Broadcom Corporation

Other

Charles Brooks

Randall Bret Perlow

Steven T Jaffe

Leonard Dauphinee

Tianmin Liu

Lawrence M Burns

Maneesh Goyal

Nabil R Yousef

Stephen Edward Krafft

Alan Y Kwentus

Ramon Alejandro Gomez

Tarek Kaylani

Yale B Cook

An adaptive receiver is disclosed for optimally receiving and processing signals. The receiver utilizes one or more memory blocks to store groups of incoming symbols. The groups of symbols are processed by a channel estimation subsystem to determine channel characteristics. The receiver determines the appropriate demodulation and decoding strategy to implement based on the determined channel characteristics. The receiver includes a plurality of demodulation and decoding schemes, one of which is selected based on the results of a channel estimation analysis.

System and method for terrestrial high-definition television reception

A method for processing signals in a communication system may include performing by one or more processors and/or circuits integrated within a single digital television (DTV) receiver chip, demodulating a wirelessly received digital inband signal and a wirelessly received digital out-of-band signal. The demodulating may include equalizing the received digital inband signal and the received digital out-of-band signal. The demodulated digital inband signal and the demodulated digital out-of-band signal may be error corrected. One or more TV channels may be generated based on one or both of the error corrected demodulated digital inband signals and/or the error corrected demodulated out-of-band signals. The wirelessly received digital inband signal may include a VSB signal, a NTSC signal and/or a QAM signal. The one or more processors and/or circuits may perform decoding the wirelessly received digital inband signal.

Method and system for an integrated VSB/QAM/NTSC/OOB plug-and-play DTV receiver

An apparatus and method is disclosed for adjusting a gain of an amplifier assembly array. The amplifier assembly array includes a first stage to provide an amplified signal based upon an input signal. The first stage has a variable gain controlled in response to one or more gain control signals. An Automatic Gain Control (AGC) module generates the one or more gain control signals according to a ramp function in response to a power level of the amplified signal. The first stage may include a first low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify the input signal to provide a first amplified input signal and a second LNA to amplify a second input signal to provide a second amplified signal. A switch selects between the amplified signal and the second amplified signal to provide the amplified signal. The amplifier assembly array may additionally include a second stage to provide a second amplified signal based upon the amplified signal. The second stage may include a third LNA to amplify one or more used channels of the amplified signal and a fourth LNA to amplify one or more unused channels of the amplified signal.

Variable-gain low noise amplifier for digital terrestrial applications

Communications signal transcoder. A solution is provided to transcode a signal from a first signal type to a second signal type to ensure proper interfacing between devices that may operate using different signal types. For example, within a communication system, a first signal type (having a first modulation type, e.g., 8 PSK) may be received. The transcoder then ensures that this signal, after it has undergone any initial processing (such as tuning, down-converting, decoding, and so on), is encoded into a second signal type (having a second modulation type, e.g., QPSK) such that it can interface properly with a device for which the received signal is intended. This transcoder functionality may be implemented within discrete components, or it may alternatively be integrated within a functional block of an integrated circuit. This functionality may be implemented in a variety of communication systems including satellite, cable television, Internet, and others.

Communications signal transcoder

Sparse channel equalization may be achieved by receiving a signal via a multi-path communication channel. The equalization then continues by extracting sparse information regarding the multiple path communication channel from the signal. Such sparse information generally indicates the position of the signals received via each of the multiple paths. The equalization then continues by estimating a channel response of the multiple path communication channel based on the sparse information. The equalization then continues by generating equalization taps (or coefficients) based on the channel response. The equalization then continues by equalizing the signal based on the equalization taps.

Sparse channel equalization

Systems and methods for processing signals in a communication system are disclosed and may include demodulating a wirelessly received inband signal and a wirelessly received out-of-band signal via a DTV receiver. One or more TV channels may be generated based on the demodulation of the wirelessly received inband signal and a wirelessly received out-of-band signal. The received inband signal may include a VSB signal, a NTSC signal and/or a QAM signal. The processing may also include determining whether the wirelessly received inband signal includes an analog signal or a digital signal. The digital signal may be error corrected, and the error corrected digital signal may be equalized. The analog signal may be decoded, and an audio output may be generated based on the decoding of the analog signal.

