| CAMBRIDGE SILICON RADIO LIMITED Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120127047 | Internal FM Antenna - An antenna for receiving and/or transmitting radio frequency signals in a predetermined frequency band, the antenna comprising: a first antenna portion comprising at least one conducting loop about a first material having an initial permeability of at least 4; and a second antenna portion embedded within a second material having a dielectric constant of at least 4; wherein the first and second antenna portions are electrically coupled together so as to form a compound antenna having a size such that the diameter of the smallest sphere which encloses all of the first and second antenna portions of the compound antenna is less than 1/30 of the wavelength of the radio frequency signals at the centre of the predetermined frequency band. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120121037 | Apparatus and Method of Reducing Noise For Frequency Modulated Signals - Apparatus for reducing FM click noise on a demodulated FM signal, the apparatus comprising, filter means configured to produce a click detection signal according to the demodulated FM signal, click detection means configured to receive the click detection signal and produce a click occurrence signal, and click correction means configured to correct FM clicks on the de-modulated FM signal according to the click occurrence signal. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120105120 | Digital Phase-Locked Loop Architecture - A phase-locked loop circuit comprising: an oscillator ( | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120098802 | LOCATION DETECTION SYSTEM - A directional display system includes a directional display device for displaying first visual content in a first direction, wherein the first direction is variable; and a processing system configured to establish a wireless link with a first wireless device positioned with a viewer for the first visual content, determine the direction of the first wireless device relative to the display device utilising the wireless link, and control the display device such that the first direction is defined at least in part by the direction of the first wireless device. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120098578 | Phase-Locked Loop - A phase-locked loop comprising; an oscillator configured to output an oscillating signal in dependence on the control signal at an input of the oscillator; a phase detector and loop filter configured to output a low frequency compensation signal in dependence on the output of the oscillator and a reference signal; a correlator configured to frequency correlate an interferer signal and the low frequency compensation signal, and in dependence on that correlation generate a correlation signal; and an adaptive filter configured to adapt the interferer signal in dependence on the correlation signal to output a high frequency compensation signal; and a summation unit configured to combine the low frequency compensation signal and the high frequency compensation signal to form a control signal to drive the input of the oscillator. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120086551 | Headset Ear Detection - A device capable of providing information to a user through a plurality of different alerting signals, includes a sensing system capable of sensing indications that the device is in a first particular physical relationship to the user's body; an alerting system capable of conveying information to the user through a plurality of different alerting signals, the alerting signals including: a first set of alerting signals and a second set of alerting signals that are such as to be less noticeable to the user if the device is in the first particular physical relationship to the user's body than the first set of alerting signals, the device further including comprising a controller responsive to the sensing system and configured to estimate from the indications whether the device is in the first particular physical relationship to the user's body, and while it is to control the alerting system so as to suppress the provision of information to the user through the second set of alerting signals. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20120075758 | Low Voltage Electrostatic Discharge Protection - A protection circuit for protecting components from an electrostatic discharge at a node in an integrated circuit having a first set of electronic components of a first voltage sensitivity, the protection circuit comprising: detection circuitry arranged to detect an electrostatic discharge at the node; a first switching device connected between the first set of components and the node; and a second switching device connected between the node and ground; wherein, when an electrostatic discharge is detected at the node, the first switching device is configured to isolate the first set of components from the node and the second switching device is configured to provide a current path from said node to ground. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120075028 | LC Oscillator - An oscillator including a capacitive element and an inductive element for generating an output signal having a predetermined frequency, the capacitive element comprising two or more capacitive arrays, each array having one or more capacitors that are switchably connectable in parallel with the inductive element so as to control the frequency of the output signal, and at least one of those arrays being connected to only part of the inductive element such that, when a capacitor in said one array is connected to that part, the resulting change in the frequency of the output signal is smaller than it would have been if the capacitor had been connected to the whole of the inductive element. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120074990 | Injection-Locked Oscillator - A signal generator for generating an output signal with a frequency that is a multiple of a frequency of a reference signal, the signal generator including an oscillator configured to generate the output signal in dependence on the reference signal and a control signal and a control circuit configured to generate the control signal to comprise a series of pulses in which one or more of the pulses is offset in phase relative to the reference signal, the control circuit thereby being capable of controlling the frequency and/or phase of the output signal. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120045069 | Dynamic Audibility Enhancement - A method of enhancing an audio signal includes the steps of: a) receiving a primary audio input signal, b) receiving a detected audio signal which comprises: A) an echo component derived from play-out of the primary audio input signal and B) a noise component, and c) estimating from the primary audio input signal and the detected audio signal: 1) a set of frequency-specific lower bound gains, such that each frequency-specific lower bound gain, when applied to a respective frequency of the primary audio input signal, would cause the noise component to just mask the echo component at that respective frequency and 2) a set of frequency-specific upper bound gains, such that, each frequency-specific upper bound gain, when applied to a respective frequency of the primary audio input signal, would cause the echo component to just mask the noise component, at that respective frequency; d) estimating a sat of frequency-specific gains in such a way that each frequency-specific gain falls between the respective frequency-specific lower bound gain and respective frequency-specific upper bound gain; and e) applying the frequency-specific gains to the primary audio input signal. | 02-23-2012 |
| 20120030465 | Indirect Pairing of Communication Devices - A method for establishing a communication link between two devices, the communication link employing a protocol that provides for link establishment information sufficient for establishing a link between two devices to be negotiated between those devices; the method comprising: establishing communication links between each of the two devices and one or more further devices; transmitting from the one or more further devices to each of the two devices information that defines link establishment parameters for a link between the two devices; and establishing the link between the two devices using the defined link establishment parameters. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120015605 | Proximity Pairing - A method for initiating a security relationship by a first communication device, wherein the first device communicates with a number of other communication devices, selects, in dependence on the result of the communicating step, one of the other devices, and initiates the negotiation of a security relationship with that selected device. | 01-19-2012 |
| 20120001650 | Test Probe - A test probe is configured to provide conductive contact with a surface on application of the probe to the surface. The probe includes a probe body having a proximal and distal end, a probe tip located at the distal end of the probe body, the probe being configured such that, when the probe tip is applied to the surface, the probe tip is moved to rotate about its axis, whereby the shaft tip can rotatably remove oxidation and/or contamination debris from between the shaft tip and the surface. | 01-05-2012 |
| 20110305304 | Signal Reception - A method of receiving a demodulated waveform according to a protocol in which the waveform represents a block of transmitted bits comprising a first group of bits and a second group of bits, the second group of bits being a function of the first group of bits, the method comprising: sampling the demodulated waveform to recover a first group of sample values corresponding to the first group of transmitted bits and a second group of sample values corresponding to the second group of transmitted bits; assigning bit values to reliable sample values of the first group of sample values; generating a set of candidates for a block of bits corresponding to the demodulated waveform, each candidate comprising a first group of candidate bits and a second group of candidate bits, the first group of candidate bits being generated using the assigned bit values and a combination of bit values unique to that candidate in the set of candidates, and the second group of candidate bits being generated by applying the said function to the first group of candidate bits; performing a correlation operation by determining a correlation between each candidate and the recovered first and second groups of sample values to form a correlation value associated with each candidate; and selecting the candidate associated with the correlation value that is indicative of the strongest degree of correlation between a candidate and the first and second groups of sample values to be the block of bits corresponding to the demodulated waveform. | 12-15-2011 |
