Methods and apparatus for calibration of automatic gain control in broadcast tuners

Abstract

In one aspect, a calibration component configured to calibrate an automatic gain controller (AGC) for use in a tuner configured to isolate a selected channel from a multi-channel broadcast signal, the tuner implemented substantially on two chips, a first chip comprising a radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit adapted for RF processing and a second chip comprising a digital integrated circuit adapted for digital processing is provided. The calibration component comprises a calibration signal generator implemented on the RF integrated circuit, the calibration signal generator adapted to generate a generally known calibration signal, a power detector implemented on the RF integrated circuit and configured to detect, during calibration, at least one power characteristic of the calibration signal and to provide a power level signal indicative of the at least one detected power characteristic, a gain controller implemented on the digital integrated circuit, the gain controller adapted to generate at least one error signal based, at least in part, on a comparison between the power level signal provided by the power detector and a first reference signal, an offset signal generator implemented on the RF integrated circuit and configured to generate an offset signal based, at least in part, on the at least one error signal and a summing element implemented on the RF integrated circuit and adapted to combine the offset signal with the power level signal provided by the power detector to provide an adjusted power level signal.