Patent ID: 7760816

Claim:
A radio frequency (RF) receiver, comprising: a plurality of analog filters in an RF front-end section of an RF receiver; a plurality of adjustable-gain analog amplifiers in the RF front-end section for amplifying by a gain a signal received by the RF receiver, each adjustable-gain analog amplifier operable at one gain separately selected from a plurality of gains, the RF front-end section producing an analog signal at an analog output; a digital-to-analog converter, coupled to the analog output, for converting the analog signal to a digital signal at a digital output; and a digital automatic gain control (AGC) system, communicatively coupled with the plurality of adjustable-gain analog amplifiers, for controlling the one gain of each adjustable-gain analog amplifier, the digital AGC system including: a plurality of digital equalizer filters, one of the digital equalizer filters communicatively coupled with the digital output of the RF front-end section, thereby monitoring a digital signal estimate of the analog signal at the analog output of the RF front-end section, each digital equalizer filter having an inverse magnitude response of a corresponding analog filter in the RF front-end section; a plurality of digital estimation devices, each digital estimation device coupled to one of the digital equalizer filters, each digital estimation device providing a digital signal estimate representative of an analog signal at an input of a respective one of the adjustable-gain analog amplifiers in the RF front-end section; and an AGC controller, communicatively coupled with each digital estimation device, for monitoring the digital signal estimate provided by each digital estimation device, thereby monitoring a level of the analog signal at the input of the respective one of the adjustable-gain analog amplifiers in the RF front-end section, the AGC controller having a control output communicatively coupled with a respective control input of each adjustable-gain analog amplifier for separately controlling the one gain of each respective adjustable-gain analog amplifier based, in part, on the digital signal estimate provided by each digital estimation device.