Decawave Limited

Gavin Marrow

Michael McLaughlin

Igor Dotlic

Ciaran McElroy

An ultra-wideband ('UWB') communication system comprising a transmitter and a receiver having two antennas. An UWB signal transmitted by the transmitter is received at each of the antennas. By comparing the carrier phases of the received signals, the phase difference can be determined. From this phase difference and the known distance, d, between the antennas, the Cartesian (x, y) location of the transmitter relative to the receiver can be directly determined.

Method and apparatus for determining location using phase difference of arrival

An ultra-wideband ('UWB') communication system comprising a transmitter and a receiver having two antennas. An UWB signal transmitted by the transmitter is received at each of the antennas. By comparing the carrier phases of the received signals, the phase difference can be determined. From this phase difference and the known distance, d, between the antennas, the Cartesian (x,y) location of the transmitter relative to the receiver can be directly determined.

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.

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Dublin, Ireland

Gavin Marrow