DS-SS receiver with extended ontime reference characteristic

In direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) communications systems the received baseband signal is demodulated with a locally generated ontime reference pseudo-noise (PN) code signal. Timing variations of the ontime reference signal have a strong effect on the signal energy at the detector input and thus on the bit error rate (BER). The ontime reference characteristic determines the effect of the timing variation on the detected signal energy. The classical DS-SS receiver uses one correlator for the ontime signal generation. Using two or more correlators to extend the ontime reference characteristic can increase the detected signal energy and improves the BER, depending on the timing variations