Automatic antenna impedance tuner including digital control circuits

Claim 2

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; and digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies, said control means further including a standing wave ratio detector coupled to the tuner to detect the ratio of forward and reflected standing waves in the transfer of power to the antenna for controlling the tuning cycle.

Claim 3

The antenna tuner according to claim 1 in which said reactance elements include capacitive and inductive elements which are incremented in value in binary increments and the switching means is responsive to said digital control means to provide for selection of both capacitive and inductive elements to produce a combination of capacitive and inductive reactance values for matching to the dynamic status of antenna impedance to the desired load resistance in the tuning cycle for power transfer to the antenna.

Claim 4

The antenna tuner according to claim 1 in which said standing wave ratio detector detects the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a control output for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna.

Claim 5

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital ouput for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; and a transmitter power amplifier coupled to said tuner, said control output being coupled to said powEr amplifier to control the level of power transmission to provide low transmission power during the tuning cycle.

Claim 6

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital ouput for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; and a transmitter power amplifier coupled to said tuner, said control output being coupled to said powEr amplifier to control the level of power transmission to provide low transmission power during the tuning cycle.

Claim 7

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital output for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; said decision circuit means including a standing wave ratio detector coupled to the tuner to detect the ratio of forward and reflected standing waves over a broad band range of requencies.

Claim 8

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital output for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; said decision circuit means including a standing wave ratio detector coupled to the tuner to detect the ratio of forward and reflected standing waves over a broad band range of requencies.

Claim 9

The antenna tuner of claim 5 in which said broad band includes a range of frequencies from approximately 2 MHz to 80 MHz.

Claim 10

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital output for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; and a source of power for said tuner, said decision circuit means being coupled to the tuner power source for controlling the supply of power to the tuner for tuning for the duration of any tuning cycle.

Claim 11

An antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the load resistance required for transfer of power to the antenna over a range of transmission frequencies comprising: an impedance matching network including a plurality of reactance elements incremented in value to provide reactive increments for selectively matching of antenna impedance over the range of transmission frequencies in a tuning cycle; switching means for selectively connecting the reactance elements to the antenna for transforming the impedance of the antenna to the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna during transmission; digital control means for providing a control loop including impedance sensing means for detecting the impedance of the antenna including the reactance elements connected to the antenna to form said matching network to provide a digital output; said control means further including logical control circuits coupled to said switching means and responsive to the digital output to actuate said switching means to selectively connect the reactance elements to form an impedance matching network from a combination of reactances providing the desired load resistance for transfer of power to the antenna at the selected frequency over the range of transmission frequencies; said digital control means including decision circuit means for automatic tuning including means for detecting the tuning of the antenna impedance in order to provide a digital output for controlling the initiation and duration of the tuning cycle according to a desired impedance matching to the antenna; and a source of power for said tuner, said decision circuit means being coupled to the tuner power source for controlling the supply of power to the tuner for tuning for the duration of any tuning cycle.

Claim 12

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network incLuding a plurality of groups of reactance elements, each group digitally incremented in value; digital control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting phase and impedance load in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means to select digital increments of reactance of respective groups for controlling the reactance of the respective groups to transform antenna impedance to the load resistance for power transfer of any selected frequency of the broad band frequency range; and standing wave ratio detector means responsive to the standing wave ratio of power transfer at the selected frequency for automatically controlling the tuning cycle.

Claim 13

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network incLuding a plurality of groups of reactance elements, each group digitally incremented in value; digital control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting phase and impedance load in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means to select digital increments of reactance of respective groups for controlling the reactance of the respective groups to transform antenna impedance to the load resistance for power transfer of any selected frequency of the broad band frequency range; and standing wave ratio detector means responsive to the standing wave ratio of power transfer at the selected frequency for automatically controlling the tuning cycle.

Claim 14

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 8 in which said standing wave ratio detector means includes decision circuit means having means for sensing antenna impedance matching condition to provide a digital output in response to transmission at the selected frequency for controlling the initiation and duration of the antenna tuning cycle.

