Radio frequency device for receiving TV signals and GPS satellite signals and performing positioning

• US 6,917,328 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Issued: 07/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TruePosition Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Rosum Corporation (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Rabinowitz, Matthew, Spilker, Jr., James J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao
• Application Number:
  US10/292,975
• Publication Number:
  US 20030145328A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.01, 342/357.06, 342/357.12, 701/213, 701/215, 701/207
• US Class Current: 342/357.29
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/25 involving aiding data received from a cooperating element, e.g. assisted GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/31 Acquisition or tracking of other signals for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0218 Multipath in signal reception
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0221 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 2200/13 Television receiver combined with a GPS receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/087 using at least two phase detectors or a frequency and phase detector in the loop

Abstract

An apparatus and method for determining the position of a user terminal comprise an antenna subsystem which is able to receive signals of GPS and TV, a receiver front end which converts the frequency of the incident signals and filters out unwanted signals so that the desired signals can be sampled, a digital processing component which accommodates the imperfections of the front end and converts the measured signals into a position information. The apparatus is capable of receiving at the user terminal, broadcast television signals from television signal transmitters; determining a first set of pseudo-ranges between the user terminal and the television signal transmitters based on a known component of the broadcast television signals; receiving at the user terminal global positioning signals from a global positioning satellites; determining a second set of pseudo-ranges between the user terminal and the global positioning satellites based on the global positioning signals; and determining a position of the user terminal based on the first and second sets of pseudo-ranges, locations of the television signal transmitters, and locations of the global positioning satellites.

Claims

1. A receiver for processing television signals and GPS signals for position determination comprising:

an antenna system for receiving a plurality of signals, at least one television signal and at least one GPS signal, wherein the at least one television signal operates at a first frequency and the at least one GPS signal operates at a second frequency;

a receiver front end coupled to the antenna system for converting the plurality of signals from at least one of the first frequency or of the second frequency to a third frequency; and

a processing component coupled to the receiver front end for accepting the plurality of signals operating at the third frequency and for converting the plurality of signals into position information of the receiver.

2. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the antenna system comprises a tuning circuit for resonating at different frequencies to accept at least one signal of the plurality of signals.

3. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the antenna system comprises a first feed and a second feed, the first feed for operating at the first frequency and the second feed for operating at the second frequency.

4. The receiver of claim 3 wherein the antenna system further comprises a switching means coupled to the receiver front end for selecting between the first frequency and the second frequency.

5. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the receiver front end comprises:

a low noise amplifier for amplifying the plurality of signals;

a first frequency converter coupled to the low noise amplifier for performing frequency conversion on at least one signal of the plurality of signals;

a bandpass filter coupled to the first frequency converter for filtering at least one signal of the plurality of signals;

a second frequency converter coupled to the bandpass filter for performing frequency conversion on at least one signal of the plurality of signals; and

an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the second frequency converter for digitizing at least one signal of the plurality of signals.

6. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the first frequency converter comprises a first mixer and a frequency synthesizer.

7. The receiver of claim 6 wherein the second frequency converter comprises a second mixer and a local oscillator, the local oscillator being driven by the frequency synthesizer.

8. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the second frequency converter comprises a mixer and a local oscillator coupled to the mixer.

9. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the bandpass filter is a surface acoustic wave filter.

10. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the bandpass filter is a high selectivity bandpass filter.

11. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the plurality of signals comprises:

at least one television signal and at least one GPS signal; and

the receiver front end includes a switch coupled to the bandpass filter for switching between the at least one television signal and at least one GPS signal.

12. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the receiver front end further includes a controller for controlling at least one of the switch, the first frequency converter or the low noise amplifier.

13. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the low noise amplifier includes a RF filter to filter the at least one television signal.

14. The receiver of claim 5 wherein the low noise amplifier includes a RF filter to filter at least one signal of the plurality of signals.

15. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the processing component comprises a first downconversion unit, a carrier acquisition unit and a second downconversion unit, the carrier acquisition unit coupled between the first downconversion unit and the second downconversion unit.

