Single chip CMOS transmitter/receiver and method of using same

• US 6,781,424 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2002
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GCT Semiconductor Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GCT Semiconductor Incorporated
• Inventors: Jeong, Deog-Kyoon, Lee, Kyeongho, Park, Joonbae, Kim, Wonchan
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DINH THANH
• Application Number:
  US10/253,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20030020521A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 327/350, 327/359, 327/105, 327/100, 327/113, 327/355, 455/226.2, 455/217, 455/226.1, 330/254, 375/259, 375/316, 375/345
• US Class Current: 327/113
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/372 Noise reduction and elimination in amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 11/22 providing two or more phase shifted output signals, e.g. n-phase output
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 2011/0494 Complex filters
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 9/00 Demodulating pulses which have been modulated with a continuously-variable signal
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/0891 the up-down pulses controlling source and sink current generators, e.g. a charge pump
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/0995 the oscillator comprising a ring oscillator
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/1974 for fractional frequency division
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/18 Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/28 the receiver comprising at least one semiconductor device having three or more electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/40 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/403 using the same oscillator for generating both the transmitter frequency and the receiver local oscillator frequency

Abstract

A single chip RF communication system and method is provided including a transmitter and a receiver. The RF communication system in accordance with the present invention can include an antenna that receives/transmits RF signals, a PLL that generates multi-phase clock signals having a frequency different from a carrier frequency and a reference signal having the carrier frequency, a demodulation-mixer that mixes the received RF signals with the multi-phase clock signals having the frequency different from the carrier frequency to output signals having a frequency reduced relative to the carrier frequency, two stage amplification that amplifies a selected channel signal to a required dynamic level, and an A/D converting unit for converting the RF signals from the mixing unit into digital signals. The two stage amplification can provide the selected channel signal with sufficient gain, even when an adjacent channel signal is output by the demodulation mixer with greater amplitude or power.

Claims

1. A system for demodulating communications signals, comprising:

a mixer which mixes a received signal with an oscillator signal, said oscillator signal being at least substantially equal to a carrier frequency of the received signal;

a amplifier which amplifies first and second signals output from the mixer, said first signal lying within a desired channel and said second signal lying within an adjacent channel, the amplifier increasing an amplitude of said second signal to a value substantially corresponding to a desired linearity limit and increasing an amplitude of said first signal to a value less than the desired linearity limit; and

a gain controller which reduces the amplitude of said second signal and increases the amplitude of said first signal, said gain controller being positioned after the amplifier along a signal path.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain controller increases the amplitude of said first signal to a value which corresponds to the desired linearity limit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain controller includes a filter and an amplifier circuit, said amplifier circuit increasing the amplitude of said first signal up to the linearity limit and said filter reducing an amplitude of said second signal by an amount which causes the amplitude of said second signal to be less than an amplitude of said first signal.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the gain controller amplifies said first signal by a predetermined amount.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said predetermined amount corresponds to the desired linearity limit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the amplifier includes an automatic gain control loop.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the amplifier includes at least one DC-offset cancellation unit.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the filter is an elliptic filter.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the filter includes an N-order elliptic gm-C filter.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the N-order elliptic gm-C filter is a 3^rd-order elliptic gm-C filter.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a phase-locked loop for generating the oscillator signal.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the oscillator signal output from the phase-locked loop is a multi-phase oscillator signal corresponding to a predetermined number of channel frequencies, said predetermined number of channel frequencies including said desired channel.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the phase-locked loop includes a volt age-controlled oscillator which generates the oscillator signal based on a combination of frequency signals each having a frequency less than the carrier frequency.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the multi-phase oscillator signal includes multiple local oscillator signals each of which is set at frequencies less than the carrier frequency, and wherein a sum of the frequencies of the multiple local oscillator signals substantially equals the carrier frequency.

15. The system of claim 13, the phase-locked loop includes a prescaler which performs at least one fractional-N operation, while simultaneously preventing fractional spur from appearing inside a channel bandwidth of the phase-locked loop.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mixer, amplifier, and gain controller are implemented in CMOS.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the mixer, amplifier, and gain controller are implemented on a single chip.

18. A direct-conversion receiver comprising the system as recited in claims 1 or 16.

19. The direct-conversion receiver of claim 18, wherein an operating frequency of the receiver lies above 1 GHz.

20. The direct-conversion receiver of claim 19, wherein the operating frequency lies within a range of between 1.8 and 2.4 GHz.

21. A method for demodulating communications signals, comprising:

mixing a received signal with an oscillator signal, said oscillator signal being at least substantially equal to a carrier frequency of the received signal;

amplifying first and second signals output from the mixer, said first signal lying within a desired channel and said second signal lying within an adjacent channel, said amplifying step including increasing an amplitude of said second signal to a value substantially corresponding to a desired linearity limit and increasing an amplitude of said first signal to a value less than the desired linearity limit; and

reducing the amplitude of said second signal and increasing the amplitude of said first signal to a predetermined value.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the predetermined value corresponds to the desired linearity limit.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the reducing step includes reducing the amplitude of said second signal by an amount which causes the amplitude of said second signal to be less than an amplitude of said first signal.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein said predetermined value corresponds to the desired linearity limit.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

cancelling DC-offset in said first and second signals amplified in the amplifying step.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the reducing step is performed by an elliptic filter.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the filter includes an N-order elliptic gm-C filter.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the N-order elliptic gm-C filter is a 3^rd-order elliptic gm-C filter.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

generating the oscillator signal using a phase-locked loop.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the oscillator signal output from the phase-locked loop is a multi-phase oscillator signal corresponding to a predetermined number of channel frequencies, said predetermined number of channel frequencies including said desired channel.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the phase-locked loop includes a voltage-controlled oscillator which operates at a frequency less than the carrier frequency.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the multi-phase oscillator signal includes multiple local oscillator signals each of which is set at frequencies less than the carrier frequency, and wherein a sum of the frequencies of the multiple local oscillator signals substantially equals the carrier frequency.

33. The method of claim 31, the phase-locked loop includes a prescaler which performs at least one fractional-N operation, while simultaneously preventing fractional spur from appearing inside a channel bandwidth of the phase-locked loop.

34. The method of claim 21, wherein the mixing, amplifying, reducing and increasing steps are performed in a direct-conversion receiver.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the direct-conversion receiver has an operating frequency which lies above 1 GHz.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the operating frequency lies within a range of between 1.8 and 2.4 GHz.