Hughes Aircraft Company

Hrl Laboratories, LLC

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Other

Raytheon Company

Hughes Aircraft

Robin J Harvey

Franklin A Dolezal

Daniel J Gregoire

Weldon S Williamson

Daniel Frederic Sievenpiper

Robert W Schumacher

Eun-Hee Cirlin

Joseph Santoru

Hayden E Gallagher

Michael A Lutz

James H Schaffner

David D Crouch

Jan Grinberg

Robert Y Loo

John R Bayless

Greg Tangonan

Julius Hyman, Jr

Kevin A Harvey

A Jay Palmer

Frank A Dolezal

A collapsible garment hanger including a hook element attached to a fixed arm, a sliding arm with a longitudinally oriented slot, a crosspiece extending through the slot, attaching the sliding arm slidably to the fixed arm. When the distal end of the fixed arm tilts upward, gravity will cause the sliding arm to slide away from the distal end of the fixed arm. Whenever the distal end of the fixed arm tilts downward, gravity will cause the sliding arm to slide towards the distal end of the fixed arm. The collapsible garment hanger can also manually slide away from or towards the distal end of the fixed arm. An offset spacing between the outer tip of the sliding arm when it is in the collapsed position and the opposing offset portion of the hanger determines the size of neck of garment through which the hanger will fit.

Gravity actuated collapsible garment hanger

A steerable antenna comprising an array of T-shaped slots. The location of the slots is moved to define an array of ring- or spiral-patterned phase constant regions. Distortions or contractions of the pattern occur by repositioning some or all of the slots forming the array. The antenna also comprises an intermediate insulating layer and a lower plate. The insulating layer is formed by a deformable dielectric medium. Deformation of the dielectric medium allows the beam angle to be altered.

Steerable radial line slot antenna

An array of dielectric wave antennas is disclosed. Each wave antenna has a central dielectric portion and two dielectric tapered portions, disposed on opposite sides of the central dielectric portion. The array is deployed in a lens shape and allows variation of the phase delay of an incident electromagnetic wave when passing through the array.

Wave antenna lens system

The present invention relates to a method for making an achromatic lens. The invention provides a method for making a lens that makes use of the differences in the index of refraction of ZnSe and ZnS in the mm-wave and IR wavebands to minimize the differences in focal position between the two wavebands. A lens train thus made can be used in conjunction with a dual-band focal plane array to simultaneously focus two wavebands on a common focal plane and thus provide for simultaneous imaging in both wavebands.

Method for making an achromatic lens for millimeter-wave and infrared bands

A radio frequency aperture comprising a plurality of insulating layers disposed in a stack, each layer including an array of conductive regions, the conductive regions being spaced from adjacent conductive regions. Also disclosed is method of bending or steering radio frequency waves impinging an antenna. The method includes disposing a plurality of insulating layers arranged in a stack between a source of the radio frequency waves and the antenna, wherein each insulating layer includes an array of conductive regions, the conductive regions being spaced from adjacent conductive regions and forming capacitive elements. The capacitance of the capacitive elements in the plurality of insulating layers is adjusted as a function of their location in the plurality of insulating layers.

Radio frequency aperture

The present invention relates to a method for designing an achromatic lens and a lens according to the design. The invention provides a lens that makes use of the differences in the index of refraction of ZnSe and ZnS in the mm-wave and IR wavebands to minimize the differences in focal position between the two wavebands. This lens train can be used in conjunction with a dual-band focal plane array to simultaneously focus two wavebands on a common focal plane and thus provide for simultaneous imaging in both wavebands.

Achromatic lens for millimeter-wave and infrared bands

Dual band millimeter-wave and infrared anti-reflecting coatings are presented, which enhance the passage of millimeter-wave and infrared radiation into a substrate material. A substrate is coated with a quarter-wave coating of an infrared anti-reflecting material followed by a quarter-wave coating of a millimeter-wave anti-reflecting material followed by a second quarter-wave coating of an infrared anti-reflecting material. The second infrared anti-reflecting coating enables incident infrared radiation to pass into the millimeter-wave anti-reflecting material, while minimizing reflection. The first infrared anti-reflecting coating enables incident infrared radiation from the millimeter-wave anti-reflecting material to pass into the substrate material, while minimizing reflection. The millimeter-wave anti-reflecting coating enables incident millimeter-wave radiation to pass into the substrate material, while minimizing reflection. All of the materials used are chosen to be millimeter-wave and infrared radiation permeable. Because the wavelength size ratio of millimeter-wave radiation to infrared radiation is on the order of 1000:1, the millimeter-wave anti-reflecting coating does not interfere, to the first order, with the transmission of infrared radiation, and the infrared anti-reflecting coating does not interfere with the transmission of millimeter-wave radiation.