16. The receiver of claim 15 wherein the first downconversion unit comprises:

a first downconverter input for accepting the plurality of signals;

a first numerically controlled oscillator having a first pair of quadrature outputs;

at least two mixers for mixing the plurality of signals with the first pair of quadrature outputs to generate a plurality of signals in I and Q form (in phase and quadrature form); and

a first downconverter output for outputting the plurality of signals in I and Q form.

17. The receiver of claim 16 wherein the carrier acquisition unit comprises a narrow bandpass filter and a phase locked loop for reproducing a vestigial sideband carrier.

18. The receiver of claim 17 wherein the phase locked loop comprises:

a loop filter;

a second numerically controlled oscillator having a second pair of quadrature outputs; and

a phase detector for mixing the second pair of quadrature outputs with the plurality of signals in I and Q form to generate a resulting signal in I &

Q form, the resulting signal in I &

Q form is passed to the loop filter.

19. The receiver of claim 18 wherein the second downconversion unit comprises a plurality of mixers for mixing the plurality of signals in I and Q form with the resulting signal in I &

Q form.

20. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the first frequency is within the UHF and VHF frequency bands.

21. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the second frequency is selected from a frequency group comprising of 1227.6 MHz, 1575.42 MHz or 1.1 GHz.

22. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the third frequency is either an IF frequency or a baseband frequency.

23. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the position information is a pseudo range.

24. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the position information is a user terminal location.

25. A receiver for processing television signals and GPS signals for position determination comprising:

a first antenna for receiving at least one first signal at a first frequency;

a first low noise amplifier for amplifying the at least one first signal;

a second antenna for receiving at least one second signal at a second frequency;

a second low noise amplifier for amplifying the at least one second signal;

a first frequency converter having a first frequency converter input and a first frequency converter output, the first frequency converter input coupled to the first low noise amplifier for performing frequency conversion on the at least one first signal;

a switch having a first switch input, a second switch input and a switch output, the first switch input coupled to the first frequency converter output, the second switch input coupled to the second low noise amplifier, the switch for selecting between the at least one first signal or the at least one second signal;

a bandpass filter coupled to the switch output for filtering the at least one first signal or the at least one second signal;

a second frequency converter coupled to the bandpass filter for converting the at least one first signal or the at least one second signal to a post-frequency converter signal at a third frequency;

an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the second frequency converter for digitizing the post-converter signal and generating a digitized signal; and

a processor coupled to the analog-to-digital converter for accepting the digitized signal and for converting the digitized signal into a position information.

26. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the at least one first signal is a television signal.

27. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the first frequency is in the UHF or VHF frequency band.

28. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the at least one second signal is a GPS signal.

29. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the second frequency is selected from a frequency group comprising of 1227.6 MHz, 1575.42 MHz or 1.1 GHz.

30. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the third frequency is either an IF frequency or a baseband frequency.

31. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the first low noise amplifier includes a RF filter.

32. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the first frequency converter comprises a first mixer and a frequency synthesizer.

33. The receiver of claim 32 wherein the second frequency converter comprises a second mixer and a local oscillator, the local oscillator being driven by the frequency synthesizer.

34. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the second frequency converter comprises a mixer and a local oscillator coupled to the mixer.

35. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the bandpass filter is a surface acoustic wave filter.

36. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the bandpass filter is a high selectivity bandpass filter.

37. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the position information is a pseudo range.

