Motorola Corporation

John Wesley Locke

Kenneth V Buer

Keith Andrew Olds

William Joe Haber

Richard Scott Torkington

Daniel Francis DiFonzo

Carl Myron Wagner

David C Campbell

David R Laidig

Paul A Chiavacci

Kevin Kristopher Day

R William Kreutel

Paul Adrian Chiavacci

Alan C Svoboda

A ground-based antenna assembly ( ) is provided that includes an assembly base ( ) defining a substantially horizontal plane ( ) and configured for attachment to a residential, commercial or governmental structure. The ground-based antenna ( ) also includes a plurality of planar receiving panels ( ) having a circular and/or elliptical shape. The plurality of planar receiving panels ( ) are radially-spaced about the assembly base ( ) and tilted with respect to the substantially horizontal plane ( ) for a receiving field-of-view. The ground-based antenna assembly ( ) further includes a plurality of planar transmitting panels ( ) having a circular and/or elliptical shape. The plurality of planar transmitting panels ( ) are radially-spaced about the assembly base ( ) and tilted with respect to the substantially horizontal plane ( ) for a transmitting field-of-view. In addition, the plurality of transmitting panels ( ) are radially offset and nested with respect to the plurality of receiving panels ( ).

Ground based antenna assembly

A hybrid geostationary and low earth orbit (LEO) ground station antenna provides a geostationary receive antenna (,) which generates a narrow receive antenna beam for use with geostationary satellites. The ground station antenna can be either manually positioned so that the normal boresight of the antenna is directed toward the geostationary satellite serving the subscriber, or may be positioned using a cradle (,) which provides motion in the pitch, roll, and yaw axes. The ground station antenna also includes a LEO receive antenna (,) and a LEO transmit antenna (,) which receive which communicate with LEO satellites by way of wider beam, lower gain antenna beams. The geostationary receive antenna (,) is used in conjunction with the LEO satellites and during operations which involve communication with both types of satellites.

Hybrid geostationary and low earth orbit satellite ground station antenna

An array antenna (10) having a plurality of antenna elements (12) keeps only a subset of elements active during normal antenna operation. When a failure of one of the active elements in the array (10) is detected, one of the previously inactive elements (46) is activated to operate as a replacement for the failed element (50). The number of elements that are active during normal operation is selected to achieve a level of antenna performance required by an underlying antenna application. Thus, a desired level of antenna performance is maintained during the life of the array antenna (10) without the consumption of excess power by spare elements in the antenna. Redistributions of inactive element locations are periodically performed during the life of the array antenna (10) to enhance antenna performance in light of failed element locations.

Method and apparatus for mitigating array antenna performance

A user terminal (110) includes a rotating electronically steerable antenna system (210) which combines coarse mechanical beam steering with fine electronic beam steering to provide full hemispherical coverage and enable hand-offs in a satellite communication system. The antenna system (210) comprises at least one antenna unit (and preferably two antenna units) including a mechanically rotatable base (330), an antenna holder (320) coupled to the mechanically rotatable base, and two electronically steerable antenna subunit (310) mounted on the antenna holder. Antenna system (210) also includes an antenna unit controller (260) adapted to control rotation of the mechanically rotatable base (330).

Rotating electronically steerable antenna system and method of operation

A modular phased array antenna for the formation of simultaneous independently steerable multiple beams, the modular phased array antenna comprising a modular array including a plurality of sub-array modules combined together in close proximity, each one of the plurality of sub-array modules including a plurality of input modules, a layer of a plurality of radiating antenna elements, a plurality of stacked beamformers arranged in series and each connected to one of the plurality of input modules and to the plurality of radiating antenna elements in beam communication.

Modular array and phased array antenna system

A network (26) for feeding a planar array of radiating antenna elements using row beamformers (28) and column beamformers (30) is made to project multiple contiguous antenna beams in a triangular pattern (22). The row beamformers (28) couple to the column beamformers (30). Phase shifting networks (46) are interposed between the row beamformers (28) and column beamformers (30) to apply a phase slope that distributes up to 180.degree. of phase shift across alternating rows of row beamformers (28).

Apparatus and method for beamforming in a triangular grid pattern

A method and apparatus for measuring a level of a material in a tank includes providing a stepped frequency microwave signal to an antenna of a transmitter and receiving in the antenna a received signal from a surface of the material at the level to be measured. A measuring signal containing ranging and calibrating signals is processed in even and odd sample sets input to contiguous narrowband filters formed digitally in a processor using DFT and other algorithms to form true in-phase and quadrature outputs. These outputs are combined and further processed using an interpolation algorithm to isolate ranging and calibration frequency components and to accurately measure the distances represented by such components. The calibration distance associated with the calibration frequency component is compared to a known delay line length and any determined error is used to correct the ranging distance associated with the ranging frequency component.

Method and apparatus for material level measurement using stepped

A convolving element which processes sixteen 4-bit samples but may be expanded to convolve both a larger number of samples and a larger number of bits per sample. The expansion occurs through interconnections of identical convolving elements. A selective inversion element inverts particular ones of the convolved samples under the control of a previously loaded binary code. The selective inversion element additionally minimizes interconnections and therefore input/output terminals of the convolving element, by permitting carries for each sample convolved to be accumulated rather than to propagate to more significant elements.

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Tempe, AZ, United States of America

John Wesley Locke