Efficient phase detectors for M-PSK

In this paper we present new and efficient carrier phase detector structures for M-PSK (M-ary Phase Shift Keying). The phase detectors are NDA (Non Data Aided) and are shown to have the following advantages: (1) they have an efficient fixed-point hardware implementation; (2) they require only 1 sample/symbol; (3) the phase detectors are not dependent upon the signal amplitude and are resilient to imperfections in the AGC (Automatic Gain Control) circuit; (4) phase detection for multiple modulations can be supported with minimal additional hardware resources as compared to supporting a single modulation. The detectors will be shown to have excellent performance while at the same time requiring significantly less hardware resources and less power as compared to previously available phase detectors.