In
electronics, a
superheterodyne receiver (often shortened to
superhet) uses
frequency mixing to convert a received signal to a fixed
intermediate frequency (IF) which can be more conveniently processed than the original
carrier frequency. It was invented by US engineer
Edwin Armstrong in 1918 during
World War I. Virtually all modern radio receivers use the superheterodyne principle. At the cost of an extra frequency converter stage, the superheterodyne receiver provides superior selectivity and sensitivity compared with simpler designs.