Patents by Inventor Brian J. Avenell

Brian J. Avenell has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10371733
    Abstract: The noise figure for a radio frequency device may be obtained through power measurements. A signal flow graph based upon the S-parameter information of the entire RF system may be constructed. The S-parameter information may be representative of the microwave termination, the device, the measurement instrument and any losses due to additional components such as connecting cables/attenuators/switches, etc. The signal flow graph includes proper placement and values of the source nodes corresponding to each RF sub-system enumerated above. Noise figure measurements may include a calibration step and a measurement step. During the calibration step the noise figure and the noise temperature of the measurement instrument used for the measurement may be obtained. During the measurement step, the noise figure and the noise temperature of the device may be obtained based at least on the noise figure and noise temperature of the measurement instrument obtained during the calibration step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Prabhat Pal, Vinay Kumar Velkuru, Brian J. Avenell
  • Publication number: 20180188306
    Abstract: The noise figure for a radio frequency device may be obtained through power measurements. A signal flow graph based upon the S-parameter information of the entire RF system may be constructed. The S-parameter information may be representative of the microwave termination, the device, the measurement instrument and any losses due to additional components such as connecting cables/attenuators/switches, etc. The signal flow graph includes proper placement and values of the source nodes corresponding to each RF sub-system enumerated above. Noise figure measurements may include a calibration step and a measurement step. During the calibration step the noise figure and the noise temperature of the measurement instrument used for the measurement may be obtained. During the measurement step, the noise figure and the noise temperature of the device may be obtained based at least on the noise figure and noise temperature of the measurement instrument obtained during the calibration step.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2017
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Prabhat Pal, Vinay Kumar Velkuru, Brian J. Avenell
  • Publication number: 20080084951
    Abstract: Systems and methods for receiving MIMO signals for testing and analyzing operation of MIMO communications devices. Examples of systems and/or methods for receiving MIMO signals include a measuring receiver with N RF paths consisting of N downconverters. Each downconverter achieves a frequency shift of the input MIMO signal equal to a shifting frequency of a first intermediate frequency (IF) plus a delta determined by the signal bandwidth multiplied by an integer number between 1 and N. The shifted N MIMO signals are combined to generate one combined analog MIMO signal. An analog to digital converter converts the combined analog MIMO signal to a stream of digital samples where the samples may be tested and analyzed with metrics on signals communicated in a MIMO environment. Example systems and method for receiving MIMO signals may also be implemented as a MIMO channel emulator such that samples generated by the ADC may be upconverted to output copies of the original signals to a receiver DUT, for example.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2006
    Publication date: April 10, 2008
    Inventors: Helen Chen, Brian J. Avenell, Gordon R. Strachan, Michael C. Lawton