1. A frame kit comprising, in combination:
a plurality of rail members, each one of said rail members having a plurality of holes;
a plurality of corner connectors, each one of said plurality of corner connectors including a base member having a plurality of holes and a reinforcing rib coupled to said base member, a pair of leg members, each having a plurality of holes, each one of said pair of leg members including a reinforcing rib coupled to each one of said pair of leg members, a first leg member of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to a second leg member of said pair of leg members, each one of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to said base member, a portion of said base member and a portion of said first leg member of said pair of leg members having a first inner slot, a portion of said base member and a portion of said second leg member of said pair of leg members having a second inner slot, a portion of said first leg member and a portion of said second leg member having a third inner slot, and a portion of said base member including a rail stop adjacent to a portion of each one of said pair of leg members;
said first inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a first rail member of said plurality of rail members, said second inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a second rail member of said plurality of rail members and said third inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a third rail member of said plurality of rail members, said rail stop preventing contact of said one end of said first rail member with both said one end of said second rail member and said one end of said third rail member;
a plurality of fasteners adapted to selectively couple each one of said plurality of rail members to said base member and to each one of said pair of leg members of each one of said plurality of corner connectors thereby providing at least a portion of a frame assembly; and
at least one container, said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members and said plurality of fasteners located in said at least one container thereby providing the frame kit.
2. The frame kit according to claim 1 further comprising at least one of a plurality of leveling feet, a plurality of casters and a plurality of accessory members located in said at least one container.
3. The frame kit according to claim 1 further comprising at least one reinforcing member for coupling to two of said rail members thereby providing further structural rigidity for said frame assembly, said at least one reinforcing member located in said at least one container.
4. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein said base member of each one of said plurality of corner connectors includes a reinforcing rib coupled to a portion of said base member and each one of said pair of leg members of each one of said plurality of corner connectors includes a reinforcing rib coupled to a portion of each one of said pair of leg members thereby strengthening each one of said plurality of corner connectors of said frame assembly.
5. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein said frame assembly comprises at least eight corner connectors of said plurality of corner connectors, at least twelve rail members of said plurality of rail members and at least ninety-six fasteners of said plurality of fasteners.
6. The frame kit according to claim 5 wherein each one of said at least twelve rail members of said plurality of rail members having the same length thereby providing a cube shaped frame assembly.
7. The frame kit according to claim 5 wherein each one of a first set of four rail members of said twelve rail members having the same length and each one of a second set of eight rail members of said twelve rail members having the same length, said first set of said twelve rail members being of different length to said second set of said twelve rail members thereby providing a rectangular prismatic shaped frame assembly.
8. The frame kit according to claim 5 wherein each one of a first set of four rail members of said twelve rail members having the same length, each one of a second set of four rail members of said twelve rail members having the same length and a third set of four rail members of said twelve rail members having the same length, said first set of said twelve rail members being of different length to said second set of said twelve rail members, and said third set of said twelve rail members being of different length to both said first set of four rail members and said second set of four rail members thereby providing a rectangular prismatic shaped frame assembly.
9. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein said base member of each one of said plurality of corner connectors having at least one threaded hole and said base member of each one of said plurality of corner connectors is selectively coupled to one of a leveling foot, a caster and an accessory member.
10. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein each one of said plurality of corner connectors comprises a material selected from the group consisting of a metal, a plastic and a fiber reinforced plastic.
11. The frame kit according to claim 10 wherein said metal is aluminum.
12. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein both said plurality of holes of said base member and said plurality of holes of said pair of leg members of each one of said plurality of corner connectors has a counter sunk shape to accommodate a head portion of each one of said plurality of fasteners.
13. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein each one of said plurality of rail members is substantially L-shaped and thereby adapted to conform to each one of said inner slots of each one of said plurality of corner connectors.
14. The frame kit according to claim 1 wherein a first frame assembly comprises a first set of said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members and said plurality of fasteners located in said at least one container and a second frame assembly comprises a second set of said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members and said plurality of fasteners located in at least a second container, each one of a co-planar set of said plurality of corner members of said first frame assembly coupled to each one of a co-planar set of said plurality of corner members of said second frame assembly providing a multiple frame assembly.
