Abstract: A "hybrid" ARQ system within a multiple access wireless communications environment is provided for-recombining ARQ retransmission signals with information obtained from corresponding previously failed transmissions of the same signal which had been sent and received within the air interface. Forward Error Correction (FEC) is implemented within an ARQ environment by using whatever acquired information has been previously obtained from RAKE processed transmitted and retransmitted signals and trying to correct the information by combining the signals and without retransmission.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of producing a semiconductor device (e.g., a Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)) with a gate length less than 0.25 microns using standard process techniques arranged in an unstandardized process order. The process flow of the present invention provides for the implantation and thermal processing of the wells and junctions prior to the growth of a channel or the deposition of a gate stack. By implanting and annealing the wells and junctions prior to the formation of the channel and gate, the present invention allows a greater variety of materials to be utilized as the channel and gate materials than are available under process flows currently known; undoped materials may be used to form the channel, metal oxides and similar materials with large dielectrics may be used to form a gate stack, and barrier metals and pure metals (copper, tungsten, etc.) may be used as gate electrodes.

Abstract: A data access arrangement (DAA) for interfacing a modem with a telephone line which requires only one safety barrier device for providing electrical isolation of the modem from the telephone line for both a ring detection signal and a remote device hang-up detection signal transmitted from the DAA to the modem. The DAA utilizes the same combined circuitry to transmit both the ring detection signal and the hang-up detection signal to the modem. The single safety barrier device is selectively connected to either ring detection circuitry during an On-Hook mode or remote hang-up detection circuitry during an Off-Hook mode by a selectively operating a relay switching device. With this arrangement, an improved DAA is provided having a combined circuit configuration for communicating ring detection information to the modem during the On-Hook phase and communicating remote hang-up detection information to the modem during an Off Hook phase, thus minimizing the size, cost, and complexity of the DAA.

Abstract: A signal including speech and background noise is encoded by first decomposing the signal into speech and noise components. A first speech encoding algorithm is then used to generate codebook indices for the speech component and a second algorithm is applied to generate codebook indices for the noise component. The speech encoding algorithm performs better since it faces clean speech, while a simple, very low bit rate algorithm may be used to encode the noise.

Abstract: A receiver in a communication system is coupled to a transmission channel for receiving communication signals transmitted over a transmission channel. The receiver includes signal receiving electronics for receiving communication signals directed to the receiver. The receiver also includes a controller, responsive to the receipt of a communication signal by the signal receiving electronics, to provide an enunciator enable signal, and a clock signal generator for generating a clock signal. The receiver further includes an enunciator coupled to the clock signal generator, for producing an electronic sound signal. The enunciator includes a volume control module for receiving a first periodic signal and providing a volume control signal. The enunciator also includes a divider for receiving the clock signal and providing a corresponding output signal having a frequency corresponding to the frequency of the clock signal frequency divided by a divider value.

Abstract: A "hybrid" ARQ system within a multiple access wireless communications environment is provided for recombining ARQ retransmission signals with information obtained from corresponding previously failed transmissions of the same signal which had been sent and received within the air interface. Forward Error Correction (FEC) is implemented within an ARQ environment by using whatever acquired information has been previously obtained from Rake processed transmitted and retransmitted signals and trying to correct the information by combining the signals and without retransmission. In a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, Turbo encoded transmitted information is only partially re-transmitted by the transmitter in order to achieve a successful transmission.

Abstract: A wireless communication device, such as a dual-mode cellular phone, receives radio frequency (RF) signals in either of two communication bands. Each received RF signal is passed to two bandpass filters, one for each communication band, the outputs of which are connected to a single amplifier. The amplifier processes the received signal regardless of the communication band in which the signal was received. The amplifier can include two sets of similar circuitry, e.g., matching circuits, one for each communication band, which are selected alternatively to process received signals in the corresponding communication band.

