Patents Assigned to Broadcom
  • Publication number: 20100322219
    Abstract: Management frame directed cluster assignment within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications. From a first wireless communication device, a management frame may be transmitted to a number of other wireless communication devices to assign respective clusters (i.e., cluster being one or more channels within one or more bands) for use in communications by those other wireless communication devices. The first wireless communication device may be an access point (AP), and the others may be wireless stations (STAs); alternatively, all of the wireless communication devices in the communication system (e.g., including the first wireless communication device) may be STAs. The cluster assignment may be modified for any of a number of various reasons (e.g., periodically, after a certain number of packets being transmitted and/or received, communication system operating condition change, change in number, type, capabilities, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Publication date: December 23, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Matthew James Fischer, Vinko Erceg, Joseph Paul Lauer, Peiman Amini, Joonsuk Kim
  • Publication number: 20100322222
    Abstract: An integrated circuit includes a first wireless interface circuit that transceives first packetized data with a first external device in accordance with a first wireless communication protocol, wherein the first wireless interface circuit includes a first processing module that processes the first packetized data. A second wireless interface circuit, coupled to the first wireless interface device, transceives second packetized data with a second external device in accordance with a second wireless communication protocol, wherein the second wireless interface circuit includes a second processing module that processes the second packetized data, wherein the second wireless interface circuit is operable to assign a first processing task to the first processing module and wherein the first processing task relates to the processing of the second packetized data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2010
    Publication date: December 23, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventor: PRASANNA DESAI
  • Patent number: 7856245
    Abstract: A multimode wireless communication device includes a first circuit having a digital baseband processing module to convert outbound data into outbound digital baseband signals and to convert inbound digital baseband signals into inbound data, an analog to digital converter module to convert inbound analog baseband signals into the inbound digital baseband signals, and a digital to analog converter module to convert the outbound digital baseband signals into outbound analog baseband signals. A second circuit includes a first radio section and a third circuit includes a second radio section. A diversity antenna arrangement includes a first antenna, a second antenna, a first diplexer coupled to the first antenna, and a second diplexer coupled to the second antenna, that selectively couples the first radio section to one of the first antenna and the second antenna, and that selectively couples the second radio section to one of the first antenna and the second antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Jason A. Trachewsky, Alan Corry, Venkat Kodavati
  • Patent number: 7856247
    Abstract: An integrated RFID reader and wireless communication device is realized by a radio frequency (RF) front end operable, in a first mode, to generate a radio frequency identification system (RFID) outbound radio frequency (RF) signal, to receive an RFID inbound RF signal responsive to the RFID outbound RF signal and to convert the RFID inbound RF signal to an RFID near baseband signal, and operable in a second mode, to generate a transceiver outbound radio frequency (RF) signal, to receive a transceiver inbound RF signal and to convert the transceiver inbound RF signal to a transceiver near baseband signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Ahmadreza (Reza) Rofougaran, Kambiz Shoarinejad
  • Patent number: 7855414
    Abstract: Optimization of the implantation structure of a metal oxide silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET) device fabricated using conventional complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) logic foundry technology to increase the breakdown voltage. The techniques used to optimize the implantation structure involve lightly implanting the gate region, displacing the drain region from the gate region, and implanting P-well and N-well regions adjacent to one another without an isolation region in between.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Akira Ito, Henry Kuo-Shun Chen
  • Patent number: 7856028
    Abstract: A system, method and apparatus for reducing a power consumed by a physical layer device (PHY). A length of a cable connecting the PHY to a link partner is determined. Based on the length, power provided to one or more components of the PHY, or any portion thereof, is reduced. The power provided is reduced while maintaining a level of reliability specified by a protocol governing operation of the PHY. The length can be determined using time-domain reflectometry (TDR) techniques. Any portion of an echo cancellation filter, a crosstalk filter, an equalizer, a precoder, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a forward error correction (FEC) decoder and/or an FEC coder can be powered-down or power-optimized to reduce the overall power consumed by the PHY. The protocol governing operation of the PHY can be IEEE 802.3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Nariman Yousefi, Scott Powell
  • Patent number: 7856070
