System and method for a phase detector
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsValentyn Solomko, Winfried Bakalski
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In accordance with an embodiment, a phase detector circuit includes a plurality of cascaded RF stages that each has a first RF amplifier and a second RF amplifier. The first RF amplifiers are cascaded with first RF amplifiers of successive RF stages, and the second RF amplifiers are cascaded with second RF amplifiers of successive RF stages. The phase detector further includes a first mixer having a first input coupled to an output of a first RF amplifier of a first RF stage and a second input coupled to an output of a second RF amplifier of the first RF stage, and a second mixer having a first input coupled to an output of a second RF amplifier of a second RF stage and a second input coupled to an output of a first RF amplifier of the second RF stage.
Claims27
A phase detector circuit comprising:
- a plurality of cascaded RF stages, each of the plurality of cascaded RF stages having a first RF amplifier and a second RF amplifier, wherein first RF amplifiers are cascaded with first RF amplifiers of successive RF stages and second RF amplifiers are cascaded with second RF amplifiers of successive RF stages;
- a first mixer having a first input coupled to an output of a first RF amplifier of a first RF stage, and a second input coupled to an output of a second RF amplifier of the first RF stage;
- and
- a second mixer having a first input coupled to an output of a second RF amplifier of a second RF stage, and a second input coupled to an output of a first RF amplifier of the second RF stage.
A circuit comprising a phase detector, wherein the phase detector includes:
- a first set of cascaded amplifiers comprising a first group and a second group, wherein a first amplifier of the first set of cascaded amplifiers is coupled to a first phase detector input;
- a second set of cascaded amplifiers comprising a third group and a fourth group, wherein the first amplifier of the second set of cascaded amplifiers is coupled to a second phase detector input;
- a first set of mixer circuits having first inputs coupled to respective outputs of the first group of cascaded amplifiers and second inputs coupled to respective outputs of the third group of cascaded amplifiers;
- a second set of mixer circuits having first inputs coupled to respective outputs of the fourth group of cascaded amplifiers and second inputs coupled to respective outputs of the second group of cascaded amplifiers;
- and
- an output node coupled to provide a sum of outputs of the first set of mixer circuits and outputs of the second set of mixer circuits.
A method of detecting a phase difference between a first signal and a second signal, the method comprising:
- amplifying the first signal using a first set of cascaded amplifiers;
- amplifying the second signal using a second set of cascaded amplifiers;
- detecting a first set of phases using a first set of mixer circuits having first inputs coupled to respective outputs of a first group of the first set of cascaded amplifiers and second inputs coupled to respective outputs of a third group of the second set of cascaded amplifiers;
- detecting a second set of phases using a second set of mixer circuits having first inputs coupled to respective outputs of a fourth group of the second set of cascaded amplifiers and second inputs coupled to respective outputs of a second group of the first set cascaded amplifiers;
- and
- summing outputs of the first set of mixer circuits and outputs of the second set of mixer circuits.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.