Antenna aperture in phased array antenna systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11056801-B2
Application number	US-201916276294-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2019
Priority date	Feb 15, 2018
Publication date	Jul 6, 2021
Grant date	Jul 6, 2021

Abstract

Embodiments of present disclosure are directed to apparatuses, systems, and methods relating to antenna apertures in phased array antenna systems directed to configuring antenna lattices in a space tapered configuration and mapping from the antenna lattices, interspersing of antenna elements in an antenna aperture, and rotation of antenna element in the antenna aperture for purity polarization.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A phased array antenna system, comprising:
a first portion carrying an antenna lattice including a plurality of antenna elements, wherein the plurality of antenna elements are arranged in a first configuration, wherein the first configuration is a space tapered configuration, wherein the antenna lattice includes a first antenna element, a second antenna element and a third antenna element, wherein the first, second and third antenna elements are distributed between a center and a periphery of the first portion, with the first antenna element being closest to the center, the third antenna element being furthest from the center, and the second antenna element being positioned between the first and third antenna elements, wherein the first antenna element and the second antenna elements are separated by a first distance, and the second antenna element and the third antenna element are separated by a second distance different than the first distance, and wherein the second antenna element is the closest element along a line to both of the first antenna element and the third antenna element; and
a second portion carrying a beamformer lattice including a plurality of beamformer elements, wherein the plurality of beamformer elements are arranged in a second configuration different from the first configuration, wherein each of the plurality of antenna elements are electrically coupled by mapping to one of the plurality of beamformer elements.

2. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first antenna element is one of a plurality of the antenna elements of a first arrangement of antenna elements, the second antenna element is one of a plurality of the antenna elements of a second arrangement of the antenna elements, and the third antenna element is one of a plurality of the antenna elements of a third arrangement of the antenna elements, wherein areas between the first and the second arrangements, and between the second and the third arrangements are free of the antenna elements.

3. The phased array antenna system of claim 2 , wherein the first, the second, and the third arrangements of the antenna elements are in substantially circular patterns.

4. The phased array antenna system of claim 2 , wherein the first, the second, and the third arrangements of the antenna elements are in substantially rectangular patterns.

5. The phased array antenna system of claim 2 , wherein the first, the second, and the third arrangements of the antenna elements are in sunflower patterns.

6. The phased array antenna system of claim 2 , wherein the first, the second, and the third arrangements of the antenna elements are in concentric or non-concentric patterns.

7. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first, the second, and the third antenna elements are arranged along the same line from the center to the periphery of the first portion.

8. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first, the second and the third antenna elements are configured to transmit signals at the same frequency.

9. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein at least two of the first, the second and the third antenna elements are configured to transmit signals at different frequency.

10. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first, the second and the third antenna elements are configured to emit signals at the same polarization.

11. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first, the second and the third antenna elements are configured to emit signals at different polarization.

12. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the second configuration is an organized or evenly spaced configuration.

13. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of beamformer elements in the beamformer lattice is laterally displaced from at least one of the plurality of antenna elements in the antenna lattice.

14. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second portions define at least a portion of a carrier.

15. The phased array antenna system of claim 14 , wherein the carrier has a first side facing in a first direction and a second side facing in a second direction away from the first direction.

16. The phased array antenna system of claim 15 , wherein the antenna lattice is on the first side of the carrier.

17. The phased array antenna system of claim 15 , wherein the beamformer lattice is on the second side of the carrier.

18. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements and the beamformer elements are in a 1:1 ratio.

19. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna elements and the beam former elements are in a greater than 1:1 ratio.

20. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second portions are first and second layers.

21. The phased array antenna system of claim 20 , further comprising a third layer disposed between the first portion and the second portion carrying at least a portion of a mapping between the plurality of antenna elements and the plurality of beamformer elements.

22. The phased array antenna system of claim 21 , wherein the first, second, and third layers are discrete printed circuit board (PCB) layers in a PCB stack.

23. The phased array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein at least some antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements are physically rotated relative to other antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements.

24. A phased array antenna system, comprising:
a carrier;
an antenna lattice including a plurality of antenna elements supported by the carrier, the antenna lattice having a space tapered configuration, wherein the antenna lattice includes a first antenna element, a second antenna element and a third antenna element, wherein the first, second and third antenna elements are distributed between a center and a periphery of the first portion, with the first antenna element being closest to the center, the third antenna element being furthest from the center, and the second antenna element being positioned between the first and third antenna elements, wherein the first antenna element and the second antenna elements are separated by a first distance, and the second antenna element and the third antenna element are separated by a second distance different than the first distance, and wherein the second antenna element is the closest element along a line to both of the first antenna element and the third antenna element;
a beamformer lattice including a plurality of beamformer elements supported by the carrier having a configuration different from the antenna lattice configuration, wherein at least one of the beamformer elements is laterally displaced from at least one of the antenna elements; and
mapping for electrically coupling the antenna lattice to the beamformer lattice.

25. An antenna lattice for a phased array antenna system, the antenna lattice comprising:
a plurality of antenna elements configured in a space tapered configuration, wherein the plurality of antenna elements includes a first antenna element, a second antenna element and a third antenna element, wherein the first, second and third antenna elements are distributed between a center and a periphery of the first portion, with the first antenna element being closest to the center, the third antenna element being fur

Assignees

• Space Exploration Tech Corp

Inventors

• Mahanfar Alireza
• Rodriguez De Luis Javier
• Apaydin Nil
• Yetisir Ersin
• Karimkashi Arani Shaya

Classifications

• H01Q1/36

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

• H01Q3/26

  varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture ({H01Q3/12,} H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q5/42

  using two or more imbricated arrays (H01Q5/49 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q21/24 Primary

  Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction {(circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001)} · CPC title

• H01Q21/0018

  Space- fed arrays · CPC title