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:
Jul. 09, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 26, 2000
Thomas Merlet, Dourdan, FR;
Olivier Maas, Gif S/Yvette, FR;
Thomson-CSF, Paris, FR;
Abstract
A control device for the formation of plural simultaneous radar reception beams in an electronic scanning antenna. The electronic scanning antenna includes an array of detectors of a reception microwave signal arranged in n columns and m rows. The control device makes, in the microwave domain, a first partial combination of the signals received, the first combination being made according to each column. An optical device makes a second partial combination in the optical domain, the optical device including at least n optical sources each producing an optical signal modulated at the frequency of the reception microwave signal by an associated microwave combination signal. The optical signal is divided into r optical signals to obtain nxr optical signals. An optical phase-shifting device is provided for each of the nxr optical signals obtained, and r combining devices combine each group of n optical signals, and r detectors detect the microwave signal f assigned to each group of n optical signals to form r microwave reception beams. The control device can be applied especially to a simple and flexible reconfiguration of reception beams of an electronic scanning antenna.