Suppression of spurious harmonics generated in tx driver amplifiers

A method of communication comprising:

• applying M phases of a baseband signal to be transmitted to N upconverters;
• applying a different one of N sets of phases of a local oscillator (LO) signal to each of the N upconverters, each of the N sets comprising M different phases of the LO signal;
• applying an output signal of each of the N upconverters to a different one of N associated amplifiers to generate N amplified signals;
• selecting a gain of at least a first one of the N amplifiers to be different from a gain of a remaining one of the N amplifiers;
• and
• combining the N amplified signals to generate an output signal, wherein a frequency component falling at a multiple of a sum of a LO signal frequency and a baseband signal frequency, or a multiple of a difference between the LO signal frequency and the baseband signal frequency is substantially suppressed from the output signal, and wherein N and M are integers greater than 1.

A method of communication comprising:

• applying M phases of a baseband signal to be transmitted to N sets of upconverters, each set comprising Q upconverters, wherein the M phases of the baseband signal are applied to each of the Q upconverters of each of the N sets;
• applying to each of the Q upconverters of each of the N sets one of N×Q sets of phases of a local oscillator (LO) signal, each of the N×Q sets comprising M phases of the LO signal, each of the Q upconverters generating upconverted signal and inverse signal;
• combining the Q in-phase upconverted signals generated by the Q converters of each of the N sets thereby to generate N combined in-phase upconverted signals;
• and
• combining the Q inverse signals generated by the Q converters of each of the N sets thereby to generate N combined inverse signals, wherein a frequency component falling at a multiple of a sum of a LO signal frequency and a baseband signal frequency, or a multiple of a difference between the LO signal frequency and the baseband signal frequency is substantially suppressed from the combined in-phase and inverse signals, wherein Q, M and N are positive integers greater than 1.

A communication device comprising:

• means for applying M phases of a baseband signal to be transmitted to N upconverters;
• means for applying a different one of N sets of phases of a local oscillator (LO) signal to each of the N upconverters, each of the N sets comprising M different phases of the LO signal;
• means for applying an output signal of each of the N upconverters to a different one of N associated amplifiers to generate N amplified signals;
• means for selecting a gain of at least a first one of the N amplifiers to be different from a gain of a remaining one of the N amplifiers;
• and
• means for combining the N amplified signals to generate an output signal, wherein a frequency component falling at a multiple of a sum of a LO signal frequency and a baseband signal frequency, or a multiple of a difference between the LO signal frequency and the baseband signal frequency is substantially suppressed from the output signal, and wherein N and M are integers greater than 1.

A communication device comprising:

• means for applying M phases of a baseband signal to be transmitted to N sets of upconverters, each set comprising Q upconverters, wherein the M phases of the baseband signal are applied to each of the !Q upconverters of each of the N sets;
• means for applying to each of the Q upconverters of each of the N sets one of N×Q sets of phases of a local oscillator (LO) signal, each of the N×Q sets comprising M phases of the LO signal, each of the Q upconverters generating an upconverted in-phase signal and an upconverted inverse signal;
• means for combining the Q in-phase signals generated by the Q converters of each of the N sets thereby to generate N combined in-phase signals;
• and
• means for combining the Q inverse signals generated by the Q converters of each of the N sets thereby to generate N combined inverse signals, wherein a frequency component falling at a multiple of a sum of a LO signal frequency and a baseband signal frequency, or a multiple of a difference between the LO signal frequency and the baseband signal frequency is substantially suppressed from the combined in-phase and inverse signals, wherein Q, M and N are positive integers greater than 1.