Flexible hybrid electronic sensing system for UAV applications

A method of operating a radio system comprising:

• providing power to a radar processing system and a radio front-end hardware from a renewable power source;
• creating a low-frequency signal for transmission by the radar processing system and communicating the low-frequency signal to the radio front-end hardware;
• upconverting the low-frequency signal to a radar signal by the radio front-end hardware, wherein the radio front-end hardware is located on a backside of a flexible substrate;
• coupling the radar signal to a corporate feed beamforming network;
• and
• radiating the radar signal by an antenna array coupled to the corporate feed beamforming network, wherein the antenna array is located on a front side of the flexible substrate.

A radiating structure comprising:

• a flexible substrate having a top surface, a bottom surface, and a plane located between the top surface and the bottom surface, wherein the plane is substantially parallel to at least one of the top surface and the bottom surface;
• an antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna elements in a two-dimensional array, wherein the antennas are coupled to the top surface of the flexible substrate;
• radio front-end hardware configured to communicably couple to a radar processor, wherein:
• the radio front-end hardware is located on the bottom surface of the flexible substrate, and
• the radio front-end hardware is configured to upconvert signals from the radar processor and output a radar signal;
• and
• a corporate feed beamforming network coupled between at least a subset of the plurality of antenna elements and the radio front-end hardware, wherein the corporate feed beamforming network is configured to feed the radar signal from the radio front-end hardware to the at least a subset of the plurality of antenna elements.