Methods and apparatus for enhanced radiation characteristics from antennas and related components

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10854987-B2
Application number	US-201916688278-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2019
Priority date	Apr 15, 2009
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

Aspect of the present disclosure are directed to methods and apparatus producing enhanced radiation characteristics, e.g., wideband behavior, in or for antennas and related components by providing concentric sleeves, with air or dielectric material as a spacer, where the sleeves include one or more conductive layers, at least a portion of which includes fractal resonators closely spaced, in terms of wavelength. A further aspect of the present disclosure is directed to surfaces that include dual-use or multiple-use apertures. Such aperture engine surfaces can include a first layer of antenna arrays, a second layer including a metal-fractal backplane player, and a third layer including solar cells for solar cell or solar oriented power collection. Fractal metamaterial ribbons with multiple closely-packed fractal resonators are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aperture engine array comprising:
one or more aperture engine panels, wherein each aperture engine panel includes an antenna layer configured to receive and/or transmit radiofrequency energy (RF) over a range of frequencies, wherein the antenna layer is substantially lacunar so as to allow incident radiation to pass through to an adjacent layer; and
a solar cell layer disposed adjacent to the one or more aperture engine panels, and including a panel of solar cells configured to absorb incident radiation and provide power, wherein the solar cell layer is operative as a power source for the transmission and/or reception of RF energy.

2. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , further comprising a data acquisition and processing unit configured to receive power from the solar cell layer.

3. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , further comprising a backplane layer, at least a portion of which contains a surface reflective to RF energy, wherein the backplane layer is disposed adjacent to the solar cell layer.

4. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , further comprising a backplane layer, at least a portion of which contains a surface reflective to RF energy, wherein the backplane layer is disposed adjacent to one or more aperture engine panels.

5. The aperture engine array of claim 3 , wherein the backplane layer comprises a metal-fractal backplane layer.

6. The aperture engine array of claim 4 , wherein the backplane layer comprises a metal-fractal backplane layer.

7. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , wherein the antenna layer includes transparent elements.

8. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , where the one or more aperture engine panels comprises a single aperture engine panel.

9. The aperture engine array of claim 1 , further comprising a transceiver configured to receive power from the solar cell layer.

10. The aperture engine of claim 1 , wherein the antenna layer comprises an array of antennas disposed on a dielectric substrate.

11. The aperture engine of claim 10 , wherein the antennas include fractal resonators.

Assignees

• Fractal Antenna Systems Inc

Inventors

• Cohen Nathan

Classifications

• H10F19/00

  Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one photovoltaic cell covered by group H10F10/00, e.g. photovoltaic modules · CPC title

• H01Q1/36

  Structural form of radiating elements, e.g. cone, spiral, umbrella; {Particular materials used therewith}(H01Q1/08, H01Q1/14 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q19/08

  for modifying the radiation pattern of a radiating horn in which it is located {(corrugated horns H01Q13/0208; producing a circular polarisation H01Q13/0241)} · CPC title

• H01Q3/446

  the radiating element being at the centre of one or more rings of auxiliary elements · CPC title

• H02S99/00

  Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass · CPC title