38. The receiver of claim 25 wherein the position information is a user terminal location.

39. A receiver for processing television signals and GPS signals for position determination comprising:

an antenna system for receiving a plurality of signals selected from the group comprising at least one television signal and at least one GPS signal, wherein the at least one television signal operates at a first frequency and the at least one GPS signal operates at a second frequency;

a low noise amplifier coupled to the antenna system for amplifying the plurality of signals;

an I/Q downconverter coupled to the low noise amplifier for downconverting the plurality of signals to a third frequency and for generating an I component and a Q component for each of the plurality of signals;

a first low pass filter coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the I component;

a second low pass filter coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the Q component;

a first analog-to-digital converter coupled to the first low pass filter for digitizing the I component and generating a digitized I component;

a second analog-to-digital converter coupled to the second low pass filter for digitizing the Q component and generating a digitized Q component;

a processing component having a first processing input and a second processing input, the first processing input coupled to the first analog-to-digital converter for accepting the digitized I component, the second processing input coupled to the second analog-to-digital converter for accepting the digitized Q component.

40. The receiver of claim 39 wherein the processing component converts the digitized I component and the digitized Q component into a position information.

41. The receiver of claim 39 further comprising a tunable bandpass filter having an adjustable passband, the tunable bandpass filter coupled to the antenna system for receiving the plurality of signals.

42. The receiver of claim 41 wherein the tunable bandpass filter comprises at least one filter selected from the group comprising a voltage controlled bandpass filter and a voltage controlled bandreject filter.

43. The receiver of claim 39 further comprising a third low pass filter coupled to the low noise amplifier for filtering the plurality of signals.

44. The receiver of claim 39 further comprising at least one automatic gain control coupled to the I/Q downconverter for adjusting the magnitudes of the I component and the Q component.

45. The receiver of claim 39 wherein the I/Q downconverter comprises

a first mixer coupled to a local oscillator;

and

a 90 degree phase shifter having a shifter input and a shifter output, the shifter input coupled to the local oscillator and the shifter output coupled to a second mixer.

46. The receiver of claim 45 further comprising:

a tunable bandpass filter having an adjustable passband, the tunable bandpass filter coupled to the antenna system for receiving the plurality of signals;

a first low pass filter coupled to the low noise amplifier for filtering the plurality of signals;

a plurality of low pass filters coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the I component and the Q component; and

at least one automatic gain control circuit coupled to the I/Q downconverter for adjusting the magnitudes of the I component and the Q component.

47. The receiver of claim 39 further comprising:

a tunable bandpass filter having an adjustable passband, the tunable bandpass filter coupled to the antenna system for receiving the plurality of signals;

a first low pass filter coupled to the low noise amplifier for filtering the plurality of signals;

a plurality of low pass filters coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the I component and the Q component; and

at least one automatic gain control circuit coupled to the I/Q downconverter for adjusting the magnitudes of the I component and the Q component.

48. The receiver of claim 40 wherein the position information is a pseudo range.

49. The receiver of claim 40 wherein the position information is a user terminal location.

50. A receiver for processing television signals and GPS signals for position determination comprising:

an antenna system for receiving a plurality of signals selected from the group comprising at least one television signal and at least one GPS signal, wherein the at least one television signal operates at a first frequency and the at least one GPS signal operates at a second frequency;

a tunable bandpass filter having an adjustable passband, the tunable bandpass filter coupled to the antenna system for receiving the plurality of signals;

a low noise amplifier coupled to the tunable bandpass filter for amplifying the plurality of signals;

an I/Q downconverter coupled to the low noise amplifier for downconverting the plurality of signals to a third frequency and for generating an I component and a Q component for each of the plurality of signals, wherein the I/Q downconverter comprises a first mixer coupled to a local oscillator, and a 90 degree phase shifter having a shifter input and a shifter output, the shifter input coupled to the local oscillator and the shifter output coupled to a second mixer;

a first low pass filter coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the I component;

a second low pass filter coupled to the I/Q downconverter for filtering the Q component;

a first analog-to-digital converter coupled to the first low pass filter for digitizing the I component and generating a digitized I component;

a second analog-to-digital converter coupled to the second low pass filter for digitizing the Q component and generating a digitized Q component;

a processing component having a first processing input and a second processing input, the first processing input coupled to the first analog-to-digital converter for accepting the digitized I component, the second processing input coupled to the second analog-to-digital converter for accepting the digitized Q component, wherein the processing component converts the digitized I component and the digitized Q component into a position information.