Abstract: The invention's reference precharge circuit and bit line precharge circuits are comprised of two NFET transistors and one PFET transistor. In the preferred embodiment of the invention where the supply voltage is 3.0 volts, the two NFET transistors result in a voltage drop of 2.0 volts so as to produce a reference precharge signal or a bit line precharge signal having a voltage of 1.0 volts. When a precharge enable signal is on, the PFET transistor is connected to ground and is barely on such that the path from the reference precharge signal or the bit line precharge signal to ground is a low impedance path. Moreover, the path from the reference precharge signal or the bit line precharge signal to the supply voltage is also of low impedance. Accordingly, the voltages present at the reference precharge signal or the bit line precharge signal are substantially noise free.

Abstract: A universal data access arrangement (DAA) for interfacing a modem with a telephone line which may variably control its parameter settings to meet the interface requirements for telephone networks in various countries. The parameter settings are programmed into the universal DAA by multiple parallel command signals received from a connected modem. Each of the command signals is concurrently transmitted to a plurality of parameter-controlled circuits in the DAA, where each parameter-controlled circuit may interpret the received command signal to correspond to a different parameter setting. This allows different circuits of varying functionality to be separately programmed with different parameter settings using the same command signals received by each of the circuits.

Abstract: The present invention includes a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) having a resonant circuit capable of being quickly switched between two resonant frequencies in order to generate two different LO frequencies. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention includes a VCO having a dual-frequency resonant circuit attached to the VCO's resonant circuit input leads. The dual-frequency resonant circuit is constructed in a differential architecture in order to create a number "virtual ground" points within the circuit that nearly eliminate any ground currents, and thus minimize the time required to switch the resonant circuit between the two LO frequencies. The switching between two resonant frequencies is achieved by creating a short circuit across certain components within the circuit to eliminate them from the resonant circuit.

Abstract: A front end circuit for an RF dual band GSM/DCS phone includes a first channel including an elliptical high-pass filter, a first SAW filter, and a low noise amplifier and a second channel including a second SAW filter and a second low noise amplifier. The output of each channel is alternately switchable to a single-side band mixer circuit. This front end circuit arrangement provides significantly reduced cost and part count over other approaches.

Abstract: A system and method to improve the quality of coded speech coexisting with background noise. For instance, the present invention receives a coded speech signal via a communication network and then decodes and synthesizes the different parameters contained within it to produce a synthesized speech signal. The present invention determines the non-speech periods that are represented within the synthesized speech signal. The determined non-speech periods are then utilized to determine and code LPC parameters needed for background noise synthesis. Because medium or low bit rate LPC-coded speech during voice activity periods has the coexisting background noise attenuated, the decoded signal has audible abrupt changes in the level of the background noise. To improve decoded speech quality, the present invention adds simulated background noise to decoded noisy speech when synthesizing the noisy speech signal during voice activity periods.

Abstract: The switching properties of the disclosed device, low off current and high on current, also allows the device to be employed to replace EEPROM, fuses, anti-fuses or other electrically-alterable non volatile switching devices in programmable logic devices. The disclosed device can be fabricated with low cost methods. The manufacturing methods are compatible with current tools and procedures which allows the device to be added to CMOS circuits to replace masked ROM with more flexible flash memory at a modest increase in cost. The cell operational method and manufacturing methods allows the size of the memory element to be scaled smaller to maintain a low cost and high performance as the minimum feature size of microelectronic circuits is reduced in the future. The disclosed cell approach also offers simpler programming methods to simplify memory array design, supports higher cell currents for high speed applications, and uses lower cost manufacturing methods than an "ETOX" cell approach.

Abstract: An improved cool chamber is provided which includes a gas manifold for redistributing the gas flow and reducing the velocity of the gas particles that are directed towards a wafer. The gas manifold has a generally circular body that defines a plurality of outlets. A plurality of tubes, each having a first end and a second end, extend from the body. The first end is coupled to the body at the outlets. A vent diffuser is coupled to the second end of each tube. The vent diffuser includes a sintered gasket for providing point-of-use filtering of the gas and diffusion of the gas. The gas manifold is at a height different from the height of the plane of the wafer. An adapter plate that includes a bypass port is also provided. The bypass port is employed to conduct gas from the gas manifold back into the chamber during de-pressurization.

