Patent ID: 7519348

Claim:
A harmonic suppression mixer (HSM) for down-conversion of a radio frequency (RF) signal, the HSM comprising: a) a plurality of mixers, each with a local oscillator (LO) input, an RF input, and a mixer output, wherein each RF input is driven by the RF signal; b) at least one gain stage, each gain stage for weighting the signals output by the mixers; c) a summer for summing the weighted mixer output signals to produce a summer output; and d) an LO generator for generating a plurality of LO signals in one of a plurality of modes, each LO signal coupled to an LO input of a respective one of the mixers, each LO signal operating at substantially the same frequency, the phases of the LO signals being selectable such that in a first of the plurality of modes the relative phase of each of the LO signals is unique, the first mode being used for down-converting relatively lower RF signals and in at least a second of the plurality of modes used for down-converting relatively higher RF signals, the relative phase of at least some of the LO signals is the same, thereby reducing the effective number of mixers without altering the connections between the LO generator and the plurality of mixers when switching between modes.