Raytheon Company

Hughes Aircraft Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Allen T Wang

Kuan M Lee

Ruey S Chu

Fangchou Yang

Jason G Milne

Tamrat Akale

Hee Kyung Kim

Ruey-Shi Chu

Douglas O Klebe

Gary L Crandall

Loc B Chau

Lan Tso

Jeffrey A Bille

Provided herein are devices, systems and techniques for establishing a variable height conformal antenna array having a planar backplane. More particularly, positioning of radiating elements can be made insensitive to variable ground height by selecting a suitable radiating element, such as a flared notch and arranging them to have a profile such that their outer extremities are positioned along a conformal, curved shape. Differences in radiator heights can be taken up by the addition of parallel vertical ground planes disposed between the radiating elements and the backplane. Adjacent vertical ground planes effectively form cutoff waveguide sections that naturally isolate the backplane from the radiating elements. The vertical ground planes edges effectively form a virtual curved ground for the radiating elements, following curvature of the array profile. Accordingly, heights of radiating elements are uniform with respect to the virtual ground, while being allowed to vary with respect to the backplane.

Variable height radiating aperture

An edge-coupled filter includes a phase velocity compensation transmission line section comprising a series of spaced alternating T-shaped conductor portions.

Bandpass filter

An improved injection molded radiator assembly and antenna assembly can be made using multiple such radiator assemblies. The radiator assembly includes an injection molded radiator enclosure that forms an RF waveguide channel. A circuit/RF probe subassembly is mated to the radiator enclosure that houses a circulator assembly, input and output connectors, and an RF probe. An environmental plug is disposed in the radiator enclosure to seal the RF waveguide channel from the external environment.

Flared notch radiator assembly and antenna

A planar, low-profile, very wide frequency bandwidth, wide-scan, dual-linear or circular-polarized phased array antenna using integrated stacked-disc radiator tiles. The stacked-disc radiator configuration comprises a lower active radiator fed by a pair of probes for each polarization state, and a parasitic radiator separated from the active radiator by dielectric material. The stacked-disc radiator is integrated with its multi-layer feed circuits in a very compact package. The feed circuits include 90.degree. hybrid coupler circuits and 180.degree. hybrid coupler circuits that couple dual linear or dual circular polarized energy to and from the disk radiators.

Low-profile, integrated radiator tiles for wideband, dual-linear and

A phased array antenna having stacked-disc radiators embedded in dielectric media. The phased array antenna has a rectangular arrangement of unit cells that are disposed on a ground plane. A lower dielectric puck with a high dielectric constant is disposed on the ground plane. An excitable disc is disposed within the perimeter of and on top of the lower dielectric puck. An upper low dielectric constant dielectric puck that has a dielectric constant lower than that of the lower dielectric puck is disposed on the excitable disc. A parasitic disc is disposed within the perimeter of and on top of the upper dielectric puck. Dielectric filler material having a dielectric constant that is lower than that of the lower dielectric puck surrounds the dielectric pucks. A radome 18 is disposed on top of the parasitic disc and the unit cell. Two orthogonal pairs of excitation probes are coupled to the lower excitable disc. The polarization of the phased array antenna may be single linear polarization, dual linear polarization, or circular polarization depending on whether a single pair or two pairs of excitation probes are excited

Planar low profile, wideband, wide-scan phased array antenna using a

A very wide-band or dual-band phased array antenna using stacked-disc radiators on stacked-dielectric cylindrical posts to form radiator elements. Each radiator element includes a ground plane, a lower dielectric cylindrical post of a high dielectric material adjacent the ground plane, a lower thin conductive radiator disc formed on the upper surface of the lower dielectric post, an upper dielectric cylindrical post of a low dielectric material disposed on top of the lower post and lower radiator disc, and an upper thin radiator disc or annular ring formed on the upper surface of the upper post. The first radiator disc is excited by two pairs of probes arranged in orthogonal locations. Each pair of probes can be fed by coaxial cables with 180 degree phase reversal. The second radiator disc or annular ring is a parasitic radiator without feeding probes. Depending on the feed arrangement, the radiator elements can achieve single-linear polarization, dual-linear polarization or circular polarization.

Wide-band/dual-band stacked-disc radiators on stacked-dielectric posts

A multiband phased-array antenna interleaves tapered-element radiators with waveguide radiator to facilitate the simultaneous radiation of antenna beams across a bandwidth in excess of two octaves. The launch ends of the waveguide radiators collectively define a ground plane. The tapered-element radiators have pairs of tapered wings which are extended past the ground plane by a distance which is selected to establish a predetermined tapered wing radiation impedance. The radiators of each type are spaced apart by a span which insures that they will not generate grating lobes at the highest frequency which they respectively radiate.

Growing community of inventors

Buena Park, CA, United States of America

Allen T Wang