The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 12, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1996
John F Kennedy, Dearborn, MI (US);
Andrew Adrian, Dexter, MI (US);
Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
A method for detecting an electrical connection between an antenna system and a receiver for a motor vehicle, the receiver having an automatic gain control with a variable impedance and a PIN diode connected therebetween, includes the steps of increasing the variable impedance of the automatic gain control, measuring signal strength of a signal received from the antenna system, decreasing the variable impedance of the automatic gain control, measuring the signal strength of the signal receiving from the antenna system, correlating the signal strength to the variable impedance to generate a correlation, and determining whether the antenna system is electrically connected to the receiver based on the correlation of the signal strength to the variable impedance.