Radiofrequency Pulse Generator

About

About Opportunity: Generating fast radiofrequency pulses is difficult. Traditional pulse generators employ either diode switches in the signal path, or rely on varying the gain of an amplifier stage, i.e. traditional amplitude modulators. The pulse rise time and width are limited by the intrinsic bandwidth of the port controlling the modulating element, and switch element time constants. The new methodology employs types of multipliers as switches which may have intrinsic bandwidths of many Gigahertz and because they are designed to be high frequency components have very small internal capacitances. The non-linearity inherent in the multiplication process will “speed up” the pulse edges giving some additional pulse width compression. A rectangular pulse of <700ps duration with a peak power of +23dBm, and a non-rectangular pulse of the same amplitude and <300ps duration have been generated. Both these pulses had a 1:1 mark space ratio.   Key Benefits: Enables the generation of sub-nanosecond pulses in any frequency generation. Does not use standard switching techniques. High intrinsic bandwidth gives fast pulses. Technique “speeds-up” edges of pulse.   Applications: Military and Civil Radar equipment.Scientific instrumentation e.g. Electron Spin Resonance (ESR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry equipment.Telecommunications e.g. Digital Broadcast Communications equipment.Anywhere (such as the above examples) a fast radiofrequency (RF) pulse may be required.   IP Status: The University has sought to protect its Intellectual Property Rights in relation to the above work stemming from the UK application GB 0421178.5 filed 23rd September 2004 and, via the International Patent Application PCT/GB2005/003620, has patent applications proceeding in the EU (05784417) and US (11/575,696.0).