Motorola Corporation

Viasat, Inc.

U.S. Monolithics, L.l.c.

Richard Scott Torkington

Kenneth V Buer

David W Corman

Dean Lawrence Cook

Thomas Peter Emmons, Jr

Michael R Lyons

Keith Vaclav Warble

Edwin Jack Stanfield

David G Lamoreaux

Stephen Chih-Hung Ma

Deborah Sue Dendy

John Wesley Locke

James Edmund Klekotka

Jon Filreis

Stephen Chihhung Ma

Kenneth Brice-Heames

Friedhelm Wachter

Kevin Kristopher Day

A David Munger

Phillip James Denisuk

An over-molded leadframe (e.g., a Quad Flat No-lead (QFN)) package capable of operating at frequencies in the range of about five gigahertz (GHz) to about 300 GHz and a method of making the over-molded leadframe package are disclosed. The over-molded leadframe package includes a capacitance lead configured to substantially reduce and/or offset the inductance created by one or more wirebonds used to connect an integrated circuit (IC) chip on the package to an input/output (I/O) lead. The IC chip is connected to the capacitance lead via one or more wirebonds, and the capacitance lead is then connected to the I/O lead via at least a second wirebond. Thus, inductance created by the one or more wirebonds on the package is substantially reduced and/or offset by the capacitance lead prior to a signal being output by the package and/or received by the IC chip.

Radio frequency over-molded leadframe package

A Ka/Ku-band transmitter-receiver comprises a tri-band feed of a Ka-band transceiver, in conjunction with an array of phase combined patch receiving, antennas that operate at the Ku-band frequencies.

Feed assembly for dual-band transmit-receive antenna

An over-molded leadframe (e.g., a Quad Flat No-lead (QFN)) package capable of operating at frequencies in the range of about five gigahertz (GHz) to about 300 GHz and a method of making the QFN package are disclosed. The QFN package includes a capacitance lead configured to substantially reduce and/or offset the inductance created by one or more wirebonds used to connect an integrated circuit (IC) chip on the package to an input/output (I/O) lead. The IC chip is connected to the capacitance lead via one or more wirebonds, and the capacitance lead is then connected to the I/O lead via at least a second wirebond. Thus, inductance created by the one or more wirebonds on the package is substantially reduced and/or offset by the capacitance lead prior to a signal being output by the package and/or received by the IC chip.

Thermal spreading resistance, associated with small geometry electronic features that generate heat on a semiconductor, may be reduced through the addition of a thermally conductive fluid. For example, a dielectric fluid may be used within a volume between a semiconductor package and the semiconductor substrate. Therefore, direct thermal cooling may be employed to reduce the thermal spreading resistance often encountered in MMIC power amplifier devices. Furthermore, exemplary methods to achieve this sealing are described herein.

Direct contact semiconductor cooling

A system and method for high power block upconversion having a stand-alone and surface-mountable component is provided. The HP-BUC system of the invention provides a 'drop-in' component capable of mixing a local oscillator signal with an IF signal to produce an RF signal in the millimeter-wave and higher bands. In addition, the HP-BUC provides filtering of unwanted spurious signals and requires no further signal amplification prior to transmission, for example in a satellite communications system.

High power block upconverter

Due to the large up front cost in fielding a full capacity satellite constellation ( ), it is desirable to have the ability to modify the constellation after deployment to add more capacity in a fashion that does not interrupt service, in order to satisfy a variable or growing market demand. In a satellite constellation including a plurality of orbital planes, each of the orbital planes precesses at a known rate. This invention employs deliberate dynamic manipulation of the orbital precession rates for different satellite planes to increase the separation distance between two adjacent planes. A new plane is then inserted between the two adjacent planes to increase the number of planes and increase the capacity. By continuing a gradual variation, a new orbital plane can be added periodically, e.g. once a year, and the variation can be stopped when no additional orbital planes are desired.

