Continuous dielectric constant adaptation radome design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10965017-B2
Application number	US-201916716069-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2019
Priority date	Dec 28, 2018
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

A radome may include a core and an outer dielectric constant (ODC) adaptation component overlying an outer surface of the core. The radome may have an effective dielectric constant variation profile from an outer surface of the ODC adaptation component, through the ODC adaptation component to an outer surface of the core. The effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component may be a continuous monotonic function DC (ot) , where DC (ot) is the dielectric constant of the ODC adaptation component at the value ot, where ot is a ratio OT L /OT T , OT L is a location within the ODC variation component measured from the outer surface of the ODC variation component, and OT T is the total thickness of the ODC adaptation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A radome comprising:
a core, and
an outer dielectric constant (ODC) adaptation component overlying an outer surface of the core,
wherein the ODC adaptation component has an effective dielectric constant variation profile from an outer surface of the ODC adaptation component, through the ODC adaptation component to an outer surface of core;
wherein the effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component is a continuous monotonic function DC (ot) , where DC (ot) is the dielectric constant of the ODC adaptation component at the value ot, where ot is a ratio OT L /OT T , OT L is a location within the ODC variation component measured from the outer surface of the ODC variation component, and OT T is the total thickness of the ODC adaptation.

2. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the radome has an incident angle reflection loss of not greater than about 3 dB as measured over an incident angle range between 0° and 60.

3. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the radome has a frequency range reflection loss of not greater than about 3 dB as measured over a 40 GHz frequency range.

4. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the continuous monotonic function DC (ot) has a step change within a distance OT L less than 0.5*c/f, where c is the speed of light, and f is the largest operating frequency of the system.

5. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the continuous monotonic function DC (ot) has a step change within a distance OT L not greater than about 3.0 mm.

6. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the continuous monotonic function DC (ot) is a function DC (ot) =[DC 0 1/2 +(DC s 1/2 −DC 0 1/2 )·ot] 2 where DC s is the dielectric constant of the core and DC 0 is the dielectric constant of the medium containing the radome.

7. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the continuous monotonic function DC (ot) is a function DC (ot) =[DC 0 1/2 +(DC s 1/2 −DC 0 1/2 )·(A·ot+B·ot 2 +C·ot 3 )] 2 , with A+B+C=1 where DC s is the dielectric constant of the core and DC 0 is the dielectric constant of the medium containing the radome.

8. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the continuous monotonic function DC (ot) is a function DC (ot) =[DC 0 1/2 +(DC S 1/2 −DC 0 1/2 )·(D·ot 3 +E·ot 4 +F·ot 5 )] 2 , with D+E+F=1 where DC s is the dielectric constant of the core and DC 0 is the dielectric constant of the medium containing the radome.

9. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the ODC adaptation component comprises an outer dielectric stack overlying the outer surface of the core.

10. The radome of claim 9 , wherein the outer dielectric stack is configured to create the effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component.

11. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the ODC adaptation component is a textured outer surface of the core.

12. The radome of claim 11 , wherein the texture outer surface of the core is configured to create the effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component.

13. The radome of claim 1 , wherein the radome further comprises:
an inner dielectric constant (IDC) adaptation component overlying an inner surface of the core,
wherein the ODC adaptation component has an effective dielectric constant variation profile from an inner surface IDC adaptation component, through the IDC adaptation component to an inner surface of core;
wherein the effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component is a continuous monotonic function DC (it) , where DC (it) is the dielectric constant of IDC adaptation component at the value it, where it is a ratio IT L /IT T , IT L is a location within the IDC variation component measured from the inner surface of the IDC variation component, and IT T is the total thickness of the IDC adaptation.

14. A radome comprising:
a core having a dielectric constant ODC (C) , and
an outer dielectric constant (ODC) adaptation component overlying an outer surface of the core,
wherein the ODC adaptation component comprises an outer dielectric stack having N dielectric layers having varying dielectric constants ODC (N) ,
wherein the dielectric constants ODC (N) of each successive layer from an outer most dielectric layer to a dielectric layer contacting the outer surface of the core increases from the dielectric constant of air ODC (A) to ODC (C) according to a continuous monotonic function ODC (N) , where ODC (N) is the dielectric constant of an Nth dielectric layer, where N is dielectric layer number counting inwards from the outside of the ODC adaptation component.

15. A radome comprising:
a core having a dielectric constant ODC (C) , and
an outer dielectric constant (ODC) adaptation component overlying an outer surface of the core,
wherein the ODC adaptation component comprises a textured outer surface of the core;
wherein the textured outer surface comprises pyramidal profile having a period p and a height h and being configured create an effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component is a continuous monotonic function DC (ot) , where DC (ot) is the dielectric constant of ODC adaptation component at the value ot, where ot is a ratio OT L /OT T , OT L is a location within the ODC variation component measured from the outer surface of the ODC variation component, and OT T is the total thickness of the ODC adaptation.

16. The radome of claim 15 , wherein the radome has an incident angle reflection loss of not greater than about 3 dB as measured over an incident angle range between 0° and 60.

17. The radome of claim 15 , wherein the radome has a frequency range reflection loss of not greater than about 3 dB as measured over a 40 GHz frequency range.

18. The radome of claim 15 , wherein the ODC adaptation component comprises an outer dielectric stack overlying the outer surface of the core.

19. The radome of claim 18 , wherein the outer dielectric stack is configured to create the effective dielectric constant variation profile of the ODC adaptation component.

20. The radome of claim 15 , wherein the ODC adaptation component is a textured outer surface of the core.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain Performance Plastics Corp

Inventors

• Descloux Delphine
• Mazoyer Simon
• Mimoun Emmanuel

Classifications

• H01Q1/28

  Adaptation for use in or on aircraft, missiles, satellites, or balloons · CPC title

• H01Q1/42 Primary

  Housings not intimately mechanically associated with radiating elements, e.g. radome · CPC title

• H01Q1/288

  Satellite antennas · CPC title

• H01Q1/422 Primary

  comprising two or more layers of dielectric material (H01Q1/425 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q1/421

  Means for correcting aberrations introduced by a radome · CPC title