    Abstract: A method and system for digital baseband receiver with digital RF/IF/VLIF support in GSM/GPRS/EDGE compliant handsets. The method may comprise receiving an input signal which may be a digital RF signal, IF or VLIF signals, and the input signal may comprise of I and Q components. The serial digital RF signal may be converted to a parallel digital formatted signal, the latter of which may be transferred to an input of a multiplexer. The received IF signal or VLIF signal may be filtered and transferred to the input of the DU which may convert the VLIF signal to a baseband signal by processing the VLIF signal with a CORDIC algorithm. The DU may bypass processing the IF signal. The output of the DU may be transferred to the input of the multiplexer, such that the multiplexer may select the parallel digital formatted signal or the output of the DU.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Weidong Li
  • Patent number: 7855613
    Abstract: A balun that includes a first conductor, a second conductor, and a third conductor. The first conductor has a first length. The first conductor also has a first end connected to a first balanced power amplifier output port. The second conductor has substantially the same first length. The second conductor also includes a first end connected to a second balanced power amplifier output port and a second end connected to a second end of the first conductor. The third conductor has substantially the same first length. The third conductor has a first end connected to an antenna port and a second end connected to a ground potential.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Tom McKay, Vas Postoyalko, Edwin Li
  • Patent number: 7856003
    Abstract: A communication network having at least one access point supports wireless communication among a plurality of wireless roaming devices via a first and a second wireless channel. The access point comprises a first and a second transceiver. The first and second transceivers operate on the first and second wireless channels, respectively. Each of the plurality of wireless roaming devices are capable of communicating on the first and second wireless channel. In one embodiment, the first wireless channel is used to exchange data, while the second channel is used to manage such exchanges as well as access to the first channel. In an alternate embodiment, both channels are used to support communication flow, however the first channel supports a protocol that is more deterministic than that of the second channel. Allocation of ones of the plurality of wireless roaming devices from one channel to the next may occur per direction from the access point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Ronald L. Mahany
  • Patent number: 7855448
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for improved contact pad arrays and land patterns for integrated circuit packages are presented. A plurality of conductive pads are arranged in an array of rows and columns. At least one edge of a perimeter of the array is not fully populated with conductive pads. Spaces created in the edge by missing conductive pads create additional routing channels for signals from conductive pads within the array to be routed external to the array through the edge. A land pattern may have routing channels on one or more layers of a printed circuit board. In such a multi-layer land pattern, spaces can be created in edges on any number of the layers. Furthermore, corner pad arrangements having known routing channel characteristics can be used in any number of corners of a land pattern that incorporates spaces in an edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin L. Seaman, Vernon M. Wnek
  • Patent number: 7855474
    Abstract: A system and method for pre-detection in a power over Ethernet (PoE) system. A power sourcing equipment (PSE) is designed to measure a port voltage upon application of a small current source. A microcontroller controls the current source based on a comparison of the measured port voltage to a threshold voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Louis Joseph Maggiolino
  • Patent number: 7856013
    Abstract: An apparatus and process for relabelling and redirecting at least some of the read transaction data frames and the write transaction write data and transfer ready frames in a network so as to bypass a storage manager and pass directly between the client and a storage device via a switch. This eliminates the storage manager as a bottleneck. Some embodiments redirect every read and write transaction, and others redirect only large transactions, or only ones not stored in cache or when latency gets too high. Redirection is accomplished by transmission from the storage manager to a switch redirection commands that contain old and new address data. When a frame to be redirected comes in, its address is compared to the old address data. If there is a match, the new address data is substituted and the frame is passed to a conventional routing process to be routed so as to bypass the storage manager.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Lani William Brewer, John Gifford Logan
  • Patent number: 7856015
    Abstract: A switch is configured to block packets from being transmitted through designated ports. The switch has port bitmap generator configured to obtain a port bitmap and a table is configured to store a block mask indicating which port the packet should not be transmitted. A block mask lookup is configured to determine the block mask for the packet from the table, and a transmit port bitmap generator is configured to determine which ports the packet should be transmitted using the port bitmap and the block mask.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Mohan Kalkunte, Shekhar Ambe, Sam Sampath
  • Patent number: 7856049
    Abstract: A cable modem communication system includes a plurality of Cable Modems (CMs), a CM network segment, and a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS). The CMTS segregates the plurality of CMs into a first group of CMs with which standard registering and ranging operations are performed and a second group of CMs with which attenuated transmission registering and ranging operations are performed. Each CM of the first group of CMs operable to perform registering and ranging operations by transmitting a ranging burst of a first format. Each CM of the second group of CMs operable to perform registering and ranging operations by transmitting a ranging burst of a second format that differs from the ranging burst of the first format. The CMTS may include a rake receiver that receives and demodulates a plurality of multi-path copies of the ranging burst of the second format.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Bruce J. Currivan, Richard S. Prodan, Niki R. Pantelias, Thomas J. Kolze
