Microstrip antenna arrays
AssigneeThe Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
InventorsJames Roderick James, Geoffrey John Wilson
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Abstract
A microstrip antenna array takes the form of a feeder strip and a plurality of elements, each in the form of a strip attached to the feeder strip at one end and having an open-circuit termination at the other. Arrays are disclosed which use standing waves in the feeder strip and which use travelling waves. The elements can be of various widths to provide a modulated array and, in the case of a travelling wave array, to compensate for attenuation in the wave in the feeder strip. A frequency-swept array and a circularly polarized array are described.
Claims7
A microstrip antenna array comprising a pattern of conducting material on an insulating substrate with a conducting backing wherein said pattern includes an elongated feeder strip and a plurality of elongated radiating antenna elements disposed in spaced relation to one another along at least one edge of said feeder strip, the direction of elongation of each of said antenna elements being transverse to the direction of elongation of said feeder strip, each of said antenna elements consisting of an elongated strip connected at one of its ends to and extending away from said feeder strip, the other end thereof being an opencircuit termination, said elongated radiating antenna elements being of various different widths respectively so as to provide the array with modified directional characteristics, and said antenna elements being approximately an integral number of half wavelengths long relative to electromagnetic waves in said antenna elements at a predetermined operating frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.