Wideband non-linear circuits for implementation in frequency channel separation

US7902931B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The Government of the United States of America, as represent by the Secretary of the Navy · US

Inventors

• Visarath In · Chula Vista, US
• Patrick Longhini · San Diego, US
• Yong (Andy) Kho · San Diego, US
• Joseph D. Neff · Atlanta, US
• Adi R. Bulsara · San Diego, US
• Frank E. Gordon · San Diego, US
• Norman Liu · San Mateo, US
• Suketu Naik · Kyoto, JP

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 24, 2009
• Grant date: Mar 8, 2011
• Expiry date: Nov 14, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R31/31708
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A device includes a plurality of channel-capture circuits. Each circuit may include an array of N non-linear oscillators, wherein N≧3, circularly connected to each other in series such that unidirectional signal flow occurs between the oscillators. Each circuit may be configured to capture a respective channel signal from a wideband signal containing a plurality of channel signals and convert its captured channel signal to a lower frequency. Each oscillator may include an oscillator input configured to receive an output signal from another oscillator, an oscillator output configured to provide an output for an input of another oscillator, a frequency capture input configured to receive at least a portion of the wideband signal, at least two amplifiers, and a control capacitor coupled to the output of the amplifiers. An analog-to-digital converter may be coupled to the output of each channel-capture circuit.