Automatic gain control circuit and automatic gain control method
View Patent ↗In an automatic gain control circuit of a demodulating circuit, power values of pieces of symbol information I and Q of in-phase components and quadrature components of a modulated signal are calculated, a power difference between each power value and an ideal power value is detected, and an AGC control signal is produced to adjust a gain of the modulated signal according to the AGC control signal in a demodulating system including the demodulating circuit. Therefore, when an amount of noise included in the modulated signal is low, an average value of the power differences is reduced to zero, and the modulated signal can be correctly demodulated to a demodulated signal. To correctly demodulate the modulated signal including a large amount of noise, after the conversion of the AGC control signal, a sweep counter value is added to the AGC control signal so as to minimize a bit error rate of the demodulated signal. Thereafter, the ideal power value is corrected to reduce the average value of the power differences to zero even though the AGC control signal is corrected.
1. An automatic gain control (AGC) circuit of a demodulating circuit, which has an automatic gain control amplifier for adjusting a gain of a modulated signal, comprising:
difference detecting means for calculating a plurality of power values of pieces of symbol information of in-phase components and quadrature components of the modulated signal and detecting a power difference between each calculated power value and an ideal power value;
control means for producing an AGC control signal to reduce an average value of the power differences detected by the difference detecting means to zero by controlling the automatic gain control amplifier according to the AGC control signal;
first correcting means for minimizing a bit error rate of data, which is obtained from the modulated signal in the demodulating circuit, by correcting the AGC control signal produced by the control means; and
second correcting means for correcting the ideal power value to reduce an average value of the power differences detected by the difference detecting means, in which the power differences are detected from the modulated signal adjusted by the automatic gain control amplifier according to the AGC control signal corrected by the first correcting means, to zero, wherein each power difference detected by the difference detecting means is multiplied by a prescribed gain by the second correcting means to produce a multiplied value, the multiplied value is transmitted through a loop filter of the second correcting means, the multiplied value transmitted through the loop filter is added to the ideal power value to produce a corrected ideal power value and to detect power differences produced from the corrected ideal power value.
2. An automatic gain control circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the bit error rate of the data is monitored by the first correcting means while a correction value added to the AGC control signal to correct the AGC control signal is changed, and the correction value is fixed to a specific correction value by the first correcting means on condition that the bit error rate of the data is minimized by adding the specific correction value to the AGC control signal.
3. An automatic gain control circuit according to claim 2 , wherein the correction value is changed under control of an external control unit by the first correcting means.
4. An automatic gain control circuit according to claim 1 , wherein the first correcting means has an external control unit for correcting the AGC control signal.
5. An automatic gain control (AGC) method, comprising the steps of:
calculating a plurality of power values of pieces of symbol information of in-phase components and quadrature components of a modulated signal;
detecting a power difference between each power value and an ideal power value;
producing an AGC control signal to reduce an average value of the power differences to zero by adjusting a gain of the modulated signal according to the AGC control signal;
minimizing a bit error rate of data, which is obtained from the modulated signal, by correcting the AGC control signal to a corrected AGC control signal; and
correcting the ideal power value after the completion of the minimization of the bit error rate to reduce an average value of the power differences, which are detected from the modulated signal adjusted according to the corrected AGC control signal, to zero,
wherein the step of correcting the ideal power value comprises the steps of:
multiplying the power difference between each power value and the ideal power value by a prescribed gain to produce a multiplied value;
transmitting the multiplied value through a loop filter; and
adding the multiplied value transmitted through the loop filter to the ideal power value to produce a corrected ideal power value and to detect power differences produced from the corrected ideal power value.
6. An automatic gain control method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of minimizing the bit error rate of the data comprises the steps of:
monitoring the bit error rate of the data while a correction value added to the AGC control signal to correct the AGC control signal is changed; and
fixing the correction value to a specific correction value on condition that the bit error rate of the data is minimized by adding the specific correction value to the AGC control signal.
7. An automatic gain control method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of monitoring the bit error rate comprises the step of changing the correction value under control of an external control unit.
8. An automatic gain control method according to claim 5 , wherein the step of minimizing the bit error rate of the data comprises the step of correcting the AGC control signal under control of an external control unit.