Patent ID: 9658171
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: G01L,G01M,G01N

Claim:
1. A system for measuring a physical, chemical, or biological property, the system comprising: a carrier signal source for generating a first carrier signal and for transmitting the first carrier signal along a first path; an envelope signal source for generating a first microwave envelope signal; a modulator configured to modulate the first carrier signal with the first envelope signal so that the first envelope signal travels along the first path via the first carrier signal; an interferometer placed along the first path and configured to split the first carrier signal and the first envelope signal into at least a second carrier signal and a second envelope signal travelling along a second path and a third carrier signal and a third envelope signal travelling along a third path, the second path and the third path cooperatively defining a path difference corresponding to a difference in length between the third path and the second path, the second carrier signal and the third carrier signal combining with each other in a fourth path to form a fourth carrier signal and the second envelope signal and the third envelope signal combining with each other in the fourth path to form a fourth envelope signal, the fourth envelope signal having at least one feature resulting from the path difference; a detector positioned along the fourth path and configured to convert the fourth envelope signal into an electronic signal having at least one feature corresponding to the at least one feature of the fourth envelope signal; and an analyzer for extracting the at least one feature of the electronic signal, the at least one feature of the electronic signal equating to a value of the physical, chemical, or biological property being measured.