Hazeltine Corporation

Bae Systems Advanced Systems

Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

Bae Systems Aerospace Inc.

Marconi Aerospace Systems Inc.

Jr Microwave Systems, Inc.

Richard J Kumpfbeck

Alfred R Lopez

Peter W Hannan

Gary A Schay

John F Pedersen

Joseph T Merenda

Edward M Newman

Lindsley D Colclough

Richard J Glenn

Antennas having a circular array of radiating elements are arranged to enable continuous 360 degree scanning of a sum and difference beam pattern. With a 108 element circular array, a sub array of 27 contiguous elements may be step scanned to 108 positions while maintaining sum and difference antenna patterns. Each scan step may require only two switch adjustments, one to initiate excitation of a contiguous leading element and terminate excitation of the trailing element, and the other to change coupling of a middle element from a divided power port of a left power divider to such a port of a right power divider. Configurations using sub arrays whose element complement is not evenly divisible into the total number of array elements, using sub arrays consisting of an odd number of radiating elements, or employing minimized feed network complexity are disclosed.

Circular array scanning with sum and difference excitation

A compact aircraft antenna for reception of GPS signals includes eight elements to provide eight antenna patterns usable for anti-jam signal processing. Four bent monopole elements are configured with vertical portions and horizontal inward-extending portions. The bent monopole elements are arranged for multimode excitation to provide a primary progressive phase omnidirectional right-hand circularly-polarized antenna pattern for basic signal GPS signal reception. Multimode excitation of the bent monopoles also provides omnidirectional left-hand circularly-polarized, uniform phase omnidirectional, and clover leaf auxiliary antenna patterns. Four individual slot element figure-eight type auxiliary antenna patterns are also provided. With availability of these primary and auxiliary patterns, adaptive type anti-jam processing can be employed to actively provide reduced-gain antenna pattern notches or nulls at incident angles of interference or jamming signals.

Eight-element anti-jam aircraft GPS antennas

Low-protrusion array antennas enable reception of satellite signals by airliners in flight. Prior systems using a beam normal to an array face required a 70&deg; array tilt for reception from a satellite at 20&deg; elevation (i.e., tilt angle is complementary angle (90&deg;&minus;&bgr;) of satellite angle (&bgr;) of elevation). Compared to that 70&deg; array tilt for reception from a satellite at 20&deg; elevation, disclosed antennas require an array tilt of only 25&deg; (90&deg;&minus;&bgr;&minus;&agr;&equals;25&deg;). This is accomplished by providing a beam at a fixed acute angle (&agr;) to the array face (e.g. 45 degrees). A side-by-side linear array,of slotted waveguide radiator columns,provides a pencil beam at a fixed acute angle of 45&deg; to array aperture, for example. By action of tilting motor,to mechanically tilt the array of slotted waveguides over a range of &plusmn;25&deg; from horizontal, the beam can be scanned from 20&deg; elevation to 70&deg; elevation. Azimuth rotator motor,provides 360&deg; beam pointing in azimuth. A television satellite can thus be tracked by an aircraft mounted antenna with only about a 5 inch above-fuselage protrusion.

Minimum protrusion mechanically beam steered aircraft array antenna systems

A dual-radiator whip antenna to operate over a 30 to 450 MHz frequency band includes a high frequency dipole above a low frequency monopole. The outer conductor (,) of a coaxial line is configured to operate as a monopole. Above the upper terminus of the outer conductor, an extension (,) of the inner conductor (,) is configured as the upper arm of a dipole. An upper length of the outer conductor also functions as the lower dipole arm. With a single antenna port (,), a diplexer and other feed elements separate signals into high and low frequency bands respectively coupled to the dipole and monopole radiators. Increased high frequency range results from positioning of the center of radiation of the dipole above the monopole.

Dual-point-feed broadband whip antenna

A self-contained four-dipole element provides a 360 degree phase-progressive-omnidirectional (PPO) circularly polarized antenna pattern. Via a single signal port, a PPO excitation network incorporated into the element excites the four dipoles at phases differing by successive 90 degree increments. The four-dipole element is adapted for efficiently reproducible fabrication using printed circuit techniques. Antennas employing a stack of the elements provide a hemispherical antenna pattern with PPO circular polarization and a sharp cutoff below horizontal. For GPS reception in Differential GPS aircraft landing applications, a 21 element antenna provides multipath suppression and a unitary phase center enabling avoidance of signal phase discrepancies. More or fewer elements may be employed in other applications.

