Patent ID: 6947470

Claim:
A digital N-finger rake receiver for a code-division multiple access (CDMA) system comprising: input means for receiving a digital scrambled and spread signal containing chips having a duration Tc, oversampled with an oversampling factor Ns, and including delayed versions of at least one initial signal scrambled with at least one scrambling code, spread with at least one orthogonal code and transmitted by at least one emitter on a multipath transmission channel having a predetermined maximum delay spread Ds; estimation means connected to said input means for estimating a number of paths of the multipath transmission channel and respective time delay values associated therewith; and processing means for time aligning and descrambling, despreading, and combining the delayed versions of the at least one initial signal for delivering a data stream contained therein, said processing means comprising a time aligning and descrambling unit comprising a first delay chain connected to said input means and having N 1 first outputs with a delay value between two adjacent first outputs equal to Tc/Ns, and with N 1 equal to at least Ns+1, at least one phase controllable scrambling code generator for generating at least one phase scrambling code of the at least one initial signal, at least one second delay chain connected to an output of said at least one phase controllable scrambling code generator, and having 1+Ds/Tc second outputs with a delay value between two adjacent second outputs equal to Tc, first controllable selection means for selecting, for each path, one of the first outputs based upon a first control signal, second controllable selection means for selecting, for each path, one of the second outputs based upon a second control signal, and multiplication means for multiplying, for each path, a first signal at a selected first output with a second signal at a selected second output, and control means for delivering the first and second control signals for each path based upon the respective time delay value of the path being considered.