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US 6,177,964 B1Granted
Broadband integrated television tuner
AssigneeMicrotune, Inc.
InventorsVince Birleson, Albert Taddiken, Ken Clayton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A broadband integrated television receiver for receiving a standard antenna or cable input and outputting an analog composite video signal and composite audio signal is disclosed. The receiver employs an up-conversion mixer and a down-conversion mixer in series to produce an IF signal. An IF filter between the mixers performs coarse channel selection. The down-conversion mixer may be an image rejection mixer to provide additional filtering. The received RF television signals are converted to a standard 45.75 MHz IF signal for processing on-chip by additional circuitry.
Claims57
A dual conversion IF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received television band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer output a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency band from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing tine channel selection:
- an input filter coupled between a receiver input and said low noise amplifier, wherein said input filter removes all signals above an input cutoff frequency from received RF signals;
- a coherent oscillator circuit coupled to said second IF filter, wherein said coherent oscillator circuit generates an in-phase reference signal and a quadrature reference signal;
- and
- a video detector having a first input coupled to said second IF filter and a second input coupled to said in-phase reference signal from said coherent oscillator.
6 more elements
A dual conversion RF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received television band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer outputs a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency bond from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal, wherein said second mixer outputs a second IF signal;
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selection;
- a coherent reference phase lock loop fed by said second IF signal for generating a reference signal;
- and
- a frequency synthesizer for generating said first and second local oscillator signals, said frequency synthesizer having a phase noise characteristic that allows said coherent reference phase lock loop to have a narrow loop bandwidth.
5 more elements
A dual conversion RF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received television band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer outputs a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency baud from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- and
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selection, wherein said first local oscillator signal provides coarse tuning with step size of greater than 4.5 MHZ, and wherein said coarse tuning is provided by a single voltage controlled oscillator and a wideband phase lock loop providing a highly coherent reference signal suitable for up-converting.
3 more elements
A dual conversion RF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received television band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer outputs a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency band from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- and
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selection, wherein said second local oscillator signal provides fine tuning with step size less than or equal to 100 KHz, and wherein said fine tuning is provided by 3 voltage controlled oscillators and wideband phase lock loops providing a highly coherent reference signal suitable for down-converting.
3 more elements
A dual conversion RF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received televisional band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer outputs a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency band from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selection;
- an input filter coupled between a receiver input and said low noise amplifier, wherein said input filter removes all signals above all input cutoff frequency from received RF signals;
- a coherent oscillator circuit coupled to said second IF filter, wherein said coherent oscillator circuit generates an in-phase reference signal and a quadrature reference signal;
- and
- are audio detector having a first input coupled to said second IF filter and a second input coupled to said quadrature reference signal from said coherent oscillator.
6 more elements
A method of receiving RF signals comprising the steps of:
- receiving RF signals comprising a plurality of channels;
- filtering said received RF signals, thereby removing all signals above an input cutoff frequency from said RF signals;
- amplifying said received RF signals in a low noise amplifier;
- converting said RF signals to first IF signals comprising substantially all of said plurality of channels;
- filtering said first IF signals to remove channels having frequencies outside of a selected hand;
- converting the filtered first IF signals to second IF signals, wherein said converting said filtered first IF signals to second IF signals further comprises rejecting image signals turn said second IF signals;
- and
- filtering said second IF signals so that only one channel remains in said second IF signals, wherein said converting steps and said amplifying steps are performed on a single integrate circuit substrate, and wherein said filtering said received RF signals step is not performed on said single integrated circuit substrate.
5 more elements
A method of receiving RF signals comprising the steps of:
- receiving RF signals comprising a plurality of channels;
- filtering said received REF signals, thereby removing all signals above an input cutoff frequency from said RF signals;
- amplifying said received RF signals in a low noise amplifier;
- converting said amplified RF signals to first IF signals comprising substantially all of said plurality of channels;
- filtering said first IF signals to remove channels having frequencies outside of a selected band;
- converting the filtered first IF signals to second IF signals, wherein said converting said filtered first IF signals to second IF signals further comprises rejecting image signals from said second IF signal;
- filtering said second IF signals so that only one channel remains in said second IF
- generating a first reference signal from said second IF signal, wherein said first reference signal is in-phase with said second IF signals;
- and
- generating a second reference signal from said second IF signals, wherein said second reference signal is 90° out-of-phase with said second IF signals.
7 more elements
A receiver comprising one or more of dual conversion RF tuners, wherein each of said RF tuners comprises:
- a low noise amplifier receiving RF signals and passing all channels in said received RF signals;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection:
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- and
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selected, wherein said first and second local oscillator signals are provided by a plurality of phase lock loops, wherein a first phase lock loop accepts a reference signal which is out of the bandwidth of a selected channel, said phase lock loops having low phase noise and a step size resolution smaller than the loop bandwidth of the individual phase lock loops, wherein said phase lock loops operate from input reference signals, some of which are outside or said bandwidth, and at least one of which is within said bandwidth, and wherein said one within said bandwidth is isolated from said output reference signal.
3 more elements
A dual conversion RF tuner serving as the front end of a television receiver comprising:
- a low noise amplifier passing all channels in a received television band;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to said low noise amplifier and a second input coupled to a first local oscillator signal, wherein said first mixer outputs a first IF signal;
- a first IF filter coupled to said first mixer and providing coarse channel selection, wherein, said first IF filter removes all channels outside a selected frequency hand from said first IF signal;
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to said first IF filter and a second input coupled to a second local oscillator signal;
- and
- a second IF filter coupled to said second mixer and providing fine channel selection, wherein said low noise amplifier, said first mixer and said second mixer are physically located on the same integrated circuit substrate, and wherein only one of said first and second IF filters is physically located on said integrated circuit substrate.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.