Abstract:
A circuit for interfacing a host telephone system having a trunk line pair (20) with a central office line pair (30) and an additional circuit line pair (32) includes a loop current monitor circuit (12) for monitoring the host telephone system trunk line pair which is normally connected to the central office line pair. The loop current monitor provides a status signal output indicating the presence or absence of loop current. A relay controller (14) receives the status signal and provides a relay control signal and a hold signal. A relay (22) selectively connects the host telephone system trunk line pair to the additional circuit line pair in response to the relay control signal when loop current is detected after the host telephone goes off-hook. A hold termination circuit receives the hold signal and traps any loop current signals which may be detectable over the central office line pair. The relay controller circuit is active to generate the relay control signal only for an initial time period after the host telephone system goes off-hook.
Abstract:
A high speed voltage switching circuit possessing immunity to the application of a reverse voltage across its input terminals comprises symmetrically arranged voltage relay transistor circuits respectively coupled between first and second voltage input terminals and a switched voltage output terminal. The first voltage relay transistor circuit is operative to relay a first voltage applied to the first input terminal to the output terminal in response to the controlled application of current directly to the output terminal from a first switched current source. Similarly, the second voltage relay transistor circuit is operative to relay a second voltage applied to the second input terminal directly to the output terminal in response to the removal of current from the output terminal by way of a second switched current source. Each voltage relay transistor circuit preferably comprises two pairs of complementary polarity bipolar transistors having their base-emitter junctions coupled in series between the first voltage input terminal and the output terminal, so that there is substantially no net voltage drop between a voltage input terminal and the output terminal. In order to prevent an inadvertent reverse application of the high and low voltages to the voltage input terminals of the switching circuit, a reverse voltage protection circuit is coupled between the first and second voltage relay transistor circuits and is operative to limit current flow through the voltage relay transistor circuits.
Abstract:
A method for combining signals for a telephone conference may include a multiplicity of identical adders (10, 20) for combining six signals and providing a single combined output. The adders (10) may be arranged in a repeatable hierarchical scheme in which each group of six conference members includes an adder (20) for combining all six signals, with the output of this adder being provided to other groups of six so that each conference member receives signals from every other conference member. As few as three hierarchical levels of addition may be used with up to 216 members. Adders (10) may also be arranged so that a member (30) of a first conference may monitor other conferences without affecting the first conference.
Abstract:
A stacked packaging assembly for a plurality of integrated circuit devices (76) employs a web (61) of flexible interconnect material folded into a 'layered' arrangement of parallel web fingers (61) onto which a plurality of integrated circuit devices (76) are surface-mounted. The leads (71, 73) of the integrated circuit devices (76) are attached to interconnect links (81, 83) of the flexible interconnect web (61). A plurality of heat sink plates (115) are interleaved with the folded web fingers (61) of the stack, as so to engage the integrated circuit devices (76) mounted on the web fingers (61). The heat sink plates (115) are retained by thermally conductive spacer blocks (131, 133) along their edges. The spacer blocks (131, 133) are clamped together in a compact laminate structure, so as to form a rigid support which relieves mechanical stresses at the folds of the web fingers (61).
Abstract:
The trench pattern (11) of a dielectrically isolated island architecture (14) is filled with doped polysilicon and used as an interconnect structure for circuit devices that are supported within the islands, thereby decreasing the amount of topside interconnect (61) and reducing the potential for parasitics beneath tracks of surface metal. Manufacture of the conductor-filled trench structure may be facilitated by depositing polysilicon over a dielectrically coated trench grid structure and then planarizing the polysilicon to the surface of the oxide dielectric. The exposed polysilicon is doped and then oxidized to seal the dopant, which forms a thin oxide layer on the poly. The oxide dielectric for the trench can then be selectively patterned to form a mask to be for the initial doping of the islands.
Abstract:
A buffer amplifier configuration simultaneously reduces d.c. voltage offsets through the signal flow path between its input (20) and output (50) and maintains a high input impedance and a low output impedance. In a preferred embodiment, high impedence is achieved by coupling the input transistor (201) collector (204) to a high impedance current source (210), which is coupled to one of the buffer's power supply rails (22). The emitter (206) of the input transistor (201) is coupled to the input terminal (20) and its base (202) to the base (212) of a like polarity bipolar output transistor (211), the emitter (216) of which is coupled to an output terminal (50) and the collector (214) of which is coupled to one supply rail (22). Since both the input and output transistors are of the same polarity type (so that they can be reasonably well matched during manufacture) and have their base-emitter junctions connected back-to-back between the input and output terminals, they impart effectively no Vbe-based d.c. offset voltage through the buffer. To ensure a high input impedance regardless of output load and output stage gain an isolating emitter-follower transistor stage (221) is preferably coupled between the collector (204) of the input transistor stage (201) and the base (212) of the output transistor stage (211).
Abstract:
An adaptive brake control system monitors a plurality of brake pipe/air line parameters, such as fluid path volume and air flow rate, and controllably modifies action taken by the engineman or performs emergency control of the brakes, in order to continuously enable the braking system to adapt itself to dynamic operating conditions and anomalies in the integrity of the fluid path. In accordance with a pressure reduction modification mechanism, the application of a pressure reduction to the equalizing reservoir (105) is precisely controlled by taking into account the actual state of the brake pipe (101), so as to ensure that the requested brake application is effected as intended. The control mechanism also monitors the integrity of the fluid flow path of the brake pipe (101)/train air line (201), so that the engineman may be alerted and a prescribed train safety measure may be effected in the event of a potentially hazardous anomally in the link. It also provides the engineman with a precise indication that the brakes (233) of the train have been fully released or applied.
Abstract:
Operation of a solid state power amplifier (SSPA) (30) in a very small aperture terminal is controlled by a digitally controlled preemphasis attenuation operator upstream of the input of the SSPA. The attenuation operator contains a temperature compensation section (42) that produces an output control voltage which is complementary to the gain-versus-temperature characteristic of the SSPA. This control voltage is scaled and applied as one input to a analog-to-digital converter (41), the output of which drives a digitally controlled (PIN) attenuator (34) at an input to the SSPA-containing up-converter circuit. A second input to the attenuator is derived from the earth station's monitors and control processor (61) which monitors the operating frequency and accesses an associated look-up table containing a characteristic representative of the variation in the power output of the SSPA versus change in frequency.
Abstract:
A system (20, 22) for compensating for varying attenuation of an uplink signal from a local node to a satellite. The system (20, 22) monitors two beacon signals and the local downlink signal to determine fade. An error signal, indicating the uplink fade, is generated and utilized to adjust the gain of the uplink transmitter (42) to compensate for the fade.
Abstract:
A dielectric antenna lens (10) for planar wavefront/focal point conversion is configured of a series of concentric rings, each of which is contoured from a rear face (7) to inclined termination edges (15) that are delimited by the functional performance of the lens and which assist in the manufacture of the lens. In addition, the bottom edge of each ring, rather than terminate at a cylindrical side wall of an adjacent ring, terminates at a flattened region (25) between itself and the adjacent ring. This flattened region effectively eliminates the acute angle wedge between rings and, together with the inclined termination edges of the rings, serves to enable the lens to be easily manufactured, as by injection molding (39), with the flattened land portions and inclined termination edges making possible removal of the lens from the injection mold. As a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a multiple wavelength conversion arrangement employing the dielectric lens (10) in combination with a wavelength selective (e.g. dichroic) filter (41), enabling the lens to be used as part of a compact microwave transceiver unit (51, 55) operating at a plurality of different frequencies.