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. 13, 1993
Filed:
Jan. 18, 1991
Mark E Bonebright, La Mesa, CA (US);
Bernard Berkowitz, San Diego, CA (US);
James Boelens, Arlington, TX (US);
Cubic Defense Systems, Inc., San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A multimode low-profile avionics antenna is disclosed for use in Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) systems. The low profile antenna generates a steerable cardioid radiation pattern having a minimum bandwidth of 30% and an unusual degree of independence from mutual coupling and coupling to ground-plane currents. The antenna includes two resonant cavity-backed slot antennas. The upper cavity, which backs a directional crossed-slot antenna, is the larger of the two cavities. The shallow lower cavity is actually a short-circuited radial transmission line employing a stepped inner radius and band-switching to extend the operating bandwidth to the required 30%. The crossed-slot antenna elements are configured orthogonally and the slot ends are folded over the side of the cylindrical cavity to minimize the resonant cavity diameter for the requisite slot length. The slot width is stepped open at the crossover point to enhance antenna bandwidth and to provide for greater spacing between the symmetrically-located feedpoints. The shallow circumferential slot antenna is equipped with two band-switched inductances for wider bandwidth. The two stacked cavities have a combined height of less than 0.1.lambda. at the operating frequency and are suitable for use as a flush-mounted aircraft or helicopter ADF antenna.