Calibrated real time clock for acquisition of GPS signals during low power operation

• US 6,662,107 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2001
• Issued: 12/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CSR Technology Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SIRF Technology Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gronemeyer, Steven A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US10/021,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20030083814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 701/213, 701/214, 701/215, 342/357.12, 342/358, 342/357.06, 375/140, 375/150, 375/152, 375/343
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/23 Testing, monitoring, correcting or calibrating of receiver elements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/235 Calibration of receiver components
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 10/04 with means for indicating the condition of the power supply in general G01R31/36
• CPC Class Codes: G04F 5/00 Apparatus for producing preselected time intervals for use as timing standards generating clock signals for electric digital computers G06F1/04
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 19/12 Arrangements for reducing power consumption during storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/14 Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Power is conserved in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver by shutting down selected components during periods when the GPS receiver is not actively calculating the GPS receiver location. A low power time keeping circuit accurately preserves GPS time when the selected components are deactivated. When the selected components are turned on in response to a wake-up command, time provided from the low power time keeping circuit, corrected for actual operating temperatures, and data from the GPS clock temperature/frequency table, are used to recalibrate time from a GPS oscillator. Positions of the GPS satellites are then estimated such that the real GPS time is quickly determined from the received satellite signals. Once real GPS time is determined from the detected satellite signals, the selected components are deactivated. The process described above is repeated such that accurate GPS time is maintained by the low power time keeping circuit.

Claims

1. A global positioning system (“

GPS”

) receiver, comprising;

a first oscillator configured to provide a clock signal corresponding to GPS time and further configured to be periodically powered down;

a second oscillator configured to provide a clock signal corresponding to GPS time, wherein the second oscillator has lower operating lower requirements than the first oscillator, and wherein the second oscillator is configured to operate when the first oscillator is powered down;

a ratio counter device coupled to the first oscillator and the second oscillator and configured to determine when edges of the first oscillator clock signal and the second oscillator clock signal are aligned within a negligible window of error, and to determine a ratio between a frequency of the first oscillator and a frequency of the second oscillator during an interval of alignment; and

a processor coupled to the ratio counter, the first oscillator and the second oscillator, wherein the processor is configured to direct the GPS receiver to perform acquisition and tracking of GPS satellites using the first oscillator.

2. The GPS receiver of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to calibrate the first oscillator using signals from the GPS satellites during tracking.

3. The GPS receiver of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to calibrate the second oscillator from the first oscillator using the ratio counter device and the ratio.

4. The GPS receiver of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one temperature sensor coupled to at least one of the first oscillator and the second oscillator to determine respective temperatures of the first oscillator and the second oscillator; and

a memory configured to store at least one table that relates frequency to temperature for at least one of the first oscillator and the second oscillator.

5. The GPS receiver of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to calibrate the first oscillator when the first oscillator is powered up including sensing a current temperature of the first oscillator and determining a corresponding frequency value from the at least one table.

6. The GPS receiver of claim 4, further comprising wake-up logic coupled to the processor, wherein the wake-up logic is configured to generate a said to calibrate the second oscillator at predetermined times using the at least one table.

7. A method for oscillator-generated clock signal calibration in a global positioning system (“

GPS”

) system, the method comprising;

operating a low power oscillator in a GPS receiver on a constant basis; and

operating a GPS oscillator for navigation, including,

transferring time kept by the low power oscillator to the GPS oscillator;

acquiring and tracking GPS satellites;

using GPS time from the GPS satellites to calibrate the GPS oscillator; and

calibrating the low power oscillator, including transferring GPS time to the low power oscillator using a high accuracy ratio counter that determines a ratio of a frequency of the GPS oscillator and the low power oscillator.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein calibrating the low lower oscillator further includes transferring a frequency from the GPS oscillator to the low power oscillator using the high accuracy ratio counter.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein transferring GPS time to the low power oscillator includes storing an offset from a current low power oscillator time to the GPS time.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein using the high accuracy ratio counter includes determining a ratio of the frequency of the low power oscillator to the frequency of the GPS oscillator to a high degree of accuracy by closely aligning clock signal edges of the low power oscillator and the GPS oscillator within a specified measurement period.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sensing a temperature of the low power oscillator; and

building a table relating the temperature to a frequency of the low power oscillator, wherein the table is usable to determine a frequency error in the low power oscillator.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein calibrating the low power oscillator includes correcting the frequency of the low power oscillator with the table such that a temperature and frequency of the low power oscillator from a previous calibration and a current temperature and frequency of the low power oscillator are used to scale an elapsed time between the previous calibration and a present calibration.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein transferring time kept by the low power oscillator to the GPS oscillator includes:

correcting the frequency of the low power oscillator such that a current temperature and frequency of the low power oscillator are obtained and used with the table to scale an accumulating time; and

transferring time using the high accuracy ratio counter.

14. The method of claim of 11, further comprising periodically updating a time offset of the low power oscillator including:

scaling an elapsed time between a previous update and a current update using temperature readings from the previous update and the current update and corresponding frequencies from the tale;

averaging the frequencies from the table to determine an accumulated time error; and

storing an updated time offset value that reflects the accumulated time error.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sensing a temperature of the GPS oscillator; and

building a table relating the temperature to a frequency of the GPS oscillator, wherein the table is usable to determine a frequency error in the GPS oscillator.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein acquiring tracking GPS satellites includes:

sensing a current temperature of the GPS oscillator;

using the table to determine a current frequency error in the GPS oscillator; and

using the frequency error to calibrate a GPS oscillator frequency.

17. New The method of claim 16, wherein operating the GPS receiver for navigation further includes:

estimating positions of visible satellites using the GPS oscillator time;

calculating an estimated PN code phase using the GPS oscillator time;

determining a time/position error based on the estimated PN code phase and a measured PN code phase;

if the time position error based above a predetermined threshold, performing one of a bit synch procedure, and a bit synch procedure with a frame synch procedure; and

computing a navigation solution.