Integrated circuit arrangement for converting a high-frequency bandpass signal to a low-frequency quadrature signal

Abstract

An integrated circuit arrangement is provided for converting a high-frequency bandpass signal to a low-frequency quadrature signal with a first in-phase component and a first quadrature-phase component, which has: an amplifier arrangement, which is designed to generate an amplified signal and has a first amplifier stage for amplifying the high-frequency bandpass signal, a mixer unit with a first mixer to provide the first in-phase component and a second mixer to provide the first quadrature-phase component, and a driver amplifier, which is designed to generate a local oscillator signal. According to the invention, between the amplifier arrangement and the mixer unit a polyphase filter is disposed, which converts the amplified signal to a complex-valued polyphase signal with a second in-phase component and a second quadrature phase component. Furthermore, according to the invention each mixer is connected to the driver amplifier, and the first mixer is designed to multiply the second in-phase component by the local oscillator signal, and the second mixer is designed to multiply the second quadrature-phase component by the local oscillator signal.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus, are not limitive of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a “Wireless Personal Area Network” (WPAN) according to the IEEE Standard 802.15.4 with transmitting/receiving devices of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary embodiment of a receiving unit of a transmitting/receiving device according to IEEE 802.15.4 with the circuit arrangement of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the polyphase filter of a circuit arrangement of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the mixer unit of a circuit arrangement of the invention; and

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the amplifier arrangement of a circuit arrangement of the invention.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit arrangement for converting a high-frequency bandpass signal to a low-frequency quadrature signal with a first in-phase component and a first quadrature-phase component, the integrated circuit arrangement comprising: an amplifier arrangement for generating an amplified signal, the amplifier arrangement having a first amplifier stage for amplifying the high-frequency bandpass signal;a mixer unit having a first mixer to provide the first in-phase component and having a second mixer to provide the first quadrature-phase component; anda driver amplifier for providing a local oscillator signal;wherein, between the amplifier arrangement and the mixer unit, a polyphase filter is provided that converts the amplified signal to a complex-valued polyphase signal with a second in-phase component and a second quadrature-phase component, andwherein the first and second mixer are connected to the driver amplifier, the first mixer multiplying the second in-phase component by the local oscillator signal, and the second mixer multiplying the second quadrature-phase component by the local oscillator signal.

2. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the mixer unit is passive and the first and second mixer each have at least one MOSFET transistor with a gate terminal, which is connected to the driver amplifier to control the MOSFET transistor by the local oscillator signal.

3. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 2, wherein each MOSFET transistor has a second terminal connected to the polyphase filter, and a third terminal connected to an operational amplifier.

4. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the operational amplifiers are a component of a filter or a filter for channel selection and is connected on an output side to the mixer unit.

5. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein precisely one driver amplifier converts the high-frequency bandpass signal to the low-frequency quadrature signal.

6. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the polyphase filter has passive elements.

7. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 6, wherein the polyphase filter has only resistive and capacitive elements.

8. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the polyphase filter is a second-order polyphase filter.

9. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the polyphase filter has at least two all-pass filters with a different cut-off frequency.

10. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the amplifier arrangement has a second amplifier stage connected after the first amplifier stage, for generating the amplified signal and is configured to supply the two amplifier stages with operating power based on current reuse.

11. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein coupling capacitors are provided between the amplifier arrangement and the polyphase filter or/and between the polyphase filter and the mixer unit to suppress direct currents.

12. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the high-frequency bandpass signal has frequency portions in the gigahertz range.

13. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the low-frequency quadrature signal has frequency portions in the megahertz range.

14. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the mixer unit has precisely two mixers for providing the first in-phase component and the first quadrature-phase component.

15. The integrated circuit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the first mixer provides the first in-phase component by multiplying the second in-phase component by the local oscillator signal, and the second mixer provides the first quadrature-phase component by multiplying the second quadrature-phase component by the local oscillator signal.

16. A transmitting/receiving device for a data transmission system comprising: an antenna;a receiving unit that is connected to the antenna; andan integrated circuit arrangement the comprising: an amplifier arrangement for generating an amplified signal, the amplifier arrangement having a first amplifier stage for amplifying the high-frequency bandpass signal;a mixer unit having a first mixer to provide the first in-phase component and having a second mixer to provide the first quadrature-phase component; anda driver amplifier for providing a local oscillator signal;wherein, between the amplifier arrangement and the mixer unit, a polyphase filter is provided that converts the amplified signal to a complex-valued polyphase signal with a second in-phase component and a second quadrature-phase component, andwherein the first and second mixer are connected to the driver amplifier, the first mixer multiplying the second in-phase component by the local oscillator signal, and the second mixer multiplying the second quadrature-phase component by the local oscillator signal.

17. The transmitting/receiving device according to claim 16, wherein the data transmission system transmits and/or receives according to according to IEEE standard 802.15.4.

18. A method for converting a high-frequency bandpass signal to a low-frequency quadrature signal with a first in-phase component and a first quadrature-phase component, the method comprising: generating an amplified signal via an amplifier arrangement, the amplifier arrangement having a first amplifier stage for amplifying the high-frequency bandpass signal;providing the first in-phase component via a mixer unit having a first mixer;providing the first quadrature-phase component via a second mixer;providing a local oscillator signal via a driver amplifier;converting the amplified signal to a complex-valued polyphase signal with a second in-phase component and a second quadrature-phase component via a polyphase filter;multiplying the second in-phase component by the local oscillator signal via the first mixer; andmultiplying the second quadrature-phase component by the local oscillator signal via the second mixer.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the first and second mixer are connected to the driver amplifier.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the polyphase filter is provided between the amplifier arrangement and the mixer unit.