Apparatus, system, and method for down converting and up-converting electromagnetic signals

• US 8,588,725 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ParkerVision, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ParkerVision, Inc.
• Inventors: Sorrells, David F., Bultman, Michael J., Cook, Robert W., Looke, Richard C, Moses, Charley D. Jr., Rawlins, Gregory S., Rawlins, Michael W.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, PABLO N
• Application Number:
  US13/618,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20130109338A1
• Time in Patent Office: 431 Days
• Field of Search: 455/313, 455/323, 455/334, 455/318, 455/316, 455/319, 455/325, 455/333, 455/339, 455340-341, 455/130, 455/197.2, 455/203, 455/262, 455/265, 455/284, 455/287, 455/326, 327356-360
• US Class Current: 455/313
• CPC Class Codes: H03D 7/00 Transference of modulation from one carrier to another, e.g. frequency-changing H03D9/00, H03D11/00 take precedence; dielectric amplifiers, magnetic amplifiers, parametric amplifiers used as a frequency-changers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/16 Circuits

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatuses for down-converting and up-converting an electromagnetic signal. In embodiments, the invention operates by receiving an electromagnetic signal and recursively operating on approximate half cycles of a carrier signal. The recursive operations can be performed at a sub-harmonic rate of the carrier signal. The invention accumulates the results of the recursive operations and uses the accumulated results to form a down-converted signal. In embodiments, up-conversion is accomplished by controlling a switch with an oscillating signal, the frequency of the oscillating signal being selected as a sub-harmonic of the desired output frequency. When the invention is being used in the frequency modulation or phase modulation implementations, the oscillating signal is modulated by an information signal before it causes the switch to gate a bias signal. The output of the switch is filtered, and the desired harmonic is output.

Claims

1. An apparatus for down-converting an electromagnetic signal, comprising:

an aliasing module comprising a switching device and a storage module, the aliasing module receiving as an input an RF information signal, and the aliasing module providing as an output a down-converted signal;

the switching device of the aliasing module receiving as an input a control signal that controls a charging and discharging cycle of the storage module by controlling the switching device so that a portion of energy is transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module during a charging part of the cycle and a portion of the transferred energy is discharged during a discharging part of the cycle, wherein said control signal operates at an aliasing rate selected so that energy of the RF information signal is sampled and applied to the storage module at a frequency that is equal to or less than twice the frequency of the RF information signal; and

wherein the storage module generates said down-converted signal from the alternate charging and discharging applied to the storage module using said control signal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the switching device, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is closed, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is open.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the switching device, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is open, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is closed.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the storage module, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is closed, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is open.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the storage module, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is open, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is closed.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the charging and discharging cycle is a first charging and discharging cycle, wherein a second charging and discharging cycle begins before all of the transferred energy stored at the storage module is discharged during the discharging part of the first charging and discharging cycle so that a portion of the energy transferred from the RF information signal during the charging part of the second charging and discharging cycle is combined with at least some of the transferred energy stored at the storage module that has not been discharged prior to the second charging and discharging cycle, the combined transferred energy being available for inclusion in said down-converted signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said down-converted signal generated from the combined transferred energy is in the form of a saw-tooth waveform.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage module is a capacitor.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control signal comprises an aperture having a width defined by a duration between a first pulse edge and a second pulse edge.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the width of the aperture is variable.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first pulse edge causes the switching device to close and the second pulse edge causes the switching device to open.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first pulse edge causes the switching device to open and the second pulse edge causes the switching device to close.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the width of the aperture is greater than 10 percent of a cycle of the RF information signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the width of the aperture is greater than 20 percent of a cycle of the RF information signal.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the width of the aperture is equal to about a half cycle (50%) of the RF information signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the width of the aperture is equal to less than a half (50%) cycle of the RF information signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein between six and fifty percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module is discharged from the storage module.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein between six and twenty-five percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module when is discharged from the storage module.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein between ten and twenty percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module discharged from the storage module.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frequency of the control signal is related to the frequency of the RF information signal plus or minus the frequency of said down-converted signal divided by a harmonic or sub-harmonic of the RF information signal.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said down-converted signal is at least partially based on differences in RF information signal amplitude, phase and/or frequency variations that are based a relationship between the RF information signal and an aperture of the control signal.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the aliasing module is a first aliasing module, the storage module is a first storage module, the switching device is a first switching device, the control signal is a first control signal, the RF information signal is a first RF information signal, and the down-converted signal is a first down-converted signal, the apparatus further comprising:

