Image rejection

1. A receiver for extracting a desired signal component from a received signal, which received signal contains the desired signal component and may contain an interfering signal component, wherein the receiver comprises a first mixer which generates an intermediate frequency signal containing a frequency-shifted version of the received signal and a frequency-shifted version of an image of the received signal, the receiver further comprising:

a second mixer for shifting the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal such that it is centered on a baseband frequency, so as to generate a first composite signal containing the shifted desired signal component and a shifted version of any interfering signal component contained in the image of the received signal;

a third mixer for shifting an image of the desired signal such that it is centered on the baseband frequency, so as to generate a second composite signal containing the shifted image of the desired signal component and a shifted version of any interfering signal component contained in the received signal;

an estimator for estimating, from the first and second composite signals, a coefficient whose magnitude is indicative of the amount of the interfering signal component that is present with the desired signal component in a selected one of the composite signals;

a multiplier for scaling the complex conjugate of the selected composite signal by the coefficient so estimated; and

an adder for subtracting the scaled signal output by the multiplier from the other composite signal to obtain a scaled version of the desired signal component.

2. A receiver according to claim 1 wherein the estimator is configured to calculate a power of each of the first and second composite signals, to calculate the correlation of the first and second composite signals and to divide the correlation by the sum of the powers to estimate the coefficient.

3. A receiver according to claim 1 wherein the second mixer shifts the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal and the image of the interfering signal component of the intermediate frequency signal down in frequency to generate the first composite signal and the third mixer shifts the interfering signal component of the intermediate frequency signal and the image of the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal up in frequency to generate the second composite signal.

4. A receiver according to claim 3 wherein the baseband frequency is DC.

5. A receiver according to claim 1 further comprising a first filter for removing unwanted frequency components from the first composite signal and a second filter for removing unwanted frequency components from the second composite signal.

6. A method of extracting a desired signal component from a received signal, which received signal contains the desired signal component and may contain an interfering signal component, wherein the method comprises generating an intermediate frequency signal containing a frequency-shifted version of the received signal and a frequency-shifted version of an image of the received signal, the method further comprising:

shifting the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal such that it is centered on a baseband frequency, so as to generate a first composite signal containing the shifted desired signal component and a shifted version of any interfering signal component contained in the image of the received signal;

shifting an image of the desired signal such that it is centered on the baseband frequency, so as to generate a second composite signal containing the shifted image of the desired signal component and a shifted version of any interfering signal component contained in the received signal;

estimating, from the first and second composite signals, a coefficient indicative of the amount of the interfering signal component that is present with the desired signal component in a selected one of the composite signals;

scaling the complex conjugate of the selected composite signal by the coefficient so estimated; and

subtracting the scaled signal output by the multiplier from the other composite signal to obtain a scaled version of the desired signal component.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein estimating the coefficient comprises calculating a power of each of the first and second composite signals, calculating the correlation of the first and second composite signals and dividing the correlation by the sum of the powers to estimate the coefficient.

8. A method according to claim 6 wherein the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal and the image of the interfering signal component of the intermediate signal are shifted down in frequency to generate the first composite signal and the interfering signal component of the intermediate frequency signal and the image of the desired signal component of the intermediate frequency signal are shifted up in frequency to generate the second composite signal.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the baseband frequency is DC.

10. A method according to claim 6 wherein the first and second composite signals are filtered to remove unwanted frequency components.

11. A computer program for performing the method of claim 6 .