Abstract: A mobile communication device, and a method of reading key presses and backlighting a mobile communication device, are disclosed. The method of reading key presses and backlighting a mobile communication device includes providing a mobile communication device including a plurality of marked keys resident on a flip module separate from a main module, and switching, by the mobile communication device, between a first positive voltage to the flip module when the plurality of marked keys are backlit, and a first negative voltage when the plurality of marked keys are not backlit, according to a switch command from the main module.

Abstract: An integrated circuit package is constructed by attaching lower dies to a substrate that has bond fingers deposited on its surface. One lower die and its associated bond fingers are located offset from the center of the substrate. The lower dies are electrically coupled to the substrate's bond fingers with lower bond wires. An upper die is stacked on at least one of the lower dies. The upper die is electrically coupled, with bond wires, to the lower die upon which it is mechanically coupled. Each of the lower dies may be coupled to the other lower die with bond wire bridges that span the lower bond wires. The upper die may be electrically coupled, with bond wire bridges, to any or all of the lower dies.

Abstract: A method and device for converting at least one narrow band RF signal, being suitable for transmission between at least one communications device suitable for receiving wide-band RF signals and at least one base station, to baseband. The method includes directly down-converting a signal spectrum including the at least one RF narrow-band signal to baseband such that the at least one narrow-band RF signal results at a low intermediate frequency (IF). And, digitally phase rotating the down-converted signal spectrum such that the at least one narrow-band RF signal is phase rotated from the low-IF to baseband.

Abstract: In an antenna diversity environment, the timing offset of the receiver's fingers are based on the timing offset of the received peaks of the base station transmit signals. In a system with non-negligible multipath spacing, the timing offset of the received peaks of the base station transmit signals are not necessarily at the same location. In one embodiment, the demodulating elements for the signal from each base station antenna use the same offset for demodulating and determining an error signal based on pilot signal sampling prior to the timing offset and subsequent to the timing offset. The error signals are averaged and used by a time tracking loop to track the incoming signal. In another embodiment, the demodulating elements for the signal from each base station antenna independently time track the signals with different timing offsets for each finger. The preferred embodiment depends on the method used by the base station to multiplex the data onto multiple transmit antennas.

Abstract: The mobile telephone is provided with the capability for automatically adjusting the gain of a microphone of the telephone based upon the detected noise level in which the cellular telephone is operated. As the noise level increases, the gain of the microphone is automatically decreased, thereby compensating for the natural tendency of telephone users to speak more loudly in noisy environments. Also, by decreasing the microphone gain, any clipping that might otherwise occur as a result of the user speaking more loudly is avoided and the signal-to-noise ratio is not thereby decreased. Furthermore, because the microphone gain decreases, the volume level of the voice of the user as it is output from the other party's telephone is not unduly loud. Hence, the other party need not manually decrease the speaker gain of his or her telephone.

Abstract: Techniques for inner/outer loop tracking that is stable and provides desirable loop convergence characteristics are disclosed. In one aspect, the contribution from any one inner loop to the tracking function of the outer loop is limited, to prohibit any one received signal component from dominating the outer loop. In another aspect, the rate of outer loop tracking variation is controlled to provide inner and outer loop stability. Various other aspects are also presented. These aspects have the benefit of providing stable inner and outer loop control, as well as efficient convergence and tracking by the various loops, resulting in reduced frequency error and improved communication performance.

Abstract: Transmitter architectures for a communications system having improved performance over conventional transmitter architectures. The improvements include a combination of the following: faster response time for the control signals, improved linearity, reduced interference, reduced power consumption, lower circuit complexity, and lower costs. For a cellular application, these improvements can lead to increased system capacity, smaller telephone size, increased talk and standby times, and greater acceptance of the product. Circuitry is provided to speed up the response time of a control signal. The control loop for various elements in the transmit signal path are integrated. A gain control mechanism allows for accurate adjustment of the output transmit power level. Control mechanisms are provided to power down the power amplifier, or the entire transmit signal path, when not needed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving search efficiency in a remote unit of a slotted mode, wireless communication system. In a slotted mode communication system the remote unit is in an “active state” only during its assigned slot. A controller in the remote unit passes a selected set of search parameters to a search engine at the beginning of the assigned slot. The search engine performs a search, using the selected set of search parameters, and stores the search results. The controller then immediately passes another set of search parameters to the search engine for the next search without evaluating the results of the just completed search. Searching continues as long as the remote unit is in its assigned slot. When the remote unit enters the inactive state the controller evaluates the results of the searches performed during the active state.

