Wireless receiver circuit and method

• US 9,218,241 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2013
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Hoogerbrugge, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): Alphonse, Fritz
• Application Number:
  US14/086,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20140157081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 714/758, 714/763, 714/776, 714/799
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0053 specially adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/203 Details of error rate determination, e.g. BER, FER or WER
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/208 involving signal re-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

One example discloses a wireless receiver circuit comprising: a wireless receiver unit having a first voltage power supply and providing an output as a stream of digital output bits; a parity check unit at the output; a control unit configured to derive a control output based on the difference between the parity check unit output and a target parity error rate; and a voltage regulator for providing the first voltage to the wireless receiver unit, in dependence on the control unit output wherein the voltage regulator implements a voltage overscaling function for the wireless receiver unit and is operable to overscale the first voltage in response to a parity error rate of less than 0.5 and to drive the first voltage to a predetermined maximum voltage value in response to a parity error rate of 0.5.

Claims

1. A wireless receiver circuit comprising:

a wireless receiver unit having a first voltage power supply and providing an output as a stream of digital output bits;

a parity check unit at the output;

a control unit configured to derive a control output based on the difference between the parity check unit output and a target parity error rate; and

a voltage regulator for providing the first voltage to the wireless receiver unit, in dependence on the control unit output wherein the voltage regulator implements a voltage overscaling function for the wireless receiver unit and is operable to overscale the first voltage in response to a parity error rate of less than 0.5 and to drive the first voltage to a predetermined maximum voltage value in response to a parity error rate of 0.5.

2. A circuit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a quantizer between the control unit and the voltage regulator.

3. A circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the receiver receives a parity bit with each packet of a packetized data stream.

4. A battery operated device comprising a wireless receiver circuit as claimed in claim 1.

5. A battery operated device as claimed in claim 4 comprising a hearing aid.

6. A method of controlling a drive voltage to a wireless receiver unit, comprising:

providing a parity check to the stream of digital bits at the output of the wireless receiver unit;

deriving a control output based on the difference between the results of the parity check and a target parity error rate;

providing the drive voltage to the wireless receiver unit, in dependence on the control unit output; and

overscaling the drive voltage in response to a parity error rate of less than 0.5 and driving the drive voltage to a predetermined maximum voltage value in response to a parity error rate of 0.5.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising quantizing the control output.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6, comprising receiving a parity bit with each packet of a packetized data stream.

9. A method as claimed in claim 6 performed in a battery operated device.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 performed in a hearing aid.