Patent ID: 9647829
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04L

Claim:
1. A transmit (TX) signal path circuit in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver, the TX signal path circuit being responsive to a digital front end (DFE) of the MIMO transceiver for alternatively generating TX signals in a TX signal mode, or receive (RX) path phase alignment signals for phase alignment of a plurality of RX signal paths of the MIMO transceiver in a RX phase alignment mode, the TX signal path circuit comprising: a digital up-conversion block for receiving digital baseband signals from the DFE and for generating digital intermediate frequency (IF) signals based on the digital baseband signals, the digital up-conversion block being coupled to a first numerically-controlled oscillator (NCO) for modulating the digital baseband signals to generate the digital IF signals in the TX signal mode, and the digital up-conversion block being further coupled to a second NCO different from the first NCO for modulating the digital baseband signals to generate the digital IF signals in the RX phase alignment mode; a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) coupled to the digital up-conversion block for receiving the digital IF signals and for generating analog IF signals based on the digital IF signals; and a radio frequency (RF) up-conversion block coupled to the DAC for receiving the analog IF signals and for generating analog RF signals based on the analog IF signals, the RF up-conversion block being coupled to a TX local oscillator (LO) for modulating the analog IF signals to generate the analog RF signals in the TX signal mode, and the RF up-conversion block being further coupled to a feedback (FB) LO different from the TX LO for modulating the analog IF signals to generate the analog RF signals in the RX phase alignment mode, wherein the RF up-conversion block comprises a first divide-by-2 in-phase quadrature-phase (IQ) generation (IQ-DIV2) circuit coupled to the TX LO for modulating the analog IF signals to generate the analog RF signals in the TX signal mode, wherein the RF up-conversion block further comprises a second IQ-DIV2 circuit coupled to the FB LO for modulating the analog IF signals to generate the analog RF signals in the RX phase alignment mode, and wherein the second IQ-DIV2 circuit is different from the first IQDIV2 circuit.