Direct digital conversion tuner and method for using same
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorLeonard Dauphinee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A direct sampling tuner includes a low noise amplifier and an optional dynamically configurable band pass filter coupled to the low noise amplifier. The optional filter is configured to pass a selected band of channels. The tuner further includes a relatively high accuracy, multi-bit analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”) coupled to the LNA or to the optional dynamically configurable band pass filter. The ADC operates at greater than about twice a frequency of a sampled signal. The ADC directly samples the spectrum of the selected channels at the Nyquist rate, thus avoiding image problems presented by conventional tuners.
Claims18
A tuner, comprising:
- an amplifier arranged at a front end of the tuner and configured to be a first element of the tuner to receive and amplify an RF signal;
- a dynamically configurable band pass filter directly connected to the amplifier and configured to pass a selected band of the amplified RF signal;
- and
- a converter coupled to the dynamically configurable band pass filter, wherein the converter operates at greater than twice a frequency of the selected band of the amplified RF signal.
A method, comprising:
- receiving an RF signal at an amplifier arranged at a front end of a tuner that is a first element of the tuner to receive the RF signal;
- amplifying the RF signal using the amplifier;
- filtering all but a sub-set of channels of the amplified RF signal using a dynamically configurable band pass filter directly connected to the amplifier;
- and
- converting the sub-set of channels to a digital signal, wherein said converting is performed at a sample rate that is greater than twice a frequency of a highest frequency in the sub-set of channels.
A tuner, comprising:
- an amplifier arranged at a front end of the tuner and configured to be a first element of the tuner to receive and amplify an RF signal;
- a dynamically configurable band pass filter directly connected to the amplifier, and configured to receive the amplified RF signal and pass a selected band of the amplified RF signal;
- a converter coupled to the dynamically configurable band pass filter;
- and
- a digital signal processor configured to demodulate the selected band of the amplified RF signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.