The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 07, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 18, 1996
John Kaufmann, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Lockheed Martin Aerospace Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
A signal conditioner comprising several embodiments of transversal (FIR) filters that utilize symbol addressed multiplier lookup tables. In particular, five embodiments in accordance with the principles of the present invention are described. The present invention generates a predistorted waveform within the transversal filter that provides for compensation for the effects of nonlinear amplifiers and intersymbol interference. The present invention may be employed to digitally generate an arbitrary baseband waveform that represents a limited alphabet of symbols. The present invention dramatically simplifies the implementation of FIR filters where the application of the FIR filter is to provide a transversal filter function for waveforms that represent symbols. The degree of simplification is related to the number of bits that define the size of the symbol alphabet as compared to the number of bits required to adequately represent a digital sample of the waveform. Typically 2, 3 or 4 bits represent the alphabet of communication symbols, whereas waveforms require as a minimum 8 bits of quantization. A second aspect of the present invention comprises combining the function of generating arbitrary waveforms with the symbol addressed lookup tables that are part of the FIR filter. The waveform is precompensated to minimize the effect of intersymbol interference and is prewarped to compensate for transmitter nonlinearities.