US6028887A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Power efficient receiver
Assignee: General Electric Co
•
Filing: 1997-06-26
•
Granted: 2000-02-22
•
Expires: 2017-06-26
Abstract
Abstract A direct sequence spread spectrum receiver samples an incoming signal and stores the sample in memory. Power is then inhibited to the tuner of the receiver to minimize power consumption. The signal sample may be read from memory when necessary to process the signal without further signal acquisition. Power to other receiver sections may be selectively controlled to minimize power consumption. Such a receiver is useful in global positioning satellite (GPS) signal processing where the receiver has a limited power supply.
Inventors
- 👤 Daniel David Harrison
- 👤 Jerome Johnson Tiemann
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-03 09:21
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04B; H04B1/00; H04B1/69; H04B1/707; H04B1/7073; H04B1/7075; H04B1/708; G; G01; G01S; G01S19/00; G01S19/01; G01S19/13; G01S19/24; G01S19/29; G01S19/30; G01S19/34; G01S19/35; G01S19/37; G01S5/00; G01S5/0009; G01S5/0018; G01S5/0027; G01S5/0036; G06; G06F; G06F17/00; G06F17/10; G06F17/15; H04B1/06; H04B1/16; H04B1/7097; H04B1/7103; H04B1/7107; H04B1/71075; G01S19/38; G01S19/39; G01S19/42; G01S5/0045; G01S5/0054; H04B2201/00; H04B2201/69; H04B2201/707; H04B2201/70707; H04B2201/70709; Y; Y02; Y02D; Y02D30/00; Y02D30/70
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 23
Claim 1
Independent Claim
122 words
In a receiver, apparatus comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a signal; a memory for storing a digital representation of said signal received by said tuner; a converter for converting the signal received by said tuner into said digital representation for storage in said memory; processing circuitry for processing said digital representation, and including a parallel correlator for comparing said digital representation with a replica signal; and a controller responsive to said processing circuitry for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said digital representation is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
122 words
In a receiver, apparatus comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a signal; a memory for storing a digital representation of said signal received by said tuner; a converter for converting the signal received by said tuner into said digital representation for storage in said memory; processing circuitry for processing said digital representation, and including a parallel correlator for comparing said digital representation with a replica signal; and a controller responsive to said processing circuitry for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said digital representation is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
38 words
The receiver of claim 1, wherein: said parallel correlator comprises a plurality of correlator stages for simultaneously correlating corresponding samples of the stored digital representation and said replica signal, and for producing a plurality of respective output signals.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
25 words
The receiver of claim 2, wherein: said parallel correlator further comprises a summer for summing said plurality of output signals to produce a correlation result.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
35 words
The receiver of claim 3, wherein: said parallel correlator further comprises converters for converting said plurality of output signals to analog form prior to summation by said summer; and said summer comprises an analog summer.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
12 words
The receiver of claim 4, wherein: said summer comprises charge summation means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
23 words
The receiver of claim 1, further comprising: a transmitter for transmitting a receiver output signal produced by said receiver to a remote location.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
21 words
The receiver of claim 6, wherein: said controller is adapted to selectively cause said transmitter to transmit said receiver output signal.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
59 words
The receiver of claim 1, further comprising: a squarer coupled to the output of said parallel correlator; a non-coherent accumulator for summing output signals of said squarer; and a threshold detector coupled to said non-coherent accumulator for supplying a command signal to said controller in response to an output signal from said squarer in excess of a threshold level.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
39 words
The receiver of claim 8 wherein said parallel correlator includes a coherent accumulator for providing output signals from said parallel correlator, said squarer being coupled to said coherent accumulator for receiving said correlator output signals from said parallel correlator.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
140 words
A GPS receiver, comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a time segment of a GPS signal; a memory coupled to said tuner for storing a representation of said time segment received by said tuner; a replica generator for generating a replica signal; a parallel correlator coupled to said memory and to said replica generator for comparing said representation of said time segment and said replica signal to identify said GPS signal; and a controller responsive to said parallel correlator for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner and for controlling storage of said representation in said memory, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said representation of said time segment is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
140 words
A GPS receiver, comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a time segment of a GPS signal; a memory coupled to said tuner for storing a representation of said time segment received by said tuner; a replica generator for generating a replica signal; a parallel correlator coupled to said memory and to said replica generator for comparing said representation of said time segment and said replica signal to identify said GPS signal; and a controller responsive to said parallel correlator for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner and for controlling storage of said representation in said memory, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said representation of said time segment is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
60 words
The GPS receiver of claim 10, further comprising: a squarer coupled to the output of said parallel correlator; a non-coherent accumulator for summing output signals of said squarer; and a threshold detector coupled to said non-coherent accumulator for supplying a command signal to said controller in response to an output signal from said squarer in excess of a threshold level.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
38 words
The receiver of claim 11 wherein said parallel correlator includes a coherent accumulator for providing output signals from said parallel correlator, said squarer being coupled to said coherent accumulator for receiving said output signals from said parallel correlator.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
57 words
The receiver of claim 12, wherein: said replica generator comprises a code generator and at least one of a Doppler offset generator and a code offset generator for generating a replica signal; said parallel correlator being adapted to correlate samples of said representation of said time segment and said replica signal simultaneously to produce a correlation result.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
53 words
The receiver of claim 13, wherein: said parallel correlator comprises a plurality of multipliers for simultaneously multiplying corresponding samples of said representation of said time segment and said replica signal to produce a plurality of multiplier results; and a summer for simultaneously summing said plurality of multiplier results to produce said correlation result.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
34 words
The receiver of claim 14, wherein: said parallel correlator further comprises converters for converting said plurality of multiplier results to analog form prior to summation by said summer, said summer comprising an analog summer.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
12 words
The receiver of claim 15, wherein: said summer comprises charge summation means.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
23 words
The receiver of claim 12, further comprising: a transmitter for selectively transmitting an output signal produced by said receiver to a remote location.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
20 words
The receiver of claim 12, wherein: said controller is adapted to selectively enable said parallel correlator to produce said result.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
46 words
The receiver of claim 12, wherein: said replica generator is adapted to generate additional replica signals symbolizing satellite code--Doppler bin combinations; and wherein said parallel correlator is adapted to receive said representation of said time segment from said memory for correlation with said additional replica signals.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
118 words
In a receiver, apparatus comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a signal; a memory coupled to said tuner for storing a digital representation of said signal received by said tuner; processing circuitry for processing said digital representation, said processing circuitry including a replica generator for generating a replica signal, and a parallel correlator for comparing said digital representation with the replica signal; and a controller responsive to said processing circuitry for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said digital representation is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
118 words
In a receiver, apparatus comprising: a power supply; a tuner for receiving a signal; a memory coupled to said tuner for storing a digital representation of said signal received by said tuner; processing circuitry for processing said digital representation, said processing circuitry including a replica generator for generating a replica signal, and a parallel correlator for comparing said digital representation with the replica signal; and a controller responsive to said processing circuitry for controlling application of power from said power supply to said tuner, said controller being adapted to cause power to be applied to said tuner until said digital representation is stored in said memory and to cause power to be selectively inhibited to said tuner thereafter.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US4550414A
Cited
US4910752A
Cited
US4894842A
Cited
US4998111A
Cited
US5448773A
Cited
US5420593A
Cited
EP0668663A1
Cited
WO1997014049A2
Cited
US5663734A
Cited
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2003-02-21 | 2003-08-23 | 2004-02-22 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2007-02-21 | 2007-08-23 | 2008-02-22 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2011-02-21 | 2011-08-23 | 2012-02-22 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |