This patent application claims priority from German patent application 10 2004 048 572.0 filed Oct. 4, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The invention relates to a the field of carrier signal recovery, and in particular to suppression of a perturbing quadrature component of a carrier signal of an amplitude-modulated signal during the recovery of the carrier signal in a synchronous demodulator, which outputs a quadrature signal.
To receive an amplitude-modulated signal (e.g., an analog television signal), one must first select a particular channel, which is mixed by a tuner onto an intermediate frequency fZ1 (e.g., fZ1=38.9 MHz). In order to demodulate this signal by digital signal processing, one would need an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with a very high sampling rate fAT1 and resolution b1 (e.g., fAT1=100 MHz/b1=10 bit). Therefore, the signal is mixed onto a second, lower intermediate frequency fZ2. This intermediate frequency fZ2 is ideally a frequency that corresponds to the channel raster in the HF band (e.g., fZ2=7 MHz).
Given suitable frequency selection, the intermediate signal can now be digitally converted with a much lower sampling frequency fAT2. The digitized signal is mixed by a synchronous demodulator into the base band, while the carrier frequency fT (preferably the picture carrier frequency fBT) is generated by a fully digital phase-locked loop (PLL). By further digital filtering of the resulting in-phase and quadrature component, the signal (e.g., a picture and/or sound information) is extracted.
The digitized signal on the line 10 is input to automatic gain control (AGC) device 21 for a tuner (channel selection device), and to a synchronous demodulator 15. The synchronous demodulator 15 provides an in-phase signal output A15,I and a quadrature signal output A15,Q on lines 16, 17 respectively. Both signals are input to a filter device 18. The filter device 18 provides an in-phase signal output A18,I and a quadrature signal output A18,Q on lines 19, 20, respectively. The in-phase signal on the line 19 is input to an automatic gain control unit for video signals 23.
The automatic gain control unit for video signals 23 provides a first output designated A23,1 on a line 102 and a second output designated A23,2 on a line 28.
The first output A23,1 is output on the line 102 is input to the automatic gain control unit for tuner signals 21, which provides its single output A21 on line 27 to the aforementioned first output A11,1 of the digital signal processor 11.
The second output A23,2 on the line 28 to the aforementioned second output A11,2 of the digital signal processor. The quadrature signal output A18,Q on the line 20 is input to an automatic gain control unit 25 for audio signals, which provides an output A25 on a line 29 to the third output A11,3 of the digital signal processor 11.
The outputs A11,1, A11,2, A11,3 on lines 27-29 respectively, are input to digital-to-analog converters (DAC) 30, 31, 32, respectively. The DAC 30 provides an analog tuner AGC signal; the DAC 31 provides an analog color video blanking signal (CVBS); and the DAC 32 provides a sound IF signal (SIF). The digital TV receiver 1 of
The digital TV receiver 1 receives an input signal on the line 3, and the mixer 2 converts the signal into a second intermediate frequency, the so-called second IF. This second IF signal on the line 6 is bandpass filtered, to remove unwanted mixing products from the signal so it can be digitized without signal aliasing by the ADC 9.
In the digital section 11, the digitized signal on the line 10 is mixed by the synchronous demodulator 15 into the base band. At the outputs A15,I, A15,Q of the synchronous demodulator 15 are presented as demodulated in-phase and quadrature signals I, Q. By further filtering and various other algorithms in the filter device 18, the video signal and the sound IF signal are obtained from the I/Q data. The tuner AGC 21 adjusts the tuner output level so that the ADC 9 connected to the input E11 of the DSPS 11 is not overmodulated. The VAGC 23 and AAGC 25 (video AGC and audio AGC) connected to the output signals on the line 19, 20, respectively, are optimally modulated for the DACs 31, 32.
If one considers the ideal case of a second IF signal supplied to the input E9 of the ADC 9 with cosine picture carrier signal with picture carrier frequency fBT, cosine picture information signal with picture information frequency fpicture and cosine sound carrier signal with sound carrier frequency fTT and cosine sound information signal with sound information frequency fsound, this can be described by the following equation:
with:
The sound carrier is irrelevant to the processing of the picture carrier and is therefore filtered out within the carrier recovery process. After the filtering, one gets a signal that can be described by the following equation:
For example, lack of symmetry in the transmission modulator or in the analog signal processing of the TV receiver 1 can perturb the picture carrier 34 with an orthogonal component 35 (
with:
In the corresponding phasor representation, shown in
Demodulators according to the prior art are dimensioned such that the phase modulation is constantly adjusted by the carrier processing. This has the result, first, that rapid following of the picture carrier will correctly reconstruct the information even when an orthogonal carrier component exists, but because (e.g., in analog television) the sound carrier is mixed by the reconstructed picture carrier onto the sound intermediate frequency, it is subject to the same frequency changes, which translates into an additional frequency modulation. Secondly, the large required bandwidth of the carrier control process also adjusts the noise to maximum amplitude, which results in reducing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
The digital carrier processing in the digital signal processor 11 according to
In particular, one notices in
Specifically, the I/Q demodulator 15a is constructed in the usual manner. It comprises one input E15 and two outputs, namely, an in-phase signal output A15,I and a quadrature signal output A15,Q. The input E15 is provided on the line 14 to the first mixer 40, and the second mixer 41. Both mixers 40, 41 have an additional second input E40,2, E41,2, which receive the picture carrier signals BT in the above-mentioned manner.
The mixer 40 provides an output on a line 45 to a first low-pass filter 38. The mixer 41 provides an output on a line 46 to a second low-pass filter 39.
The first low-pass 38 provides the in-phase signal output A15,I on the line 16, and the second low-pass 39 provides the quadrature signal output A15,Q on the line 17.
