Ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver

• US 7,397,870 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2003
• Issued: 07/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Batra, Anuj, Dabak, Anand G., Gharpurey, Ranjit
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khai
• Application Number:
  US10/335,769
• Publication Number:
  US 20030227984A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 375/130, 375/140, 375/142, 375/144, 375/147, 375/267, 375/343, 375/347, 375/340, 375/316, 375/350, 455/132
• US Class Current: 375/340
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71637 Receiver aspects H04B1/7183 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7183 Synchronisation

Abstract

System and method for maximizing a signal strength of a received signal pulse. A preferred embodiment comprises a self-adjusting correlator/integrator (for example, correlator/integrator 325) that uses no historical timing information. The self-adjusting correlator/integrator uses a plurality of simple correlators/integrators (for example, correlator/integrator 805) which are configured to process a received signal at various times surrounding the signal pulse'"'"'s expected arrival. A comparator (for example, comparator 820) selects an output of the simple correlators/integrators with greatest magnitude.

Claims

1. An ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver comprising:

a signal input;

a filter and amplifier unit (FAU) coupled to the signal input, the FAU containing circuitry to eliminate interferers and amplify a signal provided by the signal input to generate an input signal having a pulse with a specified magnitude;

a self-adjusting pulse detector coupled to the FAU, the self-adjusting pulse detector comprising a plurality of correlation circuits operable to correlate the pulse with a desired signal at different times from each other, the self-adjusting pulse detector containing circuitry to select an output signal from one of the plurality of correlation circuits having a highest relative correlation value; and

a baseband processor coupled to the self-adjusting pulse detector, the baseband processor containing circuitry to equalize and decode a data stream in the selected output signal provided by the self-adjusting pulse detector.

2. The UWB receiver of claim 1, wherein the signal is a stream of finite duration pulses.

3. The UWB receiver of claim 1, wherein the self-adjusting pulse detector comprises:

each correlation circuit comprising a correlator/integrator coupled to the signal input, each correlator/integrator containing circuitry to correlate the input signal with the desired signal and to generate a correlation value based on the correlation, wherein each correlator/integrator is configured to commence operation at a different time; and

a comparator having a plurality of inputs, with each input coupled to an output from one of the correlator/integrators, the comparator to select a maximum input from the plurality of inputs.

4. The UWB receiver of claim 3, wherein there are three correlator/integrators in the self-adjusting pulse detector.

5. The UWB receiver of claim 3, wherein the signal is a stream of finite duration pulses, and wherein each correlator/integrator comprises a capacitor that is reset after each finite duration pulse.

6. The UWB receiver of claim 1 further comprising a rake receiver coupled between the self-adjusting pulse detector and the baseband processor, and operable to combine reflections of the signal input arriving at the UWB receiver at different times.

7. The UWB receiver of claim 1 further comprising a media access control (MAC) coupled to the UWB receiver and operable to manage and/or maintain communications to and/or from the UWB receiver.

8. The UWB receiver of claim 3, wherein the correlator/integrators further comprise:

circuitry operable to determine a magnitude of both positive and negative pulses in the signal input; and

a magnitude comparator operable to compare the magnitudes and select the larger of the values.