Decawave Limited

Ciarán McElroy

Michael McLaughlin

Mici McCullagh

Jeff Clancy

In an ultra-wideband ('UWB') receiver, a received UWB signal is periodically digitized as a series of ternary samples. During a carrier acquisition mode of operation, the samples are continuously correlated with a predetermined preamble sequence to develop a correlation value. When the value exceeds a predetermined threshold, indicating that the preamble sequence is being received, estimates of the channel impulse response ('CIR') are developed. When a start-of-frame delimiter (&#x201c;SFD&#x201d;) is detected, the best CIR estimate is provided to a channel matched filter (&#x201c;CMF&#x201d;). During a data recovery mode of operation, the CMF filters channel-injected noise from the sample stream. Both carrier phase errors and data timing errors are continuously detected and corrected during both the carrier acquisition and data recovery modes of operation. In one embodiment, the carrier recovery and timing recovery are performed using just the carrier loop filter.

Receiver for use in an ultra-wideband communication system

In an ultra-wideband ('UWB') receiver, a received UWB signal is periodically digitized as a series of ternary samples. During a carrier acquisition mode of operation, the samples are continuously correlated with a predetermined preamble sequence to develop a correlation value. When the value exceeds a predetermined threshold, indicating that the preamble sequence is being received, estimates of the channel impulse response ('CIR') are developed. When a start-of-frame delimiter (&#x201c;SFD&#x201d;) is detected, the best CIR estimate is provided to a channel matched filter (&#x201c;CMF&#x201d;). During a data recovery mode of operation, the CMF filters channel-injected noise from the sample stream. Both carrier phase errors and data timing errors are continuously detected and corrected during both the carrier acquisition and data recovery modes of operation. The phase of the carrier can be determined by accumulating the correlator output before it is rotated by the carrier correction. By comparing the carrier phases of two receivers separated by a known distance, d, the angle of incidence, &#x3b8;, of the signal can be determined. One or more receivers may be adapted to use multiple antennae, thus reducing the total number of receivers relative to the total number of antennae.

Angle of arrival using reduced number of receivers

In an ultra-wideband communication system, a 1-trit ternary analog-to-digital converter ('ADC') having dynamic threshold adaption and providing an output in ternary form [+1, 0, &#x2212;1]. The ternary ADC includes a pair of 1-bit binary ADCs, one being configured in a non-inverting form, and one being configured in an inverting form. Each binary ADC includes an feedback network mechanism, thereby allowing for simultaneous and independent adaptation of the pair of thresholds, compensating for the effects of any DC offset that may be present. The use of a trit-based ternary encoding scheme improves system entropy.

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Dublin, Ireland

Ciarán McElroy