Patent ID: 8599905

Claim:
A path searcher for use in of a spread spectrum receiver, comprising: a correlator to correlate a received signal in different time positions with a reference code to select for further processing time positions of the signals showing the strongest correlations, wherein the correlator is operable to obtain m correlation energy results, one for each time position in a set of m possible time positions; a comparator to compare the m correlation energy results with each of a plurality of energy thresholds to separate the m correlation energy results which are not less than the respective energy thresholds into groups; a selector to select for further processing a sub-set of up to n signals defined by the m correlation energy results, including a recorder to record data to indicate time positions for the separated correlation energy results in the groups, to indicate a first group that has an energy ordering according to the highest of the thresholds, to indicate a second group that has results that are not less than at least two of the thresholds, and to indicate a third group, that has results which are not less than at least one of the thresholds; and a reader to read results recorded in each of the first, second and third groups in turn in the energy ordering of the groups beginning with the group of highest energy until a predetermined number of results have been obtained or, if there are less than the predetermined number of results recorded in the groups, until all results in the groups have been obtained.