Hrl Laboratories, LLC

The Boeing Company

Ryan G Quarfoth

Kyung-Ah Son

Jeong-sun Moon

Richard Michael Kremer

Amit Madanlal Patel

Christopher Stephen Roper

Carson R White

Hanseung Lee

Hwa Chang Seo

Jacob Michael Hundley

Walter S Wall

Jack A Crowell

Jeong-Sun Moon

Mariano J Taboada

Joshua M Doria

Terry B Welch

Daniel Yap

Geoffrey P McKnight

James H Schaffner

Jonathan James Lynch

Hyok Jae Song

Daniel J Gregoire

David H Chow

Shanying Cui

Deborah J Kirby

Timothy J Brockett

David W Shahan

Joseph F Jensen

Keerti S Kona

Troy Dean Rockwood

Ryan T Freeman

Geoffrey P Mcknight

Kangmu Lee

Electrically tunable millimeter wave resonators and methods for fabricating and operating the same are disclosed. Embodiments include tunable millimeter wave resonators utilizing rare-earth nickelates, such as samarium nickelate. Embodiments tune the resonating member to frequencies between 30 and 100 GHz by varying the electric field across a resonating member. Further embodiments include a resonating member mounted to (and optionally embedded in) a substrate with conductive material connected to the resonating member and the substrate, and the total thickness can be 0.2 millimeters or less, or 0.1 millimeters or less. Additional embodiments include resonating members with a maximum dimension of 0.3 millimeters. Some embodiments include a gap between the conductive material contacting the substrate and the conductive material contacting the resonating member. Additional embodiments include resonating members with a loss tangent of less than 0.001, a dielectric constant of at least 100, and/or a quality factor greater than 500.

Millimeter wave resonator apparatuses and methods

A radio frequency surface-aperture, including: a mechanical support structure configured for maintaining mechanical stiffness and strength at a selected temperature; thermal insulation having at least a single layer; one or more through-thickness waveguides located through a thickness of the mechanical support structure and thermal insulation; a cold-side mode coupler arranged to connect a designated cold side of the one or more through-thickness waveguides to an electronic subsystem device; and one or more surface-wave waveguides arranged as an RF antenna on a surface of the mechanical support structure in operative communication with the through-thickness waveguides.

High temperature RF surface aperture

An N-bit reflectarray unit cell is disclosed comprising a first part of a first dipole and a second part of the first dipole, and a first switch for connecting and disconnecting the first part of the first dipole to and from the second part of the first dipole. The unit cell further comprises a first part of a second dipole and a second part of the second dipole, and a second switch for connecting and disconnecting the first part of the second dipole to and from the second part of the second dipole.

N-bit reflectarray unit cell comprising switches for configuring dipole resonant structures

An apparatus and related method are disclosed for compensation of an antenna and/or an antenna array located at a surface that experiences environmental conditions. The apparatus can include: an embedded compensation and/or calibration structure configured to be interrogated by an electromagnetic wave, to dynamically compensate for surface erosion, thermal expansion, and/or dielectric constant changes of a surface scattering antenna; and a processor configured to: receive measurements of the compensation and/or calibration structure to determine beam pointing for dynamically varying surface conditions and perform sensing and/or seeking observation.

Surface antenna compensation

A reconfigurable optical frequency selective structure having embedded therein:

Electrically-reconfigurable optical device structures with phase change materials

A process enables growing thick stoichiometric crystalline and preferably IR-transparent optical PCMO material on Si and other substrates. Sputter deposition is carried out in oxygen-free inert gas (e.g., Ar) environment, which helps to prevent decomposition of the PCMO material over the substrate. In the disclosed process, there is no need to add a seed layer prior to PCMO deposition. Moreover, no post-deposition annealing is needed in a high-temperature and high-pressure oxygen furnace, but an anneal provides certain additional benefits in terms of improved transparency at IR wavelengths. Over a long deposition time for a thick PCMO film on the high temperature (≥450° C.) substrates, the PCMO deposition is made repeated cycles of deposition of the PCMO material at the high temperature, each deposition cycle being followed by cooling the PCMO-deposited substrate to a substantially lower temperature (<50° C.). If an anneal is applied in a hydrogen environment that will cause hydrogenation of the PCMO film which yields PCMO films with an extremely small optical loss (i.e., optical extinction coefficient k<0.001) over the entire IR range.

Method for growing crystalline optical films on Si substrates which may optionally have an extremely small optical loss in the infra-red spectrum with hydrogenation of the crystalline optical films

A thermal protection system includes: an outer skin; a thermally insulating material under the outer skin; and a high temperature radio frequency (RF) aperture. The RF aperture includes a plurality of waveguides separated from each other and extending through the outer skin and the thermally insulating material.