Self-contained progressive-phase GPS elements and antennas

A dipole array antenna is configured for improved cellular operation by avoidance of metallic contacts which can lead to generation of intermodulation products (IMP). Isolated rectangular dipole radiators 12-17 are electromagnetically excited by perpendicularly aligned non-contacting exciter resonators 40-45. The rectangular exciter resonators 40-45 are integrally formed with microstrip signal distribution feed 18 supported above a ground plane 22. A non-contact RF grounded termination for the outer conductor of coaxial input line 52 uses a quarter-wave microstrip line section 56 to provide a low impedance RF path to ground to avoid IMP. An RF-isolated DC grounding circuit for surge protection includes a parallel combination of quarter-wave line sections 62 and 66. Line section 66 provides an RF open circuit path to a DC grounding post 67. Line section 62 provides a parallel non-contact low impedance RF path to ground, avoiding IMP from flow of an RF current through pressure contact points at post 67. The low impedance RF path to ground through line section 62 is isolated from the signal distribution line 18b of the antenna by the RF open circuit provided by quarter-wave line section 68.

Low intermodulation electromagnetic feed cellular antennas

A multifunction antenna system is selectively operative over the UHF and VHF frequency ranges using a novel arrangement of symmetrically disposed phased radiating elements that function as a dipole turnstile type array at UHF and as a monopole at VHF. At VHF the UHF radiating elements and feedlines are fed in parallel against ground to produce a pattern similar to that of a short vertical monopole. VHF and UHF coupling networks offer low VSWR and minimize circuit losses when utilized with a folded dipole array. The compact, lightweight structure is adaptable to oceanic communications by installing in a towed radome adapted for water flotation, and provides low angle hemispherical UHF radiation without pattern switching, with the water surface providing a reflective ground plane.

UHF/VHF multifunction ocean antenna system

A beam sharpened antenna pattern is achieved by intercoupling signals from individual radiating elements of an array to produce a sum mode signal and a ring mode signal. The ring mode signal represents a forward-directed antenna pattern having a zero to 360 degree progressive phase characteristic around a pattern axis. Beam sharpening results from processing the sum and ring mode signals to provide a pattern having 360 degree beam sharpening, which represents portions of the sum mode pattern of amplitude greater than the amplitudes of selected portions of the ring mode signal. The ring mode signal may be provided on a predetermined basis after selected attenuation or amplification in order to provide a beam sharpened antenna pattern having a modified characteristic. In some applications, received signals are processed on a simultaneous sum mode and ring mode basis, while during transmission pulsed sum mode and ring mode antenna patterns are activated on a sequential, timed basis. Arrangements for use of the invention with two-dimensional-scan and one-dimensional-scan phased arrays are also described.

Beam sharpened pencil beam antenna systems

The need to widely separate antennas (e.g., transmit and receive antennas) for VHF radio and other applications is avoided by high-isolation antenna systems with collocated antennas and cancellation of intercoupled signals. A transmit antenna in the form of a vertical dipole can be mounted atop a mast with a receive antenna comprising a multi-element array of vertical dipoles supported on the same mast below the transmit antenna. Opposing pairs of the dipole receiving elements are located in 180.degree. positions on opposite sides of the mast so as to be symmetrically located in the omnidirectional antenna pattern of the transmit antenna. Resulting intercoupling to the receive dipoles is equal and in-phase and is cancelled out by the antiphase combining of signals from the dipoles of each pair of the receive dipoles. Reciprocally, cancellation of coupled signals is achieved with reversal of the receive and transmit functions of the respective collocated antennas. Dipole and monopole high-isolation antenna systems can also be configured on yardarms and ground planes.

High-isolation collocated antenna systems

An antenna comprising a linear array of active elements positioned in one or more rows. The back portion of the array is partially enveloped by a reflector. The reflector includes a backwall and at least one sidewall perpendicular to the backwall and extending forward of the backwall. In one embodiment of the invention, a single row of dipole radiators form the linear array. In a second embodiment of the invention, a row of folded monopoles mounted on an imaging ground plane form the linear array. The radiation pattern is directed forward of the reflector, the back radiation in the E-plane being suppressed by the sidewall of the reflector.

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Huntington, NY, United States of America

Richard J Kumpfbeck