Patents Assigned to Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8233457
    Abstract: A method of providing synchronization-free station locating in a wireless network is provided. In this method, an AP having a known location sends a unicast packet to the station and notes its time of departure TOD(D). The station receives the unicast packet, notes its time of arrival TOA(D), sends an acknowledgement packet to the AP, and notes its time of departure TOD(D_ACK). The AP receives the acknowledgment packet and notes its time of arrival TOA(D_ACK). Notably, a distance between the AP and the station can be accurately determined using a first difference between the TOA(D_ACK) and the TOD(D) and a second difference between the TOD(D_ACK) and the TOA(D). A plurality of such computed distances between a plurality of APs and the station can be used to determine an accurate location of the station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Qifan Chen, Ning Zhang, James Cho, William J. McFarland
  • Publication number: 20120189085
    Abstract: Receivers typically detect the presence of a pilot tone, transmitted as part of an RF signal, and use the pilot tone as a reference to detect symbols in the received RF signal. However, improper synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver units can result in timing offset and carrier frequency offset in the digitized received RF signal, impair the orthogonality between OFDM sub-carriers, and cause inter-carrier interference. Phase offsets caused by carrier frequency offset and timing offset can also degrade receiver performance. Functionality can be incorporated to estimate the phase offset over multiple symbols. Estimating the phase offset over multiple symbols in the received RF signal can lower the error rate. Correcting the phase offset in the received RF signal can ensure accurate sampling of the received signal, accurate channel estimates, and accurate decoding of the digitized received signal. This can minimize receiver performance degradation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Publication date: July 26, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Kai Shi
  • Patent number: 8218690
    Abstract: A mechanism for performing timing offset compensation for channel estimation in a receiver of a wireless device. A timing offset associated with a received RF signal is estimated based on an estimated carrier frequency offset for the received RF signal. An integer multiple of the estimated timing offset is applied to each of a plurality of high throughput long training field (HT-LTF) symbols associated with the received RF signal to compensate for the timing offset associated with the received RF signal. Channel estimation is performed using the plurality of HT-LTF symbols compensated for the timing offset associated with the received RF signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Ning Zhang
  • Publication number: 20120171969
    Abstract: A wireless communication device may be configured to transmit and receive data through a physical device, such as a cable. Relatively higher transmit radio frequency (RF) signals from the wireless communication device may be shifted to a relatively lower frequency, thereby enabling the relatively lower frequency signals to be carried by the physical device. Similarly, relatively lower frequency signals from the physical device may be shifted to relatively higher frequencies, thereby enabling the wireless communication device to receive the signals from the physical device. In one embodiment, the frequency of the RF signals may be between 2.3 and 2.7 GHz and the frequency of the relatively lower frequency shifted signals may be between 900 and 1100 MHz.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Arie Shor
  • Publication number: 20120170681
    Abstract: A polar transmitter includes a phase monitoring unit for monitoring input modulating data. When a phase transition exceeds a phase transition threshold, the phase monitor unit can signal an amplitude negation unit to invert the amplitude data coupled to the polar amplifier. The phase monitoring unit can also add an offset to the phase data that is provided to a frequency synthesizer. In another embodiment, when the phase transition threshold is exceeded, the phase monitoring unit can trigger inverting differential frequency data coupled to the polar amplifier. In one embodiment, the phase offset and the amplitude negation are applied until a second phase transition value exceeding the phase transition threshold is detected. If such an event is detected, then the input amplitude data is no longer inverted and the phase offset value is no longer added to the modulating data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul J. Husted, David J. Weber, William J. McFarland, William W. Si
  • Publication number: 20120170685
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for wirelessly transmitting real-time data streams is described. To ensure continuous data flow, fast diversity and slow diversity can be used. Fast diversity chooses a receive antenna based on received signal parameters, such as signal strength, during the transmission header and prior to information transfer. Slow diversity stores received signal parameters from previous packets, associates the parameters with a selected antenna, and uses the parameter history to denote a “default” antenna. Additionally, receive and/or transmit beam forming can be used to maintain continuous communication between stations. Beam forming, which combines antenna signals to maximize performance, is possible when at least two transmit/receive signal processing chains are available.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2012
