Compensating for Receiver Frequency Error in Noise Estimation Processing

A receiver circuit provides improved noise estimation processing by at least partially removing receiver frequency error bias. An initial noise estimate is compensated using an error term based on the observed receiver frequency error, and the resulting compensated noise estimate can be used to improve other signal processing in the receiver. For example, the receiver may use compensated noise estimates to generate signal quality estimates, e.g., Signal-to-Interference (SIR) estimates, having improved accuracy. Additionally, or alternatively, the receiver may use the compensated noise estimates to generate RAKE combining weights having improved noise suppression characteristics. In an exemplary embodiment, the initial noise estimate is a noise correlation matrix generated from a received reference signal, e.g., pilot symbols, and the error term is an error matrix directly generated using the observed receiver frequency error and channel estimates taken from the reference signal.