IP Library Granted Patent US 8,238,506
Granted Patent B2
US 8,238,506 · App. 12/349,141 · Granted Aug 7, 2012

Phase-discriminating device and method

Assignee: National Applied Research Laboratories
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,238,506
App. No.
12/349,141
Granted
Aug 7, 2012
Kind
B2
Abstract

A high-accuracy and computational efficient phase-discriminating device is provided and includes a phase-discriminating unit. The phase-discriminating unit converts an input and a reference signals into an input and a reference sequences respectively by a one-bit A/D conversion operation, determines a first value, an in-phase component and a quadrature component of the input signal in response to the input and the reference sequences, and produces an estimated phase of the input signal according to a relation among the first value, the in-phase component and a polarity of the quadrature component, wherein the first value is a certain integer being one of a first integer and a second integer, the first integer is a sampling count of the one-bit A/D conversion operation for producing the input sequence, and the second integer is a summation of an absolute value of the in-phase component and that of the quadrature component.

Claims (92)

1. A phase-discriminating device, comprising:

a phase-discriminating unit converting an input and a reference signals into an input and a reference sequences respectively by a one-bit A/D conversion operation, determining a first value A P , an in-phase component I P and a quadrature component Q P of the input signal in response to the input and the reference sequences, and producing an estimated phase of the input signal according to a relation among the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and a polarity of the quadrature component Q P , wherein the relation is defined by a first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )), the sgn[Q P ] denotes a polarity function, the estimated phase is proportional to the first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )) and the first value A P is a certain integer being one of:

a first integer being a sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation for producing the input sequence; and

a second integer being a summation of an absolute value of the in-phase component I P and an absolute value of the quadrature component Q P .

2. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 1 , wherein:

the input signal has a carrier frequency; and

the reference signal includes an in-phase and a quadrature reference waves, wherein each of the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves has the carrier frequency.

3. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 2 , wherein the first value A P is the first integer, and the phase-discriminating unit comprises:

a determining unit converting the input and the reference signals into the input and the reference sequences respectively by the one-bit A/D conversion operation, and determining the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences; and

a phase-estimating unit electrically connected to the determining unit, calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2), and multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

4. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 2 , wherein the first value A P is the second integer, and the phase-discriminating unit comprises:

a determining unit converting the input and the reference signals into the input and the reference sequences respectively by the one-bit A/D conversion operation, and determining the in-phase component Ip and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences; and

a phase-estimating unit electrically connected to the determining unit, calculating the second integer, calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2), and multiplying the second value by n to produce the estimated phase.

5. A phase-discriminating device, comprising:

a phase-discriminating unit processing an input signal by a one-bit A/D conversion operation to determine a first value A P , an in-phase component I P and a quadrature component Q P of the input signal, and producing an estimated phase of the input signal according to a relation among the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and a polarity of the quadrature component Q P , wherein the relation is defined by a first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )), the sgn[Q P ] denotes a polarity function, the first value A P is associated with a signal-to-noise ratio of the input signal, and the estimated phase is proportional to the first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )).

6. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 5 , wherein:

the phase-discriminating unit determines a reference signal according to the input signal, converts the input and the reference signals into an input and a reference sequences respectively by the one-bit A/D conversion operation, and determines the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences;

the input signal has a carrier frequency;

the reference signal includes an in-phase and a quadrature reference waves, wherein each of the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves has the carrier frequency;

the reference sequence includes an in-phase and a quadrature reference sequences; and

each of the input, the in-phase and the quadrature reference sequences has a high and a low bit values being 1 and −1 respectively.

7. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 6 , wherein the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 10 dB, the first value A P is an integer being a sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation for producing the input sequence, and the phase-discriminating unit comprises:

a determining unit converting the input and the reference signals into the input and the reference sequences respectively by the one-bit A/D conversion operation, and determining the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences; and

a phase-estimating unit electrically connected to the determining unit, calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2), and multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

8. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 7 , wherein the determining unit comprises:

an A/D converter receiving the input signal, determining the reference signal according to the input signal, and sampling the input signal and the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves by a number of times equal to the sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation to respectively produce the input, the in-phase and the quadrature reference sequences;

a first XOR gate producing a first sequence having corresponding bit values in response to the input and the in-phase reference sequences;

a second XOR gate producing a second sequence having corresponding bit values in response to the input and the quadrature reference sequences;

a first counter device accumulating the corresponding bit values of the first sequence to produce the in-phase component I P ; and

a second counter device accumulating the corresponding bit values of the second sequence to produce the quadrature component Q P .

9. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 7 , wherein the phase-estimating unit comprises:

an addition circuit receiving the in-phase component I P and the sample size from the determining unit, and subtracting the in-phase component I P from the sample size to produce a third value;

a first multiplication circuit receiving the sample size, and multiplying the sample size by 2 to produce a fourth value;

a division circuit receiving the third value and the fourth value, and dividing the third value by the fourth value to produce a fifth value;

a polarity determining circuit receiving the quadrature component Q P , and producing a sixth value of the sgn[Q P ];

a second multiplication circuit receiving the fifth value and the sixth value, and multiplying the fifth value by the sixth value to produce the second value; and

a third multiplication circuit receiving the second value, and multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

10. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 6 , wherein the first value A P is an integer being a summation of an absolute value of the I P and an absolute value of the Q P , and the phase-discriminating unit comprises:

a determining unit converting the input and the reference signals into the input and the reference sequences respectively by the one-bit A/D conversion operation, and determining the in-phase component I P and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences; and

a phase-estimating unit electrically connected to the determining unit, calculating the first value A P , calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2), and multiplying the second value by n to produce the estimated phase.

11. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 10 , wherein the determining unit comprises:

an A/D converter receiving the input signal and the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves, and sampling the input signal and the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves by a number of times equal to a sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation to respectively produce the input, the in-phase and the quadrature reference sequences;

a first XOR gate producing a first sequence having corresponding bit values in response to the input and the in-phase reference sequences;

a second XOR gate producing a second sequence having corresponding bit values in response to the input and the quadrature reference sequences;

a first counter device accumulating the corresponding bit values of the first sequence to produce the in-phase component I P ; and

a second counter device accumulating the corresponding bit values of the second sequence to produce the quadrature component Q P .

12. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 10 , wherein the phase-estimating unit comprises:

a first operation circuit producing a third and a fourth values in response to the in-phase component I P ;

a second operation circuit producing the second value in response to the quadrature component I Q and the third and the fourth values; and

a first multiplication circuit receiving the second value, and multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

13. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 12 , wherein the first operation circuit comprises:

a polarity determining circuit receiving the in-phase component I P , and producing a fifth value of the sgn[I P ];

an NOT gate receiving the fifth value, and producing a sixth value;

an absolute-value determining circuit receiving the in-phase component I P , and calculating an absolute value of the in-phase component I P to produce the third value; and

a multiplication circuit receiving the third value and the sixth value, and multiplying the third value by the sixth value to produce the fourth value.

14. A phase-discriminating device according to claim 12 , wherein the second operation circuit comprises:

an absolute-value determining circuit receiving the quadrature component Q P , and calculating an absolute value of the quadrature component Q P to produce a fifth value;

a first addition circuit receiving the third value and the fifth value, and adding the third value and the fifth value to produce the first value A P ;

a second addition circuit receiving the fourth value and the first value A P , and adding the fourth value and the first value A P to produce a sixth value;

a first multiplication circuit receiving the first value A P , and multiplying the first value A P by 2 to produce a seventh value;

a division circuit receiving the sixth value and the seventh value, and dividing the sixth value by the seventh value to produce an eighth value;

a polarity determining circuit receiving the quadrature component Q P , and producing a ninth value of the sgn[Q P ]; and

a second multiplication circuit receiving the eighth value and the ninth value, and multiplying the eighth value by the ninth value to produce the second value.

15. A phase-discriminating method, comprising steps of:

(a) processing an input signal by a one-bit A/D conversion operation to determine a first value A P , an in-phase component I P and a quadrature component Q P of the input signal; and

(b) producing an estimated phase of the input signal according to a relation among the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and a polarity of the quadrature component Q P , wherein the relation is defined by a first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )), the sgn[Q P ] denotes a polarity function, the first value A P is associated with a signal-to-noise ratio of the input signal, and the estimated phase is proportional to the first formula (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )).

16. A phase-discriminating method according to claim 15 , wherein the step (a) further comprises sub-steps of:

(c) determining a reference signal according to the input signal;

(d) converting the input and the reference signals into an input and a reference sequences respectively by a one-bit A/D conversion operation;

(e) determining the first value A P , the in-phase component I P and the quadrature component Q P in response to the input and the reference sequences, wherein:

the input signal has a carrier frequency;

the reference signal includes an in-phase and a quadrature reference waves, wherein each of the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves has the carrier frequency;

the reference sequence includes an in-phase and a quadrature reference sequences; and

each of the input, the in-phase and the quadrature reference sequences has a high and a low bit values being 1 and −1 respectively.

17. A phase-discriminating method according to claim 16 , wherein the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 10 dB, the first value A P is an integer being a sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation for producing the input sequence, and the step (d) further comprises a sub-step of:

sampling the input signal and the in-phase and the quadrature reference waves by a number of times equal to the sample size of the one-bit A/D conversion operation to respectively produce the input, the in-phase and the quadrature reference sequences; and

the step (e) further comprises sub-steps of:

multiplying the input sequence by the in-phase reference sequence to produce a first sequence having corresponding bit values;

multiplying the input sequence by the quadrature reference sequence to produce a second sequence having corresponding bit values;

accumulating the corresponding bit values of the first sequence to produce the in-phase component I P ; and

accumulating the corresponding bit values of the second sequence to produce the quadrature component Q P .

18. A phase-discriminating method according to claim 17 , wherein the step (b) further comprises sub-steps of:

calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2); and

multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

19. A phase-discriminating method according to claim 17 , wherein:

the first sequence includes a plurality of bit values;

the step (e) further comprises a sub-step of counting an amount of how many the plurality of bit values equal to the low bit value;

the first formula divided by 2, (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2), is equivalent to a second formula (sgn[Q P ]·(B P /A P )); and

the B P is the amount.

20. A phase-discriminating method according to claim 16 , wherein the first value A P is an integer being a summation of an absolute value of the I P and an absolute value of the Q P , and the step (b) further comprises sub-steps of:

calculating a second value equal to (sgn[Q P ]·(1−I P /A P )/2); and

multiplying the second value by π to produce the estimated phase.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 29, 2023
From: NATIONAL APPLIED RESEARCH LABORATORIES
To: TAIWAN SPACE AGENCY
Reel/Frame 064736/0365 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 6, 2009
From: CHANG, CHIEH-FU; YANG, RU-MUH; KAO, MING-SENG
To: NATIONAL APPLIED RESEARCH LABORATORIES
Reel/Frame 022065/0069 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20100171526A1 · Jul 8, 2010