Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Sadahiko Yamashita

Mitsuo Makimoto

Makoto Hasegawa

Morikazu Sagawa

Mitsuo Saito

Motoi Ohba

Hiroshi Onishi

Haruyoshi Endo

Hiroshi Ohnishi

Ko Kikuchi

Yukichi Aihara

Yoshikazu Mori

Tsutomu Shishido

Isao Ishigaki

Yoshihiko Takayama

Koh Kikuchi

Yoshiharu Yano

Yoshio Katayama

Yasumasa Watanabe

Koei Misaizu

Mistuo Makimoto

Junichi Yamamoto

Disclosed is a double converter tuner having an input circuit for performing first band control with respect to an input signal, amplifying a band-controlled input signal after automatic gain control is performed, and further performing second band control of a gain-controlled signal, a first IF (intermediate frequency) converter for converting an output generated from the input circuit to a first IF signal having a higher bandwidth than the reception bandwidth of the input signal, a first IF circuit for amplifying an output from the first IF converter, performing third band control and performing a further amplification, a second IF converter for converting an output generated from the first IF circuit to a second IF signal, and a second IF circuit for amplifying an output from the second IF converter, performing fourth band control, and performing another amplification. The first and second IF converters are arranged on different circuit boards to prevent frequency interference therebetween.

Double converter tuner

A microwave frequency synthesizer comprised of a phase-locked loop having a low noise and highly stabilized reference voltage-controlled oscillator and further two phase-locked loops each having a stabilized voltage controlled oscillator, the signal outputs from which are frequency-converted with as small multiplication factors as possible. This frequency synthesizer can minimize the phase noise that may be generated by frequency dividers in a digital system.

Frequency synthesizer

A wide band analog frequency divider circuit operable at a high frequency in the GHz band, and a frequency synthesizer utilizing the analog frequency divider circuit. The analog frequency divider circuit comprises an LC series circuit having a capacitor and an inductor connected between the anode and the cathode of a diode, and means for applying a forward bias to the diode. The input signal is supplied from the anode side of the diode, and the output is delivered from the cathode side, or the anode side of the cathode is grounded. The frequency synthesizer is arranged to frequency divide the output of a VCO by the analog frequency divider circuit, and to supply the frequency-divided output to a prescaler. The output of the prescaler is further frequency divided by a programmable divider, and the phase difference between the output of the programmable divider and a reference signal is detected thereby to control the oscillation frequency of the VCO.

Frequency divider circuit and frequency synthesizer using the same

A compact or miniaturized well-shielded double superheterodyne tuner is provided, wherein an input circuit portion, a first mixing portion, a first intermediate frequency bandpass filter, a second mixing portion and an output circuit portion are mounted in separated casings. The first mixing portion and the second mixing portion are provided on printed boards and each mounted on a bottom plate of the casing. The casings containing the first and second mixing portion are arranged in a manner such that grounded surfaces of the printed boards contained in the casings are arranged face to face. The casing containing the bandpass filter is contacted adjacently to a common face of the face to face casings. Each of the casings containing the input and output circuit portions is located adjacently to each of faces common to the face to face casings and the filter containing casing. Some structual improvements are also provided for simplifying the manufacture and adjustment of the tuner.

Double superheterodyne tuner

In a VHF-UHF mixer having a balun formed by conductor patterns placed on a dielectric substrate, a choke coil is interposed between an input junction of the mixer and ground, and the input junction may be divided into two connecting portions which are respectively connected to mixing diodes and a diplexer, where a line having an inductance is interposed between the two connecting portions. The choke coil may be a conductor pattern which is interposed between one of the two connecting portions and ground. The balun comprises parallel coupling lines including first and second coupling lines which may be formed on different sides of a dielectric substrate. The substrate for the balun may be a different one from the substrate of the mixer body.

VHF-UHF mixer having a balun

A wide band analog frequency divider circuit operable at a high frequency in the GHz band. The analog frequency divider circuit comprises an LC series circuit having a capacitor and an inductor connected between the anode and the cathode of a diode, and means for applying a forward bias to the diode. The input signal is supplied from the anode side of the diode, and the output is delivered from the cathode side, or the anode side if the cathode is grounded.

Frequency divider circuits

A coaxial dielectric resonator for VHF and/or UHF band comprising a generally cylindrical dielectric having inner surface and outer surface. The inner and outer surfaces of the dielectric are respectively covered by outer and inner conductors and these conductors are connected at one end of the dielectric. An adjusting screw for adjusting resonance frequency is provided at the other end of the dielectric which is covered by a lid while holding a gap between the adjusting screw and the lid. A microwave filter using a plurality of the coaxial dielectric resonator is further described.

Frequency-adjustable coaxial dielectric resonator and filter using the

In a GaAs FET microwave mixer, a gate of the FET is used to receive a radio frequency input signal, while a source of the same is used to inject a local oscillator signal therethrough so as to develop an intermediate frequency signal at a drain of the FET. The mixer of the invention comprises, in addition to such an FET, first and second particular circuits respectively connected to the source, where the first circuit is arranged to exhibit a short-circuited impedance at a frequency band of the radio frequency input signal, and the second circuit is arranged to exhibit an open-circuited impedance at a frequency band of the local oscillator signal. The first and second circuits may be actualized by distributed constant circuits, such as stubs, or by lumped constant circuits, such as resonance circuits.

