Digital storage system for high frequency signals
AssigneeWhittaker Corporation
InventorsJoseph L. Dautremont, Jr., William J. Schneider
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and a method are provided for storing high frequency signals, for example microwave signals, for later reproduction with any desired degree of fidelity. The system and method involve determining a measure of the phase difference between an incoming high frequency signal and a converting signal. The measure of the phase difference consists of a plurality of signals which may change rapidly. The phase difference signals are converted to digital frequencies and may be stored or transmitted in that form. Later, the digital signals may be converted to analog signals (if necessary) and used to control the phase of a signal having the frequency of the converting signal. This process reconstructs the incoming high frequency signal.
Claims33
A storage and reconstruction system for high frequency signals, including:
- a plurality of signal combining means adapted for the coupling thereto of high frequency signals to be stored;
- means coupled to said combining means for supplying thereto a first plurality of reference signals having identical frequencies but different phases with respect to each other;
- means coupled to said combining means for converting certain of the output signals therefrom to digital signals;
- storage means for storing the digital signals from said converting means;
- and
- reconstruction means coupled to said storage means for reproducing said high frequency signals.
A storage and reconstruction system for high frequency signals, comprising:
- means for determining the phase difference of a signal to be stored relative to a reference signal;
- means for converting the phase difference determination to digital signals;
- means for processing said digital signals;
- means for converting said digital signals to analog phase difference signals;
- and
- means for combining the analog signals with a reference signal to produce a replica of the original high frequency signal.
The method of storing high frequency signals for an indefinite period which includes the steps of:
- combining the high frequency signals with a plurality of reference signals having a common frequency positioned centrally within the spectrum of the signals to be stored but having differing phases with respect to each other to develop corresponding difference frequency signals;
- digitizing the difference frequency signals resulting from said combining step;
- storing the digitized difference frequency signals;
- and
- reconstructing the high frequency signals from the digitally stored difference frequency signals.
The method of processing high frequency signals which includes the steps of:
- determining the phase differences of the high frequency signals relative to a reference frequency;
- digitizing the phase differences;
- processing the resulting digital signals;
- converting the processed signals to analog signals;
- and
- reconstructing the high frequency signals by combining the analog signals with reference signals of a single frequency but different phases.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.