Group antenna with electronically phase-controlled beam
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorAnton Brunner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An omni-directional scanning group antenna with electronically phase-control beam for precise target locating or target tracking comprising a plurality of line fed individual radiators (1) distributed within the volume of an imaginary three-dimensional body (2) such as a sphere which is divided into eight separate sub-volumes V1 through V8 forming octants wherein the signals SV1 through SV8 of the octants ae combined with a circuit (4) comprising eleven sum-difference elements so as to form one sum signal, one elevation difference signal and two azimuth difference signals. The invention is suitable for application in three-dimensional phase-array antennas for all-around scanning with precise target locating and target tracking.
Claims15
A group antenna comprising a plurality of line-fed individual radiators having omni-directional characteristics which are mounted within the volume of an imaginary body, particularly a sphere, and which are arranged symmetrically with respect to a horizontal plane E1 and two vertical plane E2 and E3 which intersect perpendicularly to each other, said group antenna being electronically phase-controlled so as to sweep the beam in all directions for radar scanning, characterized in that the individual radiators (1) are divided into eight octant sub-volumes (V1 through V8) which are respectively limited relative to one another by said three planes E1, E2, and E3 and which are separatly fed signals for the formation of an overall sum signal (.epsilon..sub.g), as well as an elevation difference signal (.DELTA..sub.E1) , and two azimuth difference signals (.DELTA..sub.AZ1, .DELTA..sub.AZ2), the signals SV1 through SV8 of the eight octants are combined in a circuit so as to obtain the overall sum signal, the elevation difference signal and the two azimuth difference signals and said circuit comprising, a total of eleven elements such as ring hybrids or magic T's operating as follows:
- (1) forming 4 first sum and 4 first difference signals from 4 hybrid rings representative of the sum and difference signals of octants adjacent one another;
- (2) forming 2 second sum signals and 4 second difference signals with 4 additional hybrid rings from the aforementioned 4 first sum signals and 4 first difference signals such that the sum and difference signals derived form adjacent octant pairs are combined;
- (3) combining the 2 second sum signals and 4 second difference signals in 3 further additional hybrid rings to form the desired overall sum signal, elevation difference signal and 2 azimuth difference signals.
A group antenna comprising a plurality of line-fed individual radiators having omni-directional characteristics which are mounted within the volume of an imaginary body, particlularly a sphere, and which are arranged symmetrically with respect to a horizontal plane E1 and two vertical planes E2 and E3 which intersect perpendicularly to each other, said group antenna being electronically phase-controlled so as to sweep the beam in all directions for radar scanning, characterized in that the individual radiators (1) are divided into eight octant sub-volumes (V1 through V8) which are respectively limited relative to one another by said three planes E1, E2 and E3 and which are separately fed signals for the formation of an overall sum signal (.epsilon..sub.g) as well as an elevation difference signal (.DELTA..sub.E1), and two azimuth difference signals (.DELTA..sub.Az1,.DELTA..sub.Az2) , the signals SV1 through SV8 of the eight octants are combined in a circuit so as to obtain the overall sum signal, the elevation difference signal and the two azimuth difference signals and said circuit comprising, a total of eleven elements such as ring hybrids of magic T's operating as follows:
- (1) forming 4 first sum and 4 first difference signals from 4 hybrid rings representative of the sum and difference signals of octants adjacent one another;
- (2) forming 4 second sum signals and two second difference signals with 4 additional hybrid rings from the aforementioned 4 first sum signals and 4 first difference signals such that the sum and difference signals derived from adjacent octant pairs are combined;
- (3) combining the 4 second sum signals and 2 second difference signals in 3 further additional hybrid rings to form the desired overall sum signal, elevation difference signal and 2 azimuth difference signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.