Pmc-sierra, Inc.

3com Corporation

Pmc-sierra Us, Inc.

Panasonic Technologies, Inc.

Maxlinear Asia Singapore Pte Ltd

Multiphy Ltd.

Videotek, Inc.

Integrated Circuit Systems, Inc.

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.

Microsemi Storage Solutions (u.s.), Inc.

Microsemi Storage Solutions, Inc.

Anthony Eugene Zortea

Matthew W McAdam

Russell Romano

William Dean Warner

Graeme Barclay Boyd

William Michael Lye

Jatinder Chana

Brewster T Hudson

Mark Hiebert

Todd K Moyer

Mathew McAdam

Winston Ki-Cheong Mok

Mathieu Gagnon

Kenneth Wade Paist

Ognjen B Katic

Jurgen Hissen

Hananel Faig

Nir Sheffi

John Philip Plasterer

Peter H Westerink

Boris Sharav

Duy Pham

Alik Gorshtein

Douglas C Crawford

David W Ritter

Mor Goren

Trent Owen McKeen

Todd Wey

Todd A Wey

Jim Guziak

David W Bitter

Kenneth Paist

James McGough

A transmitter including a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to generate an analog output corresponding to a transmitted signal. The transmitter further includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the DAC. The ADC measures the analog output of the DAC to identify a set of digital samples. The ADC identifies, from the set of digital samples, a set of valid samples, wherein each valid sample has a voltage within a voltage range. The ADC extracts one or more signal properties from the set of valid samples.

Analog-to-digital converter to identify properties of transmitted signals

A system and method for sampling an RF signal uses a plurality of capacitors, a plurality of resistors, and a sampling circuit. A first port of each capacitor of the plurality of capacitors is coupled to the RF signal. A first port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to one of a plurality of reference levels. A second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to a second port of a corresponding capacitor of the plurality of capacitors. The sampling circuit produces a plurality of digital outputs by sampling the second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors.

Radio frequency flash ADC circuits

A system and method for sampling an RF signal are described. The system comprises a plurality of capacitors, a plurality of resistors, and a sampling circuit. A first port of each capacitor of the plurality of capacitors is coupled to the RF signal. A first port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to one of a plurality of reference levels. A second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to a second port of a corresponding capacitor of the plurality of capacitors. The sampling circuit produces a plurality of digital outputs by sampling the second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors.

A method for performing background calibration of interleave timing errors in N order Time-Interleaved Analog to Digital Converters (TIADCs), according to which N samples of the input signal are acquired in N different phases and the time-interleave error of each phase is calculated. Then the sign of each of the time-interleave error is extracted and the errors are adjusted by adjusting the timing of erroneous phases. This process is repeated until all the errors are lower than a predefined level.

Background calibration of interleave timing errors in time-interleaved analog to digital converters

A system for sampling an RF signal comprises a plurality of capacitors, a plurality of resistors, and a sampling circuit. A first port of each capacitor of the plurality of capacitors is coupled to the RF signal. A first port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to one of a plurality of reference levels. A second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors is coupled to a second port of a corresponding capacitor of the plurality of capacitors. The sampling circuit produces a plurality of digital outputs by sampling the second port of each resistor of the plurality of resistors.

The peak level of a high frequency analog signal in an RF receiver is detected by a system which samples the signal and compares it against a static threshold, generating an above/below status. The system is implemented with a sampler of sufficient aperture bandwidth to capture the signal in question, operated at a clock frequency, dynamically chosen as a function of f(local oscillator frequency) and the desired f(intermediate frequency), to minimize in-band intermodulation products. The sampler produces kickback intermodulation products that are positioned out-of-band, or are of low enough power in-band so as to be inconsequential. Samples are taken for a statistically significant period of time, and the status is used to adapt the threshold to systematically determine the peak amplitude of the signal being observed.

