This disclosure addresses providing
gigabit-rate
data transmission over
wireless radio links, using carrier frequencies in the
millimeter-wave range (>30 GHz). More specifically, a circuit for detection of amplitude-shift keyed (ASK) or other amplitude modulations (AM) which can be easily incorporated into an
integrated circuit receiver system is described, making the
receiver capable of supporting both complex IQ modulation schemes and simpler, non-coherent on-off or multiple-level
keying signals. Several novel radio architectures are also described which, with the addition of a frequency
discriminator network, have the capability of handling
frequency shift keyed (FSK) or other frequency modulations (FM), as well as AM and complex IQ modulation schemes. These radio architectures support this wide variety of modulations by efficiently sharing
detector hardware components. The architecture for supporting both quadrature down-conversion and ASK / AM is described first, followed by the ASK / AM
detector circuit details, then the AM-FM
detector architecture, and finally the most general AM-FM / IQ demodulator
system concept and the FSK / FM detector circuit details.