Patents by Inventor Dean Muellenberg

Dean Muellenberg 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: 8559905
    Abstract: Systems, devices and methods are disclosed for suppressing the 2LO frequency spur, output from a mixer. In various exemplary embodiments, a DC bias circuit is electrically connected to provide DC bias to one or more non-linear elements of the mixer. The biasing voltage is used to cause the current-voltage characteristics and/or junction capacitances between non-linear elements to be more symmetric and/or to suppress 2LO leakage currents that form 2LO frequency spurs at the output of the mixer. The non-linear elements may comprise one of: BJT's, diodes, and FET's. The mixer may be one of: a subharmonic mixer; a fundamental resistive mixer; a fundamental subharmonic transconductance mixer; and a fundamental transconductance mixer comprising an anti-parallel diode pair. The system may further be configured to automatically determine an appropriate DC bias voltage level that will improve one of the LO-IF isolation and the LO-RF isolation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: ViaSat, Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth V. Buer, Gaurav Menon, Ramanamurthy V. Darapu, Dean Muellenberg
  • Publication number: 20090149150
    Abstract: Systems, devices and methods are disclosed for suppressing the 2LO frequency spur, output from a mixer. In various exemplary embodiments, a DC bias circuit is electrically connected to provide DC bias to one or more non-linear elements of the mixer. The biasing voltage is used to cause the current-voltage characteristics and/or junction capacitances between non-linear elements to be more symmetric and/or to suppress 2LO leakage currents that form 2LO frequency spurs at the output of the mixer. The non-linear elements may comprise one of: BJT's, diodes, and FET's. The mixer may be one of: a subharmonic mixer; a fundamental resistive mixer; a fundamental subharmonic transconductance mixer; and a fundamental transconductance mixer comprising an anti-parallel diode pair. The system may further be configured to automatically determine an appropriate DC bias voltage level that will improve one of the LO-IF isolation and the LO-RF isolation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2007
    Publication date: June 11, 2009
    Applicant: VIASAT, INC.
    Inventors: Kenneth V. Buer, Gaurav Menon, Ramanamurthy V. Darapu, Dean Muellenberg