Quasi-optical balanced biconical mixer
US4461039A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 20, 1982 |
| Grant date | Jul 17, 1984 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 20, 2002 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH03D9/0608
- WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A biconical antenna, the halves of which are connected together at the apex by a pair anti-parallel diodes through a pair of parallel conductive whiskers or wires. A pair of quasi-optical lenses focuses energy from a local oscillator and from a submillimeter radio source, respectively, onto the diode pair in the end-fire and broadside direction, respectively. The diode pair spacing is equal to the half wavelength of the local oscillator energy. The local oscillator energy is common mode rejected and causes the incoming radio energy to be sampled by forward biasing the anti-parallel diode pair in synchronism with each zero crossing of the local oscillator energy. Accordingly, the local oscillator energy and noise virtually do not affect the current flow between the halves of the biconical antenna. The current flow represents an intermediate frequency signal corresponding to the difference in frequency between the incoming radio signal frequency and the local oscillator frequency. Thus, local oscillator energy is mixed with incoming radio energy without permitting local oscillator noise to degrade the resulting mixed signal.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.