Broadband group delay waveguide lens
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorJames S. Ajioka
Life of this patent
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AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorJames S. Ajioka
Estimating the term…
A broadband group delay waveguide lens utilizing an array of half wave plates is disclosed. The lens is comprised of an array of uniformly spaced sections of waveguide having various lengths. The waveguide lengths are selected so as to provide an equal time delay to all rays from the focal point to the aperture plane of the lens. Since equal time delay does not ensure equality of phase at the aperture plane, half wave plates are inserted in the waveguide elements for adjusting the phase of each ray to obtain a constant phase plane over the aperture plane at the design frequency. The inner surface of the lens is spherical with the radius of the sphere equalling the focal length of the lens. The outer surface may be ellipsoidal having a semi-minor axis equal to the focal length and the semi-major axis is dependent upon the waveguide cross section dimensions and the design frequency. Such a lens has a low aperture phase error over a relatively large frequency range.
A broad bandwidth waveguide lens for processing electromagnetic wave energy emanating from a focal point to provide a desired phase distribution at an aperture plane comprising:
A broad bandwidth microwave system utilizing a waveguide lens comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.