Dual-band millimeter-wave and infrared anti-reflecting coatings

A high impedance (Hi-Z) wire effectively transparent to electromagnetic radiation polarized in the direction of the wire, within an operating frequency band. The Hi-Z wire is sheathed with a thin layer of resonant structures that are small compared to the wavelength, and behave as a kind of photonic band gap (PBG) material. A frequency-selective polarizer comprising a plurality of Hi-Z wires disposed parallel to one other in a grid. A wire grid reflector that enables stepwise phase control of the reflected wave and focusing of radiative power, the reflector comprising Hi-Z wires interspersed with conventional wires disposed parallel to one another in a grid.

Hi-Z (photonic band gap isolated) wire

A tuneable impedance surface for steering and/or focusing a radio frequency beam. The tunable surface comprises a ground plane; a plurality of elements disposed a distance from the ground plane, the distance being less than a wavelength of the radio frequency beam; and a capacitor arrangement for controllably varying the capacitance of at least selected ones of adjacent elements. A method of tuning the high impedance surface allows the surface to mimic, for example, a parabolic reflector or a diffraction grating.

Tunable impedance surface

The system ( ) includes a first mechanism ( ) for receiving electromagnetic energy of a first wavelength from the scene ( ) and providing electromagnetic energy of a second wavelength shorter than the first wavelength. A second mechanism ( ) measures variations of the electromagnetic energy of the second wavelength over a predetermined area. The system is a millimeter wave imaging system ( ). The first mechanism ( ) includes a lens ( ) having an index of refraction substantially greater than . The lens ( ) is opaque to infrared electromagnetic energy and made of alumina, plastic, or other material having a relatively high index of refraction. The second mechanism ( ) includes and array of bolometers ( ) positioned parallel to an output aperture ( ) of the lens and within a distance of the output aperture ( ) that is much smaller than the second wavelength. A video controller ( ), a computer ( ), process video signals output from the array of bolometers ( ) to yield an image, which is displayed on a display ( ).

Compact all-weather electromagnetic imaging system

A method and apparatus for providing a high impedance structure or surface comprising at least one electrically conductive wire forming at least one elongate wire spiral, the at least one elongate wire spiral being defined by a plurality of spirals of said at least one wire, the spirals having a pitch and being spaced apart along a major axis of said elongate wire spiral; and an arrangement for varying the pitch of the spirals of said at least one wire to thereby tune the impedance of said tuneable impedance structure. An embodiment useful as an antenna aperture to steer a radio frequency beam having two different polarizations is disclosed.

Tunable-impedance spiral

Improved magnetron oscillators that controllably form a plasma within each of its resonant cavities to rapidly change the resonant frequency of each cavity. The present invention also provides for frequency tuning methods for use with magnetron oscillators. The plasma is controllably formed in one or more subcells of each resonant cavity in a manner that alters the electromagnetic field within each cavity. Preferably, a magnetized collisional plasma is controlled to rapidly change the resonant frequency of each cavity. However, many types of plasmas may be used to implement the present invention. Controlling formation of the plasma within each cavity tunes the magnetron oscillator on a submillisecond time scale.

Magnetron tuning using plasmas

A pollutant destruction system connects a capacitive corona discharge chamber in a self-resonant circuit with an inductive element. Intermittent energizing signals are furnished from a power supply to induce corona discharges within the chamber, with the resonant circuit responding to the energizing signals by initiating additional corona discharges between energizing signals in a highly energy efficient operation. One or more discharge chambers can be provided in the resonant circuit, with each discharge chamber comprising a dielectric enclosure with a distributed electrode outside and an elongate electrode inside the enclosure. The inner electrode can extend either along the chamber axis, or along the inner chamber wall for better support and heat dissipation. The energizing pulse frequency can be controlled in various ways, such as in response to a termination of corona discharges, an increase in the pollutant concentration or an acceleration of an engine whose exhaust is being treated, or the pulses can be applied at a fixed rate.

Pollutant remediation system

Pollutant remediating corona discharge chamber

A method of operating a flywheel (10) includes the provision of a central shaft (12) defining an axis of rotation; providing a disk-shaped hub (22) joining drivingly with both the shaft and with a rim portion (34); and which hub portion has a shape when the flywheel is at rest which is of a shallow dihedral geometry. That is, the hub is cone-shaped when the flywheel is at rest. As the rotational speed of the flywheel is increased from the at-rest speed toward and then to a design operating speed for the flywheel, this hub progressively flattens out until it becomes flat and extends radially between the shaft and the hub at the design speed for the flywheel. Thus, the flattening of the hub with increasing rotational speed for the flywheel moves the rim portion axially in response to centrifugal force.

Growing community of inventors

Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

Robin J Harvey