Low power RF receiver with redistribution of synchronisation tasks
First Claim
1. A low power radio-frequency receiver including an antenna for receiving radio-frequency signals originating from satellites, a reception and shaping stage for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a correlation stage formed of several channels which each include a correlator, said correlation stage receiving intermediate signals shaped by the reception stage, a microprocessor connected to the correlation stage and adapted to calculate X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data extracted, after correlation, from the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the satellites, wherein the intermediate signals provided to the correlation stage are complex signals which have been sampled and quantified in the reception and shaping stage, these complex signals being formed for a 1-bit or more in-phase component and a 1-bit or more quarter-phase signal component, wherein, in each channel, a controller, including a digital signal processing algorithm, is associated with the correlator to allow all synchronisation tasks to be performed autonomously for acquiring and tracking a satellite when the channel is set in operation, and wherein at least a set of data input and output registers is placed at the interface between the correlation stage and the microprocessor in order to receive data, transmitted by the microprocessor to the correlation stage, and data supplied from the correlation stage, said data passing through the set of registers being formed of signals of a frequency lower than or equal to the frequency of message signals, so that the microprocessor can perform the tasks of calculating the position, velocity and time without any intervention as regards the synchronisation and correlation tasks.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A low power RF receiver (1) has an antenna (2), a reception and shaping stage (3) for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a 12-channel correlation stage (7) receiving intermediate signals (IF) shaped by the reception stage (3), and a microprocessor (12) connected to the correlation stage for calculating X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data provided by the radio-frequency signals, such as GPS signals, transmitted by satellites. Each channel includes a correlator (8) associated with a controller (9), which also includes a digital signal processing algorithm to allow all the synchronisation tasks for acquiring and tracking a satellite to be performed autonomously when the channel (7′) is set in operation, and to lock onto the satellite. Buffer registers (11) are placed at the interface between the correlation stage (7) and the microprocessor (12) for the mutual transfer of data. The low power RF receiver may be mounted in the case of a watch and powered by the energy accumulator or battery of the watch.
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Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A low power radio-frequency receiver including an antenna for receiving radio-frequency signals originating from satellites, a reception and shaping stage for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a correlation stage formed of several channels which each include a correlator, said correlation stage receiving intermediate signals shaped by the reception stage, a microprocessor connected to the correlation stage and adapted to calculate X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data extracted, after correlation, from the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the satellites, wherein the intermediate signals provided to the correlation stage are complex signals which have been sampled and quantified in the reception and shaping stage, these complex signals being formed for a 1-bit or more in-phase component and a 1-bit or more quarter-phase signal component, wherein, in each channel, a controller, including a digital signal processing algorithm, is associated with the correlator to allow all synchronisation tasks to be performed autonomously for acquiring and tracking a satellite when the channel is set in operation, and wherein at least a set of data input and output registers is placed at the interface between the correlation stage and the microprocessor in order to receive data, transmitted by the microprocessor to the correlation stage, and data supplied from the correlation stage, said data passing through the set of registers being formed of signals of a frequency lower than or equal to the frequency of message signals, so that the microprocessor can perform the tasks of calculating the position, velocity and time without any intervention as regards the synchronisation and correlation tasks.
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12. A low power radio-frequency receiver including an antenna for receiving radio-frequency signals originating from satellites, a reception and shaping stage for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a correlation stage formed of several channels which each include a correlator, said correlation stage receiving intermediate signals shaped by the receiption stage, a microprocessor connected to the correlation stage and adapted to calculate X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data extracted, after correlation, from the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the satellites,
wherein, in each channel, a controller, including a digital signal processing algorithm, is associated with the correlator to allow all synchronisation tasks to be performed autonomously for acquiring and tracking a satellite when the channel is set in operation, wherein the controller acts on control loops of the pseudo random noise code phase and a carrier frequency in a bit-parallel architecture, and wherein at least a set of data input and output registers is placed at the interface between the correlation stage and the microprocessor in order to receive data transmitted by the microprocessor to the correlation stage and data supplied from the correlation stage, said data passing through the set of registers being formed of signals of a frequency lower than or equal to the frequency of message signals; - so that the microprocessor can perform the tasks of calculating the position, velocity and time without any intervention as regards the synchronisation and correlation tasks.
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13. A low power radio-frequency receiver including an antenna for receiving radio-frequency signals originating from satellites, a reception and shaping stage for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a correlation stage formed of several channels which each include a correlator, said correlation stage receiving intermediate signals shaped by the reception stage, a microprocessor connected to the correlation stage and adapted to calculate X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data extracted, after correlation, from the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the satellites, wherein, in each channel, a controller, including a digital signal processing algorithm, is associated with the correlator to allow all synchronisation tasks to be performed autonomously for acquiring and tracking a satellite when the channel is set in operation, and wherein at least a set of data input and output registers is placed at the interface between the correlation stage and the microprocessor in order to receive data, transmitted by the microprocessor to the correlation stage, and data supplied from the correlation stage, said data passing through the set of registers being formed of signals of a frequency lower than or equal to the frequency of message signals, so that the microprocessor can perform the tasks of calculating the position, velocity and time without any intervention as regards the synchronisation and correlation tasks,
wherein a first part of the correlator and the controller of each channel is clocked by a first clock signal provided by a quartz oscillator housed in the reception and shaping stage, and wherein a second part of the correlator and the controller is clocked by a second clock signal, the frequency of the first clock signal being 16 times greater than the frequency of the second clock signal.
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14. A watch including a low power radio-frequency receiver including an antenna for receiving radio-frequency signals originating from satellites, a reception and shaping stage for the radio-frequency signals provided by the antenna, a correlation stage formed of several channels which each include a correlator, said correlation stage receiving intermediate signals shaped by the reception stage, a microprocessor connected to the correlation stage and adapted to calculate X, Y and Z position, velocity and time data as a function of data extracted, after correlation, from the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the satellites, wherein, in each channel, a controller, including a digital signal processing algorithm, is associated with the correlator to allow all synchronisation tasks to be performed autonomously for acquiring and tracking a satellite when the channel is set in operation, and wherein at least a set of data input and output registers is placed at the interface between the correlation stage and the microprocessor in order to receive data, transmitted by the microprocessor to the correlation stage, and data supplied from the correlation stage, said data passing through the set of registers being formed of signals of a frequency lower than or equal to the frequency of message signals, so that the microprocessor can perform the tasks of calculating the position, velocity and time without any intervention as regards the synchronisation and correlation tasks,
wherein the radio-frequency receiver is housed in the case of the watch and is powered by an energy accumulator or a battery also used for powering electronic components for horological functions.
Specification