Broadcom Corporation

Avago Technologies General IP (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited

David Patrick Murphy

Hooman Darabi

Mohyee Mikhemar

Ahmad Mirzaei

Hao Fang Wu

Ahmadreza Rofougaran

Hao Xu

Xiongchuan Huang

A circuit for providing a fractional divider/multiplier using harmonic recombination may include a power amplifier, an oscillator coupled to the power amplifier, and a divider coupled to the oscillator. In one or more implementations, the divider is configured to generate one or more phases of a harmonic from the oscillator to reduce signal interference from the power amplifier. In one or more implementations, the divider includes a divide-by-M divider, where M is a positive integer, and an array of transconductance cells coupled to the output of the divide-by-M divider. In one or more implementations, the divider includes an inductor or a filter coupled to the output of the array of transconductance cells. In one or more implementations, the oscillator includes a logical gate and a resistor-capacitor circuit coupled in series feedback with a multi-stage ring oscillator. The oscillator may include a divider coupled to the multi-stage ring oscillator.

Low-power local oscillator generation

A receiver includes circuitry configured to determine one or more first local oscillator (LO) harmonics that correspond to one or more first spectrum segments of a down-converted received signal based on characteristics of the received signal. The one or more first LO harmonics of the received signal are amplified by applying one or more first transconductance coefficients to one or more first harmonic selective transinductance amplifiers (TIAs) corresponding to the one or more first spectrum segments. Digitized outputs of the plurality of harmonic selective TIAs are calibrated based on an amount of signal leakage between the plurality of spectrum segments of the down-converted received signal.

Harmonic selective full-band capture receiver with digital harmonic rejection calibration

A circuit for an oscillator with common-mode resonance includes a first oscillator circuit and a second oscillator circuit coupled to the first oscillator circuit. Each of the first oscillator circuit or the second oscillator circuit includes a tank circuit, a cross-coupled transistor pair, and one or more capacitors. The tank circuit is formed by coupling a first inductor with a pair of first capacitors. The cross-coupled transistor pair is coupled to the tank circuit, and one or more second capacitors are coupled to the tank circuit and the cross-coupled transistor pair. Each of the first oscillator circuit or the second oscillator circuit allows tuning of a respective common mode (CM) resonance frequency (F) to be at twice a respective differential resonance frequency (F).

CMOS VCO with implicit common-mode resonance

Recently proposed noise-cancelling receivers report a best case trade-off between noise figure and linearity for a matched wideband receiver. These receivers are further improved using a passive front-end gain. The front-end gain reduces the power requirements of the radio frequency transconductance stage, and potentially other stages where, e.g., smaller mixer switches may be employed.

Power reduction in noise-cancelling receivers

Because of associated disadvantages of narrow-band off-chip radio-frequency (RF) filtering, a mixer-first receiver front-end designed to tolerate blockers with minimal gain compression and noise factor degradation is disclosed. The mixer-first receiver front-end includes two separate down-conversion paths that help to minimize added noise and voltage gain prior to baseband filtering, which are critical factors in eliminating narrow-band off-chip RF filtering.

Blocker-tolerant wideband noise-canceling receivers

A radio receiver supporting cancellation of thermal and phase noise in a down-converted RF signal. An inbound RF signal and blocking signal are provided directly to a passive mixer for down-conversion into a first baseband signal having data, thermal noise, and reciprocal mixing (RM) noise components. The inbound signals are also provided to a transconductance circuit, the output of which is provided to a second passive mixer for conversion into a current signal having data and blocking signal components, and a RM image. The blocking signal component and the RM image are mixed with a second LO signal, derived from the blocking signal, to produce a RM noise cancellation signal. The data component of the current signal is converted into a second baseband signal having data and thermal noise components. The first baseband signal, second baseband signal and RM noise cancellation signal are then combined through harmonic recombination.

Highly linear receiver front-end with thermal and phase noise cancellation

A radio frequency (RF) noise-cancelling receiver includes first transconductance cells configured to produce respective weighted current signals proportional to an input voltage signal. The RF receiver includes frequency conversion cells coupled to the first transconductance cells and configured to mix the weighted current signals with a plurality of non-overlapping local oscillator (LO) signals to produce downconverted current signals. The RF receiver includes transimpedance amplifiers coupled to the frequency conversion cells and configured to produce output voltage signals proportional to the downconverted current signals. The transimpedance amplifiers include second transconductance cells. Each of the first and second transconductance cells has an effective transconductance of a first magnitude for frequency components of the input voltage signal arising from a first harmonic and an effective transconductance of a second magnitude less than the first magnitude for frequency components of the input voltage signal arising from harmonics at integer multiples of the first harmonic.

