1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data link transceivers and, more particularly, to data link transceivers requiring low receiver power and high burst transmission power.
2. Prior Art
A number of user applications continue to drive the requirement for low power transceivers capable of radio frequency communication. These applications include battery powered smart weapons capable of being remotely armed or disarmed, or simply located. Specific examples may include explosive mines, of the land or sea variety, missiles, or even small arms. The need for low power transceivers in mines is clear when considering thousands of deployed and armed land mines that are left after a conflict. These armed and very dangerous land mines essentially continue the original conflict against unarmed non-combatants and are of grave public concern as well as the subject of international treaties. Thus, there exists a need for arming or disarming the mines as necessary. There also exist a need for locating mines for removal or rendering inoperative, i.e., exploding the mine. It has been suggested in the prior art that this functionality for arming or disarming mines may be accomplished by a transceiver—see U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,932. Yet, a simple transceiver with its high receiver power requirements falls short when considering that devices such as land mines are battery powered—and that the mine may need to be controlled over many months with the landmine in a continuous receive mode. The power availability problem is exacerbated in smaller devices with smaller power cells; nor does providing larger or more power cells solve the problem since many devices such as landmines have weight or size limitations.
In addition, because the many users in a combat environment crowd the electromagnetic spectrum, communications with the landmine must be within a certain predefined range, such as below 200 MHz.
Thus, the above suggests a need for a transceiver having low power requirements. Such a low power transceiver may be fabricated through an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Yet, ASICs, custom made integrated circuits, are expensive and generally cost prohibitive due to their relatively limited production runs. On the other hand, commercial transceivers having low power consumption generally fall into the very high frequency range category, on the order of giga-hertz, well above the 200 MHz operating region of a landmine, and/or fail to have enough power to operate in a burst transmission mode.