Measuring the DC properties of a signal path between transmitter and receiver
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for measuring transmitter and/or receiver I/Q impairments are disclosed, including iterative methods for measuring transmitter I/Q impairments using shared local oscillators, iterative methods for measuring transmitter I/Q impairments using intentionally-offset local oscillators, and methods for measuring receiver I/Q impairments. Also disclosed are methods for computing I/Q impairments from a sampled complex signal, methods for computing DC properties of a signal path between the transmitter and receiver, and methods for transforming I/Q impairments through a linear system.
1. A computer-implemented method for estimating a DC scaling of a signal path between an I/Q modulator of a transmitter and a demodulator of a receiver, the method comprising:
directing the transmitter to supply a zero signal as input to the I/Q modulator;
receive a first response signal that has been captured from the I/Q demodulator in response to said supplying the zero signal;
directing the transmitter to supply a stimulus signal as input to the I/Q modulator, wherein the stimulus signal comprises a constant signal equal to a non-zero complex constant;
receive a second response signal that has been captured from the demodulator in response to said supplying the constant signal;
averaging the first response signal to obtain a first average and averaging the second response signal to obtain a second average;
computing a difference between the second average and the first average;
computing the DC scaling based on the difference and the non-zero complex constant; and
storing the DC scaling in a memory.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
computing a DC rotation of the signal path based on a phase of the difference and a phase of the non-zero complex constant.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the DC scaling and DC rotation are usable to remove an effect of the signal path from measured I/Q impairments at the receiver in order to obtain estimates of the I/Q impairments of the transmitter.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal path includes a cable coupling between the transmitter and the receiver.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal path includes a wireless channel between the transmitter and the receiver.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stimulus signal comprises a superposition of the constant signal and a tone with non-zero baseband frequency.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said averaging, said computing a difference and said computing the DC scaling are performed in a programmable hardware element.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaginary component of the non-zero complex constant is zero.
9. A computer system for estimating a DC scaling of a signal path between an I/Q modulator of a transmitter and an I/Q demodulator of a receiver, the computer system comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
direct the transmitter to supply a zero signal as input to the I/Q modulator;
receive a first response signal that has been captured from the I/Q demodulator in response to said supplying the zero signal;
direct the transmitter to supply a stimulus signal as input to the I/Q modulator, wherein the stimulus signal comprises a constant signal equal to a non-zero complex constant;
receive a second response signal that has been captured from the I/Q demodulator in response to said supplying the constant signal;
average the first response signal to obtain a first average and averaging the second response signal to obtain a second average;
compute a difference between the second average and the first average;
compute the DC scaling based on the difference and the non-zero complex constant.
10. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:
compute a DC rotation of the signal path based on a phase of the difference and a phase of the non-zero complex constant.
11. The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the DC scaling and DC rotation are usable to remove an effect of the signal path from measured I/Q impairments at the receiver in order to obtain estimates of the I/Q impairments of the transmitter.
12. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the signal path includes a cable coupling between the transmitter and the receiver.
13. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the signal path includes a wireless channel between the transmitter and the receiver.
14. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the stimulus signal comprises a superposition of the constant signal and a tone with non-zero baseband frequency.
15. The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the imaginary component of the non-zero complex constant is zero.
16. A non-transitory computer-accessible memory medium for estimating a DC scaling of a signal path between an I/Q modulator of a transmitter and a demodulator of a receiver, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the program instructions, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:
direct the transmitter to supply a zero signal as input to the I/Q modulator;
receive a first response signal that has been captured from the I/Q demodulator in response to said supplying the zero signal;
direct the transmitter to supply a stimulus signal as input to the I/Q modulator, wherein the stimulus signal comprises a constant signal equal to a non-zero complex constant;
receive a second response signal that has been captured from the demodulator in response to said supplying the constant signal;
average the first response signal to obtain a first average and averaging the second response signal to obtain a second average;
compute a difference between the second average and the first average;
compute the DC scaling based on the difference and the non-zero complex constant; and
store the DC scaling in a memory.
17. The memory medium of claim 16 , wherein the program instructions, when executed by the computer system, further cause the computer system to:
compute a DC rotation of the signal path based on a phase of the difference and a phase of the non-zero complex constant.
18. The memory medium of claim 17 , wherein the DC scaling and DC rotation are usable to remove an effect of the signal path from measured I/Q impairments at the receiver in order to obtain estimates of the I/Q impairments of the transmitter.
19. The memory medium of claim 16 , wherein the signal path includes a cable coupling between the transmitter and the receiver.
20. The memory medium of claim 16 , wherein the stimulus signal comprises a superposition of the constant signal and a tone with non-zero baseband frequency.