Heterodyne receiver using resonant structures
AssigneeVirgin Islands Microsystems, Inc.
InventorsJonathan Gorrell, Mark Davidson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic receiver for decoding data encoded into electromagnetic radiation (e.g., light) is described. The light is received at an ultra-small resonant structure. The resonant structure generates an electric field in response to the incident light and light received from a local oscillator. An electron beam passing near the resonant structure is altered on at least one characteristic as a result of the electric field. Data is encoded into the light by a characteristic that is seen in the electric field during resonance and therefore in the electron beam as it passes the electric field. Alterations in the electron beam are thus correlated to data values encoded into the light.
Claims21
A receiver to demodulate a modulated signal from electromagnetic radiation, comprising:
- a local oscillator providing locally generated electromagnetic radiation;
- an input for receiving remotely generated electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the modulated signal;
- a resonant structure adjacent to, but not directly in, the path of a passing charged particle beam that receives at least a portion of the remotely and locally generated electromagnetic radiation and resonates at a frequency that is a function of the frequencies of the locally and remotely generated electromagnetic radiation;
- and
- at least one charged particle absorption element receiving at least a portion of the charged beam as a function of the frequencies of the locally and remotely generated electromagnetic radiation such that the modulated signal can be extracted from the remotely generated electromagnetic radiation.
A method of demodulating a modulated signal from electromagnetic radiation, comprising:
- receiving locally generated electromagnetic radiation from a local oscillator;
- receiving remotely generated electromagnetic radiation corresponding to the modulated signal;
- receiving, at a resonant structure adjacent to, but not directly in, the path of a passing charged particle beam, at least a portion of the remotely and locally generated electromagnetic radiation;
- resonating the resonant structure at a frequency that is a function of the frequencies of the locally and remotely generated electromagnetic radiation;
- and
- receiving, at at least one charged particle absorption element, at least a portion of the charged beam as a function of the frequencies of the locally and remotely generated electromagnetic radiation such that the modulated signal can be extracted from the remotely generated electromagnetic radiation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.