Abstract:
An LCD precharge regulator circuit providing current directly from the input battery voltage to precharge the LCD display. A first switch activates a precharge regulator coupled to the unregulated DC input voltage, to supply the power for the initial current surge from the DC input to charge the LCD display. The precharge regulator includes a transistor and a biasing circuit. The biasing circuit initially turns the transistor fully on, but increasingly biases the transistor off as the LCD display charges to just below the operating voltage of the LCD display. A delay circuit activates a second switch after the LCD display is substantially charged, where the second switch connects the supply voltage from the DC/DC converter to the LCD display. At that point, the transistor is biased off, isolating the LCD display from the DC input voltage. Thus, the supply voltage need only sustain the charge on the LCD display after being substantially charged. Low power series resistors are provided to serve as a fuse, which fail to an open circuit condition, isolating the LCD display from high input voltage levels in the event of excessive current flowing into an overvoltage Zener diode.
Abstract:
An apparatus is provided for synchronously selecting different oscillators as the system clock source. The apparatus is comprised of two oscillator selectors. Each of the oscillator selectors has as its inputs the output of each of the oscillators and a three-bit command code which indicates which of the oscillators is to be selected by the oscillator selector and a single clock output. A different oscillator may be selected by each of the oscillator selectors at the same time. The output of the oscillator selectors are inputs to the clock controller. The clock controller also receives command signals for controlling the switching of the clock controller between the outputs of the two oscillator selectors. The output of the clock controller is the clock source for the system and a status signal indicating which oscillator selector is presently being used.
Abstract:
An offset voltage correction circuit for a gridded power tube, such as a gridded traveling wave tube (GTWT), provides from a pulsed, floating, negatively offset voltage signal representing the pulsed current output of the tube, a corrected pulsed, zero voltage offset signal. Such corrected signal is used in a feedback loop to control the voltage signal provided to the tube grid in a manner causing the pulsed output current of the tube to have a preestablished amplitude. The signal correcting circuit includes a .pi.-shaped network formed of a capacitor and first and second transistors. The two transistors are connected in electrical parallel so that between pulses of the offset voltage signal the first one of the transistors is held off and keeps the second transistor turned on so that the capacitor charges to the negative offset voltage of the offset voltage signal. During the pulses of the offset voltage signal, the first transistor is turned on and thereby turns the second transistor off, causing the capacitor output side to provide a zero offset voltage pulse having an amplitude equal to the sum of the negative offset and positive voltages (the total peak-to-peak voltage) of the voltage offset signal. The zero offset signal is used by a control loop circuit and a grid pulse modulator to provide a control voltage signal to the grid of the tube which maintains the pulsed output current of the tube at a preselected level in spite of tube aging and thermal effects which tend to cause the output current to change.
Abstract:
A redundancy circuit that consumes no power before or after activation switches a pair of output nodes from a first set of complementary logic levels to an inverted set when it is activated by blowing a pair of fuses.
Abstract:
A detection wafer with a non-linear circuit for an electromagnetic detection system wherein two different transmission frequencies are used, comprising a resonant circuit connected to a non-linear element forming from the transmission frequencies, a third frequency to be detected. The non-linear element forms part of an amplifying semiconductor circuit connected to a supply battery and having an input circuit coupled to the resonant circuit, and an output circuit comprising a coil magnetically coupled to the coil of the resonant circuit, the resonant frequency bandwidth of the resonant circuit comprising both transmission frequencies and the frequency to be detected.
Abstract:
A batteryless, portable, frequency divider including a first LC circuit that is resonant at a first frequency for receiving electromagnetic radiation at the first frequency; a second LC circuit that is resonant at a second frequency that is one-half the first frequency; and a transistor coupling the first and second LC circuits for causing the second LC circuit to transmit electromagnetic radiation at the second frequency in response to the first LC circuit detecting electromagnetic radiation at the first frequency. The first and second LC circuits respectively include inductance coils that are positioned orthogonally to one another so as not to be mutually coupled. The frequency divider is operable solely from unrectified energy at the first frequency provided in the first circuit upon receipt of the electromagnetic radiation at the first frequency detected by the first LC circuit. The frequency divider is useful as an electronic tag for attachment to articles for enabling detection thereof when moved through a surveillance zone containing electromagnetic radiation at the first frequency and thereby is useful in shoplifting detection systems.
Abstract:
An electronic power regulation control device for providing constant electric power to a load of varying impedance. The device may be operated to provide degenerative or regenerative regulation with varying load peaks. The device does not require feedback but under certain conditions feedback may enhance the performance. The basic power regulating device is a thermionic electron device wherein the voltage-current characteristic approximates the ideal hyperbolic curve of constant power. This is accomplished by combining the characteristics of a current limiting, temperature limited thermionic diode in conjunction with that of a thermionic triode in a parallel combination. It is also possible to combine the functions of a control diode of high perveance and a control diode of low perveance to also approach a characteristic curve of constant power.