Abstract: A compression system and process include adaptive quantization for selection of one quantizer, for each video frame or frame portion, from a group of quantizers, where each quantizer is a set of predefined quantizer values, and coding of the quantized values using a common entropy coding table for all quantizers, or a separate entropy coding table for each quantizer. The entropy coding tables are obtained during a training procedure. The selection of the quantizer is based on a formula which takes into account the distortion and bit rate characteristics of each quantizer. A similar formula, based on the distortion and bit rate characteristics, is used to select the particular quantizer value within the chosen quantizer for each video signal value being coded.

Abstract: The current disclosure is directed toward part or all digital phase lock loop circuits, particularly those containing divide by N circuits between the voltage controlled oscillator and the phase detector. These divide by N circuits many times contain long logic count down chains. In power sensitive applications the amount of power dissipated by these divide by N circuits may be significant. The current disclosure is directed to apparatus and methods of cycling these divide by N circuits between enabled and disabled to conserve power. The changing of the enabled/disabled frequency and the duty cycle of the disabling of the divider is contemplated, as are the various ancillary factors that might be considered in determining this frequency and duty cycle. Stabilization of the loop is considered as is the changing of gain of the phase lock loop in order to improve operation as the dividers are enabled and disabled.

Abstract: A satellite signal acquisition and measurement apparatus and process has the capability of quickly acquiring multiple satellite signals and performing measurements based on the acquired signal (such as time and range measurements) with a high level of computational efficiency. A sample comparison process is carried out, wherein a sample length of a satellite's signal is received and compared with all possible sample lengths of each satellite's code. However, instead of comparing the satellite signal sample length with each possible sample length at each possible frequency, a modified sample comparison approach is carried out. That is, after at least one satellite has been acquired, the frequency of the next satellite signal to be acquired is assumed to be within a limited range of frequencies determined from statistical probabilities based on the frequency of the previous signal acquisition(s).

Abstract: A compression system and process include adaptive quantization for selection of one quantizer, for each video frame or frame portion, from a group of quantizers, where each quantizer is a set of predefined quantizer values, and coding of the quantized values using a common entropy coding table for all quantizers, or a separate entropy coding table for each quantizer. The entropy coding tables are obtained during a training procedure. The selection of the quantizer is based on a formula which takes into account the distortion and bit rate characteristics of each quantizer. A similar formula, based on the distortion and bit rate characteristics, is used to select the particular quantizer value within the chosen quantizer for each video signal value being coded.

Abstract: An apparatus for and method of implementing a novel buffer based full duplex communication system is disclosed. The disclosed invention is particularly useful in native signal processing systems wherein heavy contention of processor resources typically exist, such as in systems running multi-tasking operating systems. The communication system of the present invention includes a receiver, transmitter, echo canceler, CODEC and telephone hybrid. The major components of the system operate on a buffer of input samples consisting of a set of input bits. The communication system operates to generate a buffer of output samples consisting of a set of output bits. The invention utilizes a novel buffer switching mechanism to optimize the tradeoff between processing response time, on one hand, and robustness to interrupt latency and processor implementation on the other hand.

Abstract: An internal self-test and status reporting system for an electrical device with a plurality of components, a power supply and a microcontroller or microprocessor. The self-test system powers on and off each component one at a time and measures an amount of current drawn by the component with an internal current sensor. The self-test system compares the measured amount of current drawn by the component with an expected, predetermined current value or range. The self-test system then reports whether the measured amount of current drawn by the component matches the expected, predetermined current value or is within the expected, predetermined current range. The self-test system reports the results of the self-test by generating a pattern of signals on a general purpose input/output (GPIO) line, displaying a message on a display of the device, or generating a sound with a speaker of the device.