Back to results
US 7,171,181 B2Granted
Method for achieving immediate and accurate automatic frequency tuning
AssigneeSchick Technologies, Inc.
InventorsDavid B. Schick, Stan Mandelkern, Iouri Kazarov, Leonid Khatutskiy, Valeriy Armencha
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic frequency tuning (AFT) system which can effect immediate and accurate automatic frequency tuning of the local oscillator (LO) of a receiver, in order to achieve a stable intermediate frequency (IF) signal while reducing the power consumption and the cost of the system. In the automatic frequency tuning (AFT) system, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) converts the intermediate frequency (IF) to a digital value which is sent to a microcontroller. A signal sent from the microcontroller accurately and automatically tunes the local oscillator (LO).
Claims24
A receiver, comprising:
- a mixing circuit adapted to mix an input signal with an internal signal in order to produce an intermediate frequency signal which undergoes signal processing;
- a local oscillator adapted to generate the internal signal;
- a frequency detector adapted to translate the intermediate frequency signal directly to a voltage;
- an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert the voltage to a digital signal;
- and
- a microcontroller adapted to determine the internal signal required based on the digital signal, and to send a control signal to the local oscillator which tunes the local oscillator directly to the determined internal signal in a one-step adjustment without iteration in order to obtain the intermediate frequency signal required.
3 more elements
A method of tuning a local oscillator of a receiver, comprising the steps of:
- receiving and amplifying an input signal;
- mixing the input signal with an internal signal generated by a local oscillator in order to produce an intermediate frequency signal;
- translating the intermediate frequency signal directly to a voltage;
- converting the voltage to a digital signal;
- determining the internal signal required based on the digital signal;
- and
- sending a control signal to the local oscillator which tunes the local oscillator directly to the determined internal signal in a one-step adjustment without iteration in order to obtain the intermediate frequency signal required.
4 more elements
A receiver, comprising:
- a radio frequency amplifier, adapted to amplify an input signal;
- a local oscillator adapted to generate an internal signal;
- a mixing circuit adapted to mix the input signal with the internal signal to generate an intermediate frequency signal;
- an intermediate frequency filter adapted to filter the intermediate frequency signal;
- an intermediate frequency amplifier adapted to amplify the filtered intermediate frequency signal;
- a frequency detector adapted to translate the amplified intermediate frequency signal directly to a voltage;
- an integration circuit adapted to process the voltage output by the frequency detector;
- an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert the voltage output by the integration circuit to a digital signal;
- and
- a microcontroller adapted to determine the internal signal required based on the digital signal, and to send a control signal to the local oscillator to tune the local oscillator directly to the determined internal signal in a one-step adjustment without iteration in order to obtain the intermediate frequency signal required.
7 more elements
A receiver, comprising:
- means for mixing an input signal with an internal signal in order to produce an intermediate frequency signal;
- means for generating the internal signal;
- means for translating the intermediate frequency signal directly to a voltage;
- means for converting the voltage to a digital signal;
- and
- means for determining the internal signal required based on the digital signal and sending a control signal to the means for generating the internal signal for tuning directly to the determined internal signal in a one-step adjustment without iteration in order to obtain the intermediate frequency signal required.
3 more elements
A receiver, comprising:
- a local oscillator adapted to generate an internal signal;
- a mixing circuit adapted to mix an input signal with the internal signal in order to produce an intermediate frequency signal;
- a frequency detector adapted to translate the intermediate frequency signal directly to a voltage;
- an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert the voltage to a digital signal;
- and
- a microcontroller adapted to determine the internal signal required based on a comparison of the digital signal with a required intermediate frequency signal, and to send a control signal to the local oscillator which tunes the local oscillator directly to the determined internal signal in a one-step adjustment without iteration in order to obtain the required intermediate frequency signal.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.