Abstract: A method and system that improves voice recognition by improving the voice recognizer of a voice recognition system. Mu-law compression of bark amplitudes is used to reduce the effect of additive noise and thus improve the accuracy of the voice recognition system. A-law compression of bark amplitudes is used to improve the accuracy of the voice recognizer. Both mu-law compression and mu-law expansion can be used in the voice recognizer to improve the accuracy of the voice recognizer. Both A-law compression and A-law expansion can be used in the voice recognizer to improve the accuracy of the voice recognizer.

Abstract: Memory architectures and techniques that support direct memory swapping between NAND Flash and SRAM with error correction coding (ECC). In a specific design, a memory architecture includes a first storage unit (e.g., an SRAM) operative to provide storage of data, a second storage unit (e.g., a NAND Flash) operative to provide (mass) storage of data, an EMI unit implemented within an ASIC and operative to provide control signals for the storage units, and a data bus coupled to both storage units and the EMI unit. The two storage units are implemented external to the ASIC, and each storage unit is operable to store data from the other storage unit via the data bus when the other storage unit is being accessed by the EMI unit. The EMI unit may include an ECC unit operative to perform block coding of data transferred to/from the second storage unit.

Abstract: Techniques for canceling pilot interference in a wireless (e.g., CDMA) communication system. A received signal typically includes a number of signal instances (i.e., multipaths). For each multipath desired to be processed, the other multipaths act as interference on the desired multipath. If the pilot is generated based on a known data pattern (e.g., all zeros) and covered with a known channelization code (e.g., a Walsh code of zero), then the pilot in an interfering multipath may be estimated as the spreading sequence at a time offset corresponding to the arrival time of that multipath. The pilot interference from each interference multipath may be estimated based on the spreading sequence for the interfering multipath and the despreading sequence for the desired multipath. The total pilot interference from a number of interfering multipaths may be subtracted from the data component in the desired multipath to provide pilot-canceled data having improved performance.

Abstract: An integrated circuit package is constructed by attaching lower dies to a substrate that has bond fingers deposited on its surface. One lower die and its associated bond fingers are located offset from the center of the substrate. The lower dies are electrically coupled to the substrate's bond fingers with lower bond wires. An upper die is stacked on at least one of the lower dies. The upper die is electrically coupled, with bond wires, to the lower die upon which it is mechanically coupled. Each of the lower dies may be coupled to the other lower die with bond wire bridges that span the lower bond wires. The upper die may be electrically coupled, with bond wire bridges, to any or all of the lower dies.

Abstract: Techniques to process data sporadically transmitted at designated times in a wireless communication system, such as paging indicator (PI) bits on the quick paging channel in cdma2000. These techniques support a sleep cycle that may start at virtually anytime and having a sleep duration selected based on a fine time increment. The increment is selected such that the finger processors and symbol combiner of a rake receiver may be easily moved to the proper positions upon waking up from a sleep. Techniques are also provided to align the symbol combiner timing to that of a particular multipath in the received signal, if necessary. With these techniques, a terminal may perform a sleep between a pair of assigned PI bits and may wake up and process a single PI bit.

Abstract: A receiver unit for use in a CDMA system and including a channel processor, a buffer, and a data processor. The channel processor processes samples for one or more physical channels for each time interval to provide symbols. The buffer is operated as a number of memory banks. Each memory bank is associated with a respective time interval and stores symbols associated with that time interval. The data processor retrieves symbols for a particular “traffic” from one or more memory banks and processes the retrieved symbols. For the W-CDMA system, each traffic includes one or more radio frames for a particular transmission time interval. The receiver unit typically further includes a controller that directs the storage and retrieval of symbols to and from the memory banks and a decoder that decodes symbols processed by the data processor.

