Patent attributes
Disclosed are hybrid heterodyne transmitters and receivers for use in communications systems, or other systems, and the corresponding methods for hybrid heterodyne transmitting and receiving. A heterodyne receiver for converting a continuous time modulated signal to a discrete time digital baseband signal includes a sigma-delta modulator. The sigma-delta modulator is a sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter constructed and arranged to receive a modulated signal at an RF carrier frequency and provide a quantized output at a first intermediate frequency. The heterodyne receiver may also include a digital mixer constructed and arranged to receive a data stream quantized by the sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter and receive a signal at a second mixing frequency. The digital mixer then provides digital signals representative of a baseband signal suitable for digital signal processing.
