Patent ID: 6927889

Claim:
Process for detecting and processing the amplitude and phase of signal waves, wherein a signal source generates a modulated signal wave which, optionally modified by reflection and/or scattering, is received by a receiving apparatus and directly demodulated therein, using a modulation signal, which has a well-defined relationship to the modulation of the signal wave, is directly demodulated by a modulation device without the carrier of the signal wave, and is optionally also detected and evaluated with respect to the amplitude of the modulated signal wave and the phase relationship of the modulation phase of the signal wave and of the modulation signal, wherein in a sensor in a receiving apparatus, sensitive to the signal wave, wave energy particles directly or indirectly generated by means of the signal wave energy, in an oscillation process with a wave energy oscillator matching the modulation signal, are fed to at least two distinguishable receiving electrodes of the sensor, detected, optionally amplified, and transmitted to at least one readout output of a readout unit corresponding to the receiving electrodes in the form of a summation and/or correlation signal, characterized in that, as readout electrodes, groups of parallelswitched receiving elements (A 1 , A 2 ) or (K 1 , K 2 ) are used, wherein at least one of the groups of receiving elements (e.g. A 1 or A 2 ) is directly loaded with a modulation signal and the output signal is received at least on one group of receiving elements.