Hughes Aircraft Company

William N Klimczak

Mon N Wong

Sanford S Shapiro

Clinton W Pederson

An antenna system for an array antenna includes an array of radiators formed as patch antenna elements on a dielectric substrate, there being a shielding metallic sheet on a side of the substrate opposite the radiators. A further dielectric substrate and a bottom metallic sheet are disposed on a side of the shielding sheet opposite the radiators. An antenna feed system is disposed in the further sheet. Coupling devices such as orthogonal slots, in one embodiment, or a microwave crossover in a second embodiment, couple electromagnetic power from the feed system to the radiators through the shielding sheet. In the case of the coupling slots, the feed system provides phase quadrature signals for development of circularly polarized radiation. The crossover provides only a linearly polarized wave, and is formed of two coplanar waveguides, one in the shielding sheet and one in the bottom sheet. Each of the coplanar waveguides includes a pair of coupling pads, the pads of one waveguide being in registration with the pads of the other waveguide.

Plural layer co-planar waveguide coupling system for feeding a patch

A phased array antenna (10) includes a plurality of radiating elements (14) arranged in concentric rings (11, 12) to form a deterministically thinned antenna aperture which facilitates heat removal from the array, while minimizing side lobe signals and thereby increasing directively of the antenna for a preselected antenna gain. The radiating elements (14) in any one of the rings (11, 12) are the same radiating size, and the spacing (L, L') between elements in the same ring and between elements in adjacent rings (S, S') is determined by the number of elements in each ring. The rings may be any of several shapes, including circular or polygonal.

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Bowie, MD, United States of America

William N Klimczak