Antenna diversity receiver

• US 6,931,081 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2001
• Issued: 08/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Toffolo, Franco, Banziger, Christiaan Marie Hubertus, Meijer, Pieter
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Chieh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Perilla, Jason M.
• Application Number:
  US09/844,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20010048401A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,572 Days
• Field of Search: 375/316, 375/346, 375/348, 375/147, 375/347, 455/277.2, 455/130, 455/205, 455/276.1, 455/133, 348/725
• US Class Current: 375/316
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0805 with single receiver and antenna switching H04B7/0822 takes precedence

Abstract

An antenna diversity receiver is disclosed. The diversity receiver has a multipath detector for controlling an antenna selective switching circuit. The switching circuit couples one of a plurality of antennas to a RF receiver input. The receiver allows suppression of adjacent channel interferences without unwanted side effects by employing a switching disabling circuit to automatically disabling the switching circuit when the signal delay between the occurrence of multipath distortions in the RF reception signal and the switching between antennas exceeds a predetermined critical signal delay value.

Claims

1. An antenna diversity receiver comprising:

an antenna selective switching means for coupling one of a plurality of antennas to a RF receiver input; and

a multipath detector for controlling said antenna selective switching means including a switching disabling means for automatically disabling said antenna selective switching means when a signal delay effected by a bandwidth variable intermediate frequency (IF) circuit between an occurrence of multipath distortion in a RF reception signal received by the antenna diversity receiver and the activation of said antenna selective switching means for coupling one of the plurality of antennas to the RF receiver input exceeds a predetermined critical signal delay value.

2. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 1, wherein an adjacent channel detector is coupled to the bandwidth variable intermediate frequency circuit said predetermined critical signal delay value defining a critical bandwidth for said bandwidth variable IF circuit, said antenna selective switching means being automatically disabled when a bandwidth of said bandwidth variable IF circuit is smaller than said critical bandwidth.

3. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 2, further comprising a threshold circuit coupled between an output of the adjacent channel detector and a control input of the switching disabling means for comparing the output signal of the adjacent channel detector with a threshold bandwidth value corresponding to said critical bandwidth and for supplying a switching disabling control signal to the switching disabling means when said output signal of the adjacent channel detector effectuates a bandwidth smaller than said threshold bandwidth value.

4. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 2, which is provide with a fixed timer circuit introducing a fixed switching disabling period following each antenna switching action wherein the bandwidth variable intermediate frequency (IF) circuit effects a signal delay at said critical bandwidth corresponding to said fixed switching disabling period.

5. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 3 wherein said threshold bandwidth value of the IF selectivity bandwidth is substantially within the range between 40 and 50 KHz.

6. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 2 wherein the adjacent channel detector is provided with a multiplex input coupled to an output of a demodulator for detecting adjacent channel reception at the occurrence of both an amplitude variation in the IF signal level and distortion components in the demodulator output signal.

7. An antenna diversity receiver according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas includes an antenna for receiving radio broadcast RF signals and an antenna for receiving telecommunication RF signals.

8. An antenna diversity receiver which detects a RF reception signal comprising:

a RF receiver with an input;

an antenna selective switching circuit which couples one of a plurality of antennas to the input of the RF receiver; and

a multipath detector coupled to the antenna selective switching circuit, the detector including a switching disabling circuit which automatically disables the switching circuit when a signal delay effected by a bandwidth variable intermediate frequency (IF) circuit between an occurrence of a multipath signal in the RF reception signal and the activation of the antenna selective switching circuit for coupling one of the plurality of antennas to the input of the RF receiver exceeds a predetermined critical signal delay value.

9. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 8 further comprising:

an adjacent channel detector;

the bandwidth variable intermediate frequency circuit coupled to the adjacent channel detector wherein the predetermined critical signal delay value defines a critical bandwidth for the bandwidth variable IF circuit, and wherein the switching circuit is automatically disabled when the bandwidth of the bandwidth variable IF circuit is smaller than the critical bandwidth.

10. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 9, further comprising a threshold circuit coupled between an output of the adjacent channel detector and a control input of the switching disabling circuit for comparing the output signal of the adjacent channel detector with a threshold bandwidth value corresponding to the critical bandwidth,

wherein the threshold circuit supplies a switching disabling control signal to the switching disabling circuit when the output signal of the adjacent channel detector effectuates a bandwidth smaller than the threshold bandwidth value.

11. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 9, further comprising a fixed timer circuit introducing a fixed switching disabling period following each antenna switching action wherein the bandwidth variable intermediate frequency (IF) circuit effects a signal delay at the critical bandwidth corresponding to the fixed switching disabling period.

12. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 10 wherein the threshold bandwidth value of the IF selectivity bandwidth is substantially within the range between 40 and 50 KHz.

13. The antenna diversity receiver according to claim 9 wherein the adjacent channel detector includes a multiplex input coupled to an output of a demodulator for detecting adjacent channel reception at the occurrence of both an amplitude variation in the IF signal level and distortion components in the demodulator output signal.

14. An antenna diversity receiver according to claim 8 wherein the plurality of antennas includes an antenna for receiving radio broadcast RE signals and an antenna for receiving telecommunication RF signals.