Patent ID: 8446316

Claim:
A phase discriminator device to receive as input a complex signal including an argument which represents a phase error Δφ and to produce as output an estimate θ n+1 of the phase error Δφ for signal samples Z n+1 received, said device comprising: a frequency discriminator; and computation means for determining the phase estimate obtained at an instant (N+1)T 1 according to the following relations: θ n+1 =θ n +Δθ n+1 +Δθ′ n+1 Δθ′ n+1 =Discri Frequency ( n+ 1)·2 π·T 1 Δθ n+ 1=arctan( I′ n+1 ,Q′ n+1 ) I′ n+1 +jQ′ n+1 =Z n+1 ·Z′* n+1 Z′ n+1 =exp( jΔθ′ n+1 )· Z n wherein T 1 is the time interval between two samples Z n and Z n+1 received consecutively, Discri frequency (n+1) is an estimate of the frequency error ∂Δφ/∂t of said complex signal produced by the frequency discriminator, and Z′* n+1 is the complex conjugate of Z′ n+ .