The present disclosure includes a time-to-digital converter (TDC) based RF-to-digital (RDC) data converter for time domain signal processing polar receivers. Polar data conversion achieves better SNR tolerance owing to its phase convergence near the origin in a polar coordinate. The proposed RDC consists of a TDC for phase detection and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for amplitude conversion. Unlike the conversional data converter, the proposed ADC's sampling position is guided by the detected phase result from the TDC's output. This TDC assisted data-converter architecture reduces the number of bits required for the ADC. In addition, oversampling is no longer needed. With precisely controlled tunable delay cells and gain compensator, this hybrid data convertor is capable to directly convert Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) waveforms and Amplitude Phase Shift Keying (APSK) waveforms directly from the RF signal without down-conversion. Thus, the proposed RDC architecture achieves lower power consumption and better performance comparing with conventional I/Q receivers.

Disclosed is a microwave cavity resonator used as a phase change (phase modulation) to intensity change (intensity or amplitude modulation) converter. Certain aspects and embodiments include resonant circuits, such as a resistor, inductor and capacitor (RLC) circuit. Certain aspects and embodiments convert changes in phase to changes in output voltage to perform analog demodulation of a phase modulated microwave carrier. Certain aspects and embodiments use resonance when the reactive components of the circuit (capacitive and inductive components) are equal in magnitude and 180 degrees out of phase with one another, thereby cancelling out the reactance component of the circuit's impedance.

The invention relates to a method of date-stamping reception of digital data of a modulated signal, said signal resulting from the modulation of a carrier or sub-carrier by a digital signal, the bitrate of symbols of the digital signal being an integer sub-multiple N of the frequency of the carrier or sub-carrier, said method comprising the steps consisting in: —coherent demodulation by means of a phase loop of a plurality of samples sm(k) of the modulated signal and obtaining of a plurality of demodulated samples sdm(k) and of the phase of the reconstructed carrier; —association of the plurality of demodulated samples sdm(k) with the simultaneous phase φ(k) of the reconstructed carrier —determination of a plurality of dates of passage to a determined value φ0 of the phase of the reconstructed carrier, relative to the date of reception of at least one sample sm(k), according to a time shift during which the carrier rotates from φ(k) to φ0.

Disclosed is a microwave cavity resonator used as a phase change (phase modulation) to intensity change (intensity or amplitude modulation) converter. Certain aspects and embodiments include resonant circuits, such as a resistor, inductor and capacitor (RLC) circuit. Certain aspects and embodiments convert changes in phase to changes in output voltage to perform analog demodulation of a phase modulated microwave carrier. Certain aspects and embodiments use resonance when the reactive components of the circuit (capacitive and inductive components) are equal in magnitude and 180 degrees out of phase with one another, thereby cancelling out the reactance component of the circuit’s impedance.

Low power radio frequency (RF) receivers and related circuits are described.

A method of date-stamping reception of digital data of a signal coherently modulating the carrier or sub-carrier, and utilizing the properties of such a modulation to improve the date-stamping thereof. Thereby accurately correcting the date-stamping of a pilot sequence (known pattern), and reducing the variance on the date-stamping of the transitions of the bits.

Capturing, extracting and storing narrowband IQ data for later processing enables timely and efficient analysis. As wideband capture of RF information includes noise and non-signal elements, the present invention detects, extracts and stores narrowband IQ signals for later assessment. By transforming a high-volume data stream to a collection of smaller narrowband signals with greatly reduced storage and on-board processing requirements the present invention facilitates the capability to analyze signals of interest in an otherwise denied environment.

The present disclosure includes a time-to-digital converter (TDC) based RF-to-digital (RDC) data converter for time domain signal processing polar receivers. Polar data conversion achieves better SNR tolerance owing to its phase convergence near the origin in a polar coordinate. The proposed RDC consists of a TDC for phase detection and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for amplitude conversion. Unlike the conversional data converter, the proposed ADC's sampling position is guided by the detected phase result from the TDC's output. This TDC assisted data-converter architecture reduces the number of bits required for the ADC. In addition, oversampling is no longer needed. With precisely controlled tunable delay cells and gain compensator, this hybrid data convertor is capable to directly convert Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) waveforms and Amplitude Phase Shift Keying (APSK) waveforms directly from the RF signal without down-conversion. Thus, the proposed RDC architecture achieves lower power consumption and better performance comparing with conventional I/Q receivers.

Capturing, extracting and storing narrowband IQ data for later processing enables timely and efficient analysis. As wideband capture of RF information includes noise and non-signal elements, the present invention detects, extracts and stores narrowband IQ signals for later assessment. By transforming a high-volume data stream to a collection of smaller narrowband signals with greatly reduced storage and on-board processing requirements the present invention facilitates the capability to analyze signals of interest in an otherwise denied environment.

A receiver includes one or more mixers configured to sample an input analog signal at a plurality of discrete points in time to obtain a discrete-time sampled signal based on a local oscillating signal provided by a local oscillator; and a sample reordering circuit coupled to the one or more mixers and configured to reorder a sequence of samples received from the one or more mixers.