METHODS, CIRCUITS, SYSTEMS AND APPARATUS PROVIDING AUDIO SENSITIVITY ENHANCEMENT IN A WIRELESS RECEIVER, POWER MANAGEMENT AND OTHER PERFORMANCES

• US 20140335809A1
• Filed: 07/03/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Balakrishnan, Jaiganesh
• Granted Patent: US 10,897,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/214
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/10 Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1027 assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/12 Neutralising, balancing, or compensation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1646 adapted for the reception of stereophonic signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/20 of receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/336 Signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/1054 by changing bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/72 for noise suppression

Abstract

A wireless receiver (10) includes a down converter module (210) operable to deliver a signal having a signal bandwidth that changes over time, a dynamically controllable filter module (200) having a filter bandwidth and fed by said down converter module (210), and a measurement module (295) operable to at least approximately measure the signal bandwidth, said dynamically controllable filter module (200) responsive to said measurement module (295) to dynamically adjust the filter bandwidth to more nearly match the signal bandwidth as it changes over time, whereby output from said filter module (200) is noise-reduced. Other wireless receivers, electronic circuits, and processes for their operation are disclosed.

Claims

1-23. -23. (canceled)

24. A process of operating a wireless receiver, the process comprising altering a filter characteristic including a bandwidth of filter passband dynamically depending on a modulated wireless signal condition involving at least one signal frequency.

25. The process claimed in claim 24 wherein the signal condition includes frequency deviation.

26. The process claimed in claim 24 wherein the signal condition is related to demodulated signal envelope of a frequency modulated wireless signal.

27. The process claimed in claim 24 further comprising demodulating the signal and electronically measuring at least one such signal condition from the demodulated signal for use in such altering of the filter characteristic.

28. The process claimed in claim 24 wherein the filter characteristic includes a low pass filter cutoff frequency.

29. The process claimed in claim 24 further comprising down converting and filtering the signal to supply a baseband modulated signal, demodulating the baseband modulated signal to produce a demodulated signal, electronically generating a first measure of the signal condition based on the baseband modulated signal and a second measure of the signal condition based on the demodulated signal, and electronically deriving the signal condition as a joint logic function of the first measure and the second measure.

30. The process claimed in claim 29 wherein the first measure includes substantially a difference of signal strengths determined under two different filter bandwidths.

31. The process claimed in claim 29 wherein the second measure is based on a demodulated audio envelope.

32. The process claimed in claim 24 further comprising down converting, filtering the signal using the alterable filter characteristic after the down converting, and demodulating the filtered signal.

33. The process claimed in claim 24 further comprising down converting the signal to supply a baseband modulated signal, and electronically generating at least a first measure of the signal condition that includes substantially a difference of signal strengths determined under at least two different filter bandwidths, to control the altering of the filter characteristic.

46. The process as claimed in claim 29, wherein the first measure is a signal level of the baseband modulated signal and the second measure is a noise level derived from the demodulated signal.

47. An apparatus for operating a wireless receiver, the apparatus comprising circuitry for altering a filter characteristic including a bandwidth of filter passband dynamically depending on a modulated wireless signal condition involving at least one signal frequency.

48. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 wherein the signal condition includes frequency deviation.

49. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 wherein the signal condition is related to demodulated signal envelope of a frequency modulated wireless signal.

50. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 further comprising circuitry for demodulating the signal and electronically measuring at least one such signal condition from the demodulated signal for use in such altering of the filter characteristic.

51. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 wherein the filter characteristic includes a low pass filter cutoff frequency.

52. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 further comprising circuitry for down converting and filtering the signal to supply a baseband modulated signal, demodulating the baseband modulated signal to produce a demodulated signal, electronically generating a first measure of the signal condition based on the baseband modulated signal and a second measure of the signal condition based on the demodulated signal, and electronically deriving the signal condition as a joint logic function of the first measure and the second measure.

53. The apparatus claimed in claim 52 wherein the first measure includes substantially a difference of signal strengths determined under two different filter bandwidths.

54. The apparatus claimed in claim 52 wherein the second measure is based on a demodulated audio envelope.

55. The process as claimed in claim 52, wherein the first measure is a signal level ofthe baseband modulated signal and the second measure is a noise level derived from the demodulated signal.

56. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 further comprising circuitry for down converting, filtering the signal using the alterable filter characteristic after the down converting, and demodulating the filtered signal.

57. The apparatus claimed in claim 47 further comprising circuitry for down converting the signal to supply a baseband modulated signal, and electronically generating at least a first measure of the signal condition that includes substantially a difference of signal strengths determined under at least two different filter bandwidths, to control the altering of the filter characteristic.