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.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 16, 1997
Date of Patent:
June 20, 2000
Assignee:
Motorola, Inc.
Inventors:
Christopher P. La Rosa, Michael J. Carney, Christopher J. Becker, Michael A. Eberhardt, Colin D. Frank, Phillip D. Rasky