A front end circuit for a television receiver includes a demultiplexer for inputting a multi-band signal from a signal source and separating the multi-band signal into corresponding bands. A plurality of amplifiers adjust gain on signals corresponding to the bands. A multiplexer combines outputs of the amplifiers into a gain-adjusted signal. A plurality of switches direct selected bands to corresponding tuners. The amplifiers are low noise amplifiers. The amplifiers adjust gain between the bands so as to have similar signal strength in the bands. A cable TV input may also be used, wherein the switches also direct signals from the cable TV to the corresponding tuners. Each amplifier can output two (or more) identical signals for its corresponding band, the multiplexer can be a dual multiplexer, and an output of the multiplexer includes only bands selected for direction to the tuners. The signal source comprises any of a broadcast channel received from an antenna, a cable TV channel received from a cable line, and a combination of the two.

Multi-input multi-output tuner front ends

A multi-stage amplifier assembly configured to receive a terrestrial digital television ('DTV') input signal including multiple frequency channels. The amplifier assembly optionally includes a PIN diode coupled across differential inputs to a first stage of the multi-stage amplifier assembly. The PIN diode is controlled to attenuate the input when an exceptionally large signal is present in a channel adjacent to a desired channel. The PIN diode, essentially a variable resistor, permits the multi-stage amplifier assembly to maintain dynamic range in such situations for reasonable tradeoffs. The amplifier assembly further optionally includes an out-of-band second stage LNA. The amplifier assembly further optionally includes a multi-band input filter. The multi-band filer insures that the AGC operates on the TV band of interest, thus improving the linearity of the system. The invention can be implemented in CMOS and/or SiGe.

Methods and systems for processing television signals are disclosed herein, and may comprise decoding a first analog video signal via an integrated circuit comprising circuitry for decoding and processing digital video signals. A second analog video signal may be simultaneously decoded via the integrated circuit. A first video output corresponding to the decoded first analog video signal and a second video output corresponding to the decoded second analog video signal may be simultaneously generating via the integrated circuit. An out-of-band signal corresponding to the decoded first or second analog video signal may be received via the integrated circuit. The received out-of-band signal may be processed via the integrated circuit. The first analog video signal and the second analog video signal may comprise an NTSC signal, a composite signal, an S-video signal, and/or a component signal. The digital video signals may be decoded via the integrated circuit.

Single integrated high definition television (HDTV) chip for analog and digital reception

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for a vestigial side band (VSB), quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), NTSC, out-of-band (OOB) receiver that is integrated in a single chip. The single chip integrated digital television (DTV) receiver provides plug and play DTV receiver capability for handling both North American digital cable television and digital terrestrial broadcast television compatible systems. The integrated DTV receiver may receive all standard-definition and high-definition digital formats (SDTV/HDTV) and an on-chip NTSC demodulator handles NTSC video. An output of the NTSC demodulator may be directed to an external broadcast television system committee (BTSC) or Zweiton M decoder, or it may be sent to an on-chip audio BTSC compliant decoder. The single chip integrated DTV receiver may also comprise an integrated out-of-band QPSK receiver, which may be adapted to, for example, handle a CableCard compliant with the CableCard Specification.

Determination of equalizer coefficients from a sparse channel estimate begins by determining location of significant taps based on the sparse channel estimate of a multiple path communication channel. The sparse channel estimate indicates the positioning of signals received via the various multiple paths of the channel. The method then continues by determining feed-forward equalization coefficients based on the location of the significant taps. The method then continues by determining feedback equalization coefficients based on the feed-forward equalization coefficients and the sparse channel estimate.

Growing community of inventors

Laguna Beach, CA, United States of America

Charles Brooks