Abstract: Techniques to efficiently process paging channels in an asynchronous wireless communication system. In one aspect, if the base stations are not synchronized with each other and a remote terminal's designated page time is different from base station to base station, the remote terminal can wake up based on the earliest base station in a reacquisition search list that includes candidate base stations to which the remote terminal may be handed off. In another aspect, the criteria to select base stations for evaluation as reacquisition targets may be based on the received power of the base stations as well as their timing, both of which may be made relative to that of a preferred base station. In yet another aspect, the remote terminal may wake up multiple times in a particular paging cycle (i.e., a frame cycle or a DRX cycle) if there are one or more candidates base station to which the remote terminal may be handed off.

Abstract: A wireless communication device and a method for transmitting and receiving at least one frame between a terminal device, connected to the wireless communication device, and an interworking function. Selected ones of a plurality of corresponding configuration options of a first and a second instance of a communication protocol, executing on the wireless communication device, are checked to determine whether they are equal. If the selected ones of the corresponding configuration options are equal, all but certain ones of a plurality of packets may be passed through the wireless communication device without unframing and reframing the communication protocol frames encapsulating the packets.

Abstract: A wireless communication device (100) may include a transmitter (108), a memory (104), an analog-to-digital converter (128), an audio playback system (124) and other features. A dynamic range controller (130) selectively generates control signals to adjust, at least in part, the operational dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converter (128) for analog signals received by the a transmitter (108) or stored in the memory (104). The selection of dynamic range is based on identifying a characteristic. In one embodiment, the control signals are used to selectively operate the analog-to-digital converter (128) at a particular dynamic range based on a sampling rate set by the remote location or by the user.

Abstract: Circuitry that generates an interface signal between a first and a second integrated circuit (IC). The circuitry includes a reference circuit that provides a reference signal, an interface circuit, and a circuit element. The interface circuit is implemented on the first IC, operatively couples to the reference circuit, receives the reference signal and a data input, and generates the interface signal. The circuit element is implemented on the second IC, operatively couples to the control circuit, receives the interface signal, and provides an output signal. The reference signal can be a voltage or a current signal, and can be generated in the first or second IC. The interface circuit can be implemented with a current mirror coupled to a switch array, and can be oversampled to ease the filtering requirement. The interface signal can be a differential current signal having multiple (e.g., four, eight, or more) bits of resolution. The circuit element can be, for example, a VGA, a modulator, or other circuits.

Abstract: A multi-stage circuit that includes a number of stages, with at least one stage being of a first type and at least one stage being of a second type. Each stage receives either a circuit input signal or an output signal from a preceding stage, processes (e.g., filters) the received signal, and provides a respective output signal. Each first type (or second type) stage operates based on one or more clock signals having a frequency of fS (or fS/N), where fS is the sampling frequency and N is an integer greater than one. Each first type stage may be implemented with a correlated double-sampling circuit, an auto-zeroing circuit, or a chopper stabilization circuit. Each second type stage may be implemented with a multi-sampling (i.e., double-sampling or higher order sampling) circuit. The multi-stage circuit may be designed to implement a lowpass filter, a &Dgr;&Sgr; ADC, or some other circuit.

Abstract: Techniques for coherent demodulation in the presence of phase discontinuities is described. In the exemplary embodiment, times when phase discontinuities occur are known apriori by a receiver in which demodulation is being performed. In an alternate embodiment, the discontinuity location is signaled to the receiver in advance by the transmitter which generates the signals being demodulated. A pilot signal is prepared for optimal coherent demodulation by the use of two filters: one capable of withstanding the effects of phase discontinuity; a second providing superior filtering performance than the first so long as phase discontinuities are not present. Both filters are simultaneously operated. However, the superior performing filter is selected for use in demodulation whenever possible.