Microsemi Corporation

Alpha Industries

Am Sensor, Inc.

Heyward S Williams

Joseph Andrew Viera

An apparatus for assessing at least one property of a target soil responsive to a first a first microwave signal, constituted of: a detector; a probe arranged to be embedded in the target soil; and a coupler arranged to couple a first portion of the first microwave signal to the first end of the probe, and to couple a second portion of the generated first microwave signal as a microwave reference signal to a reference input of the detector; the detector arranged to square each of the microwave signal exiting the probe and the microwave reference signal and to output a phase difference signal indicative of the phase difference between the squared probe output microwave signal and the squared microwave reference signal; and a control circuitry coupled to the output of the detector and arranged to output an irrigation control signal responsive to the phase difference signal.

Apparatus and method for assessing volumetric moisture content and controlling an irrigator

A microwave range detector system for determining the range of a moving object in a monitored area includes: a microwave antenna for focusing microwave energy in the area to be monitored; means for selectively generating microwave signals at a first microwave frequency and at a second microwave frequency for transmission by the antenna; microwave detector means, responsive to the microwave signal at the first microwave frequency and the return signal at the first microwave frequency from a target in the monitored area, for generating a pair of Doppler frequency signals with a fixed-phase relationshp, and responsive to the microwave signals at the first and second microwave frequencies and to the return signals at the first and second microwave frequencies, respectively, from a target in a monitored area, for generating a pair of Doppler frequency signals with a variable-phase relationship; direction decoder means, responsive to the Doppler frequency signals with the fixed-phase relationship, for determining which of the Doppler frequency signals with the fixed-phase relationship is leading and which is lagging to indicate the direction of motion of the object relative to the antenna; range decoder means responsive to the Doppler frequency signals with the variable-phase relationship, for determining the phase difference between the Doppler frequency signals with the variable-phase relationship; and means, responsive to the direction of motion indication from the direction decoder means and the phase difference from said range decoder means, for determining the range of the target from said antenna.

Microwave range detector system

A microwave horn having a narrow radiation beam characteristic is energized by a Gunn oscillator coupled to a driver/detector that turns the Gunn oscillator on for a small fraction of a period to produce a sequence of detected pulses representative of an item being sensed that is amplified by an A.C. amplifier and filtered with gain controlled by a sensitivity potentiometer that energizes a threshold detector to produce threshold pulses that trigger hold-off circuitry to produce an output pulse when the threshold pulse is outside the duration of the output pulse. A hold-off potentiometer controls the duration of each output pulse. An output driver amplifies the output pulse and delivers it to an output terminal.

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Derry, NH, United States of America

Heyward S Williams