Radio receiver for aviation communications and navigation

• US 20070275679A1
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gregory Triplett, Jeffrey Hunter, Manuel Richey, Timothy Gibson
• Original Assignee: Gregory Triplett, Jeffrey Hunter, Manuel Richey, Timothy Gibson
• Inventors: Gibson, Timothy, Hunter, Jeffrey, Richey, Manuel, Triplett, Gregory
• Application Number:
  US10/563,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20070275679A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/179.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/043 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0003 Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0007 wherein the AD/DA conversion occurs at radiofrequency or intermediate frequency stage
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/28 the receiver comprising at least one semiconductor device having three or more electrodes

Abstract

A radio receiver is provided that includes a front-end circuit operable to receive radio signals transmitted across a frequency band and generate an analog signal corresponding to a plurality of channels within the frequency band. Also included is an analog to digital converter operable to convert the analog signal to a digital signal, and a digital processing system operable to process the digital signal and simultaneously generate one or more output signals corresponding to at least one of the plurality of channels within the frequency band. Various exemplary embodiments of the radio receiver and associated method are provided.

Claims

18. A radio receiver comprising:

at least one front-end circuit group comprising a plurality of front-end circuits, wherein each of said front-end circuits is operable to receive a plurality of radio signals transmitted across a frequency band and generate an analog signal corresponding to a plurality of channels within said frequency band;

at least one analog to digital converter coupled to said at least one front-end circuit group, said analog to digital converter operable to receive said analog signals from said front-end circuits and convert said analog signals to a digital signal; and

a digital processing system coupled to said at least one analog to digital converter, said digital processing system operable to receive said digital signal from said analog to digital converter and generate at least one output signal corresponding to at least one of said channels within said frequency band of at least one of said front-end circuits.

19. The radio receiver of claim 18, wherein said digital processing system is operable to generate a plurality of output signals, wherein each of said output signals corresponds to at least one of said channels within said frequency band of at least one of said front-end circuits.

20. The radio receiver of claim 18, wherein said radio signals received by any one of said front-end circuits are within a different frequency band than said radio signals received by the other of said front-end circuits.

21. The radio receiver of claim 18, wherein each of said front-end circuits comprises an antenna circuit operable to receive said radio signals.

22. The radio receiver of claim 21, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises an amplifier circuit operable to amplify said received radio signals.

23. The radio receiver of claim 21, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises a filter circuit operable to filter said received radio signals.

24. The radio receiver of claim 21, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises an intermediate frequency mixing circuit operable to translate said received radio signals to an intermediate frequency band.

25. The radio receiver of claim 18, wherein said digital processing system comprises:

a digital down converter operable to select said at least one of said channels within said frequency band of at least one of said front-end circuits; and

a digital signal processor operable to extract information from said at least one of said selected channels and generate said at least one output signal.

26. The radio receiver of claim 25, wherein said digital down converter selects said at least one of said channels according to software configurable channel selection parameters.

27. The radio receiver of claim 25, wherein said digital signal processor extracts said information from said at least one of said selected channels according to software configurable channel decoding parameters.

28. The radio receiver of claim 18, comprising a plurality of front-end circuit groups and a plurality of corresponding analog to digital converters, wherein said digital processing system is operable to receive a plurality of digital signals from said analog to digital converters and generate at least one output signal corresponding to at least one of said channels within said frequency band of at least one of said front-end circuits of at least one of said front-end circuit groups.

29. A radio receiver, comprising:

a plurality of front-end circuits each of which comprises an antenna circuit operable to receive a plurality of radio signals transmitted across a frequency band, wherein each of said front end circuits is operable to generate an analog signal corresponding to a plurality of channels within said frequency band;

a plurality of analog to digital converters each of which is coupled to at least one of said front-end circuits, wherein each of said analog to digital converters is operable to receive said analog signal from said at least one of said front-end circuits and convert said analog signal to a digital signal; and

a digital processing system coupled to each of said analog to digital converters, said digital processing system operable to receive said digital signals from said analog to digital converters and generate at least one output signal corresponding to at least one of said channels within said frequency band of at least one of said front-end circuits.

30. The radio receiver of claim 29, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises an amplifier circuit operable to amplify said received radio signals.

31. The radio receiver of claim 29, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises a filter circuit operable to filter said received radio signals.

32. The radio receiver of claim 29, wherein at least one of said front-end circuits further comprises an intermediate frequency mixing circuit operable to translate said received radio signals to an intermediate frequency band.

33. The radio receiver of claim 29, wherein at least one of said analog to digital converters is operable to receive analog signals from a plurality of front-end circuits and convert said analog signals to a digital signal.

34. A method of receiving radio signals, comprising:

receiving a plurality of radio signals transmitted across a frequency band;

generating an analog signal from said received radio signals, said analog signal comprising a plurality of channels within said frequency band;

converting said analog signal to a digital signal to thereby digitize said plurality of channels within said frequency band; and

generating at least one output signal corresponding to at least one of said digitized channels within said frequency band.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising amplifying said received radio signals.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising filtering said received radio signals.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising mixing said received radio signals to an intermediate frequency band.

41. The method of claim 34, wherein a plurality of output signals are generated each of which corresponds to at least one of said digitized channels within said frequency band.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein said plurality of output signals comprise a plurality of signals for transmission to a plurality of end devices.

38-1. The method of claim 38, wherein said output signal comprises a time-domain multiplexed serial data link.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising generating a plurality of signals from said time-domain multiplexed serial data link for transmission to a plurality of end devices.

43. A radio receiver, comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of radio signals transmitted across a frequency band and generating an analog signal corresponding to a plurality of channels within said frequency band;

means for converting said analog signal to a digital signal; and

means for generating at least one output signal from said digital signal, said output signal corresponding to at least one of said channels within said frequency band.

44. The radio receiver of claim 43, wherein said output signal comprises a time-domain multiplexed serial data link.

45. The radio receiver of claim 44, further comprising means for generating a plurality of signals from said time-domain multiplexed serial data link for transmission to a plurality of end devices.