Patent · US Expired

Tunable trigger acquisition system and method for making in-service time-domain signal measurements

US5493209A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
5References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 20, 1993
Grant dateFeb 20, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 20, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01R23/16
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A spectrum analyzer (50) has a tunable trigger acquisition system (52) that includes a selectable trigger acquisition bandwidth. Sufficiently wide signal acquisition bandwidth is obtained by tapping into a high-frequency IF amplifier (54) signal and down-converting it to a moderate IF frequency for trigger extraction. A down-conversion local oscillator (62) is phase-lock-loop (64) tunable over a range of the high IF frequencies to allow extracting a time and frequency selectable trigger from the desired carrier signal frequency even if the spectrum analyzer is substantially offset in frequency from the desired carrier. The moderate frequency IF amplifier (66) includes a switchable bandpass filter (68) that provides adequate selectivity to detect triggers from a variety of signal types while rejecting unwanted signals such as adjacent channel CATV carriers that are often detectable when the measurement frequency is offset toward the channel edges.

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