PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA SYSTEM TO PRODUCE WIDE-OPEN COVERAGE OF A WIDE ANGULAR SECTOR WITH HIGH DIRECTIVE GAIN AND WIDE FREQUENCY BANDWIDTH

Abstract

A phased array antenna system capable of scanning at rates faster than the information rate of signals being received to prevent the loss of information during the scanning process. The sensitivity loss due to sampling usually encountered is avoided. The present invention is an improvement on a prior art system that avoids the sensitivity loss in that the present invention also avoids the frequency selectivity inherent in the prior art system. The array antenna system is comprised of the means to form multiple, time-sequenced outputs, each output corresponding to a different beam of sensitivity. The beams scan the full coverage sector and together with the other outputs form a contiguous set of beams that both fill the coverage sector at any one time and also synchronously scan the full coverage sector. A differential delay network incorporating delay lines, envelope detectors and a summing junction is used to combine the outputs from the multiple beams to ensure that the responses to a single emitting source are added in unison in a manner which is not restrictive of frequency bandwidth. This arrangement retains the wide-open angular reception characteristics of a wide-beam omnidirectional antenna, while exhibiting the gain and angular resolution of a multi-element phased array antenna.

Source: Google Patents

35 USC §181 Secrecy Order

Inventor

• 1RONALD M. RUDISH

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