Patent attributes
Particular embodiments of mixer designs permit greater integration on standard chips with an improvement in power and linearity to enable low-power, high-performance reception. Some embodiments feature a method of frequency conversion using at least two stages of switches to mix an input signal with reference signals. The method involves mixing a differential input signal with a first differential reference signal through a first stage of switches, generating from the first stage of switches a first frequency converted differential signal, and mixing the first frequency converted differential signal with a second differential reference signal through a second stage of switches. The method includes generating from the second stage of switches a second frequency converted differential signal. The first differential reference signal can be phase shifted from the second differential reference signal and can have a different frequency. The mixer designs can have multiple stages of switches in a low-supply voltage design.