| 20110299580 | Rejection of Interferers - A filter for filtering a received signal to attenuate an interferer therein, the interferer having a component at an interferer frequency, and the filter comprising: an intermediate filter providing a passband and a stopband; a first frequency converter configured to form a first intermediate signal by frequency-shifting an input signal derived from the received signal such that a component of the input signal at the interferer frequency is shifted to a frequency in the passband of the intermediate filter, and to input the first intermediate signal to the intermediate filter so as to cause the first intermediate signal to be filtered by the intermediate filter to form a second intermediate signal; a second frequency converter configured to form a cancellation signal by frequency-shifting the second intermediate signal such that a component of the second intermediate signal in the passband of the intermediate filter is shifted to the interferer frequency; and a cancellation unit configured to cancel the cancellation signal from the received signal to attenuate the interferer therein. | 12-08-2011 |
| 20110286495 | Automatic Gain Control and DC Offset Compensation - A signal receiver having a gain control circuit comprising: detection means configured to form a representation of the excess amplitude during a training period of a signal received by the receiver; a first gain stimulus generator configured to generate a first gain stimulus in dependence on the excess amplitude detected by the detection means during the training period; averaging means configured to estimate the average of the signal received by the receiver during the training period; a second gain stimulus generator configured to generate a second gain stimulus in dependence on the average estimated by the averaging means during the training period; and a gain control signal generator configured to generate a gain control signal for the receiver in dependence on the first gain stimulus and the second gain stimulus. | 11-24-2011 |
| 20110285599 | ANTENNA - An antenna comprising a substrate ( | 11-24-2011 |
| 20110278728 | Chip Packaging - An electronic device package comprising: a block of insulating material; an electronic device housed within the insulating material and having a set of contact pads thereon; and a set of electrically conductive contact members at least partially housed within the insulating material, each contact member extending between a respective external contact point at which it is exposed at the surface of the block and an internal contact point from which it is electrically coupled to a respective contact pad on the electronic device, each internal contact point being outside the footprint of the electronic device, the set of contact members including: at least one contact member of a first type whose external contact point is located at least partially within the footprint of the electronic device; and at least one contact member of a second type that is wholly outside the footprint of the device. | 11-17-2011 |
| 20110267164 | Inductor Structure - An inductor structure comprising: a first loop and a second loop; a first feed line connected to a first end of the first loop and a second feed line connected to a first end of the second loop, each of the first and second feed lines extending through an area circumscribed by one of the first and second loops; and a crossover section adjacent to the first end of the first loop and the first end of the second loop, the crossover section coupling the first loop to the second loop so as to cause current flowing from the first feed line to the second feed line to circulate around the first loop in a first rotational direction and around the second loop in a second rotational direction opposite to the first rotational direction. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20110261866 | Loop-Through Circuit - An integrated circuit includes a digital interface for connection to a host controller; an antenna connection for connection to an antenna; a radio frequency transceiver for communicating data in accordance with one or more radio communication protocols, the radio frequency transceiver being configured to communicate radio frequency signals over the antenna connection in response to data exchanged over the digital interface; and radio loop-through circuitry for exchanging radio frequency signals with another integrated circuit, the radio loop-through circuitry being configured to provide radio frequency signals received at the antenna connection to an output connection of the integrated circuit. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110260901 | Variable Gain Amplifier - A variable gain amplifier includes an integrator having an input, an output and a feedback loop connected between the input and output, a plurality of input chains connected in parallel between the amplifier input and the input of the integrator, each input chain including a resistor and a first switch and a plurality of second switches, each second switch connected between an intermediate node between the resistor and first switch of a respective input chain and the feedback loop of the integrator, wherein the resistance of the resistors in the input chains is scaled by a scaling factor with respect to one another and the on-resistances of the first and second switches connected to each intermediate node are scaled by the corresponding scaling factor. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110248809 | Inductor Structure - An inductor structure includes a first inductor and a second inductor. The second inductor includes a loop that surrounds the first inductor. The first inductor includes a first loop and a second loop, and a crossover section coupling the first loop to the second loop so as to cause current flowing through the first inductor to circulate around the first loop in a first rotational direction and around the second loop in a second rotational direction opposite to the first rotational direction; wherein the first and second inductors are arranged in an equilibrated configuration about a first axis that bisects the inductor structure such that the first loop is on one side of the first axis and the second loop is on a second side of the first axis, such that the magnetic interaction between the inductors due to current flow in the inductors is cancelled out. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20110243349 | Noise Estimation - A method and apparatus are provided for estimating the noise spectrum of an audio signal occupying a certain frequency range. The amplitude of the audio signal is measured at only a subset of the frequency range having a low expected signal to noise ratio at the time of measuring such that the measured amplitude is indicative of noise amplitude at that subset of the frequency range. A predefined noise spectral shape is then adapted by fitting to the noise amplitude so as to form the estimated noise spectrum. The noise spectrum so estimated is used to remove interference noise from the audio signal. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20110204938 | Charge Pump For a Phase-Locked Loop - A charge pump circuit for connection to another circuit via an output node ( | 08-25-2011 |
| 20110188555 | Architecture to Remove a Bimodal Dynamic DC Offset in Direct Conversion Receiver - Apparatus for controlling the generation of a DC signal at the output of a mixer, so that the DC signal is predictable, enabling a static offset compensation voltage to offset the DC signal. The apparatus comprises a mixer configured to receive a first and a second input signal, the mixer being such as to generate a first DC signal at the output of the mixer when the first and second input signal have the same frequency and a first relative phase, a phase detector for determining the relative phase of the first and second signals, and a phase modifier configured to modify the phase of the second signal relative to the first signal in dependence on the determination of the relative phase between the first and second signals such that the resulting DC signal at the output of the mixer is the first DC signal. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110125494 | Speech Intelligibility - The perceived quality of a speech signal output from a user apparatus is improved by storing ambient noise profiles each indicating a model power distribution of a respective ambient noise type as a function of frequency; the ambient noise profile at the user apparatus is measured, the measured ambient noise profile is correlated with each of the stored ambient noise profiles, the stored ambient noise profile is selected with which the measured ambient noise profile is most highly correlated, and the speech signal is manipulated in dependence on which of the stored ambient noise profiles is selected, so as to form an improved speech signal. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110125492 | Speech Intelligibility - The perceived quality of a narrowband speech signal truncated from a wideband speech signal is improved by generating in a third frequency band third speech components matching first speech components in a first frequency band of the narrowband signal, and generating in a fourth frequency band fourth speech components matching second speech components in a second frequency band of the narrowband signal. A first gain factor is applied to the third speech components to generate adjusted third speech components, and a second gain factor is applied to the fourth speech components to generate adjusted fourth speech components, the gain factors being selected such that the ratios of the average powers of the adjusted third and fourth speech components to the average power of the first speech components are predetermined values. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110115662 | High Speed Low Voltage Flash - An analog-to-digital converter comprising: first and second sets of ordered nodes, each first node having a corresponding second node; for each first node, a respective first resistor and current source pair, the resistor of each pair being connected to a first converter input and the current source of each pair being coupled to the respective first node; for each second node, a respective second resistor and current source pair, the resistor of each pair being connected to a second converter input and the current source of each pair being coupled to the respective second node; and a plurality of first comparators, each first comparator having its first input connected to a first node and its second input connected to the corresponding second node; wherein each of the first resistor and current source pairs are configured so as to provide an orderly progression of voltages at the first nodes and each of the second resistor and current source pairs are configured so as to provide an orderly progression of voltages at the second nodes. