Patents by Inventor Robert Van Wechel

Robert Van Wechel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20080025446
    Abstract: A system for efficiently filtering interfering signals in a front end of a GPS receiver is disclosed. Such interfering signals can emanate from friendly, as well as unfriendly, sources. One embodiment includes a GPS receiver with a space-time adaptive processing (STAP) filter. At least a portion of the interfering signals are removed by applying weights to the inputs. One embodiment adaptively calculates and applies the weights by Fourier Transform convolution and Fourier Transform correlation. The Fourier Transform can be computed via a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This approach advantageously reduces computational complexity to practical levels. Another embodiment utilizes redundancy in the covariance matrix to further reduce computational complexity. In another embodiment, an improved FFT and an improved Inverse FFT further reduce computational complexity and improve speed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2007
    Publication date: January 31, 2008
    Applicant: L-3 Communications Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Van Wechel, Ivan Johnston
  • Publication number: 20080018533
    Abstract: A system for efficiently filtering interfering signals in a front end of a GPS receiver is disclosed. Such interfering signals can emanate from friendly, as well as unfriendly, sources. One embodiment includes a GPS receiver with a space-time adaptive processing (STAP) filter. At least a portion of the interfering signals are removed by applying weights to the inputs. One embodiment adaptively calculates and applies the weights by Fourier Transform convolution and Fourier Transform correlation. The Fourier Transform can be computed via a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This approach advantageously reduces computational complexity to practical levels. Another embodiment utilizes redundancy in the covariance matrix to further reduce computational complexity. In another embodiment, an improved FFT and an improved Inverse FFT further reduce computational complexity and improve speed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2007
    Publication date: January 24, 2008
    Applicant: L-3 Communications Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Van Wechel, Ivan Johnston
  • Publication number: 20070210958
    Abstract: An apparatus and method allow receivers to quickly acquire a pseudorandom noise signal. A receiver advantageously detects frequency shifts using a compact parallel process hardware implementation of a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The simultaneous detection of multiple frequencies allows the receiver to search the frequency range of the transmitted signal in larger increments of frequency, thereby increasing the speed of acquisition. One receiver does not use coherent integration before computation of the transform and advantageously maintains a flat frequency response. The flat frequency response of the DFT circuit enables searching of multiple frequency offsets without CPU intensive processing to compensate for frequency response variations. A receiver can include a Doppler correction circuit, which permits correlation data with frequency shift in the code to be non-coherently integrated among relatively fewer addresses or tap positions in memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Publication date: September 13, 2007
    Applicant: INTERSTATE ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert Van Wechel, Michael McKenney