Wideband receiver robust to radio frequency harmonics

A circuit for baseband harmonic rejection includes multiple transconductance cells coupled to one another at outputs of the transconductance cells and configured to receive down-converted signals that vary from one another to produce a weighted current signal proportional to a voltage corresponding to a respective down-converted signal. The circuit also includes a feedback impedance coupled between an input of one of the transconductance cells and the outputs of the transconductance cells. Each of the transconductance cells has an effective transconductance of a first magnitude for frequency components of the down-converted signal arising from a first harmonic and an effective transconductance of a second magnitude less than the first magnitude for frequency components of the down-converted signal arising from harmonics at integer multiples of the first harmonic.

Baseband harmonic rejection circuit

Aspects of a method and system for a low-noise, highly-linear receiver front-end are provided. In this regard, a received signal may be processed via one or more transconductances, one or more transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), and one or more mixers to generate a first baseband signal corresponding to a voltage at a node of the receiver, and a second baseband signal corresponding to a current at the node of the receiver. The first signal and the second signal may be processed to recover information from the received signal. The first signal may be generated via a first one or more signal paths of the receiver and the second signal may be generated via a second one or more signal paths of the receiver.

Method and system for low-noise, highly-linear receiver front-end

A circuit for a single differential-inductor oscillator with common-mode resonance may include a tank circuit formed by coupling a first inductor with a pair of first capacitors; a cross-coupled transistor pair coupled to the tank circuit; and one or more second capacitors coupled to the tank circuit and the cross-coupled transistors. The single differential-inductor oscillator may be configured such that a common mode (CM) resonance frequency (F) associated with the single differential-inductor oscillator is at twice a differential resonance frequency (F) associated with the single differential-inductor oscillator.

Single differential-inductor VCO with implicit common-mode resonance

A circuit for measurement of a phase noise of an oscillator may include the oscillator to generate a first signal having the same oscillation frequency as an instantaneous oscillation frequency of the oscillator. The circuit may include a first circuit that is configured to generate a second signal from the first signal. An instantaneous amplitude of the second signal may be related to the oscillation frequency of the first signal. A second circuit may be configured to integrate the second signal to generate a third signal. The third signal can be a measure of the phase noise of the oscillator. The third signal can be used to cancel some or all of the phase noise of the oscillator.

Phase-noise reduction technique using frequency-to-current conversion with baseband integration

A system for cancellation of a reciprocal-mixing noise may comprise a down-converter mixer that may be configured to down convert a radio-frequency (RF) signal and to generate a baseband signal. The RF signal may include a desired signal and a blocker signal. A first signal path may be configured to receive the baseband signal and to generate a first signal. A second signal path may be configured to receive the baseband signal and to generate a second signal. A subtraction module may be configured to subtract the second signal from the first signal and to generate an output signal. The second signal may comprise the reciprocal-mixing noise, and the output signal may comprise the desired signal substantially free from the reciprocal-mixing noise.

Reciprocal mixing noise cancellation system

A method for reciprocal-mixing noise cancellation may include receiving, from a first mixer, a first signal comprising a wanted signal at a first frequency and a modulated signal at a second frequency. The modulated signal may be a product of a reciprocal-mixing of an unwanted signal with a phase noise. One or more portions of the modulated signal may overlap the wanted signal, adding a reciprocal-mixing noise to the wanted signal. A second signal may be generated by mixing, at a second mixer, the first signal with a third signal, which is at a third frequency related to a blocker offset frequency. A gain may be applied to the second signal to generate an amplified second signal that may be subtracted from the first signal to generate a fourth signal. The fourth signal may be filtered to generate the wanted signal at the first frequency without the reciprocal-mixing noise.

Reciprocal mixing noise cancellation in the presence of a modulated blocker

A method for reciprocal-mixing noise cancellation may include receiving a baseband signal down-converted to baseband using a local oscillator (LO). The baseband signal may comprise a wanted signal and a reciprocal mixing noise, which at least partially overlaps the wanted signal and is due to mixing of a blocker signal with a phase noise of the LO. Blocker recovery may be performed on the baseband signal and a blocker estimate signal may be generated from the baseband signal. The phase noise of the LO may be measured and used in generating a phase noise measurement signal. The blocker estimate signal and the phase noise measurement signal may be processed to generate a reconstructed noise signal that may comprise the overlapping reciprocal mixing noise. The reconstructed noise signal may be subtracted from the baseband signal to provide the wanted signal free from to the reciprocal mixing noise.

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Costa Mesa, CA, United States of America

David Patrick Murphy