Patent ID: 7880656

Claim:
A transmitter generating a radio frequency (RF) signal and comprising: a baseband signal processing chip configured to modulate information to generate an in-phase (I) signal and a quadrature (Q) signal, and respectively output the I signal via an I channel and the Q channel via a Q channel; and a radio frequency (RF) processing chip coupled to the I and Q channels via an analog signal, chip-to-chip interface, the RF processing unit configured to respectively convert the I signal and the Q signal into a digital I signal and a digital Q signal using a shared analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the RF processing unit further configured to generate the RF signal based on the digital I signal and the digital Q signal, the radio frequency (RF) processing unit comprising: a first switch unit including a first plurality of switches, an input for each one of the first plurality of switches being coupled to a corresponding one of the I and Q channels, an output for each one of the first plurality of switches being coupled to the shared ADC, wherein the first switch unit is configured to alternately transmit the I signal and Q signal to the shared ADC; and an interpolator configured to receive and interpolate only one of the digital I signal and the digital Q signal to respectively generate an interpolated digital I signal or an interpolated Q signal.