  • Publication number: 20100317311
    Abstract: Embodiments of a SAW-less RF receiver front-end that includes a frequency translated notch filter (FTNF) are presented. An FTNF includes a passive mixer and a baseband impedance. The baseband impedance includes capacitors that form a low-Q band-stop filter. The passive mixer is configured to translate the baseband impedance to a higher frequency. The translated baseband impedance forms a high-Q notch filter and is presented at the input of the FTNF. The FTNF can be fully integrated in CMOS IC technology (or others, e.g., Bipolar, BiCMOS, and SiGe) and applied in wireless receiver systems including GSM, EDGE, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Bluetooth, and wireless LANs (e.g., IEEE 802.11). In addition, embodiments of an apparatus to protect SAW-less RF receiver front-ends are presented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2009
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Ahmad MIRZAEI, Hooman DARABI, Yuyu CHANG
  • Publication number: 20100317300
    Abstract: A multiple band direct conversion radio frequency (RF) transceiver integrated circuit (IC) includes a multiple band direct conversion transmitter section, a multiple band direct conversion receiver section, and a local oscillation module. The multiple band direct conversion transmitter section includes a transmit baseband module and a multiple frequency band transmission module. The multiple band direct conversion receiver section includes a multiple frequency band reception module and a receiver baseband module. The local oscillation generation module is coupled to generate a first frequency band local oscillation when the multiple band direct conversion RF transceiver IC is in the first mode and coupled to generate a second frequency band local oscillation when the multiple band direct conversion RF transceiver IC is in the second mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2010
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventor: Arya Reza Behzad
  • Publication number: 20100318819
    Abstract: A system and method for integrated thermal monitoring in Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications. Headroom in a particular cable installation is identified using ambient temperature measurement alone or in combination with determined cable characteristics. In calculating an amount of headroom for a particular cable installation, the current capable of being carried over the cable would not be limited by worst-case cable assumptions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2010
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Wael William Diab
  • Publication number: 20100316150
    Abstract: Mixed mode operations within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications. Certain communication systems can include wireless communication devices of various capabilities therein (e.g., IEEE Task Group ac (TGac VHT), IEEE 802.11 amendment TGn, IEEE 802.11 amendment TGa, and/or other capabilities, etc.). In one manner of classification, wireless communication devices having legacy and newer/updated capabilities may inter-operate with one another, operate within a common region, and/or communicate via a common access point (AP). Coordination of such wireless communication devices (e.g., legacy and newer/updated) provides for their respective operation on a same set of clusters in accordance with various operational modes including: (1) time dividing medium access between the wireless communication devices of various capabilities, (2) assigning primary cluster(s) for a first capability set and assigning non-primary cluster(s) for a second capability set, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Peiman Amini, Matthew James Fischer, Vinko Erceg, Joonsuk Kim, Joseph Paul Lauer
  • Publication number: 20100318749
    Abstract: According to one general aspect, a method may include, in one embodiment, grouping a plurality of at least single-ported memory banks together to substantially act as a single at least dual-ported aggregated memory element. In various embodiments, the method may also include controlling read access to the memory banks such that a read operation may occur from any memory bank in which data is stored. In some embodiments, the method may include controlling write access to the memory banks such that a write operation may occur to any memory bank which is not being accessed by a read operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 22, 2009
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Brad Matthews
  • Publication number: 20100315168
    Abstract: A Radio Frequency (RF) cascode power amplifier operates with differing battery supply voltages. A transconductance stage has a transistor with an RF signal input at its gate. A cascode stage has at least one cascode transistor, the cascode stage coupled in series with the transconductance stage between a battery voltage node and ground, the cascode stage having an RF signal output at the battery voltage node and at least one bias input to the at least one cascode transistor. Cascode bias feedback circuitry applies fixed bias voltage(s) to the at least one two bias inputs for a low battery voltage and applies feedback bias voltage(s) to the at least two bias inputs for a high battery voltage, the feedback bias voltage(s) based upon a voltage of the battery voltage node. More than two differing battery supply voltages are supported.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: BROADCOM CORPORATION
    Inventors: MINGYUAN LI, ALI AFSAHI, ARYA REZA BEHZAD