Full duplex telephone system employing automatic level control for improved digital signal processing of audio signals

1. An audio communications device, comprising:

a microphone to generate an audio signal;

an analog automatic level control (ALC) circuit, coupled to an output of the microphone, to control a level of the audio signal output from the microphone and output a level-controlled audio signal, wherein the ALC circuit comprising:

a voltage amplifier to amplify the audio signal output from the microphone and generate an amplified audio signal; and

an analog control circuit to adjustable control a level of the audio signal input to the voltage amplifier according to a level of the amplified audio signal and increase or decrease the level of the amplified audio signal to a constant level; and

a DSP (digital signal processing) circuit to process the level-controlled audio signal output from the ALC circuit.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the voltage amplifier includes an NPN bipolar junction transistor (Q 2 ) in a common emitter configuration with self bias.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the analog control circuit comprises:

a voltage divider circuit comprising a first fixed resistance (R 1 ) connected between a first and second node (N 1 , N 2 ) of the ALC circuit and a second fixed resistance (R 2 ) connected between the second node (N 2 ) and ground, wherein the first node (N 1 ) is coupled to an input of the ALC circuit and wherein the second node (N 2 ) is coupled to an input of the voltage amplifier;

a shunt active device (Q 1 ) connected in parallel to the second fixed resistance (R 2 ), wherein the shunt active device (Q 1 ) has an impedance at audio frequencies that varies by changing a bias of the shunt active device; and

a bias control circuit that adjustably controls a bias of the shunt active device (Q 1 ) based on a level of the amplified audio signal to change an impedance of the shunt device,

wherein a change of impedance of the shunt device (Q 1 ) increases or decrease an audio signal level at the input to the voltage amplifier at the second node.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the shunt active device is an NPN bipolar junction transistor having a collector connected to the second node, an emitter connected to ground, and a base connected to the bias control circuit.

5. The device of claim 3 , wherein the bias control circuit comprises:

a current amplifier (Q 3 ) having an input coupled to an output of the voltage amplifier;

an RC network comprising a bias resistor (R 9 ) and capacitor (C 8 ) connected in parallel between an output of the current amplifier (Q 1 ) and ground;

wherein the current amplifier (Q 1 ) is controlled by the output of the voltage amplifier to source charging current to the RC network and set a bias for the active shunt device (Q 1 ).

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the current amplifier is a PNP bipolar transistor having a collector connected to the RC network, a base connected to an output of the voltage amplifier and an emitter coupled to a positive terminal of a DC voltage source and a bias resistor connected between the base and the positive terminal of the DC voltage source.

7. A method for processing audio signals in an audio communications device, comprising:

outputting an analog audio signal from a microphone;

level adjusting the analog audio signal;

amplifying the level-adjusted analog audio signal to generate an output audio signal; and

digital signal processing the output audio signal,

wherein an amount of level adjusting applied to an analog audio signal is dynamically controlled based on a level of the output audio signal to maintain the output audio signal at a constant level, and

wherein level adjusting the analog audio signal comprises dividing the analog audio signal according to a ratio based on a fixed resistance and variable resistance, and controlling the variable resistance to change an amount of level adjusting applied to the analog audio signal.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein controlling the variable resistance comprises changing a bias applied to an active device to change an impedance of the active device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein changing a bias applied to the active device comprises controlling an amount of bias in response to a level of the output signal.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein changing a bias applied to the active device comprises charging and discharging a capacitor of an RC network having a time constant that is smaller than a period of a lowest audio frequency of operation.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the active device in an NPN bipolar transistor.