15. A method for assembling a frame kit comprising the steps of:
providing a plurality of rail members, each one of said rail members having a plurality of holes;
providing a plurality of corner connectors, each one of said plurality of corner connectors including a base member having a plurality of holes and a reinforcing rib coupled to said base member, a pair of leg members, each having a plurality of holes, each one of said pair of leg members including a reinforcing rib coupled to each one of said pair of leg members, a first leg member of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to a second leg member of said pair of leg members, each one of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to said base member, a portion of said base member and a portion of said first leg member of said pair of leg members having a first inner slot, a portion of said base member and a portion of said second leg member of said pair of leg members having a second inner slot, a portion of said first leg member and a portion of said second leg member having a third inner slot, and a portion of said base member including a rail stop adjacent to a portion of each one of said pair of leg members;
providing said first inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a first rail member of said plurality of rail members, said second inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a second rail member of said plurality of rail members and said third inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a third rail member of said plurality of rail members, said rail stop preventing contact of said one end of said first rail member with both said one end of said second rail member and said one end of said third rail member;
providing a plurality of fasteners adapted to selectively couple each one of said plurality of rail members to said base member and to each one of said pair of leg members of each one of said plurality of corner connectors thereby providing at least a portion of at least one frame assembly;
providing at least one container; and
locating said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members and said plurality of fasteners in said at least one container thereby providing said frame kit in preparation for constructing said at least one frame assembly.
16. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the steps of:
providing at least one of a plurality of leveling feet, a plurality of casters and a plurality of accessory members; and
locating said at least one of a plurality of leveling feet, said plurality of casters and said plurality of accessory members in said at least one container of said frame kit thereby extending the usability of said at least one frame assembly.
17. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the steps of:
providing at least one reinforcing member for coupling to two of said rail members thereby providing further structural rigidity for said frame assembly; and
locating said at least one reinforcing member in said at least one container of said frame kit.
18. A method for constructing a frame assembly from a frame kit comprising the steps of:
providing said frame kit comprising a plurality of rail members, each one of said rail members having a plurality of holes;
providing said frame kit further comprising a plurality of corner connectors, each one of said plurality of corner connectors including a base member having a plurality of holes and a reinforcing rib coupled to said base member, a pair of leg members, each having a plurality of holes, each one of said pair of leg members including a reinforcing rib coupled to each one of said pair of leg members, a first leg member of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to a second leg member of said pair of leg members, each one of said pair of leg members substantially perpendicular to said base member, a portion of said base member and a portion of said first leg member of said pair of leg members having a first inner slot, a portion of said base member and a portion of said second leg member of said pair of leg members having a second inner slot, a portion of said first leg member and a portion of said second leg member having a third inner slot, and a portion of said base member including a rail stop adjacent to a portion of each one of said pair of leg members;
providing said frame kit further comprising said first inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a first rail member of said plurality of rail members, said second inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a second rail member of said plurality of rail members and said third inner slot of each one of said plurality of corner connectors receiving one end of a third rail member of said plurality of rail members, said rail stop preventing contact of said one end of said first rail member with both said one end of said second rail member and said one end of said third rail member;
providing said frame kit further comprising a plurality of fasteners adapted to selectively couple each one of said plurality of rail members to said base member and to each one of said pair of leg members of each one of said plurality of corner connectors thereby providing at least a portion of at least one frame assembly;
providing said frame kit comprising at least one container housing said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members, said plurality of fasteners and at least one set of instructions for constructing said at least one frame assembly;
unpacking said plurality of corner members, said plurality of rail members, said plurality of fasteners and said one set of instructions from said at least one container; and
constructing said at least one frame assembly according to said at least one set of instructions.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An apparatus for converting a continuous-time, continuously variable signal into a sampled and quantized signal, comprising:
an input line for accepting an input signal that is continuous in time and continuously variable;
a continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit;
a samplingquantization circuit coupled to an output of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit;
a digital bandpass filter coupled to an output of the samplingquantization circuit; and
a line coupling the output of the samplingquantization circuit back into the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit,
wherein the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit comprises an adder that includes a plurality of inputs and an output, with the input signal being coupled to one of the inputs of the adder, the output of the adder being coupled to one of the inputs of the adder through a first filter, the output of the samplingquantization circuit in the same processing branch being coupled to one of the inputs of the adder through a second filter, and the second filter having a different transfer function than the first filter,
wherein the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit has a noise transfer function with a minimum at a particular frequency, and
wherein the minimum in the quantization-noise transfer function of the quantization-noise-shaping continuous-time circuit corresponds to a frequency band selected by the digital bandpass filter.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit has a noise transfer function that shapes quantization noise in the frequency band selected by the digital bandpass filter with an equivalent of a second-order response.
