Patent · US Expired

Digital time base with differential period delay

US4982387A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
4References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateAug 28, 1989
Grant dateJan 1, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 28, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03L7/06
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A digital time base with differential period delay uses the difference in period between a master oscillator and a voltage controlled oscillator phase-locked to the master oscillator to achieve small time delay increments. The oscillators are used to drive respective delay generator trigger channels that have programmable counters and state machines. A first programmable counter is a clock counter to generate a lock signal to initiate a delay sequence, the lock signals from the respective channels being input to a phase detector to generate an error signal to keep the VCO phase-locked with the master oscillator. A second programmable counter is a delay counter that is controlled by a delay state machine to generate a delay signal. The delay signal is input to respective trigger state machines to generate the desired trigger signals, the duration of the trigger signals being a function of a third programmable counter. By programming the proper values for each counter, the amount of delay for each trigger signal may be controlled with respect to the other.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.