Roke Manor Research Limited

Peter John Wright

Bryan Stephen Rickett

Christopher John Tarran

Nicholas Alfred Carter

Charles Ralph Green

Albert Kester Roberts

The present invention provides an antenna assembly ( ) comprising a plurality of planar tiles ( ). Each of the tiles carries a planar array of sets ( ) of antenna elements ( ) arranged to be operated as a phased array antenna. The tiles are arranged in an orientation which is conformal to a contour of an underlying structure. In use, only those tiles which are capable of communication in the steered direction are enabled, while those which are not capable of communicating in the steered direction are not used.

Conformal phased array antenna

A method is presented for operating a phased array antenna comprising a number of sub-arrays. The method comprises the steps of introducing phase offsets into signals received from/transmitted to each element in the antenna, to provide directional transmit or receive sensitivity in a first direction; summing signals received from each element in each sub-array to provide respective sub-array signals; introducing respective phase offsets into the respective sub-array signals to adjust the direction of maximum sensitivity within a sensitivity envelope defined by the phase offsets applied to each element of the antenna as a whole. The method further comprises the step of adjusting the phase offset of each element of each respective sub-array by a respective amount, thereby to alter the directional sensitivity of each respective sub-array, respective sub-arrays having the phase offset of their elements adjusted by differing amounts thereby providing the sub-arrays with a variety of directional sensitivities diverging from the first direction.

Beam steering in sub-arrayed antennae

An antenna system is comprised of a plurality of independently constructed and operated antenna units, upon which are mounted a plurality of transmit and receive antenna pairs. This structure provides a means for the antenna system to be arranged to provide substantially hemispherical radio coverage. By adjusting the phase of each version of a radio signal to the transmitter or received, the signal may be formed into a beam according to known techniques of directional beam forming providing the antenna system with directional gain. Additionally, using a plurality of transmit and receive antenna pairs reduces the energy transmitted by each transmit antenna alone to a level which permits a branch line coupler to be sufficient to orthogonally polarize the transmitted and received radio signals negating the requirement for the duplexing filter for duplex operation.

Growing community of inventors

Salisbury, United Kingdom

Peter John Wright