Patent ID: 7050522

Claim:
A phase rotator device for controllably effecting a phase shift on an oscillating signal, comprising: an input device having at least four input channels for receiving at least four phases of said oscillating signal; an output device having at least one output channel for delivering at least one phase of said oscillating signal with a controlled phase shift; a weighting device for weighting the value of the oscillating signal at each input channel by a respective weighting coefficient; a summing device for summing the weighted signal values at each input channel and delivering the summed value as a shifted output phase at said output channel; and a weighting coefficient supply device responsive to a phase shift control signal for controllably supplying evolving weighting coefficients to said weighting device thereby to create a phase shift at the at least one output channel, wherein the weighting coefficients are adapted to evolve controllably for effecting a phase shift in successive phase slices over a phase angle of 2π radians in a cyclic operation, thereby permitting an unlimited phase shift.