US 8,712,354 B2Granted

Radio transmitter and radio receiver with channel condition assessment

AssigneeQuintic Holdings

InventorsYifeng Zhang, Tracey Lee Chavers, Peiqi Xuan, Qifa Wu

Life of this patent

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Abstract

FM radio transmitter is being widely used in portable devices as a convenient way to output audio contents to ubiquitously available FM radio receivers in cars or homes. However, the signal from the FM radio transmitter may be interfering with the signal being broadcast by an FM radio station. A scan system is incorporated into the FM radio transmitter to quickly and reliably identify a vacant channel for the FM radio transmitter to use. The scan system measures on-channel and out-of-channel signal quality and selects a best channel for transmission based on the measured on-channel and out-of-channel signal quality. The scan system is also incorporated into an FM radio receiver to quickly and reliably tune to a valid channel. The scan system selects the valid channel based on the measured on-channel and out-of-channel signal quality.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An integrated radio receiver comprising:

a receive antenna interface;
an audio output interface;
receive path circuits coupled to the receive antenna interface and audio output interface, wherein the receive path circuits include a receive tuner having a tunable receiving frequency and a receive digital-signal-processing block having controllable channel filtering;
a scan system operative to receive signals within a band from the receive antenna interface and to generate a valid channel and a channel filtering control parameter;
and
a master finite state machine (FSM) coupled to the receive path circuits and the scan system to provide control and communication,
wherein the valid channel generated by the scan system is applied to select a receiving frequency for the receive path circuits and the channel filtering control parameter is applied to control the channel filtering, and
wherein the scan system comprises:
a channel condition assessment (CCA) tuner coupled to the receive antenna interface and operative to tune within the band and operative to generate a tuned analog signal;
a CCA analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the CCA tuner and operative to convert the tuned analog signal to a digital signal;
an on-channel selection block responsive to the digital signal and operative to generate a on-channel signal by selecting only on-channel frequencies and substantially disregarding out-of-channel frequencies from the digital signal and operative to generate an on-channel figure of merit (FOM) representing a signal quality measurement of the on-channel signal;
and
an out-of-channel selection block responsive to the digital signal and operative to generate an out-of-channel signal by selecting only the out-of-channel frequencies and substantially disregarding the on-channel frequencies from the digital signal and operative to generate an out-of-channel FOM representing the signal quality measurement of the out-of-channel signal.

10 more elements

An integrated radio receiver comprising:

a receive antenna interface;
an audio output interface;
receive path circuits coupled to the receive antenna interface and audio output interface, wherein the receive path circuits include a receive digital signal processing (DSP) block having controllable channel filtering, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a receive tuner having a tunable receiving frequency;
a scan system operative to receive signals within a band from the receive antenna interface and to generate a valid channel and a channel filtering control parameter, the scan system comprising:
(a) means responsive to the received signal in the band to tune and operative to generate a tuned analog signal;
(b) means for converting the tuned analog signal to a digital signal;
(c) means responsive to the digital signal for generating an on-channel signal by selecting on-channel frequencies thereof and substantially disregarding out-of-channel frequencies thereof and for generating an on-channel figure of merit (FOM) representing a signal quality measurement of the on-channel signal;
(d) means responsive to the digital signal for generating an out-of-channel signal by selecting the out-of-channel frequencies thereof and substantially disregarding the on-channel frequencies thereof and for generating an out-of-channel FOM representing the signal quality measurement of the out-of-channel signal;
(e) means for selecting a best channel within the band based on the on-channel FOM as the valid channel;
and
(f) means for selecting the channel filtering control parameter based on the out-of-channel FOM;
and
a master finite state machine (FSM) coupled to the receive path circuits and the scan system to provide control and communication,
wherein the valid channel generated by the scan system is applied to select the receiving frequency for the receive path circuits and the channel filtering control parameter is applied to control the channel filtering.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/485,907Filed 31 May 2012 · division
Priority: 11 Jun 2008
Published: US 2012/0238228 A120 Sep 2012
Granted: 29 Apr 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

H04B 1/034
Constructional details, e.g. casings, housings: portable transmitters
H03J 1/0091
Using a central processing unit, e.g. a microprocessor: provided with means for scanning over a band of frequencies
H04B
Transmission
H03J
Tuning resonant circuits

Family

Application12/137,535Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 11 Jun 2008
Application12/473,281Parent of this division · filed 28 May 2009
US 2012/0238228 A1Pre-grant publication · published 20 Sep 2012
US 8,238,844 B2Parent of this division
Application12/473,281Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2009/0311973 A1Published application
US 2009/0311982 A1Published application
US 8,478,218 B2Related patent
US 8,712,354 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.