Technique for satellite constellation growth

A zero-drift constellation (,FIG.,) is used to simplify the tracking and hand-off requirements of terrestrial-based user terminals (,FIG.,). Each satellite (,FIG.,) traces out a common ground track which has a number of southbound segments and an equal number of adjacent northbound segments. This allows user terminals (,) to employ antennas with only one degree of freedom to track satellites (,) in zero-drift constellation (,). User terminals (,) perform hand-offs with satellites (,) that are within a limited field of view with respect to user terminal (,). User terminal (,) tracks a first satellite until a crossover point is reached and then performs a hand-off to a second satellite traveling in the opposite direction along an adjacent segment. User terminal (,) tracks the second satellite until another crossover point is reached and then performs a hand-off to a third satellite traveling in the same direction as the first satellite along an adjacent segment.

Satellite communications systems using satellites in a zero-drift constellation

A mechanical scanning and digital beamforming antenna (,FIG.,) uses a receive and transmit digital beamforming network (FIG.,) to provide communications beam scanning in a first plane. In a second plane, a reflective surface (FIG.,) is used to focus and scan the communications beam. Through proper orientation of the reflective surface (,), a communications satellite (FIG.,) can be tracked by way of electronic scanning by way of the transmit or receive digital beamforming network (FIG.,). Thus, the complexity of the digital beamforming network is reduced as is the wear on the mechanical components of the antenna. The mechanical scanning and digital beamforming antenna (,FIG.,) makes use of a second digital beamforming network (FIG. 3,,) and reflective surface (FIG.,) to ensure that two communications satellites can be simultaneously tracked.

Combined mechanical scanning and digital beamforming antenna

A power amplifier uses a plurality of solid-state amplifiers (FIGS. 2 and 3, 140) arranged in a parallel manner to form a power amplifier module (10). Each solid-state amplifier is adhered to a low thermal expansion insert (130). The insert is then coupled to a low cost aluminum substrate in order to carry the excess heat from each solid-state amplifier (140) to the aluminum housing. The power outputs from the solid-state amplifiers from each module are combined with the power outputs from other modules using electroformed waveguide combiners (FIG. 1, 30, 40).

Efficient solid-state high frequency power amplifier structure

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 space-based communication system (30), includes a transmission terminal having a transmission antenna (42) and a power amplifier (40) to power the transmission antenna, the power amplifier to generate a power output sufficient to generate an RF signal through the transmission antenna (42), a receive terminal including a receive antenna (45) to receive the RF signal from the transmission terminal and a low noise amplifier (43) to amplify the RF signal channeled through the receive antenna, and a thermoelectric cooler (62) for cooling the low noise amplifier (43) to a predetermined temperature for increasing the sensitivity of the low noise amplifier to minimize the power output generated by the power amplifier required to generate the RF signal thereby minimizing the overall power requirements of the spaced-based communication system (30).

Thermoelectrically cooled low noise amplifier and method

A radio-frequency circuit (20) includes a hybrid integrated circuit (24) having a passive circuit element (38) and a d-c biasing circuit element (54) embedded within a first substrate (32) of a low cost and rugged first semiconducting material, and first and second active circuit elements (36, 40) embedded within second and third substrates (44, 46), respectively, of a second semiconductor material having the characterisitics of greater frangibility but higher gain than the first semiconductor material. The first and second activ circuit elements (36, 40) are substantially first and second single components (36, 40), and are each electrically coupled to the passive circuit element (38). The d-c biasing circuit element (54) is electrically coupled to the first and second active circuit elements (36, 40). The second and third substrates (44, 46) are physically coupled to the first substrate (32), which is thicker than either the second or third substrate (44, 46).

Multi-substrate radio-frequency circuit

A microwave circuit high isolation packaging technology involving the fabrication of a single-piece baseplate containing microwave circuits, the fabrication of a single-piece framework, and the assembly of the baseplate structure to the framework structure eliminating any gaps. The baseplate contains the desired microwave circuitry without isolation channels or other impediments to mounting circuit components or making circuit interconnections. The framework comprises all isolation walls, transoms, or other structures capable of isolating individual portions of the microwave circuit when assembled to the baseplate.

Growing community of inventors

Mesa, AZ, United States of America

Richard Scott Torkington