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US 6,642,908 B2Granted
Switched beam antenna architecture
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsJoseph S. Pleva, Caroline Breglia, Thomas W. French, Walter Gordon Woodington, Michael Joseph Delcheccolo, Mark E. Russell, H. Barteld Van Rees
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multiple beam array antenna system comprises a plurality of radiating elements provided from stripline-fed open-ended waveguide coupled to a Butler matrix beam forming network. The Butler matrix beam forming network is coupled to a switched beam combining circuit. The antenna can be fabricated as a single Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) circuit.
Claims18
A switched beam antenna system comprising:
- a first plurality of antenna elements disposed to provide an antenna;
- a beamforming network that forms orthogonal beams at fixed locations having a plurality of antenna ports and a plurality of switch ports with each of the antenna ports coupled to ones of said first plurality of antenna elements;
- and
- a first switched beam combining circuit having an input port and a plurality of output ports, each of the output ports coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of switch ports of said beamforming network, said first switched beam combining circuit operative to simultaneously provide a radio frequency signal path between at least two of the plurality of switch ports of said beamforming network and the input port of said first switched beam combining circuit.
1 more element
A switched beam antenna system comprising:
- a feed circuit layer having a first ground plane disposed thereon;
- a radiator layer having a second ground plane disposed thereon with the second ground plane having an aperture therein, said radiator layer disposed over said feed circuit layer;
- and
- a cover layer disposed over said radiator layer;
- at least one conductive path coupling the first and second ground plane layers to provide a cavity in said radiator and feed circuit layers;
- an antenna element feed disposed to couple energy between the feed circuit and said radiator layer;
- a switched beam combining circuit having a common port and a plurality of switch ports;
- and
- a beamforming network that forms orthogonal beams at fixed locations, said beamforming network having a plurality of beam ports and a plurality of output ports with each of the plurality of beam ports coupled to one of the switch ports of said switched beam combining circuit and each of the plurality of beamforming network output ports coupled to said feed circuit layer and wherein said switched beam combining circuit is operative to simultaneously provide a radio frequency signal path between at least two of the plurality of beam ports of said beamforming network and the common port of said switched beam combining circuit.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.