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:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 13, 2001
Brian Alan Pluymers, Haddonfield, NJ (US);
Robert Michael Reese, Philadelphia, PA (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
A generally planar active array antenna includes a plurality of transmit-receive (TR) modules arrayed in an array direction on a generally planar heat-conducting baseplate of a line-replaceable unit (LRU). Heat is coupled from the TR modules to their associated baseplate. Each baseplate of an LRU has a straight edge parallel to the array direction of the modules. In a preferred embodiment, the modules are located adjacent the straight edge without significant intermediary components. The LRUs are arrayed with their straight edges lying in a plane. The straight edges are coupled to a generally planar cold plate for extracting heat from the baseplates. Since the heat is extracted in a direction orthogonal to the arraying direction of the modules, all the modules tend to have the same operating temperature. In a particularly advantageous embodiment, the circulators associated with each TR module are mounted on the opposite side of the cold plate relative to the module, to thereby minimize the thermal path length between each module and the cold plate.