Patent ID: 8824993

Claim:
An apparatus for down-conversion, comprising: a down conversion module comprising first and second sampling circuits, each sampling circuit comprised of a switching device and a storage module; the first sampling circuit receiving an RF input signal, and providing as an output a first down-converted signal; the second sampling circuit receiving as an input the output down-converted signal from the first sampling circuit and providing as an output a second down-converted signal that is phase shifted relative to the first down-converted signal; the switching device of the first sampling circuit receiving as an input a first control signal and the switching device of the second sampling circuit receiving as in input a second control signal that differs in phase from the first control signal; and the first control signal controlling a charging and discharging cycle of the storage module of the first sampling circuit by controlling the switching device of the first sampling circuit so that a portion of energy is conveyed from the RF input signal to the storage module of the first sampling circuit during a charging part of the cycle and a portion of the transferred energy is discharged during a discharging part of the cycle, wherein the storage module of the first sampling circuit generates said down-converted signal from the alternate charging and discharging applied to the storage module of the first sampling circuit using said first control signal; a delay module comprising first and second delay circuits; the first delay circuit receiving at its input (i) the second down-converted signal that is phase shifted, and (ii) the first control signal, and outputting a delayed version of the second down-converted signal; and the second delay circuit receiving at its input (i) the delayed version of the second down-converted signal, and (ii) the second control signal, and outputting a version of the second down-converted signal that is further delayed relative to the output of the first delay circuit; and a summing module that forms a final output signal by combining the second down-converted, phase shifted signal output from the second sampling circuit and the further delayed version of the second down-converted signal output by the second delay circuit.