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US 8,427,370 B2Granted
Methods and apparatus for multiple beam aperture
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorJerome H. Pozgay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for an electrically steered array including a phased array aperture having a plurality of elements at a selected spacing, the aperture to provide up to four simultaneous, independent beam sets, wherein the elements are controlled by a single complex weight.
Claims19
An electrically steered array, comprising:
- a phased array aperture having a plurality of elements at a selected spacing;
- a plurality of variable phase shifters to provide phase shifts for said plurality of elements in response to control inputs, said plurality of variable phase shifters having one variable phase shifter for each of a number of elements in said plurality of elements;
- and
- a beamforming network coupled to said plurality of elements, said beamforming network having multiple beam ports and including at least one 180 degree hybrid;
- wherein said electrically steered array is capable of supporting multiple simultaneous independent beams, each of said multiple simultaneous independent beams being associated with a corresponding one of said multiple beam ports.
2 more elements
A method for steering multiple simultaneous beams of a phased array antenna, said phased array antenna including a number of antenna elements that each have a separate variable phase shifter coupled thereto, the method comprising:
- using a controller to generate separate phase commands for the number of antenna elements for each desired beam of said phased array antenna;
- using the controller to combine the separate phase commands using linear superposition to generate total phase commands for the number of antenna elements;
- and
- using the controller to deliver the total phase commands to the variable phase shifters associated with the number of antenna elements.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.