Direct Digital Conversion Tuner

Abstract

A direct sampling tuner includes a low noise amplifier and an optional dynamically configurable band pass filter coupled to the lose noise amplifier. The optional filter is configured to pass a selected band of channels. The tuner further includes a relatively high accuracy, multi-bit analog-to-digital converter (“ADC”) coupled to the LNA or to the optional dynamically configurable band pass filter. The ADC operates at greater than about twice a frequency of a sampled signal. The ADC directly samples the spectrum of the selected channels at the Nyquist rate, thus avoiding image problems presented by conventional tuners.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A tuner, comprising:
 an amplifier arranged at a front end of the tuner and configured to be a first element of the tuner to receive and amplify a radio frequency (RF) signal;   a filter directly connected to the amplifier and configured to receive the amplified RE signal and pass a selected band of the amplified RF signal;   a converter coupled to the filter and configured to receive the selected hand of the amplified RF signal; and   a digital signal processor coupled to the converter.