Lockheed Martin Corporation

The Boeing Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Custom Microwave Inc.

Other

Lockhead Martin Corp.

Sudhakar Rao

Arun Bhattacharyya

Sudhakar K Rao

Philip Elwood Venezia

Chih-Chien Hsu

Arun K Bhattacharyya

Clency Lee-Yow

David Bressler

John L Norin

Philip H Law

Paul Regulinski

Robert E Vaughan

Gerard Joseph Matyas

Sebong Chun

George Voulelikas

Jim Wang

Romulo Pontual

Minh Tang

Parthasarathy Ramanujam

Shih-Chang Wu

Maxim Vladimirovich Ignatenko

Richard Malcolm Dart

Joel A Fink

Mark W MacGregor

Daniel H Roper

David K Brown

Cameron G Massey

Robert L Reynolds

Steven J Mass

William Joseph Taft

Stephen A Robinson

Paul Damian Tarbuck

Jon J Gulick

Guy Goyette

Jonathan Raymond Scupin

Suzanna Janet LaMar

Gerald J Adams

Loc B Chau

Ronald M Hirschfield

Alan M Taft

James Wang

Christopher S Brown

Robert Rink

Jack Bauer

Mansoor K Siddique

Thomas S La France

Chris G Baran

Surjit S Dhillon

Stephen R Peck

Dana Quincey

Rodolfo Lozano, Jr

David V Gardner

James C McCleary

Joseph T Durcanin

Alan L Stern

Mihn Tang

Mysore Sheshadri

David M Brown

A contiguous radiating ring antenna structure suitable for a vehicle is disclosed. The antenna structure comprises a curved shape structure having a plurality of radiating rings, a plurality of sectors, a connecting unit, and a plurality of frequency barriers. The antenna structure has a phase variation of less than 2° degrees over 360° of azimuth coverage and about +/−85° of elevation coverage. The antenna structure has a thickness of less than 0.5 inches. The contiguous radiating ring antenna structure is design for demanding vehicular applications, including missiles, rockets, and aircraft. The contiguous radiating annular ring antenna comprises a beam forming network, which is configured to be incorporated into a printed antenna board for enhancing the vehicular communications.

Annular ring antenna with contiguous radiating elements for enhancing vehicular communications at multiple frequency bands

A segmented ultra-wideband antenna system that facilitates communication with aircraft, satellites, ships, and other ground terminals over the frequency range varies between 1 GHz and 50 GHz while maintaining a bandwidth ratio of 50:1. The segmented ultra-wideband antenna system comprises a platform having a circular shape structure configured to affix plurality of antennas using one or more fasteners. The platform has a diameter of 24 inches for affixing the first antenna, the second antenna and the third antenna using fasteners. The plurality of antennas comprises a first antenna, a second antenna and a third antenna. The segmented ultra-wideband antenna system having a bandwidth ratio of 50:1. The segmented ultra-wideband antenna system achieves gain values from 6 dBi to 41 dBi. The segmented ultra-wideband antenna system is portable on ground and weighs less than 50 lbs.

Segmented ultra-wideband antenna system and method of operating the same

The present invention provides a petal reflector antenna that comprises a main reflector having a paraboloid shape and a plurality of identical petals, a feed assembly that includes a horn, a wideband junction, a holder, and a hybrid coupler connected to a diplexer and a multiplexer. The petal reflector antenna further comprises a protective radome cover, a horn, a subreflector, and a support station member for quickly and conveniently set up over a desired ground location. The petal reflector antenna can operate simultaneously in the K, Ka, Ku receive, and Ku transmit frequency bands.

Quad band petal reflector antenna

An antenna system includes: an antenna, the antenna configured to combine the feed elements to form a high gain element beam (HGEB), the system further configured to combine the HGEBs to form a large coverage beam; and a feed array configured to transfer a signal to the antenna, the feed array being defocused from a focal plane of the antenna by a defocus distance, the feed array comprising a number N of feed elements.

Imaging reflector antenna system and method

A phased array antenna system including a front-end circuit having a plurality of antenna channels, each including a front antenna element and a rear antenna element, that provides a spatially combined beam. Each antenna channel includes a beam scan phase shifter and a true time delay phase shifter through which the receive signals or the transmit signals propagate. The system further includes a back-end circuit spaced from the front-end circuit and including an antenna receiving the receive signals from the rear elements or transmitting the transmit signals to the rear elements. The back-end circuit further includes an ortho-mode transducer that separates the transmit signal or the receive signal into orthogonally polarized signals, and a pair of couplers and a pair of polarization phase shifters that combine to adjust the polarization of the transmit signal or the receive signal. The spatially combined beam is reconfigurable in beam shape and its location.

Low cost space-fed reconfigurable phased array for spacecraft and aircraft applications

A phased array antenna including a plurality of antenna element units mounted to a panel having a first side and a second side. Each antenna unit includes a step aperture integrated radiating (STAIR) antenna element mounted to the first side of the panel and having an outer cylindrical waveguide, a septum polarizer including a plurality of steps and a septum feed structure, and a right hand circularly polarized (RHCP) feed structure electrically coupled to the septum feed structure. Each antenna unit further includes a triplexer module mounted to the second side of the panel and being responsive to a plurality of linearly polarized signals to be transmitted by the STAIR element, where the triplexer module operates to combine the plurality of linearly polarized signals and provide the combined signal to the RHCP feed structure to be converted by the septum polarizer to a circularly polarized signal for transmission.