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: James Cho, Paul J. Husted
  • Patent number: 8207890
    Abstract: A device can access scaled values and scaling factors, which are used to convert the scaled values into coefficients and residuals. The coefficients and residuals can in turn be used with time-dependent functions to reconstruct predicted ephemeris data, including clock correction data, for satellite navigation system satellites. Ephemeris data that is broadcast from any of the satellites can be used to update the calculated ephemeris data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Sai Venkatraman, Janne Jarpenvaa, Qinfang Sun
  • Publication number: 20120155510
    Abstract: Wireless devices may contain multiple radio transceivers, each conforming to different communication protocols. A first transceiver conforming to a first communication protocol in a first wireless device may be able to receive, detect, and/or decode messages transmitted by a second transceiver in a second wireless device conforming to a second communication protocol. The first transceiver may communicate received, detected, and/or decoded information to a different transceiver in the same first wireless device, thus enabling the collocated transceivers to work in concert efficiently. A wideband transceiver using a set of multiple sub-channels in parallel may receive, detect, and/or decode messages transmitted by a narrowband transceiver using a set of multiple channels serially, thereby reducing scan time and power consumption.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2012
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Olaf Hirsch, Paul J. Husted
  • Patent number: 8204451
    Abstract: A transceiver for use in a wireless device. The transceiver may include a receive portion for receiving an input RF signal. The receive portion may include at least one receive filter which may include a first filter. The transceiver may also include a transmit portion for transmitting an output RF signal. The transmit portion may include at least one transmit filter, which may include the first filter used in the receive portion. The transceiver may further include a plurality of switches, which may include a first switch coupled to an input of the first filter and a second switch coupled to an output of the first filter. The plurality of switches may be configurable to enable use of the first filter in the receive portion for receiving the input RF signal and use of the first filter in the transmit portion for transmitting the output RF signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Alireza Kheirkhahi, Hirad Samavati, Srenik Mehta, David Su, Brian Kaczynski
  • Patent number: 8203393
    Abstract: A voltage controlled oscillator having a temperature and process controlled output. A VCO in accordance with the present invention comprises a reference current source, a fixed current source, coupled in series with the reference current source, the fixed current source comprising a temperature independent current source, a third current source, coupled in parallel with the combination of the reference current source and the fixed current source, and an oscillator, coupled in series with the third current source, wherein a current used to control the oscillator is based on operating temperatures and processes of the reference current source and the third current source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher R. Leon
  • Publication number: 20120149320
    Abstract: A receiver for a wireless communication device comprising a mechanism for performing spur mitigation. A spur mitigation unit of the receiver is operable to determine a current estimate of a spur signal from an ADC output signal using a growing box filter. The spur mitigation unit can determine a power of the current estimate of the spur signal and a power of a previous estimate of the spur signal using a power measurement unit. The spur mitigation unit can determine whether the power of the previous estimate of the spur signal is greater than the power of the current estimate of the spur signal. If the power of the previous spur signal estimate is greater than the power of the current spur signal estimate, the spur mitigation unit can remove the spur signal from the ADC output signal based on the previous spur signal estimate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2012
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Chi-Lin Su, Ning Zhang
  • Publication number: 20120150952
    Abstract: A solution for managing communicative interactions between network elements is described herein. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include a processor module that monitors communications between a program resident on a user machine and a server program resident on a computing device remote from the user. The processor module may be utilized to effectively reduce the number of communications actually transmitted between the client program and the server program. For example, the processor module may intercept certain client initiated communications intended for the server program, process those communications without server program involvement, and respond to the client program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2012
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Harlan Titus Beverly
