Nordic Semiconductor Asa

Sverre Wichlund

David Alexandre Engelien-Lopes

Phil Corbishley

Eivind Olsen

Ruben Undheim

Stein Erik Weberg

Eivind Sjøgren Olsen

Ola Bruset

Tor Øyvind Vedal

Meng Cai

Ingil Sundsbo

Ingil SundsbØ

There is provided a method of testing an RF transceiver circuit and an RF transceiver circuit arranged to be operable in a test mode including a transmitter circuit portion and a receiver circuit portion, the receiver circuit portion including a mixer. The method involves the transmitter circuit portion generating a modulated signal and the receiver circuit portion receiving a continuous radio frequency wave. The mixer mixes the modulated signal with a signal derived from the continuous radio frequency wave to produce an output. A remainder of the receiver circuit portion processes the output of the mixer.

Testing RF transmitters and receivers

A radio apparatus correlates signal data with stored synchronization data to determine correlation data. The signal data represents a received radio-frequency signal that encodes a data frame, which has a synchronization preamble with a plurality of instances of a predetermined synchronization sequence. The stored synchronization data represents the predetermined synchronization sequence. The radio apparatus identifies a set of peaks in the correlation data, and uses a timing criterion to identify a plurality of subsets of the set of peaks, such that time values of the peaks of each identified subset satisfy the timing criterion. The radio apparatus calculates a correlation score Cfor each of the identified subsets from correlation values of the subset's peaks, and uses the correlation scores Cto select a subset from the plurality of subsets. Timing or frequency synchronization information for the radio apparatus is determined from the peaks of the selected subset.

Radio receiver synchronization

A radio receiver device is arranged to receive a radio signal including a data packet having an address portion and a payload portion, said radio receiver comprising:

Demodulators

A radio receiver device is arranged to receive a radio signal modulated with a data packet including an address portion. The radio receiver comprises: The radio receiver device is arranged such that, upon detecting an upcoming timeout event, the demodulation circuit portion sends a timeout warning signal to the address checking circuit portion using a handshaking channel therebetween; said address checking circuit portion being arranged such that, if it receives the timeout warning signal, it stops checking the plurality of demodulated bits for the predetermined bit pattern.

Demodulator for use in radio communication receivers

A digital radio receiver () is arranged to receive and process data frames, each data frame comprising (i) a plurality of identical synchronization sequences; (ii) identification data different from the synchronization sequences; and (iii) convolution-encoded message data. An initial-synchronization section of the receiver () uses the plurality of synchronization sequences in a received data frame to perform a frequency-synchronization or symbol-timing-synchronization operation. A frame-synchronization section determines frame-synchronization information by correlating at least a part of the received identification data against reference identification data stored in a memory. A convolution-decoding section uses the frame-synchronization information to decode the message data.

Radio communication

A radio transmitter () comprises an encoder () that receives one or more variable message bits, and encodes each message bit that has a first value as a predetermined first binary chip sequence and encodes each message bit that has the opposite value as a predetermined second binary chip sequence. The radio transmitter () transmits data packets, each comprising (i) a predetermined synchronization portion, comprising one or more instances of the first binary chip sequence, and (ii) a variable data portion, comprising one or more encoded message bits output by the encoder. A radio receiver () receives such data packets. It uses the synchronization portion of a received data packet to perform a frequency and/or timing synchronization operation, and then decodes message bits from the data portion of the data packet.

A method of digital radio communication between a first device () and a second device (), where each device comprises a radio transmitter () and a radio receiver (), the method comprising: a) said first and second devices () establishing a connection using a predetermined protocol having at least one predefined message format; and b) said first and second devices () agreeing that in the event of said connection being broken a re-connection may be established using a coding scheme in which at least some bits specified in said predefined message format are represented by a plurality of bits transmitted.

Digital radio communication

A digital radio receiver is adapted to receive radio signals modulated using continuous phase modulation. The receiver includes components for receiving analogue radio signals having various carrier frequencies and a plurality of correlators corresponding to different bit sequences. Each of the plurality of correlators share a common estimator for estimating a frequency offset between the radio signals carrier frequencies and nominal carrier frequencies. The receiver further includes components allowing the estimator to determine which of the correlators produce the most optimal output signal.

Using multiple correlators to determine signal sent and frequency offset

A digital radio receiver adapted to receive radio signals modulated using continuous phase frequency shift keying, CPFSK. The receiver comprises means for receiving a radio signal (), a correlator () arranged to estimate a frequency offset between the carrier frequency of the received radio signal and a nominal carrier frequency, means for correcting said frequency offset () and outputting a frequency-corrected radio signal (), and a matched filter bank, MFB, which comprises a plurality of filters (), each of which corresponds to a different bit pattern, for determining a bit sequence () from the frequency-corrected radio signal ().

Digital radio transmissions

A method of digital radio communication between a first device () and a second device (), where each device comprises a radio transmitter () and a radio receiver (), the method comprising: a) said first and second devices () establishing a connection using a predetermined protocol having at least one predefined message format; b) if said connection is subsequently broken, said second device () transmitting an advertising message at a first data rate indicating a desire to reconnect; and c) if a reconnection is not established, said second device () transmitting a further advertising message at a second data rate indicating a desire to reconnect, wherein said second data rate is lower than the first data rate.

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Trondheim, Norway

Sverre Wichlund