Antenna apparatus
AssigneeSofant Technologies Ltd
InventorsNakul Raghavanand Haridas, David Michael Wither, Victor Steel, Wei Zhou, Tonio Idda, Admed Osman El-Rayis
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Abstract
The invention relates to antenna apparatus comprising: an antenna, a signal conductor and one or more RF MEMS switches, the antenna being conductively connected to the signal conductor, the MEMS switches and at least a portion of the signal conductor being supported by a crystalline MEMS substrate; and a capping substrate comprising a capping portion, wherein an enclosed volume is formed around the said MEMS switches between the capping portion and at least a portion of the crystalline MEMS substrate, and wherein the capping substrate comprises the said antenna.
Claims14
Phased array antenna apparatus comprising a plurality of antennas configured to wirelessly transmit and/or receive electromagnetic radiation, signal processing circuitry configured to process signals received and/or to be transmitted by the said antennas;
- and the signal processing circuitry comprising one or more MEMS phase shifters or attenuators, the MEMS phase shifter or attenuators comprising MEMS switches, and configured to individually adjust the amplitudes of electromagnetic signals received and/or to be transmitted by each of the antennas of the array;
- one or more electromagnetic signal dividers and/or combiners;
- and a MEMS controller configured to control the MEMS switches of each of a plurality of antennas.
A method of operating a phased antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas, each of the said antennas configured to transmit and/or receive radio frequency or microwave electromagnetic signals, the method comprising:
- individually adjusting the power of electromagnetic signals received or to be transmitted by each of the said plurality of antennas, wherein the step of individually adjusting the power of electromagnetic signals received or to be transmitted by each of the said plurality of antennas comprises individually adjusting the attenuation of electromagnetic signals received or to be transmitted by each of the said plurality of antennas by changing the state(s) of one or more MEMS switches of respective attenuators associated with the said antennas.
A method of operating a phased antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas, each of the said antennas configured to transmit and/or receive radio frequency or microwave electromagnetic signals, the method comprising:
- individually adjusting the power of electromagnetic signals received or to be transmitted by each of the said plurality of antennas, wherein each of the said plurality of antennas is associated with a phase shifter and an attenuator both having one or more MEMS switches, the method further comprising determining together a configuration of the MEMS switches of the phase shifter and the attenuator associated with each respective said antenna taking into account a target attenuation, a target phase shift;
- and implementing the said configuration.
A method of manufacturing phased antenna array apparatus, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of antennas;
- and conductively coupling antenna signal processing circuitry to the said antennas, the antenna signal processing circuitry being configured to individually adjust the power of electromagnetic signals received and/or to be transmitted by each of the said plurality of antennas, the antenna signal processing circuitry comprises a plurality of MEMS attenuators, each of the attenuators being associated with a respective antenna of the said plurality of antennas and being configurable to individually adjust an attenuation of electromagnetic signals received or to be transmitted by the antenna with which it is associated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.