The signals on the lines 16, 17 are input to a low-pass filter 51, which filters each of the signals to provide outputs A51,1 and A51,2 on lines 52, 53, respectively to a computer unit 54 corresponding to the inputs E51,1 and E51,2, respectively.
The computer unit (i.e., CORDIC) 54 provides outputs A54,1, A54,2 on lines 55, 56 to of an automatic controller 37.
One or more outputs A37 of the computer unit 37 are provided on lines 57 to a digital I/Q oscillator 36, which provides signals on the lines 58 to the mixers 40 and 41.
The low-pass filter 51 selects the picture carrier, which lies here in the baseband (fBT≈0 Hz). The subsequent Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) 54 determines, from the low-pass filtered I/Q pairs of values (i.e., the signals on the lines 52, 53), the phase 55 and the amplitude 56. The phase on the line 55 constitutes the phase difference between the picture carrier of the received signal on the line 14 and the local carrier on the line 58 of the I/Q oscillator 36. The phase on the line 55 is converted in the automatic controller 37 to a correction signal on the line 57, in order to follow the local I/Q oscillator 36. After several iterations (loop passes), the carrier on the line 58 is matched to the received carrier on the line 14.
In the above-described digital implementation of the carrier control process, a bandwidth comparable to the analog solution can only be achieved with difficulty. The bandwidth is limited by the relatively large signal delay within the automatic control loop (filtering, phase and amplitude measuring with Cordic algorithm).
Upon receiving an analog television signal, this has effects on the demodulated video signal as well as the demodulated sound carrier, since the latter is also frequency-modulated by the adjustment of the PLL.
The sound carrier is converted by the local I/Q oscillator 36 into the sound intermediate frequency. If, due to an orthogonal perturbing component of the picture carrier, a phase modulation of the picture carrier occurs, this translates into a frequency modulation of the sound intermediate frequency carrier, since the local carrier 58 follows the phase modulation.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and a circuit arrangement in which unperturbed demodulation of the signal is improved during the processing of the carrier, even when the transmitters are poorly aligned. There is also a need to estimate and compensate for the orthogonal perturbation.
Suppressing a perturbing quadrature component of a carrier signal of an amplitude-modulated signal during the recovery of the carrier signal in a synchronous demodulator, which outputs a quadrature signal, includes estimating the perturbing quadrature component of the carrier signal and the estimated quadrature component is subtracted from the quadrature signal.
An embodiment of the invention specifies measuring of the orthogonal carrier component contained in the signal and compensation for this within the carrier control process. Advantageously, the bandwidth of the PLL does not need to be changed in order to demodulate the information without sacrificing quality, in order to prevent a frequency-modulated sound signal from being perturbed by the existence of an orthogonal picture carrier component, in the example of analog television.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The orthogonal perturbing component, which is known in English technical parlance as “modulator imbalance,” can be estimated as discussed herein.
The orthogonal perturbing component appears as a DC voltage value in the Q pathway after the I/Q mixer. The carrier recovery process interprets this as a phase error (measured with a CORDIC) and thus regulates the digital I/Q oscillator to a presumably correct value. Upon a change in the amplitude of the IF signal (e.g., a change in picture content from white to black in the case of a television signal), a DC signal again becomes briefly visible in the Q pathway and it is regulated back again. The amplitude of the DC signal in the Q pathway depends on the magnitude and direction of the change in amplitude. The phasor diagram in
Referring to
|q↑|>|q↓| (EQ. 4)
Referring to
For example, if one has an information signal 66 in the form of a sawtooth (video picture: grayscale;
Ideally, the amplitude change is determined by the absolute value from the instantaneous I and Q value. A more economical solution is achieved—assuming that the carrier recovery process is locked in—by evaluating only the change in the I portion, as is shown for example in
In order to render the measurement robust to phase changes of the picture carrier, it is advantageous to use the differential control deviations:
for the estimate.
of the in-phase component from the equation:
and for the described example from
Simulations show that the measurement of the perturbing component is subject to relatively large fluctuations and furthermore depends strongly on the information sent, since the effects of the perturbing component only become visible when there are amplitude changes in the information. Therefore, the measurement result is also low-pass filtered. The low-pass filtering is designated by 113 in
This method as described above can be implemented by the digital circuit arrangement 90 illustrated in
The functioning of the control process in the overall system has been established by simulation. The effect, for example, on analog TV signals, is especially noticeable for picture contents with white levels at the end of a video line. If a strong orthogonal noise component is present, it will perturb the line synchronization pulse at the end of the line or the start of the next line and thus produce horizontal distortion in the subsequent lines.
This circuit arrangement can be implemented in a synchronous demodulator known from the prior art.
Referring to
The output signal on the line 120 is input to a difference unit 121, which also receives the output A39 of the low-pass 39.
The low-pass filtered estimated signal {right arrow over (U)}qa with amplitude Ûqa on the line 120 is subtracted from the quadrature signal Q by the mixer 121 and thereby compensated. It is contemplated that any other automatic control loop may be used in place of the I-controller 119.
The I-controller 119 first amplifies or attenuates the signal on the line 112 with an adjustable factor and then takes it to an integration element. The speed of the automatic control loop will be influenced by the factor. The current state of the integration element is at the same time the estimated signal {right arrow over (U)}qa. The following should also be mentioned in connection with
The control deviation is produced by the perturbing orthogonal component, since this results in the described phase modulation. By integration (and sign correction), the quadrature component is estimated from the control deviation. This only works with an automatic control loop, since the orthogonal noise component can not be calculated directly.
The actual noise estimation is designated by the circuit 90, illustrated in
Although the present invention has been illustrated and described with respect to several preferred embodiments thereof, various changes, omissions and additions to the form and detail thereof, may be made therein, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2004 048 572.0 | Oct 2004 | DE | national |