Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080246551 | INTERLEAVED NON-LINEAR TRANSMISSION LINES FOR SIMULTANEOUS RISE AND FALL TIME COMPRESSION - A non-linear waveguide comprises a transmission line including a first conductive line and a second conductive line; a first bias voltage supply connected with the transmission line; and one or more pairs of diodes connected between the first conductive line and the second conductive line, the one or more pairs of diodes including: a first diode having an anode connected with the first conductive line and a cathode connected with the second conductive line; a second diode having a cathode connected with the first conductive line and an anode connected with the second conductive line; and a second bias voltage supply connected between the anode of the second diode and the second conductive line. | 10-09-2008 |
20080252298 | BROADBAND MICRO-MACHINED THERMAL POWER SENSOR - A power sensor comprises a substrate, an insulating membrane associated with the substrate, and an electro-thermal transducer partially supported by the insulating membrane. The electro-thermal transducer includes an impedance matched load spaced from the substrate by the insulating membrane, and a thermopile partially spaced from the substrate by the insulating membrane and partially arranged on the substrate, the thermopile being adapted to generate, a voltage in response to heat generated in the impedance matched load. An electrically conductive member connected with the impedance matched load to guide electromagnetic signals to the electro-thermal transducer. | 10-16-2008 |
20090098847 | APPARATUS FOR EXTENDING THE BANDWIDTH OF A SPECTRUM ANALYZER - A spectrum analyzer is provided with frequency-scalable circuit architectures that extend the bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer using an array of couplers. The array of couplers is distributed along the RF signal path at one end, and interfaced to one or more frequency-translation devices such as mixers or samplers at the other. In a first architecture, a single mixer is employed with an LO signal applied to one input and coupler outputs providing RF signals to another input, with switching controlled to select one coupler's RF output to provide to the mixer. In a second architecture, a separate mixer is used, one for each coupler RF signal, with switches selecting one of the mixer IF outputs to select a desired output frequency. Both the first and second embodiments eliminate switching and its associated loss and frequency limitations from the main RF signal path to enable wideband high-dynamic-range spectrum analysis. | 04-16-2009 |
20090199141 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROTOTYPING AND TESTING ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS IN NEAR REAL-TIME - A system for fabricating, testing, and modifying a prototype of an electrical circuit comprises a materials printer including a holder for positioning a substrate. The materials printer is adapted to receive information describing the prototype and is further adapted to fabricate the prototype on the substrate based on the information. An electrical measuring instrument associated with the holder is adapted to be placed in electrical communication with the prototype when the prototype is received by the holder. A display device receives a plurality of measurements of the prototype from the electrical measuring instrument. | 08-06-2009 |
20090296829 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO EXTEND A USEABLE BANDWIDTH OF A SIGNAL GENERATOR - A system to extend an operating bandwidth of a signal generator comprises a signal generator, an output port, a first transmission line extending between the signal generator and the output port, a mixer adapted to receive a first signal from the signal generator, a local oscillator adapted to provide a second signal to the mixer to beat against the first signal, a second transmission line extending from the mixer to transmit a plurality of output signals of the mixer, and one or more channels couplable between the first transmission line and the second transmission line. The one or more channels include a first coupler having a length adapted to couple one or more of the output signals within a band of frequencies from the second transmission line to the channel, a second coupler having a length adapted to couple the one or more of the output signals from the channel to the first transmission line, and a filter arranged between the first coupler and the second coupler. | 12-03-2009 |
20100330944 | APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING THE DYNAMIC RANGE OF SHOCKLINE-BASED SAMPLING RECEIVERS - Shockline-based samplers of a vector-network analyzer (VNA) have enhanced dynamic range by using a dynamic bias network applied to the non-linear transmission lines (NLTLs) or shocklines. The bias voltage applied to the NLTL provides direct control over the falling-edge shockline compression, and thus the insertion loss and overall RF bandwidth of the sampler. Alternating between a forward bias voltage to turn off a shockline sampler when it is not needed and thereby reducing spurious generation and improving isolation can be alternatively applied with a reverse bias voltage to turn on the shockline sampler in a normal operation mode. By measuring the shockline output and providing feedback in the reverse-bias mode, the bias voltage can be dynamically adjusted to significantly increase the performance of the NLTL based sampler. In the presence of a strong positive bias voltage, the incoming LO and its harmonics experience large ohmic losses thus preventing gating pulses from forming in the shockline. The ohmic losses enable strong isolation between the LO sampling channels and will increase spectral purity at the VNA test ports. | 12-30-2010 |