US 6,211,824 B1Granted

Microstrip patch antenna

AssigneeRaytheon Company

InventorsRichard H. Holden, Joseph A. Preiss, Gennaro Ledonne

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Abstract

An integrated directional patch antenna uses multiple patch radiating elements to control the direction of a beam of radio frequency energy (RF) over a large scan volume. The antenna includes a ground plane element and a first dielectric planar member placed on a major surface of the ground plane element. A plurality of first patch radiator elements is arranged on a surface of the first dielectric member remote from the ground plane element. A second dielectric planar member is placed on first patch radiator elements, and a plurality of second patch radiator elements arranged on a surface of the second dielectric member remote from the first patch radiator elements. First regions are formed in the dielectric planar member that have a first dielectric constant and are separated from each other by second regions that have a dielectric constant different from the first dielectric constant to effectively prevent surface wave energy from propagating in the first dielectric planar member, thereby increasing the scan volume of the antenna.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A patch radiator antenna array comprising:

a single continuous conductive ground plane element having a major surface;
a first continuous dielectric planar member disposed over the major surface of the ground plane element and having embedded therein isolated electrically conductive regions;
a plurality of feed patch radiator elements disposed on a face of the first dielectric member remote from the ground plane element, each feed patch radiator element defining a respective feed patch area and adapted to be coupled to at least one of an RF signal source and an RF receiver, with the isolated electrically conductive regions being disposed around a respective feed patch area so as to completely surround the feed patch area;
a second continuous dielectric planar member disposed over the plurality of feed patch radiator elements;
a plurality of coupled patch radiator elements disposed on the second dielectric member remote from the feed patch radiator elements, each coupled patch radiator element associated with a corresponding feed patch radiator element,
wherein the first dielectric planar member has a first dielectric constant that is greater than a second dielectric constant of the second dielectric planar member.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.