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:
Apr. 07, 1992
Filed:
Apr. 18, 1991
Kaichiang Chang, Northborough, MA (US);
Garret E Murdza, Boxborough, MA (US);
Fernando Beltran, Framingham, MA (US);
Robert D Foltz, Wayland, MA (US);
Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
An improved means of decorrelating phase quantization errors in a phased array radar antenna using digital randomization at each of the array elements to reduce peak steering erorrs and to reduce peak sidelobe levels of the antenna. A random phase adjust term is provided to each of the array's antenna elements which comprises a distributed controller (DC) co-located with a digital phase shifter. The distributed controllers are each programmed with a random phase adjust term which represents a phase shift adjustment statistically independent from element to element. The random phase adjust term is stored in a memory located in each disbtributed controller. The distributed controller drives each element's digitally controlled phase shifter in response to a beam steering command received over a serial line. The performance improvement achieved with this decorrelation method is equivalent to that obtained by using more expensive phase shifters and adding costly randomized cables in the path to each element.