Rockwell International Corporation

Michael J McNutt

Barry T French

Shi-Kay Yao

Cecil L Hayes

Richard A Gudmundsen

Jack E Soohoo

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 charge coupled digital-to-analog converter in which the digital input lines are connected to respective storage wells which store a predetermined amount of charge corresponding to the significance of the input line. A transfer gate is also provided for substantially simultaneously transferring and combining the charge packets to an analog output.

Charge coupled digital-to-analog converter

A digital-to-analog optical recorder incorporating both CCD and integrated optics technologies which is fabricated as a single integral unit including an electro-optical layer portion and a semiconductor layer portion. Sampling circuits and digital-to-analog converters are implemented on the semiconductor layer portion using CCD technology, and a plurality of optical channel waveguides and electro-optical modulators are implemented on the electro-optical layer portion. Each digital signal is converted into two complementary light spots at the output of the recorder.

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Yorba Linda, CA, United States of America

Michael J McNutt