  • Patent number: 8200171
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for testing a polar transmitter uses at least one square wave waveform as test stimuli replacing a multitone waveform. Each square wave signal is coupled one at a time to a frequency modulating input of the polar transmitter. The output of the polar transmitter is analyzed by observing the amplitude and frequency of the demodulated components corresponding to each square wave signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul J. Husted
  • Patent number: 8199767
    Abstract: A wireline communications circuit using transceivers compatible with a wireless communications protocol is disclosed using access points and stations in an adaptive Time Division Multiple Access scheme for a multi-channel medium with colocated transceivers. Methods of operating an access point and a station, their implementations as chips and the implementation of a chip for either the access point or station are further disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Purushotham Kamath, James S. Cho, Prem Kumar, Matthew Smith
  • Publication number: 20120139594
    Abstract: An integrated circuit including a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) configured for use with a continuous stream receiver is disclosed. A control voltage line is configured to deliver a control voltage with a capacitive load delivered by a capacitor array to the control voltage based upon an add signal and a subtract signal. A threshold generator generates a high threshold voltage and a low threshold voltage using and including at least one process dependent resistor and at least two temperature and process dependent current sources. The PLL responds during calibration to the control voltage being above the high threshold voltage by asserting the add signal directing the capacitor array to increase the capacitive load on the control voltage line, and to the control voltage being below the low threshold voltage by asserting the subtract signal to decrease the capacitive load.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher R. Leon
  • Patent number: 8187944
    Abstract: Integrated circuits are disclosed including at least one inductor-capacitor component, where each of the inductor-capacitor components includes an inductor and a capacitor constructed between the inductor and a substrate. The inductor includes at least one metal loop over a shield pattern forming a first capacitor terminal over patterned oxide layer with a second capacitor layer between the patterned oxide layer and the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Lalitkumar Nathawad
  • Patent number: 8190962
    Abstract: A system and method for decoding a low-density parity-check (LDPC) codeword. The method includes updating a portion of a plurality of variable nodes and performing a partial parity check based on the updated variable nodes. Based on the result of the partial parity check and an iteration condition, a determination is made as to whether to report a decoding result. The method further includes updating a plurality of check nodes and a parity check may be performed. Based on the parity check, a determination as to whether to report a decoding result is made. The iteration number may then be checked for a match with an iteration condition to determine whether to report a decoding result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Qifan Chen, Sameul Tao-Fei Ng, Ning Zhang
  • Patent number: 8184754
    Abstract: Spurs cause significant problems with signal detecting, amplifier gain adjustment, and signal decoding. Various techniques can be used to mitigate the effects of spurs on a received signal. Generally, these techniques work by either canceling or ignoring the spurs. For example, a pilot mask can be used to ignore pilot information in one or more sub-channels. A Viterbi mask can determine the weighting given to bits in a sub-channel based on spur and data rate information. Channel interpolation can compute a pseudo channel estimate for a sub-channel known to have a spur location can be computed by interpolating the channel estimates of adjacent good sub-channels. Filtering of the received signal using a low-pass filter, a growing box filter, or a low-pass filter with self-correlation can be used to cancel a spur.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Won-Joon Choi, Jeffrey M. Gilbert, Yi-Hsiu Wang, Xiaoru Zhang
  • Patent number: 8184505
    Abstract: A method for determining portions of a GPS satellite signal may use non-coherent integration to determine a repeated pattern such as a preamble. Once the repeated pattern is determined, portions of the GPS satellite signal that may be determined with partial correlation sums. Sensitivity to satellite signals may be increased by computing more partial correlation sums on portions of the GPS satellite signal. In one embodiment, time of day information may be determined from the GPS satellite signal with partial correlation sums.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Yi-Hsiu Wang, Dennis Hilgenberg
  • Publication number: 20120121046
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for transmitting data over a wireless channel. In some embodiments, transmitting data includes receiving convolutionally encoded data and enhancing the transmission of the data by further repetition encoding the data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2012
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Won-Joon Choi, Qinfang Sun, Jeffrey M. Gilbert