Acoustic surface wave device for separating the luminance and chrominance signals and adjusting their delays

Claim 1

In a color television receiver having a luminance channel and a chroma channel introducing unequal delay times, a signal splitter and time delay equalizer, comprising: acoustic surface-wave propagative means; first and second spaced input transducers coupled to said wave propagative means and responsive to an applied IF television signal having luminance and chroma signal components for launching acoustic surface waves respectively along isolated first and second wave paths on said wave-propagative means, said first input transducer having maximum response in the frequency band of said luminance channel and said second input transducer having maximum response in the frequency band of said chroma channel; a first output transducer coupled to said wave-propagative means and located in said first wave path for developing a first output signal characterizing said luminance signal component for application to said luminance channel; and a second output transducer coupled to said wave-propagative means and located in said second wave path for developing a second output signal characterizing said chroma signal component for application to said chroma channel, the respective relative spacings of said first and second output transducers from said first and second input transducers being different by an amount effective to compensate for said unequal delay times of said luminance and chroma channels.