Electronic devices with adjustable received sample bit width

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with an antenna, a receiver, and baseband circuitry coupled to the receiver over a digital interface. The receiver may receive radio-frequency signals using the antenna and may generate digital in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) samples from the radio-frequency signals. The I/Q samples may have a bit width and may be transmitted to the baseband circuitry over the digital interface. The baseband circuitry may evaluate a radio condition of the receiver based on the I/Q samples. The baseband circuitry may adjust the bit width of the I/Q samples based on the radio condition. For example, the baseband circuitry may decrease the bit width when wireless performance metric data falls below a threshold and/or may increase the bit width when the wireless performance metric data exceeds a threshold. This may minimize power consumed by the digital interface without sacrificing wireless performance.