Claim 15

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 8 in which said control means includes individual closed loop control circuits for controlling the respective groups of reactance elements in a tuning cycle.

Claim 16

The automatic antenna tuner of claim 10 in which said plurality of sensing means includes phase sensing means responsive to the phase of transmission of any selected frequency to provide an output to said logical control circuit means for controlling the reactance of the matching network to provide aprpoximately a zero phase angle, the load sensing means responsive to the impedance of the network to transmission to provide an output to said logical control circuit means for concurrently controlling the reactance of the matching network to provide a predetermined load impedance at approximately zero phase angle.

Claim 17

the automatic antenna tuner according to claim 11 in which said impedance matching network comprises a group of capacitive reactance elements and a group of inductance reactance elements, and said control means includes the individual closed loop control circuits from said phase sensing means and load sensing means to respective capacitive and inductive element groups for automatically controlling the phase and impedance of said impedance matching network.

Claim 18

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 12 in which said group of inductive elements are connected in series and said group of capacitive elements are connected in shunt in said antenna impedance matching network.

Claim 19

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 12 in which said groups of elements are binary incremented in value and said logical control circuit means includes means for selection of elements in a binary sequence for controlling the reactance of the respective group.

Claim 20

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 14 in which the groups of reactive elements in impedance matching network are reset at the start of the tuning cycles to include a predetermined reactance in the network.

Claim 21

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements, each group digitally incremented in value; and a plurality of antennas including antennas having different antenna impedances adapted to be selectively coupled to said impedance matching network, digital control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting phase and impedance load in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means to select digital increments of reactance of respective groups for controlling the reactance of the respective groups to transform antenna impedance to the load resistance for power transfer of aNy selected frequency of the broad band frequency range.

Claim 22

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements, each group digitally incremented in value; and a plurality of antennas including antennas having different antenna impedances adapted to be selectively coupled to said impedance matching network, digital control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting phase and impedance load in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means to select digital increments of reactance of respective groups for controlling the reactance of the respective groups to transform antenna impedance to the load resistance for power transfer of aNy selected frequency of the broad band frequency range.

Claim 23

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said antenna tuner further including a preload reactance network including a plurality of preload reactance elements and switching means for sequentially selecting said elements and said control means includes means for automatically sensing the range of antenna impedance for selecting a desired preload reactance in a preload tuning sequence.

Claim 24

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said antenna tuner further including a preload reactance network including a plurality of preload reactance elements and switching means for sequentially selecting said elements and said control means includes means for automatically sensing the range of antenna impedance for selecting a desired preload reactance in a preload tuning sequence.

Claim 25

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 17 in which said control means further includes switching means for isolating the preload reactance network from the impedance matching network for independently selecting a preload reactance for tuning in combination with the impedance matching network including the selected preload reactance.

Claim 26

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 18 in which the control means includes means for automatically terminating the preload sequence upon sensing a preload impedance providing an antenna impedance in the range of tuning to the desired antenna impedance by the impedance matching network.

Claim 27

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said antenna tuner further including a transmission line for coupling a transmitter to said impedance matching network, and ratio sensing means coupled to said transmission line for detecting the standing wave ratio of transmission, said ratio sensing means including threshold means responsive to a predetermined standing wave ratio of transmission to provide an output to said logical control circuit means for terminating the tuning cycle.

Claim 28

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said antenna tuner further including a transmission line for coupling a transmitter to said impedance matching network, and ratio sensing means coupled to said transmission line for detecting the standing wave ratio of transmission, said ratio sensing means including threshold means responsive to a predetermined standing wave ratio of transmission to provide an output to said logical control circuit means for terminating the tuning cycle.

Claim 29

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 20 in which said ratio sensing means further includes upper threshold means responsive to a predetermined upper standing wave ratio to provide an output for indicating the degree of antenna tuning.

Claim 30

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said logical control circuit means includes means responsive to predetermined conditions of tuning for terminating an antenna tuning cycle prior to completion of antenna impedance matching for transmission via said antenna.

