National Instruments Corporation

Justin R Magers

Marcus Kieling daSilva

Michael Joseph Seibel

A reflectometer may include two directional couplers configured in parallel by being disposed across from each other on opposite sides of a shared section of a signal line. One of the couplers may couple, to a first port of the reflectometer, a portion of the signal power of a first signal flowing from the first end of the shared through-line to the second end of the shared through-line, and the other coupler may couple, to a second port of the reflectometer, a portion of the signal power of a second signal flowing from the second end of the shared through-line to the first end of the shared through-line. The reflectometer benefits from reduced size and signal loss relative to a serial coupler configuration. When used in vector network analyzer (VNA) systems, this results in higher output power and higher dynamic range of the VNA.

Dual directional asymmetric coupler with a shared through-line

A reflectometer may include two directional couplers in a parallel configuration, sharing the same section of a signal line or through-line. For example, two directional couplers may be disposed across from each other on opposite sides of the shared through-line. One of the directional couplers may couple, to a first port of the reflectometer, a portion of the signal power of a first signal flowing from the first end of the shared through-line to the second end of the shared through-line, and the other directional coupler may couple, to a second port of the reflectometer, a portion of the signal power of a second signal flowing from the second end of the shared through-line to the first end of the shared through-line. The reflectometer benefits from reduced size and signal loss with respect to reflectometers having a serial configuration. When used in vector network analyzer (VNA) systems, this results in higher output power and higher dynamic range of the VNA.

An improved quadrature modulator/demodulator (IQMD) may use two-phase quadrature local oscillator (LO) signal generation for generating 0&#xb0; and 90&#xb0; LO signals, and an anti-phase combiner/divider (at 0&#xb0; and 180&#xb0;) on the RF (radio frequency) port. The IQMD may include mixers (which may be double-balanced passive mixers) that function as downconverters when a signal is incident at their radio frequency (RF) ports, and function as upconverters when signals are incident on their intermediate frequency (IF) ports. Accordingly, the IQMD may function as an I/Q modulator by connecting digital-to-analog converters (DAC) to the differential I and Q ports, and/or it may also function as an I/Q demodulator by connecting analog-to-digital converters (ADC) to the differential I and Q ports.

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Justin R Magers