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110110470 | FRAME BOUNDARY DETECTION - A method of WLAN frame detection in a received signal, wherein the frame comprises first and second training sequences and the method comprises auto-correlating the signal with a delayed version of itself to establish a first frame boundary estimate based on behaviour of the autocorrelation result due to the inclusion of the first training sequence in the frame, cross-correlating the signal with a copy of the second training sequence at a range of time offsets in order to generate a first cross-correlation profile, classifying the first cross-correlation profile into one of a number of categories, establishing a second frame boundary estimate from the first cross-correlation profile in a manner dependent upon the category assigned to the first cross-correlation profile and determining a refined frame boundary estimate on the basis of a consideration of the first and second frame boundary estimates. Apparatus for performing the method is also described. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110103615 | Wind Noise Suppression - A method of suppressing wind noise in a voice signal determines an upper frequency limit that lies within the frequency spectrum of the voice signal, and for each of a plurality of frequency bands below the upper frequency limit, compares the average power of signal components in a first portion of the signal to the average power of signal components in a second portion of the signal, where the second portion is successive to the first portion. Signal components are identified in at least one of the plurality of frequency bands as containing impulsive wind noise in dependence on the comparison, and the identified signal components are attenuated. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110098012 | Transmitter with Self-Test Capability - A radio transmitter includes a transmitter circuit having a transmission output and being configured to generate at the transmission output a signal for transmission; a reference voltage circuit configured to generate a substantially temperature-invariant reference voltage; a reference signal circuit having a reference output and being configured to receive the substantially temperature-invariant voltage generated by the reference voltage circuit and to generate at the reference output an oscillating reference signal of an amplitude that is derived from the temperature-invariant reference voltage; an amplitude sensor having an input and being configured for sensing the amplitude of a signal at the input and generating a sensed amplitude signal indicative of the sensed amplitude; and control apparatus configured to control the radio transmitter to operate in each of: a) a first mode in which it causes the input of the amplitude sensor to be coupled to the reference output; and b) a second mode in which it causes the input of the amplitude sensor to be coupled to the transmission output. | 04-28-2011 |
| 20110086615 | Device Security - A functional device includes a local wireless transceiver for communicating with a remote wireless transceiver through a protocol according to which the local transceiver maintains a record of its connection state with selected devices that are within range of it. The device includes a memory for storing the identity of a selected device; and a controller configured to inhibit one or more functions of the functional device if the connection state maintained by the transceiver is indicative of the selected device being out of range. The performance of the functions of the device is independent of the local wireless transceiver. | 04-14-2011 |
| 20110070858 | IMAGE REJECTION - A receiver ( | 03-24-2011 |
| 20110069645 | MULTIPLEXER - A multiplexer for a device capable of receiving signals in first and second frequency bands, the multiplexer comprising a first branch for connecting an antenna to a first sub-system configured to process received signals in the first frequency band, a second branch for connecting the antenna to a second sub-system configured to process received signals in the second frequency band, wherein the first branch comprises a filter for attenuating received signals in the second frequency band and the second branch couples the antenna directly to the second sub-system. | 03-24-2011 |
| 20110065413 | Power-Saving Receiver - A signal receiver capable of operating in two modes: a normal mode for reception and decoding of signals and a detection mode for detecting the presence of signals, the signal receiver having: a functional unit that can operate in two manners: a first manner having relatively low power consumption and relatively poor accuracy and a second manner having relatively high power consumption and relatively high accuracy, and a controller for causing the functional unit to operate in the first manner when the receiver is in its detection mode and in the second manner when the receiver is in its normal mode. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110065382 | SCHEMES FOR THE EFFICIENT RECEPTION OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS SIGNALS - Receiving a Wi-Fi radio signal using a Bluetooth receiver architecture. Also, adapting a Wi-Fi receiver architecture to constrain a received radio signal to less than the bandwidth of a conveyed Wi-Fi signal for subsequent processing purposes. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110038441 | TRANSMISSION MODE DETECTION - A method of detecting if a transmitted signal was transmitted in a particular transmission mode, the method comprising receiving a signal in primary and secondary frequency bands and comparing a first part of a header of the signal in the primary frequency band with a corresponding first part of a header of the signal in the secondary frequency band. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110025388 | Charge Pump For Phase-Locked Loop - A current generator for a phase-locked loop arranged to generate an output signal having predetermined frequency-relationship with a reference signal, the phase-locked loop comprising a signal generator arranged to generate the output signal, a divider arranged to receive the output signal and divide the output signal to form a feedback signal, the divider being arranged to vary the divisor by which the output signal is divided, a comparison unit arranged to compare the feedback signal with the reference signal and output a first error signal indicative of the phase-difference between the feedback signal and the reference signal to the current generator and a loop filter arranged to filter a current signal output by the current generator to form a control signal for controlling the signal generator, the current generator being capable of receiving the first error signal and generating a current in dependence thereon, receiving a second error signal indicative of an error in the feedback signal caused by the variation of the divisor by which the output signal is divided and generating a current having a magnitude and sign that is dependent on that error and combining the currents generated in dependence on the first error signal and the second error signal to form a current signal output to the loop filter that is representative of an overall error in the output signal of the phase-locked loop relative to the reference signal. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110025387 | Charge Transfer in a Phase-Locked Loop - A phase-locked loop arranged to generate an output signal having a first frequency that is a static value times the frequency of a reference signal, the phase-locked loop comprising a signal generator arranged to generate the output signal, a divider arranged to receive the output signal and divide the output signal to form a feedback signal, the divider being arranged to vary the divisor by which the output signal is divided to cause the output signal to have a frequency that is said static value times the frequency of the reference signal, a comparison unit arranged to compare the feedback signal with the reference signal, one or more current generators arranged to output current pulses in dependence on said comparison, a summation unit arranged to receive the current pulses output by the current generator(s) and form a single current pulse therefrom and a loop filter arranged to filter the single current pulse to form a control signal for controlling the signal generator, the phase-locked loop being arranged such that the current generator(s) generate(s) a first current pulse dependent on a phase-difference between the feedback signal and the reference signal and a second current pulse whose magnitude and sign are dependent on an error in the feedback signal that is caused by the variation of the divisor, and the summation unit receives the first and second current pulses and stores an electrical charge representative of those current pulses and the summation unit outputs a single current pulse dependent on the electrical charge stored by the summation unit, said single current pulse being representative of a phase-difference that would have existed between the reference signal and the feedback signal if the feedback signal had been formed by dividing the output signal by said static value and not by the varied divisor. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110025386 | Phase-Locked Loop - A loop filter for a phase-locked loop that generates an output signal having a predetermined phase relationship with a reference signal, the loop filter being arranged to control a signal generator that forms the output signal in dependence on a phase error between the output signal and the reference signal by outputting a control signal for controlling the signal generator in dependence thereon, the loop filter being arranged to form the control signal to comprise a proportional component representative of an instantaneous magnitude of the phase difference and an integral component representative of an integral of the phase difference, the loop filter comprising a proportional path arranged to receive a signal representative of the instantaneous magnitude of the phase difference and form the proportional component of the control signal in dependence thereon and an integral path arranged to receive a signal representative of the instantaneous magnitude of the phase difference and form the integral component of the control signal in dependence thereon, the proportional and integral paths being decoupled in the loop filter such that each has a transfer function relating its received signal to its respective component of the control signal that is independent of the other path. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110022915 | Data Processing In Signal Transmissions - A controller for a communications device, comprising: a receiver arranged for receiving a first data block and a second data block, each data block comprising a plurality of analogue signals; a digitizer arranged for converting each analogue signal into a digital value and marking each digital value as saturated when the digital value exceeds a digital range; and a processor arranged for modifying at least one digital value of the first block by combination with a corresponding digital value of the second block except where the digital value of the first block is marked as saturated and marking each modified value as saturated when the modified value is outside a defined range. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110019767 | Phase-Locked Loop Modulation - A phase-locked loop having: an oscillator for forming an oscillating output signal; a frequency divider connected to receive the output of the oscillator and frequency divide it by a value dependent on a division control signal; and a phase comparator for comparing the phase of the divided signal and a reference signal to generate a control signal, the operation of the oscillator being dependent on the control signal; the output data to form a divided signal a division ratio controller configured to, when clocked by an input signal, generate a series of output data for forming the division control signal; the phase-locked loop having: a first mode of operation in which the frequency divider is operable to frequency divide the output of the oscillator by a value dependent on the output of the division ratio controller; and a second mode of operation in which the frequency divider is not operable to frequency divide the output of the oscillator by a value dependent on the output of the division ratio controller, and the division ratio controller is clocked by a signal that is independent of the output of the oscillator. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110019726 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING LOG-LIKELIHOOD CALCULATIONS - A method and apparatus for performing calculations relating to the derivation of log-likelihood ratio (LLR) is provided. Coefficients in the use of deriving LLRs are calculated the calculation being applicable to any one of a plurality of constellation diagrams (PAM, QAM, PSK). The coefficients may be stored in a table of coefficients, the table corresponding to a particular constellation diagram and modulation scheme. A number of tables may be stored, each table corresponding to a particular modulation scheme. The coefficients are related to a symbol estimated to be closest to the received sample and the closest symbol to the estimated symbol having a complementary value for a bit for which the LLR is to be calculated. Certain coefficients or parts of coefficients may be omitted where the corresponding constellation diagram has symmetries. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110019599 | METHOD OF GENERATING REPEATED DATA PACKAGE TRANSMISSION - Repeated data packets are generated from a first Bluetooth enabled device to a second Bluetooth enabled device to facilitate radio direction finding of the first device by the second device. A communication connection is established between the first and second devices in accordance with a Bluetooth protocol stack and in response to receiving at the second device a data packet transmitted by the first device the second device transmits an NACK data packet to the first device, whereby the first device is cause to retransmit said data packet, and causing the second device to process at least one of the transmitted data packet and the retransmitted data packet in accordance with a radio direction finding algorithm. The communication connection preferably comprises a remote name request. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110014887 | INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION - A receiver ( | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110013727 | Diversity Reception - A receiver for receiving signals of a protocol in which traffic data is redundantly modulated onto both of two carriers according to a predetermined decision scheme, the receiver comprising: an input for receiving signals on the two carriers; a demodulator for demodulating the signals received on each of the two carriers to form two respective received data streams; first transformation logic for generating a first candidate set of traffic data by processing the received data streams by the functional inverse of the predetermined decision scheme; second transformation logic for generating a second candidate set of traffic data by aggregating corresponding bits of each of the received data streams; and a traffic data set selector for selecting data from either the first candidate set of traffic data or from the second candidate set of traffic data for further processing, the traffic data set selector being configured to make that selection in dependence on the relative strength with which signals on the two carriers are received. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110013612 | Protocol Coexistence - A communication device having: a first communication unit for transmitting and/or receiving by a first protocol acknowledgements for data received by the device; a second communication unit for transmitting data units of a second protocol, the first and second protocols being such that the data units of the second protocol can interfere with the acknowledgements of the first protocol; and a controller configured to control the device such that, when a data unit of the second protocol is being transmitted by the second communication unit and the first communication unit is to transmit or receive an acknowledgement of the first protocol: the second communication unit interrupts the transmission of the data unit of the second protocol, the first communication unit transmits or receives the acknowledgement of the first protocol and the second transmitter resumes transmission of the data unit of the second protocol from the point that transmission of the data unit would have reached if it had not been interrupted. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110012652 | Phase-Locked Loop - A loop filter for receiving an input signal indicative of a phase-difference between a reference signal and a signal output by a signal generator and forming a control signal for controlling the signal generator in dependence thereon, the loop filter comprising a plurality of filter components that determine the frequency response of the filter, said filter components being arranged so that a first set of said components determines one or more zeros of the filter's frequency response and a second set of said components determines one or more poles of the filter's frequency response, each of said first and second sets of filter components being independent of the other such that the zero(s) and pole(s) of the filter's frequency response may be selected independently. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110002402 | Data Transmission - A system for transmitting data between a first device and a second device, the first device being arranged to transmit data to the second device and the second device being arranged to transmit an acknowledgement to the first device if the data transmitted by the first device is properly received by the second device; wherein the system comprises means to measure the quality of reception of acknowledgements by the first device and to modify one or more acknowledgement transmission parameters depending on the measurement. The parameters may include: transmission rate, degree of forward error correction coding, and output power. The parameters may be modified to improve the quality of reception of acknowledgements if the measured quality falls below a threshold. The means to measure the quality of reception may comprise means to determine a measure of the number, or relative number, of acknowledgements that were not properly received by the first device. In an embodiment the first device is arranged to retransmit the data if an acknowledgement is not properly received, and the means to determine a measure of the number of acknowledgements that were not properly received by the first device comprises means to determine the number of data packets that have been received by the second device which were previously properly received by the second device. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110002363 | Method and Apparatus for Generating Scrambling Codes - Wireless transmission techniques are described, including techniques used to generate scrambling codes for use in wireless transmissions, such as spread spectrum transmissions. In some embodiments, scrambling codes may be iteratively generated using multiplicative factors. The multiplicative factors may be predetermined and stored in advance, reducing processing time when the codes are needed. The multiplicative factor iterations may involve predetermined algorithms, such as squaring and powers of two iterations. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20100327988 | REDUCING THE DISTORTION OF APPLIED MODULATION - Signal modulation apparatus for applying a modulation signal to a carrier signal, the apparatus comprising: an amplitude modulator for modulating the amplitude of the carrier signal in accordance with a control signal; first mixing means for mixing together fractions of the carrier signal before and after action of the amplitude modulator to produce a first detection signal indicative of the amplitude modulation applied by the amplitude modulator; and detection means for comparing the control signal with a first detection signal to evaluate distortion in the first detection signal as compared with the control signal. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100327920 | Mixing Waveforms - A local oscillator circuit for a signal transmitter or receiver, the circuit comprising: an input for receiving a master oscillating signal from a master oscillator; and signal processing circuitry configured to be clocked by the master oscillating signal to generate a local oscillator signal, the signal processing circuitry being such that the local oscillator signal has substantially no harmonic content at any integer multiple of the frequency of the master oscillator signal, which oscillates at (2n+1)/2 times the frequency of the generated local oscillator signal, with n being a positive integer. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100321075 | Dual Phase Detector Phase-Locked Loop - A phase-locked loop for generating an output signal that has a predetermined frequency relationship with a reference signal, the phase-locked loop comprising a signal generator arranged to generate the output signal, a charge pump arranged to generate current pulses for controlling the signal generator, two control units for controlling a duration of the current pulses generated by the charge pump and a selection unit arranged to select either the first control unit or the second control unit to control the charge pump, wherein a first one of the control units is arranged to continuously monitor a phase-difference between the reference signal and a feedback signal formed from the output signal and to, when selected by the selection unit, control the charge pump to output a current pulse having a duration that is dependent on that phase-difference and a second one of the control units is arranged to, when selected by the selection unit, control the charge pump to output a current pulse of predetermined duration that compensates for a phase error in the feedback signal. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100311455 | Distributed Arbitration - A communication unit for communicating data in dependence on a priority associated with a data communication to be made by that communication unit and on a priority associated with a data communication to be made by another communication unit, the communication unit being arranged to assign a priority to a data communication to be made by the communication unit, make an adjustment to the priority to form an adjusted priority, the adjustment being independent of an adjustment made by the other communication unit to a priority assigned to a data communication to be made by that communication unit and communicate the adjusted priority to the other communication unit as being the priority associated with the data communication to be made by the communication unit. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20100311334 | Integrated Signal Receiver - A signal receiver having: an input for receiving radio signals; a clock; a receiving section for processing signals received at the input, the receiving section being configured to operate in: (a) a first mode for processing the received signals in accordance with a first protocol and in dependence on the state of the clock, and (b) a second mode for processing the received signal in accordance with a second protocol by steps including storing a sample of data received in accordance with the second protocol together with a representation of the state of the clock when that data was received, and subsequently comparing a timing indicated by the content of the stored sample of data with the timing indicated by the stored state of the clock. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20100309774 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CROSS-TALK CANCELLATION - The present invention addresses the problem of a second (or higher) order representation of a transmit signal which is transmitted by a transceiver being mixed into the region of the frequency spectrum of interest to the transceiver receiver, such that it can not then be spectrally filtered out. At its most straightforward, in one embodiment of the invention this is achieved by providing a cross-talk cancellation unit which takes the transmit signal, and obtains the second (or higher) order representation thereof. This representation is then subtracted from the received signal before the signal is passed to the radio control receiver signal processing elements. However, in a more preferred arrangement a filter is also provided, to filter the second or higher order version of the transmit signal, prior to its being subtracted from the received signal. The filter basically takes out the effects of any other filtering or processing which has happened to the transmit signal in the receiver signal chain. This would be, for example, the filtering effects provided by the anti-aliasing filter in the receiver. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20100305944 | Pitch Or Periodicity Estimation - A method of estimating a pitch period of a first portion of a signal wherein the first portion overlaps a previous portion. The method comprises computing a first autocorrelation value for part of the first portion not overlapping the previous portion. The method further comprises retrieving a stored second autocorrelation value for part of the first portion overlapping the previous portion, the second autocorrelation value having been computed during estimation of a pitch period of the previous portion. The method further comprises forming a combined autocorrelation value using the first and second autocorrelation values, and selecting the estimated pitch period in dependence on the combined autocorrelation value. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100301961 | PHASE LOCKED LOOP - A phase locked loop comprising: an oscillator for generating an output signal of a frequency that is dependent on an input to the oscillator; sampling means for generating a sequence of digital values representing the output of the oscillator at moments synchronised with a reference frequency; a difference unit for generating a feedback signal representing the difference between successive values in the sequence; and an integrator for integrating the difference between the feedback signal and a signal of a desired output frequency; the signal input to the oscillator being dependent on the output of the integrator. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100297959 | Antenna Selection - A communication device arranged to operate in accordance with a communication protocol in which a transmitting device is scheduled to commence a transmission at a time known in advance to the receiving device, includes at least two antennas and is arranged to select one of those antennas to receive a transmission from a transmitting device by, immediately before the transmitting device is scheduled to commence its transmission: assessing a quality of a signal received by means of a first one of the antennas; assessing a quality of a signal received by means of a second one of the antennas; and determining, based on the assessed quality of the signals received by means of the first and second antennas, the antenna to be used for receiving the transmission from the transmitting device. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100295715 | Jitter Insensitive Sigma-Delta Modulator - A sigma-delta modulator for forming a digital output signal representative of a voltage level of an input signal, the sigma delta modulator having a node arranged to receive a current flow that is representative of the voltage level of the input signal and on whose voltage the digital output signal is dependent, the sigma-delta modulator comprising a plurality of capacitive elements for smoothing the current flow, each capacitive element being connected at one end to the node and at its other end to a respective switch unit and a plurality of switch units, each switch unit being arranged to connect the respective one of the capacitive elements to either a first voltage level or a second voltage level in dependence on the voltage at the node so as to provide feedback that affects the voltage at the node. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100281321 | Error Concealment - A method and apparatus for selectively replacing damaged portions of a data stream. The method comprises analyzing the data stream to identify damaged portions therein; selecting a damaged portion for replacement; and replacing the selected damaged portion. The selected damaged portion is selected for replacement in dependence on a rate of replacement, the rate of replacement being that at which previous portions of the data stream have been replaced. | 11-04-2010 |
| 20100272168 | RECEIVER - A receiver for a telecommunications system in which a data signal is transmitted using a closed loop transmit diversity system and a pilot signal is transmitted using a space time transmit diversity system, the receiver comprising an equalizer for equalising a signal received by the receiver, wherein the equalizer is configured to produce an equalized signal in which effects caused by a propagation channel through which the data signal was transmitted are alleviated, the receiver further comprising a processor for processing the equalized received signal to recover the pilot signal. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100268530 | Signal Pitch Period Estimation - A method and apparatus for estimating the pitch period of a signal. The method includes identifying a first candidate pitch period by performing a search only over a first range of potential pitch periods. The method further includes determining a second candidate pitch period by dividing the first candidate pitch period by an integer, wherein the second candidate pitch period is outside the first range of potential pitch periods. The method further includes selecting as the estimate of the pitch period of the signal the smaller of the candidate pitch periods that is such that portions of the signal separated by that candidate pitch period are well correlated. | 10-21-2010 |
| 20100261436 | Tuneable Filter - A radio receiver comprising: a frequency shifter for receiving a radio frequency signal including a wanted signal in a first frequency band and an interferer in a second frequency band overlapping the first frequency band, and for frequency shifting the radio frequency signal to form a frequency shifted signal, in which the first frequency band is shifted to a third frequency band below radio frequency and the second frequency band is shifted to a fourth frequency band; and a filter for receiving the frequency shifted signal and for attenuating the fourth frequency band relative to the parts of the third frequency band that do not include the fourth frequency band, wherein the filter is dynamically tuneable. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20100254495 | TREATING CARRIER-SPECIFIC INTERFERENCE - A receiver for receiving data carried by multiple carriers, the receiver having: estimation means for forming an estimate of the reliability with which data from one or more of the carriers is received as distinct from the reliability with which data from one or more other of the carriers is received; and a decoder arranged for forming an estimate of the symbols represented by the data received from the carriers in dependence on the estimate of reliability. | 10-07-2010 |
