Qorvo Us, Inc.

Qorvo International Pte. Ltd.

Andrew Fort

Bram Van Den Bosch

Hans Van Driest

Systems and methods for low-power auto-correlation antenna selection for multi-antenna systems are disclosed. In particular, a computing device, such as an Internet of Things (IoT) computing device, may include a transceiver operating with multiple antennas. For example, the computing device may operate under a low-power wireless standard such as Long Range BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY (LR BLE). In an exemplary aspect, an antenna from amongst the multiple antennas may be selected based on which antenna is receiving a best copy of a periodic signal. The periodic signal is likely indicative of a preamble pattern and, as such, may be used to activate a cross-correlation circuit for signal detection confirmation. Power consumption is reduced by delaying activation of the cross-correlation circuit until a likely signal is detected by detection of the periodic signal.

Low-power auto-correlation antenna selection for multi-antenna system

A concurrent multistandard detection receiver with prepacket transmission detection capabilities is disclosed. In one aspect, a receiver is configured to switch between two different wireless protocols, alternately listening for incoming messages on one then the other protocol. For at least one listening period, the receiver uses two pretransmission detectors that are configured to detect predictable pretransmission emissions. A third detector may detect traditional transmissions. On detection of a signal that matches a predictable pretransmission emission or a traditional transmission, the receiver confirms that an incoming signal according to that standard is being received and acts in accordance with that signal. If no such emission or transmission was received, or if after trying to confirm the presence of an incoming signal fails, the receiver switches back to listening according to the other protocol.

Concurrent multistandard detection receiver with prepacket transmission detection

Systems and methods for low-power multi-antenna synchronization are disclosed. In one aspect, a computing device, such as an Internet of Things (IoT) computing device, may include a transceiver operating using BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY (BLE) with multiple antennas. In an exemplary aspect, each of a plurality of antennas is coupled to a respective edge detection circuit. When an incoming signal is detected by one of the edge detection circuits, circuitry associated with others of the multiple antennas may be placed in a low-power mode while circuitry associated with the detecting edge detection circuit attempts to synchronize with the incoming signal to see if the incoming signal is a signal of interest.

Low-power multi-antenna synchronization

Method for receiving data packet transmissions, wherein synchronization with a transmitter is accomplished based on detection of a preamble transmitted by the transmitter. A time multiplexing scheduling of a single hardware receiver arrangement is used, and the time multiplexing scheduling has a main time slot comprising a first listen period and a second listen period following the first listen period. In the first listen period a first type of synchronization detection is executed (e.g. IEEE 802.15.4), and in the second listen period a second type of synchronization detection different from the first type of synchronization detection is executed (e.g. BLE).

Concurrent multi-radio receiver

A method for operating a wireless receiver includes receiving wireless signals from a transmitter at a first antenna and a second antenna. The wireless signals include a signal carrier and one or more data symbols modulated onto the signal carrier. The one or more data symbols in the wireless signal are decoded to determine a symbol phase contribution. The phase of the wireless signals at the first antenna and the second antenna during one or more symbol periods is estimated to provide a first set of phase measurements and a second set of phase measurements, respectively. The symbol phase contribution is removed from the first set of phase measurements and the second set of phase measurements to provide a first corrected set of phase measurements and a second corrected set of phase measurements, respectively, which are used to estimate an angle of arrival of the wireless signals.

Systems and methods for angle of arrival estimation

Adaptive multi-standard signal classification and synchronization is disclosed. Devices, systems and methods include an auto-correlation bank and a signal classifier to efficiently and reliably distinguish signals of wireless protocols, such as Bluetooth, 1 megabit-per-second (Mbps) Bluetooth low energy (BLE), 2 Mbps BLE, long range (LR) BLE, ZigBee (ZB), high-rate ZB, and so on. The auto-correlation bank includes a set of auto-correlators with different delays, which facilitate distinguishing between the different wireless protocols. Exemplary aspects can further distinguish and/or compensate for interference sources, such as WiFi, constant wave (CW) clock sources, and so on. In some examples, a frequency offset of an incoming signal can be output for further signal processing. In a parallel path, a cross-correlation circuit facilitates synchronization to the incoming signal based on a signal type identified by the signal classifier.

Adaptive multi-standard signal classification and synchronization

A data detector is disclosed. The data detector includes a memory and processing circuitry interfaced with the memory. The processing circuitry is configured to receive a digital signal representative of a radio frequency signal in the digital domain. The processing circuitry generates a frequency offset estimate derived from the digital signal and outputs the frequency offset to the memory and in turn receives output from the memory a set of coefficients that corresponds to the frequency offset estimate. The processing circuitry then performs a complex correlation between the digital signal and the set of coefficients to determine a maximum peak correlation.

Data detector

Method and receiver for acquiring a data packet in a signal transmission like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), wherein the data packet comprises a preamble code () followed by an access code () and has a symbol period. The following steps are executed: &#x2014;executing a preamble correlation () continuously on a received signal () using the preamble code (); &#x2014;determining a frequency estimate () and a timing estimate () from the preamble correlation (); &#x2014;using the frequency estimate () to execute a frequency correction () on the received signal; &#x2014;performing an access code correlation () on the frequency corrected received signal, in parallel with the continuous execution of the preamble correlation (); and &#x2014;detecting a data packet () when the access code correlation () is higher than a predetermined access code threshold () at an expected time relative to the timing estimate (). Thereby packet loss due to false detection is minimized since the preamble correlation is continuously performed even when peaks are detected. Furthermore the frequency estimate obtained from the preamble correlation is used to reduce the complexity of the access code correlation.

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Kessel-lo, Belgium

Andrew Fort