Patent ID: 7962112

Claim:
A heterodyne receiver comprising: a first local oscillator; a second local oscillator; a gain-controllable radio frequency (RF) mixer that is coupled to the first local oscillator and that receives an RF input signal; a peak detector that receives the RF input signal, wherein the peak detector detects a peak in the RF input signal and indicates whether the peak is greater than a predetermined level; a digital automatic gain control circuit that is coupled to the peak detector and the RF mixer, wherein digital automatic gain control circuit the decreases the gain of the RF mixer if the peak is greater than the predetermined level; an intermediate frequency (IF) mixer that is coupled to the second local oscillator and the RF mixer; and an amplifier that is coupled to the IF mixer and the digital automatic gain control circuit, wherein the digital automatic gain control circuit is configured to increase the gain of the amplifier if the peak is greater than the predetermined level.