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US 6,133,795 AGranted
Oscillator circuit
OwnerRoscoe Charles Williamsinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stabilised voltage controlled oscillator circuit comprises a closed loop circuit containing a voltage controlled oscillator (34), a local oscillator (40) and a harmonic mixer (38) that mixes a stabilised local oscillator (LO) frequency signal and a radio frequency (RF) signal from the voltage controlled oscillator (34) to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) signal. An IF amplifier (42) is connected to a linear frequency discriminator (44) that provides an output signal to a summing amplifier (46), which is connected to the voltage controlled oscillator (34). The closed loop circuit uses the linear frequency discriminator (44) to provide a feedback signal that stabilises the voltage controlled oscillator (34).
Claims31
An oscillator circuit including:
- a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) constructed and arranaed to produce a radio frequency (RF) sianal at an output of the VCO, wherein the frequency of the RF signal corresponds to a voltage applied to an input of the VCO, and
- a closed loop feedback circuit associated with the VCO, the feedback circuit comprising
- a local oscillator (LO) arranged to produce a stabilized LO frequency signal,
- a harmonic mixer having a first input coupled to receive the stabilized LO frequency sianal from the local oscillator and a second input coupled to receive the RF signal from the output of the VCO, the harmonic mixer being arranged to mix the LO frequency signal with the RF signal to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) sianal, and
- a linear frequency discriminator having an input coupled to receive the IF signal from the harmonic mixer, the discriminator being constructed and arranaed to produce an output voltage signal corresponding to a frequency of the IF signal, and a circuit for applying the output voltage signal to the input of the VCO for stabilizing the frequency of the RF signal produced by the VCO;
- wherein said local oscillator includes a dielectric resonator, a Gunn/Impatt diode coupled to the dielectric resonator, and a low-pass filter coupled to the Gunn/Impatt diode for providing the stabilized LO frequency signal and wherein each of said VCO, local oscillator, and harmonic mixer components are microstrip components arranged to cooperate with one another over a desired operating frequency range.
3 more elements
An oscillator circuit including:
- a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) constructed and arranged to produce a radio frequency (RF) signal at an output of the VCO, wherein the frequency of the RF signal corresponds to a voltage applied to an input of the VCO, and
- a closed loop feedback circuit associated with the VCO, the feedback circuit comprising
- a local oscillator (LO) arranged to produce a stabilized LO frequency signal,
- a harmonic mixer having a first input coupled to receive the stabilized LO frequency signal from the local oscillator and a second input coupled to receive the RF signal from the output of the VCO, the harmonic mixer being arranged to mix the LO frequency signal with the RF signal to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, and
- a linear frequency discriminator having an input coupled to receive the IF signal from the harmonic mixer, the discriminator being constructed and arranged to produce an output voltage signal corresponding to a frequency of the IF signal, and a circuit for applying the output voltage signal to the input of the VCO for stabilizing the frequency of the RF signal produced by the VCO;
- wherein said voltage controlled oscillator includes a voltage-controlled Gunn diode, and a two-section transformer connected to said Gunn diode and wherein each of said VCO, local oscillator, and harmonic mixer components are microstrip components arranged to cooperate with one another over a desired operating frequency range.
3 more elements
An oscillator circuit including:
- a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) constructed and arranged to produce a radio frequency (RF) signal at an output of the VCO, wherein the frequency of the RF signal corresponds to a voltage applied to an input of the VCO, and
- a closed loop feedback circuit associated with the VCO, the feedback circuit comprising
- a local oscillator (LO) arranged to produce a stabilized LO frequency signal,
- a harmonic mixer having a first input coupled to receive the stabilized LO frequency signal from the local oscillator and a second input coupled to receive the RF signal from the output of the VCO, the harmonic mixer being arranged to mix the LO frequency signal with the RF signal to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, and
- a linear frequency discriminator having an input coupled to receive the IF signal from the harmonic mixer, the discriminator being constructed and arranged to produce an output voltage signal corresponding to a frequency of the IF signal, and a circuit for applying the output voltage signal to the input of the VCO for stabilizing the frequency of the RF signal produced by the VCO;
- wherein said voltage controlled oscillator includes a voltage-controlled Gunn diode, a varactor coupled to the Gunn diode, and a bypass capacitor coupled to the varactor and wherein each of said VCO, local oscillator, and harmonic mixer are microstrip components arranged to cooperate with one another over a desired operating frequency range.
3 more elements
A stabilized voltage controlled oscillator circuit for operation at millimeter-wave frequencies, said stabilized voltage controlled oscillator circuit comprising:
- a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) constructed and arranged to produce a radio frequency (RF) signal at an output of the VCO, the VCO including a varactor, a Gunn diode arranged to be controlled by said varactor, and an impedance matching device configured to match corresponding operating impedances of the varactor and the Gunn diode, wherein the frequency of the RF signal from the VCO corresponds to a voltage applied to an input of the VCO;
- a local oscillator (LO) that includes a dielectric resonator for producing a stabilized LO frequency signal;
- a harmonic mixer having a first input coupled to receive the stabilized LO frequency signal from the local oscillator and a second input coupled to receive the RF signal to produced by the VCO, the harmonic mixer being arranged to mix the LO frequency signal with the RF signal to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) signal;
- an IF amplifier coupled to receive the IF signal from the harmonic mixer and for producing a corresponding output signal;
- a linear frequency discriminator having an input coupled to receive the output signal from the IF amplifier, the discriminator being constructed and arranged to produce an output voltage signal corresponding to a frequency of the IF signal;
- and
- a summing amplifier having a first input that is connected to receive the output voltage signal from said discriminator, wherein said summing amplifier is configured to produce an output signal which is applied to the input of the VCO;
- wherein said voltage controlled oscillator, local oscillator, harmonic mixer, IF amplifier, linear frequency discriminator and summing amplifier are arranged in a closed loop configuration such that, during operation, said linear frequency discriminator provides a feedback signal for stabilizing the voltage controlled oscillator, and wherein each of said voltage controlled oscillator, local oscillator and harmonic mixer are microstrip components arranged to cooperate with one another over a desired operating frequency range.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.