Sampling threshold detector for direct monitoring of RF signals

A method for background calibration of sampler offsets in an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), according to which one of the samplers of the ADC is established as a reference sampler, whose threshold and timing offsets will be the criterion for adjusting threshold offsets and timing offsets of all other samplers. Then each of the other samplers of the ADC, one at a time, is calibrated by selecting an uncalibrated sampler and establishing it as the current Sampler Under Calibration (SUC); disregarding contribution of the SUC to the output of the ADC; adjusting the threshold of the SUC to be identical to the threshold of the reference sampler; performing one-bit cross-correlation between the reference sampler and the SUC; establishing an error surface representing the threshold offset and timing offset of the SUC with respect to the reference sampler; adjusting the threshold and the timing of the SUC to be equal to the threshold and timing of the reference sampler; restoring level of the SUC to its original threshold with respect to the overall ADC and restoring contribution of the SUC to the output of the ADC.

Background calibration of sampler timing errors in flash analog to digital converters

System and method for the calibration of interleave time errors in an n-level PAM Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), according to which a set of two samplers with adjustable sample time and threshold are introduced at the output of the DAC, which are separated in time. The set of samplers is swept through a n unit interval (UI) window and the n-UI window is classified to periods of transitions and non-transitions on an eye diagram. The relative timing of the lower rate clocks into an n:1 multiplexer is controlled using a control loop, to force equal eye width within the n-UI window and the interleaved timing errors are measured and corrected, until the uneven distribution is being reduced below a predetermined level.

Background calibration of interleaved timing errors in digital to analog converters

Background calibration of sampler offsets in analog to digital converters

A method and apparatus are provided for reducing aliasing in a direct conversion (or zero-IF) radio receiver having high and low frequency paths. According to an implementation, a non-transitory machine-readable memory stores aliasing correlation response data that associates a measured non-aliased signal in a high frequency path and a measured aliased residual of the signal in a low frequency path. A compensator is in communication with the memory to apply aliasing compensation to received signals based on the stored aliasing correlation response data. In an example implementation, the low and high frequency paths are independently optimized for low and high frequency performance, respectively, and have transfer functions that overlap with one another to create a calibration zone used to calibrate the first and second transfer functions.

Method and apparatus for baseband processing an analog signal in a direct conversion radio receiver

Apparatus and methods reduce channel-dependent phase detector offset and/or gain errors. A conventional Mueller-Muller phase detector places a main cursor at the midpoint of a pre-cursor and a post-cursor. However, for example, when the impulse response of an associated transmission line is not symmetric, the main cursor can be misaligned by conventional Mueller-Muller techniques. By providing a replica clock and data recovery path, trial and error experiments on the phase detector offset and/or gain can be performed, and relatively good values found for the phase detector offset and/or gain without disturbing the reception of data by the phase detector that is being used to receive data. These settings can then be used by the phase detector that is being used to receive data, which can improve the bit error rate of the phase detector.

Parallel replica CDR to correct offset and gain in a baud rate sampling phase detector

Apparatus and methods calibrate and control detector gain in a Mueller-Muller timing detector. A Mueller-Muller circuit obtains timing information for a received signal in which the receiving device samples the signal once per baud period.

Gain calibration for a timing error detector

Methods and apparatus for reducing sensitivity to nonlinearities in the receiver of a digital communications system are disclosed. One aspect can be referred to as a Post-Distortion Decision Feedback Equalizer (PDFE). A gain stage is often implemented as a variable gain amplifier (VGA), and can introduce significant nonlinearities, a problem exacerbated by signals with a large peak-to-average ratio (PAR). One embodiment provides feed forward information from the VGA regarding its status to a DFE, and the DFE adjusts its filtering based on the provided information. The advantages are also applicable to fixed-gain amplifiers and to transversal filters.

Post-distortion filter for reducing sensitivity to receiver nonlinearities

A method of background calibration of aperture center errors in a data communication system is provided. In an implementation, in response to detection of a low sampler output ('0') in between two high sampler outputs ('1'), the method includes: determining a direction of an ADC output signal at the time of the detected low output; and adjusting timing at a selected sampler based on the determined signal direction. In an example implementation, the method includes watching for bubbles in the thermometer code output, and estimating the first derivative of the signal at the time of the bubble, then estimating the sign of the errors. In an example implementation, the errors are used in a control loop to reduce the aperture center error.

Background calibration of aperture center errors in analog to digital converters

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Pipersville, PA, United States of America

Anthony Eugene Zortea