Thermal protection system including high temperature radio frequency aperture

An electric field-controlled refractive index tunable device includes a phase change correlated transition metal oxide layer, and E-field responsive charge dopants. The E-field responsive charge dopants either accumulate in the phase change correlated transition metal oxide layer or are depleted from the phase change correlated transition metal oxide layer in response to an E-field applied to the phase change correlated transition metal oxide layer.

Electric field-tunable IR devices with very large modulation of refractive index and methods to fabricate them

A solid state optical beam steering device including a body of electro-optical material wherein the body of electro-optical material comprises any material of a class of hydrogen-doped phase-change metal oxide and wherein the body has a first face and a second face opposite the first face, a first transparent resistive sheet on the first face of the body of electro optic material, wherein the first transparent resistive sheet has a first side and a second side, and a transparent conductor on the second face of the body of electro optic material, wherein the transparent conductor is coupled to the second side of the first transparent resistive sheet.

Solid-state tip-tilt-phased array

A process enables growing thick stoichiometric crystalline and preferably IR-transparent optical PCMO material on Si and other substrates. Sputter deposition is carried out in oxygen-free inert gas (e.g., Ar) environment, which helps to prevent decomposition of the PCMO material over the substrate. In the disclosed process, there is no need to add a seed layer prior to PCMO deposition. Moreover, no post-deposition annealing is needed in a high-temperature and high-pressure oxygen furnace, but an anneal provides certain additional benefits in terms of improved transparency at IR wavelengths. Over a long deposition time for a thick PCMO film on the high temperature (&#x2265;450&#xb0; C.) substrates, the PCMO deposition is made repeated cycles of deposition of the PCMO material at the high temperature, each deposition cycle being followed by cooling the PCMO-deposited substrate to a substantially lower temperature (&#x3c;50&#xb0; C.). If an anneal is applied in a hydrogen environment that will cause hydrogenation of the PCMO film which yields PCMO films with an extremely small optical loss (i.e., optical extinction coefficient k&#x3c;0.001) over the entire IR range.

An electronically scanned antenna comprising a travelling wave guiding structure having a bottom conductor and a top conductor developing each along a first direction, the top conductor comprising a plurality of first conductive patches arranged periodically along said first direction and connected in series by tuning circuits; the electronically scanned antenna further comprising a plurality of amplifiers arranged for compensating resistive and radiation losses along the length of the travelling wave guiding structure.

Electronically-scanned antennas with distributed amplification

A transmitting circuit. In some embodiment, the transmitting circuit includes a slot antenna and an amplifier. The slot antenna may include a slot in a conductive sheet, and it may have a first resonant frequency, the first resonant frequency being within 20% of a slot frequency which is between a first frequency corresponding, in a first volume, to a wavelength twice the length of the slot, and a second frequency corresponding, in a second volume, to a wavelength twice the length of the slot. The amplifier may be connected to the slot through a connection including a conductive path, between the amplifier and the slot, having a length less than 0.2 times the length of the slot. The magnitude of the output impedance of the amplifier may be less than 0.25 times the magnitude of the impedance of the slot antenna at a first resonant frequency.

Active antenna transmitter

A solid state electrically variable focal length lens includes a plurality of concentric rings of electro-optical material, wherein the electro-optical material comprises any material of a class of hydrogen-doped phase-change metal oxide and wherein each respective concentric ring further includes a transparent resistive sheet on a first face of the respective concentric ring, wherein the transparent resistive sheet extends along the first face, and a first voltage coupled between a first end and a second end of the transparent resistive sheet, wherein the first voltage may be varied to select an optical beam deflection angle.

Solid state electrically variable-focal length lens

A vertical directional coupler or switch comprising a lower and an upper waveguide, integrated with an optical phase change material disposed between the lower and upper waveguides to control a directional of optical coupling between the lower and upper waveguides.

Electrically-controllable 3D optical waveguide switch with phase change materials

A holographic antenna includes a transmission line and a plurality of interdigital capacitor (IDC) slots respectively formed along the transmission line. The holographic antenna also includes an active tuning device connected to each IDC slot from the plurality of IDC slots. Each active tuning device is configured to provide a holographic pattern on the plurality of IDC slots in response to the holographic antenna transmitting or receiving an electromagnetic signal. The holographic pattern is controllable for scanning an electromagnetic beam by the holographic antenna. The holographic antenna also includes a biasing source coupled to each active tuning device and configured to control its respective operation.

Growing community of inventors

Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Ryan G Quarfoth