Injection locking and tuning circuit for microwave diode oscillator
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorHsiu Y. Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A four-diode bridge is positioned within the cavity of a Gunn diode oscillator. A subharmonic signal is applied to the diode bridge and the diode bridge couples an odd harmonic of the injected signal into the cavity. The cavity is thus caused to resonate at the odd harmonic of the injected signal. The injected signal can be changed using a frequency synthesizer in order to provide a microwave oscillator with multiple-channel operation. The diode bridge provides a feedback signal indicative of the phase of cavity oscillation. The feedback signal is applied to a varactor which pretunes the Gunn diode oscillator and thereby provides phase-locked control.
Claims20
A microwave oscillator comprising:
- a cavity;
- an oscillator diode coupled to said cavity for producing microwave oscillations in said cavity;
- a four-diode bridge positioned in said cavity for injecting signals into said cavity;
- and
- a means for applying a predetermined injection signal to said diode bridge for injection into said cavity, said injection signal cooperating with said oscillations in said cavity to control the frequency of said oscillations.
A microwave oscillator comprising:
- a cavity;
- a Gunn diode electromagnetically coupled to said cavity for producing microwave oscillations in said cavity at an oscillation frequency;
- a four-diode bridge positioned in said cavity and electromagnetically coupled to said cavity for injecting signals into said cavity;
- a means for generating a predetermined injection signal containing a plurality of subharmonics of said oscillation frequency;
- said diode bridge being coupled to said generating means for receiving said subharmonics and being cooperative with said cavity to inject one of said subharmonics into said cavity;
- said diode bridge providing a feedback signal indicative of the phase of said oscillations;
- and
- means coupled between said diode bridge and said Gunn diode for pretuning the oscillation produced by said Gunn diode;
- wherein said injection signal is cooperative with said oscillations in said cavity to control said oscillation frequency and said feedback signal is cooperative with said oscillations to control the phase of said oscillations.
A method of operating a microwave oscillator comprising:
- providing an oscillator cavity;
- coupling an oscillator diode to said cavity so that microwave oscillations are produced in said cavity;
- positioning a four diode bridge in said cavity;
- applying a predetermined injection signal to said diode bridge, so that the injection signal is injected into the cavity;
- and
- controlling the frequency of said oscillations with said injection signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.