Microwave FET mixer arranged to receive RF input at gate electrode

A low noise oscillator is disclosed wherein the collector and base of a transistor are respectively biased at different voltages from a common voltage source to be conditioned for generating a high frequency oscillation with a resonant circuit connected to the emitter and collector. The high frequency oscillation developed at the base of the transistor is coupled to ground. A capacitive circuit is coupled between the collector and base of the transistor to eliminate the effect of a voltage-dependent capacitance inherently present in the transistor between its collector and base on the frequency of the oscillation in order to reduce the level of noise introduced to sidebands.

Transistor oscillator with compensating circuit for variable

A strip-line resonator comprises a first dielectric substrate having a conductive film on one surface thereof for connection to ground and a strip line on the other surface thereof and a second dielectric substrate having one surface thereof making contact with the strip line and a conductive film on the other surface thereof for connection to ground. Fused glass having a low melting point for is applied between the first and second substrates to bond them together. A portion of open-circuit end of the strip line is exposed and formed with slits or gap to facilitate frequency adjustment.

Strip-line resonator

In a double superheterodyne tuner, the first local oscillator frequency is set to a value higher than the first intermediate frequency, which is set to a value between three and five times the upper limit of the receiving frequency range. With this arrangement spurious signals of at least third or less order can be prevented from occuring in the first intermediate frequency range. The tuner comprises an input filter which attenuates interference signals whose harmonics equal a desired frequency. The second intermediate frequency may be selected such that it is obtained by subtracting the second local oscillator frequency from the first intermediate frequency which is higher than the second local oscillator frequency. As a bandpass filter for passing the first intermediate frequency may be used a coaxial dielectric filter so as to reduce interferences by undesired channel signals.

In a voltage-controlled oscillator having an LC resonant circuit including a varactor circuit so that resonant frequency is controlled by a D.C. bias or control voltage applied to the varactor circuit, three or more varactors are connected in series in one embodiment so that a high-frequency voltage applied to the varactor circuit is divided into a plurality. The varactors may be connected in the same direction or opposite direction. In another embodiment, a plurality of series circuits of varactors are connected in parallel to provide the varactor circuit, where each series circuit comprises two or more varactors. A series-parallel connection of a plurality of varactors may be arranged in a matrix. In order to reduce undesirable stray capacitance, some or all varactors are attached to a printed circuit board so that they are normal to the plane of the printed circuit board. In one embodiment an auxiliary printed circuit board is employed so that some varactors are spaced from a main circuit board. The voltage-controlled oscillator of the invention shows high carrier-to-noise ratio throughout a wide frequency range.

Voltage-controlled oscillator having three or more varactor diodes

A coaxial dielectric resonator for VHF-UHF band comprises a generally cylindrical dielectric body having a thick portion, a thin portion and a stepped portion interposed between the thick and thin portion. The outer and inner surfaces of the dielectric body are respectively covered by outer and inner conductors. Thus the resonator can be regarded as a series circuit of two lines having different impedance from each other. The axial length of the thick and thin portions may be changed so as to change electrical characteristics. With the provision of thick and thin dielectric portions, the spurious resonance frequencies may be set to values other than integral multiples of the fundamental resonance frequency. The stepped portion may be rounded or replaced with a tapered portion so that impedance gradually changes at the stepped or tapered portion from the thick portion to the thin portion or vice versa.

Coaxial dielectric resonator having different impedance portions and

A band-stop filter for VHF-UHF band comprises at least three series resonance circuits and at least two transmission lines each connected between the series resonance circuits. One of the transmission lines, which is connected to the input terminal of the band-stop filter, has an electrical length which is shorter or longer than the quarter wavelength of the center frequency of the stop band by more than 20 but less than 50 percent. When a band-stop filter comprises four transmission lines, one of the transmission lines, which is connected to the output terminal of the band-stop filter, has the same length as the transmission line connected to the input terminal. With this arrangement, the band-stop filter exhibits a sharp attenuation characteristic in a frequency range below or above the center frequency. Other transmission lines, which are not directly connected to either the input terminal or the output terminal, may have a length which is shorter or longer than the quarter wavelength by 5 to 20 percent so as to provide a sharper attenuation characteristic.

Band-stop filter for VHF-UHF band

In a coaxial filter arrangement having a plurality of coaxial resonators each having a bottomed metallic cylinder interposed between a dielectric plate and one end of a center conductor of each resonator, the peripheral wall portion of the metallic cylinder is received in the bore of an outer conductor having an open end and a closed end connected to the other end of the center conductor. In one embodiment, the bottom of the metallic cylinder has a convex portion at its center so that the bottom center projects outwardly. In another embodiment, an annular metallic member is interposed between the dielectric plate and the outer surface of the flat bottom of the metallic cylinder. Since the distance between bottoms of metallic cylinders of adjacent resonators is made large with this arrangement, influence due to leakage flux of electromagnetic field is small, while stray capacitance is negligibly small, thereby providing a filter having high performance and low loss.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Sadahiko Yamashita