Non-contact coupling system
First Claim
1. A non-contact coupling system, comprising:
- a main signal trace;
a plurality of non-contact couplers positioned longitudinally along the main signal trace, each coupler having a respective length of track substantially parallel to the main signal trace; and
a signal driver connected to the main signal trace, for transmitting an electronic signal along the main signal trace and inducing a corresponding electronic signal in each coupler;
the track of each succeeding coupler being longer that that of the preceding coupler to provide substantial equalization of the electronic signal induced in each coupler.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention is a non-contact coupling system for use in interconnecting a large number of electronic modules to a main signal trace via non-contact couplers. A driver sends an electronic signal comprising pulses along the main signal trace. The couplers each have a track of conductive material substantially parallel to the main signal trace. The track of each succeeding coupler is longer than that of the preceding coupler. As a pulse travels from the driver alongside the track of the closest coupler, a pulse is induced therein, although part of the original pulse energy is lost. The remaining lower-energy pulse then couples onto the second-closest coupler but because of the longer parallel track, an induced pulse virtually as strong as the pulse imparted to the first coupler is produced. This phenomenon occurs at every coupler along the main signal trace, resulting in induced pulses that have a relatively low amplitude variation.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A non-contact coupling system, comprising:
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a main signal trace; a plurality of non-contact couplers positioned longitudinally along the main signal trace, each coupler having a respective length of track substantially parallel to the main signal trace; and a signal driver connected to the main signal trace, for transmitting an electronic signal along the main signal trace and inducing a corresponding electronic signal in each coupler; the track of each succeeding coupler being longer that that of the preceding coupler to provide substantial equalization of the electronic signal induced in each coupler. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A non-contact coupling system, comprising:
- elongate conducting means;
a plurality of longitudinally positioned non-contact coupling means each having a conductive portion substantially parallel to said conducting means; and transmitting means connected to a first end of the conducting means, for transmitting an electronic signal along said conducting means and inducing a corresponding electronic signal in each of the coupling means; wherein, for each pair of coupling means, the conductive portion of the coupling means located further from the transmitting means is longer than that of the coupling means located closer to the transmitting means by an amount which reduces the amplitude spread among the induced electronic signals relative to coupling means having conductive portions of equal length. - View Dependent Claims (16)
- elongate conducting means;
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17. In a non-contact coupling system comprising a main signal trace, a signal driver connected to the main signal trace and a plurality of non-contact couplers positioned longitudinally along the main signal trace, each coupler having a respective length of track substantially parallel to the main signal trace, the driver capable of inducing pulses in each of the couplers, a method of selecting values for the track lengths, comprising the steps of:
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determining a critical track length for an intermediate one of the plurality of couplers, wherein the pulses induced in the intermediate coupler have an amplitude that depends on the track length of the intermediate coupler for a track length less than the critical track length and wherein the induced pulses have an amplitude that does not depend on the track length of the intermediate coupler for a track length greater than the critical track length; determining the spread among the amplitudes of pulses that would be induced in each of the plurality of couplers if each track length was identical to the critical track length of the intermediate coupler; setting the track length of the coupler farthest the signal driver equal to the critical track length of the intermediate coupler multiplied by a factor that is proportional to the calculated spread; setting the track length of the coupler nearest the signal driver equal to the critical track length of the intermediate coupler divided by a factor that is proportional to the calculated spread; and setting the track length of each remaining coupler to a value greater than the track length of the coupler nearest the signal driver, less than the track length of the coupler farthest the signal driver and representative of the relative position of the coupler.
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18. In a non-contact coupling system comprising a main signal trace, a signal driver connected to the main signal trace and a plurality of non-contact couplers positioned longitudinally along the main signal trace, each coupler having a respective length of track substantially parallel to the main signal trace, the driver capable of inducing pulses in each of the couplers, a method of selecting values for the track lengths, comprising the steps of:
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selecting an initial track length for each coupler; determining the spread among the amplitudes of the pulses induced in each of the couplers; and varying the track length of one or more couplers and repeating the step of determining the spread until a minimum value for the spread is obtained.
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Specification