Ems Technologies, Inc.

Robert Alan Freeman

Kurt Alan Zimmerman

James M Howell

John Elliott Wann

Donald Nelson Black, Jr

James Charles Marsik

A low-profile antenna system to be mounted to a moving vehicle for receiving signals, such as from a Digital Broadcast Satellite, includes a base for mounting to the surface of the vehicle, a platen mounted to the base for rotation, an azimuth drive motor for rotating the platen, an array of half-cylinder antenna elements mounted to the platen, an elevation drive motor for pivoting the antenna elements individually about their axes to change the elevation at which the antenna elements are pointing, and a cover. The azimuth drive motor and the elevation drive motor together allow the array of antenna elements to be pointed at a satellite over a wide range of vehicle orientations.

Antenna array for moving vehicles

An antenna comprising a feed for delivering electromagnetic energy to a rotatable combination of a dielectric lens and a reflective surface. The combination of the dielectric lens and the reflective surface is placed proximate to and in front of an energy feed, such as a horn, to support the scanning of an antenna beam in response to rotation of the lens/reflective surface assembly. The lens typically comprises a dielectric material and the reflective surface can comprise a thin layer of material operable to reflect electromagnetic energy. For example, the lens can comprise a half-cylinder shape of dielectric material and the reflective surface can be applied to the flat portion of the half-cylindrical lens. Alternatively, the antenna can comprise two or more electromagnetic feeds and a cylindrical lens of dielectric material including a centrally-embedded, two-sided reflective surface. A positioning system can be used to rotate the combination of the lens and the reflective material proximate to and in front of the electromagnetic feed(s).

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Norcross, GA, United States of America

Robert Alan Freeman