Hughes Aircraft Company

James V Strahan

William A Harrington

Jar Jar Lee

Raymond K Tang

James S Ajioka

Lawrence DiFrancesco

A phase shifter subarray which is useful with a phased array antenna, includes a plurality of phase shifter elements which have substantially equal finite lengths and which are mounted on a ferri-magnetic substrate. An electrical coil is disposed around selected portions of the substrate and a common feed is connected to each of the phase shifter elements to transmit energy through the phase shifter elements to the radiating elements of the antenna. A driver is connected to the coil, and the driver is activated to induce a magnetic flux in the selected portions of the substrate. This flux influences that part of each phase shifter element which is mounted in the selected portions of the substrate and, consequently, the phase of the wave energy which passes through the influenced part of each phase shifter element is shifted to predictably direct the beam radiated from the antenna. For one embodiment, each phase shifter element is bifurcated into first and second segments with the respective first segments being of different length. For this embodiment the flux influences only the first segments of the phase shifter elements. In another embodiment, the phase shifter elements are not bifurcated and, instead, the coil is tapered on the substrate to influence different lengths of each phase shifter element.

Single element driver architecture for ferrite based phase shifter

A millimeter wave antenna capable of electronic scanning for automobile collision avoidance radar. The antenna includes a linear ferrite loaded slot array which illuminates a dielectric lens. The antenna system has no moving parts. Beam scanning is achieved by controlling the bias magnetic field along the ferrite rod of the slot array.

Electronically scanned antenna for collision avoidance radar

A one piece millimeter wave phase shifter/antenna, wherein magnetic flux is imported into a ferrite rod body through a plated metallic film helix, driven by a pulse generator to change the amount of remnant flux, and therefore the relative microwave phase shift from one aperture port to its neighbor.

One piece millimeter wave phase shifter/antenna

A microwave ferrite phase shifter wherein three parallel microstrip lines are disposed on a planar ferrite substrate surface opposite a ground plane disposed on an opposite planar surface of the substrate, the lines defining two sets of quadrature E-fields within the substrate to produce a circularly polarized wave therein, the amount of phase shift between the input and output ports of the phase shifter being determined by the magnitude of a magnetic field produced in the substrate in the direction of its axis by a current-carrying coil, for example.

Planar ferrite phase shifter

A phase shifter assembly for use with a phased array antenna includes a plurality of phase shifter subarrays which are mounted on a ferri-magnetic substrate. There is a common power feed which is connected in series through a transmission line with each of the phase shifter subarrays. Additionally, a plurality of power combiners/splitters are connected into the transmission line to direct the proportionate power to each subarray. An alignment phase shifter is connected into the transmission line between adjacent subarrays and their associated power combiner/splitter. Separately from the transmission line, a driver is electronically connected in series with coils at each of the alignment phase shifters to alter the phase power which is fed into each of the subarray to align adjacent subarrays and produce a substantially continuous wave for the antenna. There is also a common driver which is electronically connected in series with each of the phase shifter subarrays to alter the phase of the power which is fed from the common power feed to the radiating elements of the antenna and thereby establish the direction of the radiated beam.

Low cost architecture for ferrimagnetic antenna/phase shifter

An electronically scanned array antenna useful for millimeter wavelength energy is disclosed. The antenna comprises a fully ferrite loaded square or round waveguide having radiating apertures spaced along part of its length. Rf energy is circularly polarized in the waveguide. The phase velocity of the wave is controlled by applying a longitudinal magnetic field to the ferrite to produce a controllable linear progressive phase of the energy radiated from the apertures to form a beam in the desired direction. The phase control is of a latching type using flux drive. The particular structure of the invention enables combining a plurality of branching array elements with a feed element to form an array capable of two dimension beam scanning.

Growing community of inventors

Brea, CA, United States of America

James V Strahan