Patent ID: 6959049

Claim:
A method of downconverting a first communication signal at a first frequency into a second communication signal at a second frequency that is lower than the first frequency, comprising: providing an oscillator signal having a third frequency that is lower than the first frequency; producing in response to the oscillator signal a sampling pulse signal having digital pulses for use in sampling the first communication signal, wherein adjacent pulses of the sampling pulse signal are separated by an amount of time that corresponds to a predetermined number of cycles of the first communication signal and wherein said amount of time is greater than an amount of time required for completion of said predetermined number of cycles of the first communication signal; using the pulses of the sampling pulse signal to sample selected phases of the first communication signal, including using a first pulse of the sampling pulse signal to sample a first chase of a first cycle of the first communication signal and using a second pulse of the sampling pulse signal to sample a second phase of a second cycle of the first communication signal in which said first and second pulses are adjacent one another in the sampling pulse signal, wherein said second phase is a different phase than said first phase, and wherein said second cycle follows said first cycle by a number of cycles of the first communication signal equal to said predetermined number; and using the sampled phases to produce the second communication signal.