Rockwell International Corporation

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Barry T French

Michael J McNutt

Paul E Green

Dirk R Klose

George Szentirmai

An apparatus and method for converting a charge packet into digital bit weights. The apparatus comprises a plurality of serially connected charge-coupled cells for receiving the charge packet at one end, such that the charge packet consecutively fills each CCD in the path. Also, a detector is coupled to another end of the CCD's for advancing charge within the CCD's and detecting whether each CCD is filled. A counter coupled to the detector for counting the number of CCD's which are not filled with charge, wherein the number represents a first form of digital bit weights of the charge packet.

Analog to digital converter for charge coupled signals

A high-speed algorithmic successive approximation analog to digital converter includes a system input terminal, and a tri-state comparator having an input terminal connected to the signal sampler. The comparator produces a first indication of a signal on its input terminal exceeds an upper reference voltage and the comparator produces a second indication if a signal on its input terminal exceeds the lower reference voltage, and does not exceed the upper reference voltage. A subtractor is connected to the system input terminal and to the comparator for subtracting from a received signal a first value corresponding to the upper reference voltage if the comparator produces the first indication, or a second value corresponding to the lower reference voltage if the comparator produces the second indication. The system additionally includes a multiplier having an input terminal connected to the output of the subtractor for doubling the output of the subtractor for further processing by the same or similar comparator assemblies. The comparator preferably includes first and second comparators, each for comparing the signal input with one of the upper and lower reference voltages, and logic connected to the output terminals of the comparators for producing the second indication only if the first indication is not produced.

High-speed modified successive approximation analog to digital converter

Incoming radio frequency signals from one or more remote transmitters, that may be changing or 'hopping' in frequency, are received at two closely spaced antennas. A pair of Chirp-Z transform processors are respectively coupled to said antennas. The transform processors are operated in synchronism and produce a pair of sampled comb filter output responses, each of which comprises a multiple of frequency 'bins' distributed over a given spectrum. The bins are read out of the Chirp-Z processors in a synchronous sequential order, and each bin is represented by a pair of signals in phase quadrature. The phase quadrature signals of corresponding bins are multiplied in a predetermined manner and the products thereof are selectively added and subtracted to provide a predetermined function (tan .PHI.) of the phase difference (.PHI.) between the signals incident on the pair of antennas. This predetermined function is coupled to a processor that calculates a trigonometric function (sin.sup.-1) thereof which is indicative of the angle-of-arrival of the incident wave(s).

Apparatus for the detection of angles-of-arrival of radio frequency

A semiconductor integrated circuit using charged coupled device (CCD) technology for performing demodulation of time-varying signals which have been phase or amplitude modulated. The CCD circuit performs a sampling of the time-varying signal at a suitable sampling frequency depending upon the frequency of the phase or amplitude modulation of the carrier. The CCD device converts the sample into an equivalent charge packet which is used to control the control electrode of a field effect transistor in an amplifier circuit. The magnitude of the sample is representative of the amplitude of the carrier so that the output of the field effect transistor represents a demodulated signal. The circuit is a broad spectrum device, operable with a signal frequency from the audio into the gigaHertz (GHz) frequency range.

CCD Demodulator circuit

A CCD imager for extracting the spectral information from impinging photons and having a multiple photon collection structure through which protons must serially traverse. The carriers generated by the impinging photons are collected by two or more collection regions in each resolution element and the ratio of the relative responses of each of the collection regions can be used to derive spectral information. The CCD imager is fabricated such that both the holes and the electrons generated by the impinging photons are collected, detected, stored, and transferred. Furthermore, the collection of both the holes and the electrons generated by the impinging photons in the CCD imager enables the generation of spectral information without degradation of detector quantum efficiency and can further enable the generation of complete spectral information when used to detect impinging photons comprising mono-energetic optical signals.

CCD Imager with multi-spectral capability

A charge coupled device (CCD) built in a semiconductor island on sapphire substrate has very low gate capacitances and consequently will operate at very high speeds.

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Fullerton, CA, United States of America

Barry T French