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:
Dec. 16, 2014
Filed:
Jul. 21, 2011
Tom Lee Erb, Austin, TX (US);
Tom Lee Erb, Austin, TX (US);
Thermo Ramsey, Inc., Coon Rapids, MN (US);
Abstract
The present invention includes a guided microwave spectroscopy system () that eliminates the need for an automatic gain control feature by providing multiple signal processing paths having differing fixed voltage gains. An emitted signal which exits a test chamber () containing a material under test is simultaneously amplified by at least a first fixed gain amplifier () and a second fixed gain amplifier (). The output signal of each amplifier is separately digitized and then normalized for further digital signal processing by a computer () in order to determine parameters of the material under test which may have variable microwave radiation characteristics that are a function of the frequency of the signal emitted into the test chamber. During the signal processing step a system clock () causes the computer to sample only an integral number of complete output signal cycles. A calibration protocol (-) is conducted based on laboratory samples of each potential material to be processed by the system ().