Rake receiver and finger management method for spread spectrum communication

US6078611A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Motorola, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Christopher P. La Rosa · Lake Zurich, US
• Michael J. Carney · Palatine, US
• Christopher J. Becker · Palatine, US
• Michael Eberhardt · Bartlett, US
• Colin Frank · Paddy Lane, US
• Phillip D. Rasky · Buffalo, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 16, 1997
• Grant date: Jun 20, 2000
• Expiry date: Sep 16, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04B1/7113
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A RAKE receiver (112) includes a plurality of fingers (122, 124, 126, 128). Each finger includes a demodulator (402) for demodulating a ray of a multipath signal and a time tracking circuit (404) for controlling the time position of the finger in accordance with time position of the ray. A low delay-spread condition is detected and the positions of two adjacent fingers are controlled to prevent convergence of two or more fingers about a common time position. By maintaining finger timing separation, path diversity is exploited by the RAKE receiver even during the low delay-spread condition to improve receiver performance.