amplifier and outputting a second signal,

a first automatic gain control (AGC) circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the second signal from the A/D converter circuit and producing a third signal that is a function of the second signal, the third signal being used to control an amount of gain of the first amplifier,

a baseband conversion circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the third signal from the A/D converter circuit and producing a fourth signal, the fourth signal being a baseband signal,

a timing recovery circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the fourth signal and producing a fifth signal that is based on interpolated samples of the fourth signal,

a second AGC circuit including a digital multiplier, the second AGC circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the fifth signal from the timing recovery circuit and outputting a sixth signal, the sixth signal being derived from a QAM signal after filtering, the sixth signal controlling an amount of gain of the digital multiplier, the digital-multiplier producing a seventh signal,

a receive filter being electrically coupled to and receiving the seventh signal from the digital multiplier and filtering the seventh signal to produce an eighth signal,

an equalizer being electrically coupled to and receiving the eighth signal from the receive filter and producing a ninth signal,

a carrier recovery circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the ninth signal from the equalizer and producing a tenth signal which is the QAM signal after filtering, the tenth signal being supplied to the second AGC circuit and to a symbol detection circuit which produces an eleventh signal,

a power comparator circuit within the second AGC circuit and being electrically coupled to and receiving the tenth signal from the carrier recovery circuit, the power comparator circuit comparing the tenth signal with a set of optimum QAM values, and

a forward error correction circuit being electrically coupled to and receiving the eleventh signal from the symbol detection circuit and producing a twelfth signal, whereby the twelfth signal is a demodulated data output signal.

10. A demodulator, as in claim 9, wherein the first AGC circuit further includes:

a power estimation circuit for estimating a signal level of the second signal and comparing the signal level of the second signal with a reference signal level,

a digital loop filter electrically coupled to the output of the power estimation circuit, and

a pulse width modulation (PWM) generator electrically coupled to the output of the digital loop filter for generating the third signal in a PWM format.

11. A demodulator, as in claim 10, wherein the power estimation circuit estimates an entire range of the second signal, the entire range of the second signal including adjacent channels.

12. A demodulator, as in claim 9, wherein the receive filter filters out adjacent channels from the seventh signal.

13. A demodulator, as in claim 9, wherein the data output signal is in a MPEG2 transport stream format.

14. A demodulator, as in claim 9, wherein the first AGC circuit includes a detection of saturation counter for detecting saturation in the A/D converter circuit.

15. A demodulator, as in claim 10, wherein the power estimation circuit includes a detection of saturation counter for counting the number of saturation of the second signal and adjusting the level of the reference signal.