The invention is directed to a method for
signal processing in a
rake receiver for
spread spectrum signals and is directed to a
rake receiver for
spread spectrum signals including a plurality of rake fingers (9, 10, 11) each rake finger being adapted to receive a
signal (7, 8) being part of a multipath
signal (2) and associated with a path of the multipath, the signal (7, 8) having a
delay (τ) relative to an other signal associated with an other path of the multipath (7, 8), the
receiver comprises a summation unit (37) for generating an output signal from the signals received from of at least some of the rake fingers (9, 10, 11), the output signal being a summation signal having and improved
signal to noise ratio (SNR) if compared with the
signal to noise ratio (SNR) of at least, one of the rake fingers (9, 10, 11), a
timing error detector (12) for detecting a
delay (τ) between signals of at least two rake fingers (9, 10, 11) and for generating a
timing error signal which is sent to a unit (6) for compensating the error of the respective
delay (τ); to provide a code-tracking unit for a direct-sequence
code division multiple access (DS-CDMA)
receiver having an improved tracking performance, especially in cases where delay times of multipath signals are in the order of the
chip duration the
timing error detector (12) generates a timing
error signal (x, 13) based on the signals (7, 8) associated with paths of the multipath of more than one rake finger (9, 10, 11).