Synchrodyne - History and Applications

History and Applications

The homodyne was developed in 1932 by a team of British scientists searching for a design to surpass the superheterodyne (two stage conversion model). The design was later renamed the "synchrodyne". Not only did it have superior performance due to the single conversion stage, but it also had reduced circuit complexity and power consumption. The design suffered from the thermal drift of the local oscillator which changed its frequency over time. To counteract this drift, the frequency of the local oscillator was compared with the broadcast input signal by a phase detector. This produced a correction voltage which would vary the local oscillator frequency keeping it in lock with the wanted signal. This type of feedback circuit evolved into what is now known as a phase-locked loop. While the method has existed for several decades, it had been difficult to implement due largely to component tolerances, which must be of small variation for this type of circuit to function successfully.