Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Such UWB systems through their receivers may operate in the presence of interfering signals and should provide for robust communications. Accordingly, an accurate and sharp filter that operates at low power is required and beneficially one that does not require a highly accurate power heavy clock. Further, many UWB applications require location and/or range finding of other elements and it would therefore be beneficial to provide a UWB based range finding and/or location capability removing the requirement to add additional device complexity and, typically significant, power consumption.

A system for wireless communication may include a passive gain front end circuit coupled to an N-path filter. In a transmit mode, signals may be provided to an antenna through the passive gain circuit. In the transmit mode, the N-path filter may provide isolation at the antenna. In a receive mode, the passive gain front end may provide gain to the received signal. In the receive mode, the N-path filter may be used to downconvert the received signal.

A receiver apparatus coupled to receive an RF signal having frequency components in a desired band and an image band, includes: an image rejection filter; a local oscillator to produce a first signal; a frequency divider to produce a plurality of second signals; a first mixer, coupled to receive the RF signal and the first signal, to produce an intermediate signal; and a frequency translation filter including a plurality of mixers each coupled to receive the intermediate signal and a different one of the plurality of second signals; and at least one impedance coupled as a load to each of the plurality of mixers, wherein: the image rejection filter and the frequency translation filter are configured to operate in conjunction to form a band-pass filter in the desired band and a band-stop filter in the image band and to apply the band-pass filter and band-stop filter to the RF signal.

Systems and methods for converting a capacitance signal into a band-limited voltage signal for improved signal processing are disclosed herein. Such systems can include a capacitance-to-voltage converter configured to convert a capacitive signal from a capacitive device that operates at a mechanical frequency into a raw voltage signal, a clock generator configured to convert the mechanical frequency into one or more clock signals, and a filter component configured to apply a band-pass filter response to the raw voltage signal to convert the raw voltage signal into a band-limited voltage signal. The clock generator can be configured to apply the one or more clock signals to the filter component to drive a first pole and a second pole of the band-pass filter response to track the mechanical frequency of the capacitive device such that the geometric mean of the first pole and the second pole is substantially equal to the mechanical frequency.

A frequency synthesizer, comprises a phase frequency detector to receive a frequency signal and a reference clock, and to output a phase difference according to a phase difference and a frequency difference between the frequency signal and the reference clock; a charge pump to generate a current according to the phase difference; a loop filter to generate a first voltage signal based on the current; a N-path filter each comprising a switch, a path filter and to generate N paths of filtered voltages based on the first voltage; a voltage control oscillator to generate a second voltage signal based on a sum of the N paths of filtered voltages; a frequency divider to generate the frequency signal based on the second voltage signal and a variable frequency dividing ratio; and a Sigma-Delta Modulator to generate the variable frequency dividing ratio based on a digital representation of a frequency fractional value and the reference clock.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Such UWB systems through their receivers may operate in the presence of interfering signals and should provide for robust communications. Accordingly, an accurate and sharp filter that operates at low power is required and beneficially one that does not require a highly accurate power heavy clock. Further, many UWB applications require location and/or range finding of other elements and it would therefore be beneficial to provide a UWB based range finding and/or location capability removing the requirement to add additional device complexity and, typically significant, power consumption.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Such UWB systems through their receivers may operate in the presence of interfering signals and should provide for robust communications. Accordingly, an accurate and sharp filter that operates at low power is required and beneficially one that does not require a highly accurate power heavy clock. Further, many UWB applications require location and/or range finding of other elements and it would therefore be beneficial to provide a UWB based range finding and/or location capability removing the requirement to add additional device complexity and, typically significant, power consumption.

Apparatus and methods related to multipath bandpass filters with passband notches are provided herein. In certain configurations, a multipath bandpass filter includes multiple filter circuit branches or paths that are electrically connected in parallel with one another between an input terminal and an output terminal. The input terminal receives an input signal, and each filter circuit branch includes a downconverter that downconverts the input signal to generate a downconverted signal, a filter network that generates a filtered signal by filtering the downconverted signal, and an upconverter that upconverts the filtered signal to generate a branch output signal. The filter network includes at least one low pass filter and at least one notch filter to provide a passband with in-band notches. The branch output signals from the filter circuit branches are combined to generate an output signal at the output terminal.

Multipath filters are provided herein. In certain configurations, a multipath filter includes multiple filter paths or circuit branches that are electrically connected in parallel with one another between an input terminal and an output terminal. The input terminal receives an input signal, and each filter circuit branch includes a double-in double-switched (DIDS) downconverter that downconverts the input signal with two different clock signal phases to generate a downconverted signal. Each filter circuit branch further includes a filter network that generates a filtered signal by filtering the downconverted signal and an upconverter that upconverts the filtered signal to generate a branch output signal. Additionally, the branch output signals from the filter circuit branches are combined to generate an output signal at the output terminal.

A receiver comprising a signal phase shifting block generating concurrent phase shifted copies of an input signal, and an impedance translation function block configured to receive the phase shifted copies of the input signal and generate a down converted signal wherein the impedance translation function block is driven by a single clock signal of frequency determined by a desired carrier frequency. The receiver including an energy harvesting block coupled to the phase shifting block to receive one or more in-band or out-of-band interferers in the input signal and reflected signals from the impedance translation function block due to nonlinearities.