Patent ID: 7957938

Claim:
A method of digitizing an analog signal, comprising the steps of: separating the analog signal spanning a frequency range into a plurality of frequency bands, each frequency band spanning a corresponding predefined frequency range, at least a portion of each of the plurality of corresponding predefined frequency ranges not overlapping any other of the plurality of corresponding predefined frequency ranges; translating at least one of the signals in the plurality of frequency bands to a lower frequency band employing a local oscillator; digitizing the at least one translated signal with digitizing elements having a frequency range less than the analog signal frequency range; defining a fixed relationship of the phase of the local oscillator and a repetitive signal generated upon a writing to a circular buffer of the digitized representation of the at least one translated signal corresponding to at least one of the plurality of frequency bands; digitizing the signals corresponding to the plurality of frequency bands other than the frequency band containing the translated at least one signal and writing these digitized signals to corresponding circular buffers employing one or more corresponding local oscillators; forming a digital representation of the analog signal from the digitized signals, the digital representation substantially spanning the frequency range of the analog signal; and storing the digital representation in a computer readable medium.