Selective calling/receiving device

• US 6,208,837 B1
• Filed: 05/05/1998
• Issued: 03/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hidenori, Hashigaya, Atsuhiko, Koh, Nozomi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunter, Daniel S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gantt, Alan T.
• Application Number:
  US09/073,373
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 455/343, 455/31.1, 455/38.3, 455/31.2, 340/825.44, 370/311
• US Class Current: 340/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0283 with sequential power up or power down of successive circuit blocks, e.g. switching on the local oscillator before RF or mixer stages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/022 Selective call receivers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The result of detection performed by a receiving electric-field level detection circuit 8 and the result of detection performed by an automatic gain setting circuit 9 are fed back to a timing signal generation circuit 10 which controls a pre-heat time of a selective calling/receiving device. As a result, the pre-heat time can be changed according to the state of propagation of radio waves, and hence the life of battery of the calling/receiving device can be increased.

Claims

1. A selective calling/receiving device comprising:

a timing signal generation circuit for determining the control timing of intermittent receiving operations while ensuring a pre-heat time to render the device active by application of power to the device prior to a signal to be received, and

a receiving electric-field level detection circuit for detecting a receiving electric-field level,

wherein the timing signal generation circuit variably controls the pre-heat time so as to correspond to the receiving electric-field level detected by the receiving electric-field level detection circuit.

2. The selective calling/receiving device of claim 1, further comprising:

a high-frequency amplifying circuit, and

an automatic gain setting circuit for setting a gain of the high frequency amplifying circuit, and

wherein the timing signal generation circuit variably controls the pre-heat time according to the gain set by the automatic gain setting circuit.

3. The selective calling/receiving device of claim 1, further comprising:

a high-frequency amplifying circuit, and

an automatic gain setting circuit for setting a gain of the high frequency amplifying circuit, and

wherein the timing signal generation circuit variably controls the pre-heat time according to the detected receiving electric-field level and the amount of gain limited by the automatic gain setting circuit.

4. The selective calling/receiving device of claim 1, further comprising:

an error rate detection circuit for detecting a bit error rate of received and demodulated data, wherein

the amount of gain limited by the automatic gain setting circuit is determined according to the thus-detected bit error rate.

5. The selective calling/receiving device of claim 1, wherein the timing signal generation circuit decreases the pre-heat time when the detected receiving electric-field level increases.