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US 10,897,075 B2Granted
Wideband reflectarray using electrically re-focusable phased array feed
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Systems Corporation
InventorsMichael E. Cooley, Bret J. Yon, David Sall, Robert J. March, Scott A. Wilson, John Hodge, Alyssa Harris, Nicholas Fasanella
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A planar reflectarray system provides for bandwidth broadening by employing a tunable (amplitude and phase) feed array. The tunable feed array is adjustable in amplitude and phase to compensate for aberrations by enabling feed re-focusing and field matching. The techniques modestly increase the size of the feed array and use active tuning to effectively correct for de-focusing when operating reflectarrays at frequencies away from the tuned center frequency.
Claims16
An apparatus comprising:
- a reflectarray comprising an array of reflective elements, each reflective element configured to reflect electromagnetic radiation with an adjusted phase based on a frequency of the reflected electromagnetic radiation, wherein the array of reflective elements define a focal point in an axial direction away from the reflectarray that is based on the frequency of the reflected electromagnetic radiation;
- a feed array comprising an array of feed elements that form a phase center of the feed array;
- and
- a transmitter configured to control inputs to the feed elements such that the phase center of the feed array is moved in the axial direction to focus the feed array on a range of frequencies of the reflected electromagnetic radiation.
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A method comprising:
- reflecting electromagnetic radiation with a reflectarray comprising an array of reflective elements, wherein the reflectarray reflects the electromagnetic radiation with an adjusted phase based on a frequency of the reflected electromagnetic radiation;
- focusing the reflected electromagnetic radiation toward a focal point in an axial direction away from the reflectarray that is based on the frequency of the reflected electromagnetic radiation;
- forming a phase center of a feed array with an array of feed elements;
- controlling inputs of the feed elements to move the phase center of the feed array in the axial direction, wherein moving the feed phase center in the axial direction focuses the feed array on a range of frequencies of the reflected electromagnetic radiation.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.