Module for a radio receiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9893924-B2
Application number	US-201615062141-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2016
Priority date	Mar 11, 2015
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a module for a radio receiver. The module comprises an input terminal; an output terminal; a main signal path for communicating in-phase and quadrature signals between the input terminal and the output terminal; and a second signal path. The second signal path is connected in parallel with the main signal path and is configured to: extract in-phase and quadrature signals from the main signal path; filter the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals; detect an error in the filtered, extracted in-phase and quadrature signals; and apply a correction to in-phase and quadrature signals on the main signal path based on the error.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A module for a radio receiver, the module comprising:
an input terminal;
an output terminal;
a main signal path for communicating in-phase and quadrature signals between the input terminal and the output terminal; and
a second signal path connected in parallel with the main signal path and configured to:
extract in-phase and quadrature signals from the main signal path;
filter the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals;
detect an error in the filtered, extracted in-phase and quadrature signals; and
apply a correction to in-phase and quadrature signals on the main signal path based on the error;

wherein the in-phase and quadrature signals comprise a desired channel,
wherein the second signal path comprises a filter configured to filter the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals by:
passing a first portion of the desired channel; and
rejecting a second portion of the desired channel;

wherein the filter is a band pass filter that is configured to perform band pass filtering on the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals prior to detecting the error in the extracting in-phase and quadrature signals;
wherein the second signal path comprises a second band pass filter provided in parallel with the first band pass filter;
wherein the second band pass filter is configured to pass the other of the ZIF signal and the NZIF signal; and
wherein the second signal path further comprises a selector configured to enable either the first or second band pass filter for signal processing.

2. The module of claim 1 ,
wherein the band pass filter is configured to pass only a sub-band of the desired frequency band.

3. The module of claim 1 ,
wherein the band pass filter is configured to pass a zero intermediate frequency, ZIF, signal or a near-zero intermediate frequency, NZIF, signal,
wherein the filtering performed by the second signal path comprises band pass filtering extracted ZIF or NZIF in-phase and quadrature signals.

4. The module of claim 1 , comprising a channel selection unit at the output, wherein the channel selection unit is configured to select a channel and provide the channel for post processing.

5. The module of claim 1 , wherein the second signal path is configured to:
extract the in-phase and quadrature signals at an extraction point of the main signal path; and
apply the correction to the in-phase and quadrature signals at a correction point of the main signal path, wherein the extraction point is downstream of the correction point in order to provide a feedback loop.

6. The module of claim 1 ,
wherein the error comprises an amplitude mismatch, the module comprising:
an amplitude mismatch detection unit configured to detect the amplitude mismatch; and
an amplitude mismatch correction unit configured to apply a correction to the in-phase or quadrature signals in the main signal path based on the detected amplitude mismatch.

7. The module of claim 1 ,
wherein the error comprises a phase mismatch, the module comprising:
a phase mismatch detection unit configured to detect the amplitude mismatch; and
a phase mismatch correction unit configured to apply a correction to the in-phase and/or quadrature signals in the main signal path based on the phase mismatch.

8. The module of claim 1 ,
wherein the error comprises a direct current, DC, offset, the module comprising:
a DC offset detection unit configured to detect the DC offset; and
a DC offset correction unit configured to apply a correction to the in-phase and/or quadrature signals in the main signal path based on the direct current offset.

9. The module of claim 1 :
wherein the second signal path is configured to filter both the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals after extracting the in-phase and quadrature signals from the main signal path.

10. The module of claim 1 , wherein the second signal path is configured to:
extract the in-phase and quadrature signals from the main signal path before filtering the extracted in-phase with a band-pass filter, and filtering the extracted quadrature signals with the band-pass filter.

11. A radio receiver comprising:
a radio frequency front end for receiving a radio signal from an antenna and providing analogue in-phase and quadrature signals;
one or more analogue-to-digital converters for converting the analogue in-phase and quadrature signals into digital in-phase and quadrature signals; and
a digital front-end comprising the module of claim 1 and configured to receive the digital in-phase and quadrature signals and provide a selected channel for post processing.

12. The radio receiver of claim 11 ,
wherein the filter is configured to pass signals having a centre frequency that is an eighth of a sampling frequency of the one or more analogue-to-digital converters;
wherein the in-phase and quadrature signals comprise a desired channel,
wherein the second signal path comprises a filter configured to filter the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals by:
passing a first portion of the desired channel; and
rejecting a second portion of the desired channel.

13. A method of operating a module for a radio receiver, the method comprising:
receiving in-phase and quadrature signals comprising a desired channel at an input terminal of the module;
extracting in-phase and quadrature signals from a main signal path between the input terminal and an output terminal of the module;
filtering the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals in a second signal path that is parallel with the main signal path;
detecting an error in the filtered, extracted in-phase and quadrature signals in the second signal path; and
applying a correction to the in-phase and quadrature signals in the main signal path based on the error; and
providing the corrected in-phase and quadrature signals at the output of the module
wherein the in-phase and quadrature signals comprise a desired channel,
wherein the second signal path comprises a filter configured to filter the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals by:
passing a first portion of the desired channel; and
rejecting a second portion of the desired channel;

wherein the filter is a band pass filter that is configured to perform band pass filtering on the extracted in-phase and quadrature signals prior to detecting the error in the extracting in-phase and quadrature signals;
wherein the second signal path comprises a second band pass filter provided in parallel with the first band pass filter;
wherein the second band pass filter is configured to pass the other of the ZIF signal and the NZIF signal; and
wherein the second signal path further comprises a selector configured to enable either the first or second band pass filter for signal processing.

14. An article of manufacture including at least one non-transitory, tangible machine readable storage medium containing executable machine instructions for operating a module for a radio receiver, executed by the module during operations of the radio receiver,
wherein the instructions include the method of claim 13 .

15. A radio receiver comprising:
a radio frequency front end for receiving a radio signal from an antenna and providing analogue in-phase and quadrature signals;
one or more analogue-to-digital converters for converting the analogue in-phase and quadrature signals into digital in-phase and quadrature signals; and
a digital front-end comprising a module configured to receive the digital in-phase and quadrature signals and provide a selected channel for post processing, the module comprising:
an input terminal;
an ou

Assignees

• Nxp Bv

Inventors

• Smail Zahir
• Jamin Olivier
• Herve Carol

Classifications

• H03D3/008

  Compensating DC offsets · CPC title

• H04L27/3863

  Compensation for quadrature error in the received signal · CPC title

• H03D2200/006

  Signal sampling · CPC title

• H04B1/0017

  Digital filtering (H04B1/001 takes precedence; digital filters per se H03H17/00) · CPC title

• H04L27/3872

  Compensation for phase rotation in the demodulated signal · CPC title