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:
Aug. 29, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 06, 1998
Kevin Kristopher Day, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Richard Scott Torkington, Mesa, AZ (US);
John Wesley Locke, Tempe, AZ (US);
Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL (US);
Abstract
A user terminal (110) includes a rotating electronically steerable antenna system (210) which combines coarse mechanical beam steering with fine electronic beam steering to provide full hemispherical coverage and enable hand-offs in a satellite communication system. The antenna system (210) comprises at least one antenna unit (and preferably two antenna units) including a mechanically rotatable base (330), an antenna holder (320) coupled to the mechanically rotatable base, and two electronically steerable antenna subunit (310) mounted on the antenna holder. Antenna system (210) also includes an antenna unit controller (260) adapted to control rotation of the mechanically rotatable base (330).