This disclosure addresses providing gigabit-rate data transmission over
wireless radio links, using carrier frequencies in the millimeter-wave
range (>30 GHz). More specifically, a circuit for detection of
amplitude-shift keyed (ASK) or other amplitude modulations (AM) which can
be easily incorporated into an integrated circuit receiver system is
described, making the receiver capable of supporting both complex IQ
modulation schemes and simpler, non-coherent on-off or multiple-level
keying signals. Several novel radio architectures are also described
which, with the addition of a frequency discriminator network, have the
capability of handling frequency shift keyed (FSK) or other frequency
modulations (FM), as well as AM and complex IQ modulation schemes. These
radio architectures support this wide variety of modulations by
efficiently sharing detector hardware components. The architecture for
supporting both quadrature down-conversion and ASK/AM is described first,
followed by the ASK/AM detector circuit details, then the AM-FM detector
architecture, and finally the most general AM-FM/IQ demodulator system
concept and the FSK/FM detector circuit details.