High capacity recirculating delay loop integrator

Claim 1

A signal integrating system comprising a recirculating delay loop integrator including a delay network having feedforward error correction and time delay means wherein said network includes: a power divider defining a first main signal path and a second reference signal path, said first path including a first main amplifier and a first delay line, said second path including a second compensating delay line for compensating the delay time of said first amplifier, and a third delay line having a delay time substantially equal to that of said first delay line; a differencing network having said first and second paths as inputs and providng an output varying as a function of error introduced in signals in said first path by said first amplifier, with an attenuator connected between said first path and said differencing network; a second amplifier having the differencing network output as an input; and an injection network having said first path and said second amplifier output as inputs and providing an output for recirculation to said power divider, with a fourth compensating delay line connected between said first path and said injection network for compensating the delay time of said second amplifier.

Claim 5

A method of integrating input signals in a recirculating delay loop integrator having a negative feedback loop with a delay network, by correcting for the imperfection of components in the recirculating loop by a feedforward correction and delaying the signals integrating them in a number of recirculations in the delay network, including the steps of: splitting said signals into first and second slit signals along first and second paths; amplifying the first split signal in said first path; compensating the amplification delay of the first split signal by compensating delaying the second split signal in said second path; delaying the split signals in said first and second paths by equal amounts; differencing a portion of the amplified and delayed first signal with the twice delayed second signal to obtain a difference signal representing the error introduced as a result of the imperfection of the amplification and time delay of the first split signal; amplifying the difference signal; compensating the amplification delay of the amplified difference signal by compensating delaying the first split signal in said first path; and comparing the amplified, delayed and twice compensated first signal with the amplified difference signal to obtain a signal for recirculation representing the time delayed first signal substantially free of errors resulting from amplification and time delay.

Claim 6

A method of integrating input signals in a recirculating delay loop integrator having a negative feedback loop with a delay network, by correcting for the imperfection of components in the recirculating loop by a feedforward correction and delaying the signals integrating them in a number of recirculations in the delay network, including the steps of: splitting said signals into first and second slit signals along first and second paths; amplifying the first split signal in said first path; compensating the amplification delay of the first split signal by compensating delaying the second split signal in said second path; delaying the split signals in said first and second paths by equal amounts; differencing a portion of the amplified and delayed first signal with the twice delayed second signal to obtain a difference signal representing the error introduced as a result of the imperfection of the amplification and time delay of the first split signal; amplifying the difference signal; compensating the amplification delay of the amplified difference signal by compensating delaying the first split signal in said first path; and comparing the amplified, delayed and twice compensated first signal with the amplified difference signal to obtain a signal for recirculation representing the time delayed first signal substantially free of errors resulting from amplification and time delay.