Digital IQ Extraction From IF Signals With Fewer Receiver Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional radio receivers require duplicate components and increased resources to process multiple complex signals simultaneously, leading to inefficiencies in space, power, and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A receiver system that generates both in-phase and quadrature signal components using a single front-end path by applying a complex transform to a band-pass IF signal, eliminating the need for separate analog processing paths and reducing the number of components required.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional IQ processing with separate mixers and processing paths is used, then both I and Q signal components can be obtained, but the number of components and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the quadrature component generation from the analog domain and moves it to the digital domain. Instead of using a second mixer to generate the Q component in analog, the invention digitally extracts the Q component from the I component after ADC, thereby eliminating the need for the second mixer and reducing analog circuit complexity while maintaining signal fidelity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/analog mixing process with a digital signal processing approach. The second mixer and its associated analog processing path are substituted with digital algorithms that operate on the digitized I component to generate the Q component, transitioning from analog mechanics to digital computation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If duplicate components are used to process multiple complex signals simultaneously, then signal reception capability is maintained, but space and power resources are increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the single front-end path universal by enabling it to process multiple signals through digital signal processing. The same ADC and digital processing resources are used to generate I and Q components for multiple frequencies and signal types, eliminating the need for dedicated analog processing paths for each signal and thereby reducing power consumption while maintaining multi-signal capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the separate I and Q processing paths into a single unified path. Instead of having parallel analog processing chains for I and Q components, the invention combines them into one path that is digitized and then processed digitally to generate both components, thereby consolidating hardware resources and reducing power consumption.
3Measurement precision
If analog filtering and processing are performed separately for I and Q components, then signal processing accuracy is maintained, but the number of processing components increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the filtering and processing operations from the analog domain and relocates them to the digital domain. Instead of having separate analog filters for I and Q paths, the invention applies digital filtering and processing operations to the digitized signal, thereby reducing the number of analog processing components while maintaining or even improving processing accuracy through digital precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for a receiver system in a receiver that includes at least two front end branches, each branch having its own intermediate frequency (IF) mixer to shift a received signal to an IF. When receiving multiple independent signals, the signals are digitized and the receiver performs a digital complex transform on each signal to obtain the corresponding quadrature component. When receiving a single signal the signal is routed to two mixers that are 90 degrees out of phase to obtain the quadrature signal components in the analog section of the receiver.