US 7,606,535 B2 · Modular wide-range transceiver

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and processor instructions for wide-range microwave communications. In an exemplary embodiment, a wide-range transceiver is made having pre-calibrated modular units including an IF radio processing card, an RF transmitter module, and an RF receiver module. Calibration factors are loaded into a memory (e.g., EEPROM) in each module during production. Certain additional calibration factors may also be loaded upon installation, such as a one time calibration for the type and length of cable connecting the RF unit to a remote SPU (signal processing unit). A processor in the RF unit is responsive to control signaling indicating a desired transmitter or receiver configuration (e.g., a particular frequency, bandwidth and modulation), to attenuate the signal in the transmitter/receiver path based on the predetermined calibration factors from the applicable modules. A method for calibrating the modules is also disclosed.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A modular wide-range microwave communications unit comprising:

a precalibrated IF module having IF circuitry and an IF module memory operative for storing calibration values for the IF circuitry;
and
at least one precalibrated RF module having RF circuitry and an RF module memory operative for storing calibration values for the RF circuitry, the RF circuitry including RF transmit circuitry and wherein the RF module memory includes an RF transmit module memory, the RF transmit circuitry including an attenuator, an IF detector and an RF detector, and with said RF module memory storing transmit calibration values for the attenuator and the IF and RF detectors.

A modular wide-range microwave communications unit comprising:

a precalibrated RF module having RF transmit module with RF circuitry including RF transmit circuitry and a module memory including an RF transmit module memory operative for storing calibration values for the RF transmit circuitry, the RF transmit circuitry including a transmit attenuator, an IF detector and an RF detector, said precalibrated RF module also including an RF receive module in which the RF circuitry includes RF receive circuitry and wherein the module memory in the precalibrated RF module includes an RF receive module memory operative for storing receive calibration values for the RF receive circuitry;
and
a precalibrated IF module comprising IF transmit circuitry, IF receive circuitry and a processor and an IF module memory, with the processor being operably configured to control the IF transmit circuitry and receive instructions for controlling the IF receive circuitry based on IF transmit calibration values and IF receive calibration values stored in the IF module memory.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Modular wide-range transceiver

Life of this patent

Modular wide-range transceiver

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19