International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation

John C Parr

Bradford E Kruger

An annular rotary RF coupler for installation about a vertical support structure, such as the mast of a ship. Two annuli are divided into circumferential increments providing a cellular structure of individual waveguide cross-sections. A lower annulus (stator) remains fixed, the individual waveguide sections therein being fed from a power-divided, equal-phase, feed configuration. The oppositely facing upper annulus (rotor) rotates with respect to the lower one about the common mechanical center of rotation of a mechanically rotating antenna system. Connection to the rotating waveguide sections may be through power combiner/divider means, or individual subarrays may be discretely connected to one or more waveguide sections in the rotating annulus. For power tapering across an antenna array aperture, the waveguide section dimensions in the circumferential direction within the rotating annulus are appropriately tailored. A single enlarged stator cell is employed to accept the residual energy in the power distribution transmission line, eliminating the need for a termination load and the corresponding power loss.

Lossless annular rotary RF coupler

An annular rotary RF coupler for installation about a vertical support structure, particularly the mast of a ship. Two annular volumes are regularly divided into circumferential increments providing a cellular structure of individual waveguide cross-sections. A first annulus (stator) remains fixed, the individual waveguide sections therein being fed in equal phase from individual solid-state transmit/receive modules. The oppositely facing annulus (rotor) rotates with respect to the first annulus about the common mechanical center of rotation both share with a mechanically rotating antenna system. Connection to the rotating waveguide sections may be through power combiner/divider means (more than one rotor cell per antenna element or subarray), or individual antenna elements or subarrays may be discretely connected to corresponding waveguide sections in the rotor. For power tapering across the antenna aperture, the waveguide (cell) section dimensions in the circumferential direction within the rotating annulus may be appropriately tailored.

Around-the-mast rotary coupler with individual power module excitation

A rotary annular, around-the-mast, radio frequency coupler having two concentric sets of generally axial loops, one fixed (stator set) and the other rotatable (rotor set) for electromagnetically coupling between a fixed and rotatable structure, such as a rotating antenna sub-system. Two methods and corresponding structure are provided for reducing the power transfer ripple occurring during rotation. These are prime related different loop totals between rotor and stator and angular canting of one loop set with respect to the other.

Growing community of inventors

Woodland Hills, CA, United States of America

John C Parr