3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit has a noise transfer function that shapes quantization noise in the frequency band selected by the digital bandpass filter with an equivalent of a fourth-order response.
4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the samplingquantization circuit is a single-bit quantizer.
5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the samplingquantization circuit is a multi-bit quantizer.
6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit includes a nonlinear bit-mapping component that converts a binary-weighted, digital input to a higher-precision digital output having other than perfect binary weighting.
7. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the nonlinear bit-mapping component applies input-bit weighting factors to the digital input and at least one of the input-bit weighting factors applied by the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit is programmable.
8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the input-bit weighting factors are independently adjusted to minimize at least one of a mean absolute value or a variance of a residual quantization noise of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit.
9. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an active calibration component that adjusts a parameter of at least one component of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit.
10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein parameter adjustments are made to minimize at least one of a mean absolute value or a variance of a residual quantization noise of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit.
11. An apparatus for converting a continuous-time, continuously variable signal into a sampled and quantized signal, comprising:
an input line for accepting an input signal that is continuous in time and continuously variable;
a plurality of processing branches coupled to the input line, each of said processing branches including: (a) a continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit, (b) a samplingquantization circuit coupled to an output of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit, (c) a digital bandpass filter coupled to an output of the samplingquantization circuit, and (d) a line coupling the output of the samplingquantization circuit back into the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit; and
an adder coupled to outputs of the plurality of processing branches,
wherein a center frequency of the digital bandpass filter in each said processing branch corresponds to a minimum in a quantization noise transfer function for the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit in the same processing branch, and
wherein each of said digital bandpass filters includes: (a) a quadrature frequency downconverter that has in-phase and quadrature outputs, (b) a first moving-average filter coupled to the in-phase output of the quadrature frequency downconverter, (c) a second moving-average filter coupled to the quadrature output of the quadrature frequency downconverter, and (d) a quadrature frequency upconverter coupled to outputs of the first and second moving-average filters.
12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the moving-average filters is implemented as a recursive structure.
13. An apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said at least one moving-average filter recursive structure incorporates a differentiator transfer function with a difference delay greater than one sample period.
14. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the moving-average filters is comprised of at least three cascaded moving-average components.
15. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein a number of samples averaged by each of the cascaded moving-average components is independently programmable to vary a bandwidth of the corresponding digital bandpass filter.
16. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the digital bandpass filters is implemented as a polyphase decomposition structure.
17. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein a polyphase decomposition factor, m, of the polyphase decomposition structure is a submultiple of the total number of processing branches, M.
18. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the moving-average filter is comprised of a number of cascaded moving-average filter stages, wherein each of the stages averages the same number of samples, and wherein the number of stages is greater than one and other than one plus an effective noise-shaping order of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit response.
19. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the moving-average filter is comprised of cascaded moving-average filter stages that collectively provide spectral minima at frequencies other than multiples of a conversion rate of said apparatus.
20. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the number of moving-average stages is zero, two, three, or four plus an effective noise-shaping order of a response of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit.
21. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the moving-average filter is comprised of cascaded moving-average filter stages, and wherein at least one of the stages averages a number of samples that is different by more than one from a number of samples averaged by at least one of the other stages.
22. An apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the number of samples averaged by one of the stages is different from at least one of the other stages by more than \xbc\xb7M\xb7W and less than 2\xb7M\xb7N, where N is an excess-rate oversampling ratio of said apparatus and M is the number of processing branches.
23. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the moving-average filter is comprised of cascaded moving-average filter stages having an impulse response length that is at least 2\xb7N\xb7M\u22125, where N is an excess-rate oversampling ratio of said apparatus and M is the number of processing branches.
24. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the moving-average filter is comprised of cascaded moving-average filter stages having an impulse response length that is at least 4\xb7N\xb7M\u22125, where N is an excess-rate oversampling ratio of said apparatus and M is the number of processing branches.
25. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the digital bandpass filter further includes an equalizer.
26. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the equalizer has a single complex tap.
27. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the equalizer has a single real tap.
28. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the equalizer has plural complex taps.
29. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the equalizer has plural real taps.
30. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein sine and cosine sequences are used by the quadrature frequency downconverter and the quadrature frequency upconverter for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively, and are generated through direct digital synthesis using digital accumulators and sinusoid lookup.
31. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein sine and cosine sequences are used by the quadrature frequency downconverter and the quadrature frequency upconverter for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively, and are generated using recursive structures.
32. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein sine and cosine sequences are used by the frequency downconverter and the frequency upconverter for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively, and wherein at least one of an amplitude or phase of the sine and cosine sequences is adjustable.
33. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein sine and cosine sequences are used by the frequency downconverter and the frequency upconverter for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively, and wherein the period of the sine and cosine sequences is adjustable.
34. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a configuration means for converting a first signal sample rate generated by the samplingquantization circuit in at least one of the various processing branches to a second signal sample rate that is different than the first signal sample rate.
35. An apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the configuration means includes at least one digital interpolator.
36. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein interpolation used by the at least one digital interpolator is at least second-order.
37. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein interpolation used by the at least one digital interpolator is first-order.
38. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the at least one digital interpolator is implemented as a polyphase decomposition structure.
39. An apparatus according to claim 35, wherein an interpolant used by the at least one digital interpolator is generated using a numerically-controlled oscillator.
40. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a configuration means is provided to enable plural modes of operation, including: (i) a mode for operation as a single, wideband converter with high output data rate, and (ii) a mode for operation as plural, independent converters having an arbitrary mix of narrowband and wideband outputs at various sample rates.
41. An apparatus according to claim 40, wherein the configuration means comprises an add-multiplex array.
42. An apparatus according to claim 40, wherein the number of processing branches M is a power of two.
43. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of processing branches includes at least 4 said processing branches, and in each of a plurality of said processing branches: the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit includes at least a second-order feedback filter, the samplingquantization circuit samples at a frequency of at least 1 gigahertz (GHz), and the digital bandpass filter attenuates shaped quantization noise by at least 40 dB and introduces total aliasing distortion power limited to less than 40 dB below data converter signal level.
44. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein each of a plurality of the processing branches includes at least one quadrature downconverter that decreases, by a factor of at least two, a center frequency of the frequency band selected for said processing branch.
45. An apparatus according to claim 44, wherein the digital bandpass filter includes at least one of a downconverter and an upconverter having at least one parameter that can be adjusted to compensate for at least one of amplitude or phase imbalance of the quadrature frequency downconverter.
46. An apparatus for converting a continuous-time, continuously variable signal into a sampled and quantized signal, comprising:
an input line for accepting an input signal that is continuous in time and continuously variable;
a plurality of processing branches coupled to the input line, each of said processing branches including: (a) a continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit, (b) a multi-bit samplingquantization circuit coupled to an output of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit, (c) a nonlinear bit-mapping circuit coupled to an output of the multi-bit samplingquantization circuit, (d) a digital bandpass filter coupled to an output of the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit, (e) a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit coupled to the output of the multi-bit samplingquantization circuit, and (f) a line coupling an output of the digital-to-analog converter circuit back into the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit; and
an adder coupled to outputs of the plurality of processing branches,
wherein a center frequency of the digital bandpass filter in each said processing branch corresponds to a minimum in a quantization noise transfer function for the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit in the same processing branch, and
wherein the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit in each of said processing branches performs a scaling operation, on a bit-by-bit basis, that matches imperfections in a binary scaling response of the digital-to-analog converter in the same processing branch.
47. An apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit converts a digital input to a higher-precision digital output having other than perfect binary weighting.
48. An apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit applies input-bit weighting factors to the digital input and at least one of the input-bit weighting factors applied by the nonlinear bit-mapping circuit is programmable.
49. An apparatus according to claim 48, wherein the input-bit weighting factors are independently adjusted to minimize at least one of a mean absolute value or a variance of a residual quantization noise of the continuous-time quantization-noise-shaping circuit.
50. An apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the digital-to-analog converter circuit operates in an unclocked mode.