L-band array element with integrated triplexer for GPS payloads

A multiple beam integrated antenna system for a satellite including a support structure having an alignment plate. The antenna system further includes a plurality of feed horns mounted to the alignment plate, where each feed horn includes a plurality of tapered sections that support propagation modes for both up-link signals and down-link signals. A septum polarizer is mounted to an input end of each feed horn that converts linearly polarized signals to circularly polarized signals for the up-link signals and converts circularly polarized signals to linearly polarized signals for the down-link signals. A Y-shaped waveguide is coupled to each of the polarizers and includes separate receive reject and transmit reject filters so as to keep the up-link signals and the down-link signals from interfering with each other. Flex waveguides couple the transmit leg and the receive leg of each Y-shaped waveguide to RF modules.

Low-cost diplexed multiple beam integrated antenna system for LEO satellite constellation

An inter-satellite cross-link antenna for a communications satellite in a constellation of satellites in earth orbit. The complete cross-link system is an array of eight quadrifilar helix antennas with a new design which is eight times smaller than previous designs, and has superior inter-satellite communications performance. The quadrifilar helix antenna is designed with a length, diameter, helix pitch angle and ground plate connectivity which is matched to the UHF inter-satellite communication frequency to provided a toroidal radiation pattern with high signal strength in a direction normal to the antenna axis and very low signal strength in an axial direction. The array of eight quadrifilar helix antennas does not require interleaving with the L-band GPS antenna aperture on the satellite, and does not block or interfere with the earth-directed GPS signals.

Compact cross-link antenna for next generation global positioning satellite constellation

A dual-reflector inter-satellite link (ISL) subsystem, for a communications satellite in a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit or medium earth orbit. The ISL subsystem includes a main antenna reflector which uses a single-axis gimbal to steer the main reflector only in the elevation plane. An antenna subreflector, a horn and RF feed circuitry are stationary with respect to the host satellite. The main reflector has a super-elliptical design which provides a beam shape which requires no steering in the azimuth plane, while meeting ISL signal strength requirements. By steering the main reflector only, and only in the elevation plane, the disclosed ISL subsystem delivers significantly lower size, mass, complexity and cost, and significantly greater reliability, than traditional ISL systems.

Integrated antenna and RF payload for low-cost inter-satellite links using super-elliptical antenna aperture with single axis gimbal

An exemplary antenna array has first self-complementary antenna cells, e.g. bowtie antennas, disposed in a first plane in rows and columns. Additional bowtie antenna cells are disposed in a second plane parallel to the first plane and are aligned in corresponding rows and columns. A first stripline disposed between the first and second planes carries RF signals to/from the first and second bowtie antenna cells. A slot feed couples the RF signals between the first stripline and each of the first and second bowtie antenna cells. A conductive layer in a third plane parallel to the first and second planes serves as a ground plane for signals radiated from/to the first and second bowtie antenna cells.

Antenna array using sandwiched radiating elements above a ground plane and fed by a stripline

An exemplary embodiment of an antenna in accordance with the present invention utilizes a sub-reflector and a main reflector with each of them having its own focal-ring type geometry. The antenna cooperates with a signal transmission feed disposed at the center of the antenna axis between the first and main reflectors to emit radio signals towards the sub-reflector. The sub-reflector reflects radio waves towards a main reflector which in turn reflects the radio waves to form the beam pattern emitted by the antenna. The reflecting surface of the sub-reflector is formed by a portion of an axially-displaced ellipse rotated about the antenna axis. The reflecting surface of the main reflector is defined by a section of a parabola rotated about the antenna axis to form a reflecting surface that concavely slopes away from the antenna axis. An embodiment of the antenna provides a wide coverage conical beam with selectable beam peaks that operate over a 2.25:1 frequency band range and provides substantially iso-flux beam density.

Antenna for multiple frequency bands

A dual-band feed horn having a connection surface configured for connection to a waveguide and a first surface coupled to the connection surface. The first surface has a cylindrical surface with a length and a first diameter chosen to propagate TE11 modes for both a low frequency band and a high frequency band. The horn has a bandwidth ratio of the high-frequency band to the low frequency band in the range of 1.6-4.0. The horn also has a substantially conical surface coupled to the first surface at a first slope discontinuity. The conical surface includes multiple surfaces each having a respective slope and coupled to adjacent surfaces by a respective plurality of slope discontinuities each having a respective diameter. The slopes and diameters are chosen to generate primarily TM1,m modes (m=1, 2, 3, etc.) in the high-frequency band and primarily higher order TE1,n modes (n=2, 3, etc.) in the low-frequency band such that the low frequency band and the high frequency band have approximately equal beam widths.

Dual-band feed horn with common beam widths

A dual-band antenna system configured to transmit and/or receive microwave beams over two or more frequency bands with substantially similar beam widths and substantially similar sidelobe levels is disclosed. The antenna system includes at least one reflector and at least one feed horn, the horn configured to provide a first efficiency over a first frequency band and lower efficiencies over one or more second frequency bands. The horn includes a substantially conical wall having an internal surface with a variable slope. The internal surface includes one or more slope discontinuities, wherein the slope discontinuities are configured to generate primarily TEmodes within the first frequency band and within the second frequency bands and generate TMmodes substantially only within the second frequency bands.

Dual-band antenna using high/low efficiency feed horn for optimal radiation patterns

A antenna system for generating and distributing power among a plurality of non-focused beams is provided The system comprises a reflector having a focal plane and a non-parabolic curvature configured to form the defocused beams. The curvature is configured to create a symmetrical quadratic phase-front in an aperture plane of the reflector. The system further comprises a plurality of feed antennas disposed in the focal plane of the reflector and configured to illuminate the reflector. Each feed antenna is configured to contribute power toward each of the defocused beams. The system further comprises a plurality of fixed-amplitude amplifiers, at least one of which corresponds to each feed antenna.

Space segment payload architecture for mobile satellite services (MSS) systems

Growing community of inventors

Churchville, PA, United States of America

Sudhakar K Rao