Patent · US Expired

Frequency synthesis architecture in a satellite receiver

US6091931A · kind A · utility

31Cited by
3References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 18, 1997
Grant dateJul 18, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 18, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N7/20
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An improved DBS receiver front end architecture having a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoder chip. The tuner chip and the demodulator/decoder chip each include portions of a digital tuning frequency synthesizer. The frequency synthesizer comprises one or more digital counters which are implemented on the demodulator/decoder chip, and an oscillator which is implemented on the tuner chip. This advantageously avoids digital noise interference with the tuner chip while providing a reduced part count. Briefly, the present invention concerns a DBS receiver front end which includes a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoder chip which cooperate to perform a frequency synthesis function. The tuner chip has a tuning oscillator coupled to a tank circuit having an adjustable resonance frequency, and a downconverter coupled to receive a tuning frequency signal provided by the tuning oscillator. The demodulator/decoder chip has a programmable counter configured to count cycles of the tuning frequency to provide a frequency-divided signal to a phase detector. The phase detector compares the frequency-divided signal to a reference frequency, and is coupled to adjust the resonance frequency of the ta…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.