The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 13, 1986
Filed:
Oct. 18, 1982
Raymond Tang, Fullerton, CA (US);
Joseph M Hellums, Torrance, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A radiating element having a continuous aperture substantially greater than one-half the center frequency wavelength for use in an electronically scanned phased array antenna operating in the range of 94 GHz. The new radiating element comprises a ferrite block having a radiating aperture which measures 5.lambda. by 5.lambda. in contrast to the conventional discrete radiating element which measures one-half .lambda. by one-half .lambda.. Thus, where a phased array antenna comprised of an array of the new radiating elements would require only a single radiating element to fill an aperture measuring 5.lambda. by 5.lambda., a phased array antenna of conventional design would require one hundred discrete radiating elements to fill the same aperture. A tapered magnetization is applied to the continuous aperture ferrite block. Thus electromagnetic energy traveling through the block and exiting the radiating surface is phase shifted, with respect to the energy entering the block, in a similar tapered fashion. The degree of phase shift can be varied by adjusting the slope of the tapered magnetization. This permits scanning of the continuous aperture pattern. The continuous aperture subarray is specially constructed to minimize the spacing between such elements which have been assembled to form an antenna array. The ferrite block has been split into two halves, separated by a dielectric, to minimize transverse magnetization and thereby improve the characteristics of the tapered magnetization applied to the ferrite block. When a plurality of such continuous aperture subarrays is used to form an antenna array, provision is made to adjust the phase at the center of each continuous aperture subarray with respect to the phase of the adjacent subarrays, thereby allowing scanning of the entire pattern of the phased array antenna.