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US 7,599,674 B2Granted
Overload protection for receiver front end
AssigneePine Valley Investments, Inc.
InventorDennis Ray Layne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An embodiment is a receiver for a communications system that may substantially block unwanted signals in a frequency range to protect the receiver from overload. Simultaneously, the receiver of an embodiment substantially passes a desired signal so that its information may be processed by the, for example, communications system of which the receiver is part.
Claims12
An receiver comprising:
- a filter to filter a desired signal from a signal;
- a detector coupled to the filter to detect a strength of the signal and a strength of the desired signal;
- and
- a controller coupled to the detector to compare the strength of the signal and the strength of the desired signal and to control a variable attenuator coupled to the filter, the variable attenuator controlled based on the comparison of the signal and the desired signal and based on a comparison of the desired signal and a threshold signal.
1 more element
A communications system comprising:
- a communications medium;
- and
- a receiver including
- a filter to filter a desired signal from a signal;
- a detector coupled to the filter to detect a strength of the signal and a strength of the desired signal;
- and
- a controller coupled to the detector to compare the strength of the signal and the strength of the desired signal and to control a variable attenuator coupled to the filter, the variable attenuator controlled based on the comparison of the signal and the desired signal and based on a comparison of the desired signal and a threshold signal.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving a signal at a receiver;
- detecting the presence of an unwanted signal in a frequency band;
- determining the strength of a desired signal in the frequency band;
- comparing the strength of the unwanted signal to the strength of the desired signal;
- substantially blocking the unwanted signal from overloading a sensitive component in the receiver by filtering the signal and by attenuating, with a variable attenuator, the signal before the sensitive component of the receiver and after the filtering;
- and
- substantially preserving the sensitivity of the receiver to the desired signal;
- wherein the variable attenuator is controlled based on the comparison of the undesired signal and the desired signal and based on a comparison of the desired signal and a threshold signal.
5 more elements
An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a communications system to:
- receive a signal;
- detect a strength of the signal;
- filter the signal to obtain a desired signal;
- detect a strength of the desired signal;
- compare the strength of the signal to the strength of the desired signal;
- and
- control a variable attenuator based on the comparison of the strength of the signal to the strength of the desired signal and based on a comparison of the desired signal and a threshold signal.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.