Harris Corporation

Jeffery C May

Douglas E Heckaman

Walter M Whybrew

A stripline cross-over architecture includes a first stripline layer extending on a first side of a dielectric layer between a first signal input port and a plurality of first signal output ports. A second stripline layer extends on a second side of the dielectric layer between a second signal input port and a plurality of second signal output ports, crossing over the first stripline layer at a plurality of cross-overs of mutual overlap therebetween. The electrical lengths of the stripline layers are defined and the cross-overs are located such that electrical distances between the cross-overs and signal combination locations cause cross-coupled signals to cancel one another, when non cross-coupled signals are combined in phase.

Cross-over distribution scheme for canceling mutually coupled signals

A distributed ground pad-based isolation arrangement for a multilayer stripline architecture is configured to effectively inhibit the mutual coupling of signals between overlapping regions of adjacent stripline networks of dielectrically separated transmission networks, without substantially increasing either the mass of the laminate structure or the lossiness of the stripline. At regions of mutual overlap, the stripline layers are spatially oriented at right angles to one another, and a limited area ground pad is interleaved between the stripline layers. To maintain the desired characteristic line impedance of a stripline layer as it passes over a ground pad, the width of the stripline layer is reduced in the overlap region. Each ground pad is connected to an external ground reference by plated vias, that extend through the dielectric layers and intersect outer grounded shielding layers of the laminate.

Distributed ground pads for shielding cross-overs of mutually

A stripline isolation cross-over is configured to cancel signals that may be mutually coupled at cross-over points between adjacent stripline networks within a compact multilayer signal distribution architecture, such as one feeding elements of phased array antennas, without a shielding layer between adjacent signal distribution networks. The signal distribution networks includes layers of stripline, patterned on opposite sides of a dielectric layer. Wherever the stripline layers mutually overlap, they are oriented at right angles to one another, and one of the striplines is configured as a pair of power dividers, connected back-to-back via stripline interconnect passing the other stripline layer, to form a signal splitting-recombining stripline pair. The locations where the sections of interconnect cross the second stripline are spaced apart by a half-wavelength of transported signals, so that any signal mutually coupled between the two striplines at each cross-over point will combine antiphase with itself, thereby effectively preventing mutual interference between the two networks.

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Indialantic, FL, United States of America

Jeffery C May