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. 12, 1994
Filed:
Feb. 25, 1992
William A Harrington, Whittier, CA (US);
James V Strahan, Brea, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A phase shifter subarray which is useful with a phased array antenna, includes a plurality of phase shifter elements which have substantially equal finite lengths and which are mounted on a ferri-magnetic substrate. An electrical coil is disposed around selected portions of the substrate and a common feed is connected to each of the phase shifter elements to transmit energy through the phase shifter elements to the radiating elements of the antenna. A driver is connected to the coil, and the driver is activated to induce a magnetic flux in the selected portions of the substrate. This flux influences that part of each phase shifter element which is mounted in the selected portions of the substrate and, consequently, the phase of the wave energy which passes through the influenced part of each phase shifter element is shifted to predictably direct the beam radiated from the antenna. For one embodiment, each phase shifter element is bifurcated into first and second segments with the respective first segments being of different length. For this embodiment the flux influences only the first segments of the phase shifter elements. In another embodiment, the phase shifter elements are not bifurcated and, instead, the coil is tapered on the substrate to influence different lengths of each phase shifter element.