Devices and methods for steering an electromagnetic beam having one or more orbital angular momentum modes

Abstract

An apparatus for steering a beam includes a beamforming device for receiving electromagnetic (EM) waves and outputting, based on the received EM waves, EM waves having one or more orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. The apparatus further includes phase shifters for modulating, based on one or more steering patterns, the EM waves outputted by the beamforming device. The apparatus further includes a radial waveguide divided into multiple waveguide sectors. Each waveguide sector has an input connected to one of the phase shifters, and one or more slot line antennas for transmitting the EM waves modulated by the phase shifter connected to the input, wherein the one or more slot line antennas are oriented differently to the one or more slot line antennas of each other waveguide sector.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.