| 20100251051 | ERROR CONCEALMENT - A method and apparatus for decoding portions of a data stream, wherein each portion comprises a plurality of samples. The method comprises storing portions of the data stream, decoding portions of the data stream to form decoded portions, and storing the decoded portions. The method further comprises identifying that a portion of the data stream is degraded. Following identifying that a portion of the data stream is degraded, the method generates a decoded portion for the degraded portion of the data stream using the stored decoded portions. The method also updates a state of a decoder by: estimating a pitch period of the degraded portion; selecting a group of successive samples of the stored portions of the data stream, the group of successive samples offset from the degraded portion in the data stream by a multiple of the estimated pitch period; and decoding the selected samples at the decoder. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100232395 | FFT/IFFT Clock Adjustment - A receiver for processing a signal in which data symbols are each represented by the energy at each of a plurality of carrier frequencies, the receiver comprising: an analogue to digital converter for periodically sampling the signal and generating a corresponding digital sample; a Fourier transform unit having a plurality of input bins for receiving samples generated by the analogue to digital converter and being arranged to, in dependence on the samples, generate outputs representing the energy in the signal during a sample period at each of a plurality of frequencies including the carrier frequencies; and a symbol estimator for estimating a symbol present in the signal during a sample period in dependence on the outputs of the Fourier transform unit; wherein the number of the input bins is greater than the total number of carrier frequencies and during each sample period the number of the outputs in dependence on which the symbol estimator performs symbol estimation is less than the number of input bins. | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100226348 | UWB COEXISTENCE SCHEME - Roughly described, a first radio is configured to operate according to a first protocol and configured to use a coexistence signaling scheme with a second radio configured to operate according to a second protocol, wherein the coexistence signaling scheme is configured to allow a radio configured to operate according to the second protocol to be co-located and non-interfering with a radio configured to operate according to a protocol different to the first protocol, and wherein the first radio comprises behavioral logic for generating messages for the second radio in accordance with the coexistence signaling scheme to cause the second radio to adopt behavior suitable for coexistence with the first radio. | 09-09-2010 |
| 20100220650 | COEXISTENCE OF DATA STREAMS - A system for transmitting data from two or more data streams on a communication channel between two or more devices. Roughly described, the data from each data stream is transmitted on the channel in the form of data packets, at least one data packet of one or more of the data streams being transmitted in between the data packets of the other data streams. The system is characterised in that the system comprises means to generate or process data packets for at least one of the data streams for transmission, the generated or processed data packets having a size below a certain value. Collisions between data packets of different data streams are thereby reduced. | 09-02-2010 |
| 20100219876 | FM Tone Rejection - An interference rejection unit for at least partially rejecting a narrowband interferer from an input signal, the unit comprising: an interferer detector for detecting the phase of an interferer in the input signal; a signal generator for generating a cancellation signal in dependence on the phase detected by the interferer detector; and a signal combiner for combining the input signal with the tone cancellation signal to generate an output signal in which the interferer is at least partially cancelled from the input signal. | 09-02-2010 |
| 20100210101 | Formation of Solder Bumps - A method of providing connections to a chip having contact pads on the surface thereof, comprising: locating a discrete solder element on each pad; and melting the discrete solder elements so as to cause each of them to adhere to the respective pad, thereby forming a solder bump extending from the surface of the chip; wherein the size of each discrete solder element relative to the area of the pad on which it is located is such that the height of each bump is less than 70% of the diameter of the solder element that formed it. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100204997 | ADAPTIVE TUNING OF THE PERCEPTUAL MODEL - Methods of encoding a signal using a perceptual model are described in which a signal to mask ratio parameter within the perceptual model is tuned. The signal to mask ratio parameter is tuned based on a function of the bitrate of the part of the signal which has already been encoded and the target bitrate for the encoding process. The tuned signal to mask ratio parameter is used to compute a masking threshold for the signal which is then used to quantise the signal. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100202558 | FAST SPECTRAL PARTITIONING FOR EFFICIENT ENCODING - Methods of spectral partitioning which may be implemented in an encoder are described. The methods comprise determining an estimate of bit requirements for each of a plurality of spectral sub-bands. These estimates are then used to group the sub-bands into two or more regions by minimising a cost function. This cost function is based on the estimates of bit requirements for each sub-band and the estimates may include estimates of code bit requirements and/or additional code bit requirements for each sub-band. These estimates may be determined in many different ways and a number of methods are described. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100201549 | BITCOUNT DETERMINATION FOR ITERATIVE SIGNAL CODING - Methods and apparatus for iteratively encoding a portion of a signal are described in which the portion of the signal is quantised and an output bit count is estimated based on the sum of logarithms to base n of values of each sample in the plurality of quantised samples and the total number of samples. The output bit count corresponds to an estimate of the output bit count for the portion of the signal once encoded using a code, such as a Huffman code. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100201450 | CONTROLLING AMPLIFIER INPUT IMPEDANCE - An amplifier ( | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100197260 | SIGNAL POWER ESTIMATION - Two versions of the auto-covariance matrix of a received signal are obtained. One version is dependent upon the fraction of the power of a transmission site that goes into the wanted signals and a value is sought for this fraction that produces a good match between the two versions. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100185441 | Error Concealment - A method of updating a state of a decoder that decodes successive portions of a data stream representing an encoded voice signal in dependence on its state, the method comprising: at the decoder, decoding portions of the data stream to form decoded portions; storing the decoded portions; storing respective decoder states held by the decoder after forming each decoded portion; identifying that a portion of the data stream is degraded; estimating a pitch period of a stored decoded portion formed by decoding a portion of the data stream that precedes the degraded portion of the data stream; selecting a stored decoder state held by the decoder after decoding a portion of the data stream that precedes the degraded portion by a multiple of the estimated pitch period; and updating the state of the decoder with the selected decoder state. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20100182981 | Adaptive Scheduling - A communication device arranged to communicate data with another device at a given time instant according to either a first communication protocol or a second communication protocol, the communication device being constrained to transmit data according to the first communication protocol during a transmission window of predetermined duration that commences at a predetermined time instant and being arranged to, in dependence on a data communication according to the second communication protocol to be made by the communication device during that transmission window, select a time instant in that same transmission window for commencing a data transmission according to the first communication protocol. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20100174834 | Software Install Automation - Method and peripheral device to facilitate the installation of software on a host device to allow communication between that host device and a peripheral device. On connection to a host device a peripheral device presents in a first mode. In the first mode the device identifies itself as a Human Interaction Device and transmits information to the host device to facilitate the installation of the software. Subsequently the peripheral device operates in a second mode in which it identifies itself according to its real function. | 07-08-2010 |