Claim 31

An automatic antenna tuner comprising: an antenna impedance matching network including a plurality of groups of reactance elements; control means including a plurality of sensing means for detecting the reactance of a respective group in response to any selected frequency of a broad band frequency range of transmission in an antenna tuning cycle and logical control circuit means automatically responsive to said sensing means for controlling the reactance of the respective group to provide impedance matching for transmission by an antenna adapted to be coupled to said matching network; said logical control circuit means includes means responsive to predetermined conditions of tuning for terminating an antenna tuning cycle prior to completion of antenna impedance matching for transmission via said antenna.

Claim 32

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 22 in which said network includes a variable preload reactance, varying said preload reactance in a preload sequence and said logical control circuit means includeS means for timing said preload sequence in an antenna tuning cycle for terminating the antenna tuning cycle after a predetermined maximum time period for said sequence.

Claim 33

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said impedance matching circuit means includes a plurality of individual impedance matching L networks for corresponding bands of frequency transmission in the range of frequencies and network selection circuit means are provided for selection of one of the networks corresponding to the band of frequencies of the selected frequency of transmission.

Claim 34

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said impedance matching circuit means includes a plurality of individual impedance matching L networks for corresponding bands of frequency transmission in the range of frequencies and network selection circuit means are provided for selection of one of the networks corresponding to the band of frequencies of the selected frequency of transmission.

Claim 35

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 24 which further includes a plurality of digital logic circuit means having inputs for said digital output signals and said plurality of digital circuit means include respective outputs for providing digital control signals for digital control of the variation in reactance values of respective L networks for matching of impedance in the corresponding selected frequency band.

Claim 36

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 25 in which the individual impedance matching L networks include a high frequency network for impedance matching of a selected frequency of transmission in a high frequency band from approximately 2 to 50 MHz and a very high frequency L network for impedance matching of a selected frequency in a very high frequency band from approximately 50 to 80 MHz.

Claim 37

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said sensing means includes a standing wave ratio detector.

Claim 38

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said sensing means includes a standing wave ratio detector.

Claim 39

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 27 in which said standing wave ratio detector includes detector circuit means for producing digital output signals indicating the standing wave ratio of transmission at any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of transmission and said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means responSive to the digital output signals for determining initiation and duration of control of reactance in an antenna tuning operation.

Claim 40

The automatic antenna tuner according to claim 28 in which said detector circuit means includes means for producing digital output signals including upper and lower levels of standing wave ratios of transmission and said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means responsive to said upper level of standing wave ratio during transmission to terminate transmission.

Claim 41

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistance load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformer by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission, said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means for producing digital control signals to increase or decrease the reactance of at least one of the incrementally variable capacitive and inductive reactances throughout the range of variation in reactance thereof in response to said digital output signals of said sensing means.

Claim 42

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistance load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digital sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformer by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission, said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means for producing digital control signals to increase or decrease the reactance of at least one of the incrementally variable capacitive and inductive reactances throughout the range of variation in reactance thereof in response to said digital output signals of said sensing means.

Claim 43

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digitial sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means responsive to said digital output signals of said sensing means for producing digital control signals to individually decrease or increase the reactance of said capacitive and inductive reactance means.

Claim 44

An automatic antenna tuner for transforming the impedance of an antenna to the resistive load of the output of a transmitter for transmission over a range of frequencies in an antenna tuning operation comprising: impedance matching circuit means including capacitive and inductive reactance means, each incrementally variable in value in a digitial sequence in response to digital control signals; and digital control circuit means including sensing means for sensing the phase and impedance of transmission of any selected frequency in the range of frequencies of the antenna transformed by the impedance matching circuit means to produce digital output signals indicating phase and impedance digitally, and digital logic circuit means having an input for said digital output signals and responsive thereto to produce digital control signals at the output thereof for digital control of the reactance values of the impedance matching circuit means in the digital sequence of antenna tuning to transform the antenna impedance to the resistive load of the output of the transmitter for transmission; said digital logic circuit means includes circuit means responsive to said digital output signals of said sensing means for producing digital control signals to individually decrease or increase the reactance of said capacitive and inductive reactance means.