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:
Jun. 20, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 14, 1998
Robert R Romanofsky, Hinckley, OH (US);
Felix A Miranda, Olmsted Falls, OH (US);
Abstract
A tunable local oscillator (10) with a tunable circuit (12) that includes a resonator (16) and a transistor (14) as an active element for oscillation. Tuning of the circuit (12) is achieved with an externally applied dc bias (22, 24) across coupled lines (20) on the resonator (16). Preferably, the resonator (16) is a high temperature superconductor microstrip ring resonator with integral coupled lines (20) formed over a thin film ferroelectric material. A directional coupler (38) samples the output of the oscillator (14) which is fed into a diplexer (40) for determining whether the oscillator (14) is performing at a desired frequency. The high-pass and low-pass outputs (42, 44) of the diplexer (40) are connected to diodes (48, 46) respectively for inputting the sampled signals into a differential operational amplifier (50). Amplifier (50) compares the sampled signals and emits an output signal if there is a difference between the resonant and crossover frequencies. Based on the sampled signal, a bias supplied to the ring resonator is either increased or decreased for raising or lowering the resonant frequency by decreasing or increasing, respectively, the dielectric constant of the ferroelectric.