| 20100151807 | FM SIGNAL QUALITY MEASUREMENT - A signal quality estimator for estimating the quality of signal reception in a signal receiver, the signal quality estimator comprising: a first filter for filtering a signal received by the receiver to isolate a frequency band therein; and a signal analyzer for forming an indication of the degree to which the amplitude of the signal in that frequency band varies over time, to serve as an estimate of the quality of signal reception in the receiver. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100148870 | ADAPTIVE FEEDBACK CASCODE - A current minor for generating a substantially identical current flow in two parallel current paths, each current path comprising a switching device and each switching device comprising first and second active terminals and a control terminal for controlling current flow between the first and second active terminals, the current minor comprising a first switching device arranged such that its first active terminal is arranged to receive a first voltage, its second active terminal is arranged to receive a variable voltage that varies independently of the first voltage and its control terminal is arranged to receive a control voltage, a second switching device connected such that its first active terminal is arranged to receive the first voltage and its control terminal is arranged to receive the control voltage and a voltage control device connected to the second switching device such that an input of the voltage control device is connected to the second active terminal of the second switching device, the voltage control device being arranged to receive a control signal indicative of the variable voltage and to alter the voltage at its input terminal in dependence on the control signal such that the difference between the voltage across the active terminals of the second switching device and the voltage across the active terminals of the first switching device remains substantially constant. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100125452 | PITCH RANGE REFINEMENT - A method of refining a pitch period estimation of a signal, the method comprising: for each of a plurality of portions of the signal, scanning over a predefined range of time offsets to find an estimate of the pitch period of the portion within the predefined range of time offsets; identifying the average pitch period of the estimated pitch periods of the portions; determining a refined range of time offsets in dependence on the average pitch period, the refined range of time offsets being narrower than the predefined range of time offsets; and for a subsequent portion of the signal, scanning over the refined range of time offsets to find an estimate of the pitch period of the subsequent portion. | 05-20-2010 |
| 20100110596 | ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION - An integrated circuit ( | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100093296 | DOWNCONVERSION STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING INTERFERENCE IN WANTED SIGNALS - A receiver for isolating a wanted signal in a received signal, the receiver comprising a downconverter for downconverting the received signal in frequency to produce a downconverted signal, a filter with a passband intended for isolating that part of the spectrum of the downconverted signal that contains the wanted signal and a controller that seeks to avoid or reduce the effect of passband intrusion in the form of a negative frequency representation of an interferer, appearing in the spectrum of the received signal, upconverted in frequency to the passband. The invention consists in corresponding methods also. | 04-15-2010 |
| 20100081482 | Audio Usage Detection - An audio handling device comprising: a source of audio data; a microphone; a loudspeaker; a transmitter for transmitting audio data; modification means for modifying the audio data; and a control unit for controlling the operation of the device, the control unit being capable of receiving signals from the microphone and configuring the conveying of audio data from the source to one or both of the loudspeaker and the transmitter; the control unit being capable of configuring the device such that during at least a probing period the modification means modifies audio data from the source and the modified audio data is transmitted by the transmitter, and being arranged to select in dependence on data dependent on signals received from the microphone whether to apply audio data from the source to the loudspeaker. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100075603 | DETERMINING RELATIVE PHASE DATA OF A RECEIVED SIGNAL - A method of determining relative phase data of a signal received at multiple antennas, the signal being a phase-modulated data signal having a plurality of periods of constant frequency, the method comprising: within each period of constant frequency, sampling the signal received by a first one of the multiple antennas and sampling the signal received by at least one different one of the multiple antennas; determining from the received samples a data symbol value represented by the received signal for each of the periods of constant frequency; and using the determined data symbol value information to eliminate phase variations between the samples received by the different antennas within each constant frequency period arising from the modulation of the data signal to generate relative phase data for said different antennas. | 03-25-2010 |
| 20100060501 | RAIL TO RAIL FLASH - An analogue to digital converter comprising: a first set comprising nodes defined by circuitry such that each node is at a respective voltage, the voltages on the nodes being in an orderly progression between the voltage of a first current source and the voltage of a first input node; a second set comprising nodes defined by circuitry such that each node is at a respective voltage, the voltages on the nodes being in an orderly progression between the voltage of a second current source and the voltage of a second input node; a plurality of comparators, each comparator being arranged to compare the voltage on a node in the first set with the voltage on a respective node in the second set; and a pair of switching devices arranged between the first current source and the first set of nodes, the first switching device of the pair connected so as to supply the current from the first current source to all said nodes in the first set, and the second switching device of the pair connected so as to supply the current from the first current source to a subset of said nodes in the first set which are closest in voltage to the voltage of the first input node; wherein control voltages of the first and second switching devices of the pair are set such that: (a) when the potential difference between the voltage at the first current source and the voltage at the first input node is greater than a predetermined potential difference the first switching device is in a first state and the current from the first current source flows through the first switching device; and (b) when the potential difference between the voltage at the first current source and the voltage at the first input node is less than the predetermined potential difference the first switching device is in a second state and the current from the first current source flows through the second switching device. | 03-11-2010 |
| 20100041358 | Detecting Signals - A receiver device comprising: a frequency hopping radio receiver for operation according to a frequency hopping radio protocol and arranged to detect the presence of interference characteristic of a predetermined other radio protocol; and a user-alerting unit responsive to the receiver; the receiver device being configurable to actuate the user-alerting unit for alerting a user in response to the detection of interference characteristic of the other radio protocol. | 02-18-2010 |
| 20100039968 | Receiver - A receiver for a telecommunications system, the receiver comprising a processor ( | 02-18-2010 |
| 20100034251 | ESTIMATION OF SYMBOLS OF TRANSMITTED SIGNALS USING HYPOTHESES - A method of estimating a symbol that has been transmitted into a channel connecting a modulator for producing modulation symbols and an equaliser, wherein a channel estimate describes said channel and the method comprises: calculating a metric for each of a number of hypotheses of a sequence commencing with the symbol under estimation followed by a number of subsequently transmitted symbols, each symbol in the sequence occupying a respective node of the sequence; and deeming the symbol at the beginning of the hypothesis that has the best metric to be the symbol under estimation; wherein calculating a metric for a given hypothesis comprises: calculating a discrepancy metric at each node of the given hypothesis; and combining the discrepancy metrics of nodes in the given hypothesis to produce the metric; and wherein a discrepancy metric for a given node of a given hypothesis is an assessment of the difference between: a sample received from said channel at a time point corresponding to said given node; and a sample that would be received at that time point if said channel estimate were acting on a model signal comprising the symbols of the given hypothesis up to the given node preceded by any estimates of symbols transmitted into the channel immediately prior to said time point as may be required to fill the estimated channel. The invention also relates to corresponding apparatus. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100013093 | Chip Mounting - A device comprising a chip including a substrate defining one or more electronic devices and a printed circuit board electrically connected to the chip via one or more solder elements sandwiched between the chip and the printed circuit board, and the solder elements, said buffer layers having a Young's Modulus of 2.5 GPa or less. | 01-21-2010 |
| 20100011271 | DEVICE AND METHOD OF DATA COMBINING - A device and method of combining a first version of an information block and a second version of the information block is disclosed. The method comprises calculating, prior to combining the first and second versions of the information block, a scaling factor to be applied in combining the first and second versions of the information block to produce a scaled combined information block. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20090323858 | Dual Carrier Modulation - A coding unit for determining two different types of modulation to be applied to two carrier signals such that each modulated carrier signal represents a data symbol in accordance with a group of modulation points, each modulation point representing a modulation of the first type and a modulation of the second type that can be applied to one of the carrier signals, the coding unit being arranged to associate the data symbol with a first one of the modulation points by applying a first mapping function to that data symbol and associate the data symbol with a second one of the modulation points by applying a second mapping function to that data symbol, the first and second mapping functions being such that they each map two different data symbols to a respective common modulation point; and determine the modulation of the first and second types to be applied to the first carrier signal to be the modulation of the first and second types represented by the first modulation point and the modulation of the first and second types to be applied to the second carrier signal to be the modulation of the first and second types represented by the second modulation point. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090323778 | MULTIMODE RECEIVER ARCHITECTURE - A radio receiver comprising a compensator arranged to compensate for intersymbol interference in a signal received at the receiver and a configurator arranged to configure the compensator, wherein the compensator comprises a programmable filter and the configurator is capable of configuring the filter in a first mode to operate as an ISI equaliser or in a second mode to implement a RAKE finger set. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090322422 | SIGNAL AMPLIFICATION - Apparatus for amplifying a signal, the apparatus comprising an amplifier ( | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090262786 | POLARIZATION DIVERSITY - A communication device for receiving a signal in the form of a series of bursts, each burst being in one of a plurality of different available transmission modes, the communication device comprising: a receiver unit coupled to a single antenna operable to receive bursts in first and second polarizations, the receiver unit preferentially receiving signals in a selected polarization; a selection unit for selecting for each received burst in which polarization the receiver unit is to preferentially receive signals; and a signal analysis unit for analyzing each received burst to determine whether it meets a predetermined reception quality criterion; wherein the signal analysis unit is arranged to control the selection unit to: if a burst is to be received with a certain transmission mode and the last burst received with that transmission mode was received above the reception quality criterion, preferentially receive the burst in the same polarization in which the last burst was received; and if a burst is to be received with a certain transmission mode and the last burst received with that transmission mode was received below the reception quality criterion, preferentially receive the burst in a different polarization from that in which the last burst was received. | 10-22-2009 |
| 20090254340 | Noise Reduction - A signal processor for estimating noise power in an audio signal includes a filter unit for generating a series of power values, each power value representing the power in the audio signal at a respective one of a plurality of frequency bands; a signal classification unit for analysing successive portions of the audio signal to assess whether each portion contains features characteristic of speech, and for classifying each portion in dependence on that analysis; a correction unit for estimating a minimum power value in a time-limited part of the audio signal, estimating the total noise power in that part of the audio signal and forming a correction factor dependent on the ratio of the minimum power value to the estimated total noise power, the correction unit being configured to estimate the minimum power value and the total noise power over only those portions of the time-limited part of the signal that are classified by the signal classification unit as being less characteristic of speech; and a noise estimation unit for estimating noise in the audio signal in dependence on the power values output by the filter unit and the correction factor formed by the correction unit. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20090219974 | VARYING DEVICE IDENTITIES - A communication device comprises a memory for storing a device identity; a data transmitter for supporting communication links with other devices; and a communication controller, wherein the controller is configured to periodically vary the stored device identity and to cause the data transmitter to periodically transmit the stored device identity so that the device can be identified. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20090214027 | PROTECTING AGAINST SECURITY ATTACK - A communication device having a private key and configured to implement an elliptic curve security mechanism for successful operation of which it: (a) receives a first value from another device, (b) computes a second value as the scalar multiplication of the first value with its private key and (c) returns that second value for use by the other device; the mechanism being such that the first value defines a pair of coordinates representing a first point and the second value defines a pair of coordinates representing a second point and being such that the first value is valid only if it lies on an elliptic curve of predefined form; the device being configured to implement the mechanism by the steps of: receiving data as the first value; making a first evaluation as to whether the first value is a singular point with respect to the elliptic curve; computing the second value as the scalar multiplication of the first value with the private key; making a second evaluation as to whether the second value lies on the elliptic curve; and returning the second value only if the first evaluation is false and the second evaluation is true. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090147886 | Adaptive IQ Alignment Apparatus - A method and apparatus for aligning I- and Q-signals in a quadrature receiver based on an squared signal. A correction is evaluated in an iterative manner by finding an average of the squared signal. The average squared signal may be the received signal, in which case the iterations are applied in a feed forward manner. Alternatively, the average squared signal is the aligned signal in which case the iterations are applied in a feed back manner. The correction may include the evaluation of an normalisation or, in the feed back case, this can be implicitly included in the manner in which the iteration is applied. Various parameters to the iteration can be set to accommodate the operating environment of the receiver and characteristics of the received signal. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090075621 | Mixer For Downconversion of RF Signals - A mixer for downconversion of RF signals includes at least one RF transistor ( | 03-19-2009 |
| 20090016374 | Asynchronous Coexistence Arbitration - A method for interpreting timing information at a communication support entity operable to communicate wirelessly, includes the steps of: at a first time at the communication support entity, receiving an indicator of a predetermined form over a link from another communication support entity; receiving over the link data representing one or more relative times; interpreting each such relative time represented by the received data as indicating the absolute time that is offset after the first time by the respective relative time together optionally with a latency value; and determining in dependence on the received data the manner in which the communication support entity is to communicate wirelessly at that absolute time. | 01-15-2009 |
| 20090010311 | Antenna Diversity - A communication device for receiving a signal in the form of a series of bursts, each burst being at one of a plurality of different available transmission modes, the communication device comprising: two antennas; a receiver unit coupled to the antennas for preferentially receiving signals from a selected one of the antennas; and an antenna selection unit for selecting for each received burst with which of the antennas the receiver unit is to preferentially receive signals. | 01-08-2009 |
| 20080320279 | MANAGEMENT OF A COMMUNICATION LINK EXTENDED TO ONE OR MORE SLAVE DEVICES - A master device for managing a communications link to slave devices (for example in the context of a Wireless USB cluster), wherein the master device is configured to facilitate avoidance of unnecessary waking of the slave devices. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20080316100 | Method and Apparatus For Antenna Diversity Selection - Signal reception apparatus comprising at least two antennas, receiver means having a first mode of operation for assessing the quality of received signals and a second mode of operation for processing received signals for identifying data carried therein, at least two signal paths connectable between the antennas and the receiver means and each capable of demodulating signals received by the antennas and switch means connected between the antennas and the signal paths, the apparatus having an assessment mode of operation in which each antenna is connected by the switch means to the receiver means via a single respective one of the signal paths and in which the receiver means operates in its first mode of operation to assess the quality of received signals from each antenna, and a normal mode of operation in which a single antenna is connected by the switch means to the receiver means via all of the signal paths and in which the receiver means operates in its second mode of operation for processing received signals for identifying data carried therein. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20080293370 | Receiver Gain Control - A gain controller for controlling the gain of at least one amplifier in a receiver, the gain controller being arranged to, when the receiver is receiving a signal: for a first period of time, repeatedly determine an indication of the strength of the received signal and adjust the gain of the at least one amplifier in dependence on each indication of signal strength and following the expiry of the first period of time: determine a subsequent indication of the strength of the received signal and make a single adjustment of the gain of the at least one amplifier in dependence on the subsequent indication of signal strength. | 11-27-2008 |
| 20080288247 | Speech Activity Detection - A method for detecting the presence or absence of an audio signal in a communications system in which an audio signal is encoded by a delta modulation encoding algorithm, and in which a step size parameter is adapted according to characteristics of the encoded signal, the method comprising determining based on the magnitude of the step size parameter whether the encoded signal represents audio activity, and adapting the operation of the communication system based on that determination. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20080259837 | Communication in Dual Protocol Environments - A communication device ( | 10-23-2008 |
| 20080253352 | Communication in Dual Protocol Environments - A radio transceiver comprising: a signal receiver for receiving signals in the form of bursts according to a first protocol; a transmitter for transmitting signals in the form of bursts according to a second protocol, the first and second protocols being such that signals of the first and second protocols are mutually interfering; a transmission scheduler for predicting, based on the timings of signal bursts of the first protocol received by the receiver, the timings of future bursts of the first protocol and arranged to influence the transmitter to transmit bursts according to the second protocol so as to avoid the signal bursts of the first protocol as predicted. | 10-16-2008 |
