Patent ID: 8102905

Claim:
A communications receiver, comprising a pulse detection unit configured to detect pulses in a received signal, the pulse detection unit comprising: a plurality of comparators; a signal processor; a sampling time generator configured to generate timing signals indicative of a plurality of sampling time points within a received pulse; and a reference level generator configured to generate a plurality of reference levels, wherein each of the comparators is programmable with a sampling time point selected from said plurality of sampling time points and with a reference level selected from said plurality of reference levels, and wherein the received signal is applied to each of the comparators such that each of the comparators is configured to produce a respective output signal based on a comparison between the received signal level and the selected reference level at the selected sampling time point, wherein the signal processor is configured to detect pulses in the received signal based on the output signals from the comparators and adapted to program the comparators with respective selected sampling time points and reference levels, in order to detect said pulses; and wherein each of the sampling time points and reference levels are individually selected according to an expected shape, amplitude, or arrival time of said pulses.