Expansion compensation structure for an antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11909091-B2
Application number	US-202117323800-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 18, 2021
Priority date	May 19, 2020
Publication date	Feb 20, 2024
Grant date	Feb 20, 2024

Abstract

Expansion compensation structures for an antenna are disclosed. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises: an array of antenna elements; and a structure coupled to the array of antenna elements, the structure having a plurality of components comprising materials having different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs), wherein first and second components of the plurality of components are pin bonded with one or more pins, and one or more components of the plurality of components other than the first and second components are between the first and second components and have one or more slots through which the one or more pins traverse and have CTEs different than CTEs of the first and second components.

First claim

We claim:

1. An antenna comprising:
an array of antenna elements; and
a structure coupled to the array of antenna elements, the structure having a plurality of components comprising materials having different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs), wherein first and second components of the plurality of components are pin bonded with one or more pins, and one or more components of the plurality of components other than the first and second components are between the first and second components and have one or more slots through which the one or more pins traverse and have CTEs different than CTEs of the first and second components to allow movement of at least one component of the one or more components between the first and second components around the one or more pins due to thermal expansion.

2. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the first and second components comprise materials with higher CTE than the one or more components.

3. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the first and second components comprise materials with lower CTE than the one or more components.

4. The antenna of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more pins comprise materials that do not detrimentally impact radio-frequency (RF) propagation of a feed wave.

5. The antenna of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more pins comprises a dielectric pin.

6. The antenna of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more pins comprises polystyrene material.

7. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the one or more slots allow movement of the one or more components with respect to the first and second components in response to thermal expansion.

8. The antenna of claim 1 wherein structure comprises an antenna feed.

9. The antenna of claim 8 wherein the antenna feed includes bonded composite dielectric materials.

10. The antenna of claim 9 wherein the dielectric materials comprise sintered dielectric materials.

11. The antenna of claim 8 wherein the antenna feed includes corrugated dielectric materials.

12. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the array of antenna elements are operable to radiate radio-frequency (RF) energy.

13. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the array of antenna elements are RF radiating metamaterial antenna elements of a metasurface.

Assignees

• Kymeta Corp

Inventors

• Linn Steven Howard
• Reihani Mehdi Afkhami
• Olfert Stephen
• Eylander Chris
• Chen Felix
• Pfeiff Corey
• Byron Jonathan

Classifications

• H01Q1/085 Primary

  Flexible aerials; Whip aerials with a resilient base · CPC title

• H01Q1/42

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

• H01Q21/005

  Slotted waveguides arrays · CPC title

• H01Q1/002 Primary

  Protection against seismic waves, thermal radiation or other disturbances, e.g. nuclear explosion; Arrangements for improving the power handling capability of an antenna · CPC title

• H01Q21/0012

  Radial guide fed arrays · CPC title