Loop coupler commutating feed for scanning a circular array antenna
AssigneeInternational Telephone and Telegraph Corporation
InventorGregory G. Charlton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A multiple port loop-coupler, commutating feed for a circular or cylindrical array. A rotor having a plurality of elongated coupling loops circumferentially spaced about an arc of its perimeter is fed from a strip line configuration excited at the driven central axis of the rotor. A plurality of elongated stater loops within essentially the same radial dimensions but extending throughout the full 360 degrees of the circular perimeter of the device continuously couples a changing fraction of the stater loops to the rotor as the latter is rotated. An output port is provided connected to each stater loop, and these output ports may then be discreetly connected to corresponding elements of a circular array or columns of elements of a cylindrical array.
Claims12
A loop coupler commutating feed for a scanning circular array, comprising:
- a stator assembly having a conductive bodymember in the general shape of an annulus having a cavity therein such that the cross-section of said annulus is generally U-shaped opening radially inward, said stator assembly also comprising a plurality of circumferentially distributed stator loops and each radially elongated within said cavity, each of said stator loops having its elongated leg current paths in a radially extending plane normal to the plane of said annulus;
- a rotor assembly including a generally circular, conductive disc rotatable about its center, said center being substantially coincident with the geometric center of said annulus, said rotor assembly also including a plurality of rotor loops circumferentially spaced about an arcuate portion of the radially outward surface of said disc, said rotor loops also being radially elongated and each having its elongated leg current paths radial and in radially extending plane normal to the plane of said disc, the plant of said disc being substantially parallel to a plane through said annulus normal to the axis through the center of said annulus, said disc extending radially into said cavity such that said rotor loops couple to an arc of said stator loops in juxtaposition with said rotor loops about said arcuate portion of said disc, said coupling effecting energy transfer between said rotor and stator loops to a changing arcuate portion of said stator loops as said disc is rotated;
- first means for providing RF drive to said rotor loops according to a predetermined phase distribution pattern from a stationery first RF port;
- and second means comprising a plurality of stationary second ports, each of said second ports being discretely connected to a corresponding one of said stator loops.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.