a second aliasing module comprising a second switching device and a second storage module, the second aliasing module receiving as an input a second RF information signal that is an inverted complementary of the first RF information signal, and the second aliasing module providing as an output a second down-converted signal that is an inverted complementary of the first down-converted signal;

the second switching device of the second aliasing module receiving as an input a second control signal that controls a charging and discharging cycle of the second storage module by controlling the second switching device so that a portion of energy is transferred from the second RF information signal to the second storage module during a charging part of the cycle and a portion of the transferred energy is discharged during a discharging part of the cycle, wherein said second control signal operates at an aliasing rate selected so that energy of the second RF information signal is sampled and applied to the second storage module at a frequency that is equal to or less than twice the frequency of the second RF information signal; and

wherein the second storage module generates said second down-converted signal from the alternate charging and discharging applied to the second storage module using said second control signal.

23. A method for down-converting an electromagnetic signal, comprising:

receiving an RF information signal;

generating a control signal for a switching device that controls a charging and discharging cycle for an energy storage module, the control signal operating at an aliasing rate selected so that energy of the RF information signal is sampled and applied to the energy storage module at a frequency that is equal to or less than twice the frequency of the RF information signal;

transferring a portion of energy from the RF information signal to the energy storage module during the charging part of the cycle for the energy storage module, and discharging a portion of the transferred energy stored at the energy storage module during the discharging part of the cycle for the energy storage module; and

directly generating a down-converted signal from the alternate charging and discharging of the energy storage module.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the switching device, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is closed, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is open.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the switching device, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is open, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is closed.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the storage module, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs each time the switching device is closed, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is open.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the RF information signal is applied as an input to the storage module, and wherein the charging part of the cycle of the storage module occurs when the switching device is open, and the discharging part of the cycle occurs when the switching device is closed.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

receiving a second RF information signal that is a inverted complementary of the RF information signal;

generating a second control signal for a second switching device that controls a charging and discharging cycle for a second energy storage module, the second control signal operating at an aliasing rate selected so that energy of the second RF information signal is sampled and applied to the second energy storage module at a frequency that is equal to or less than twice the frequency of the second RF information signal;

transferring a portion of energy from the second RF information signal to the second energy storage module during the charging part of the cycle for the second energy storage module, and discharging a portion of the transferred energy stored at the second energy storage module during the discharging part of the cycle for the second energy storage module; and

directly generating a second down-converted signal that is an inverted complementary of the down-converted signal from the alternate charging and discharging of the second energy storage module.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

controlling a second charging and discharging cycle to begin before all of the transferred energy stored at the storage module is discharged during the discharging part of the first charging and discharging cycle so that a portion of the energy transferred from the RF information signal during the charging part of the second charging and discharging cycle is combined with at least some of the transferred energy stored at the storage module that has not been discharged prior to the second charging and discharging cycle, the combined transferred energy being available for inclusion in the down-converted signal.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the down-converted signal generated from the combined transferred energy is in the form of a saw-tooth waveform.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the control signal comprises an aperture having a width defined by a duration between a first pulse edge and a second pulse edge that cause the switching device to open upon receipt of one of the first and second pulse edges and close upon receipt of the other of the first and second pulse edges.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the width of the aperture is variable.

33. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the width of the aperture is greater than 10 percent of a cycle of the RF information signal.

34. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the width of the aperture is greater than 20 percent of a cycle of the RF information signal.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein the width of the aperture is equal to about a half cycle (50%) of the RF information signal.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein the width of the aperture is equal to less than a half cycle (50%) of the RF information signal.

37. The method of claim 23, wherein between six and fifty percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module is discharged from the storage module.

38. The method of claim 23, wherein between six and twenty-five percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module is discharged from the storage module.

39. The method of claim 23, wherein between ten and twenty percent of the energy transferred from the RF information signal to the storage module is discharged from the storage module.

40. The method of claim 23, wherein the frequency of the control signal is related to the frequency of the RF information signal plus or minus the frequency of the down-converted signal divided by a harmonic or sub-harmonic of the RF information signal.

41. The method of claim 23, wherein the down-converted signal is at least partially based on differences in RF information signal amplitude, phase and/or frequency variations that are based a relationship between the RF information signal and the control signal aperture.