Combined antenna apertures allowing simultaneous multiple antenna functionality

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9893435-B2
Application number	US-201514954415-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2015
Priority date	Feb 11, 2015
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

An antenna apparatus and method for use of the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises a single physical antenna aperture having at least two spatially interleaved antenna arrays of antenna elements, the antenna arrays being operable independently and simultaneously at distinct frequency bands.

First claim

We claim:

1. An antenna comprising:
a single physical antenna aperture having at least two spatially interleaved antenna sub-arrays of antenna elements, wherein each antenna sub-array is operable independently and simultaneously at a specific frequency,
wherein each of the at least two spatially interleaved antenna sub-arrays comprises surface scattering antenna elements and the surface scattering antenna elements of the at least two spatially interleaved antenna sub-arrays are combined into the single physical aperture.

2. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein pointing angles of the at least two antenna sub-arrays are different such that a first antenna sub-array of the at least two antenna arrays is operable to form a beam in one direction and a second antenna sub-array of the at least two antenna arrays is operable to form a beam in a second direction different than the first direction and that the angle between the two beams is greater than 10°.

3. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprise combined transmit and receive antenna arrays of antenna elements operable to perform reception and transmission simultaneously.

4. The antenna defined in claim 3 wherein transmission and reception are in the Ku transmit and receive bands, respectively.

5. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprise combined interleaved dual receive antenna arrays operable to perform reception in two different receive bands and pointing at two different sources in two different directions simultaneously and with switchable/orthogonal polarization states.

6. The antenna defined in claim 5 wherein the two bands comprise the Ka and Ku receive bands.

7. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein each of the at least two antenna sub-arrays is to operate based on holographic beam forming.

8. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein each of the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprises a tunable slotted array of antenna elements combined into the single physical aperture.

9. The antenna defined in claim 8 wherein the tunable slotted array for a first of the at least two antenna sub-arrays has a number of elements and element density that is different than that of a second of the at least two antenna sub-arrays.

10. The antenna defined in claim 8 wherein most elements in each of the tunable slots of the at least two antenna sub-arrays are interleaved and spaced with respect to each other.

11. The antenna defined in claim 8 wherein elements in each of the tunable slotted arrays are positioned in one or more rings.

12. The antenna defined in claim 11 wherein one ring of the one or more rings for operation in a first frequency of the multiple frequencies has a different number of elements than one ring of the one or more rings for operation in a second frequency of the multiple frequencies, the first frequency being different than the second frequency.

13. The antenna defined in claim 11 wherein at least one ring has elements of both tunable slotted arrays.

14. The antenna defined in claim 8 wherein each slotted array comprises a plurality of slots and further wherein each slot is tuned to provide a desired scattering at a given frequency.

15. The antenna defined in claim 14 wherein each slot of the plurality of slots is oriented either +45 degrees or −45 degrees relative to the cylindrical feed wave impinging at a central location of each said slot, such that the slotted array includes a first set of slots rotated +45 degrees relative to the cylindrical feed wave propagation direction and a second set of slots rotated −45 degrees relative to the propagation direction of the cylindrical feed wave.

16. The antenna defined in claim 8 wherein each slotted array comprises:
a plurality of slots;
a plurality of patches, wherein each of the patches is co-located over and separated from a slot in the plurality of slots, forming a patch/slot pair, each patch/slot pair being turned off or on based on application of a voltage to the patch in the pair; and
a controller that applies a control pattern that controls which patch/slot pairs are on and off, thereby causing generation of a beam.

17. A flat panel antenna comprising:
at least two spatially interleaved antenna sub-arrays combined in a single physical aperture operable independently and simultaneously at distinct frequencies, wherein each of the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprises a tunable slotted array of antenna elements; and
a single, radial continuous feed coupled to the aperture[s].

18. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein pointing angles of the at least two antenna sub-arrays are different such that a first antenna sub-array of the at least two antenna sub-arrays is operable to form a beam in one direction and a second antenna sub-array of the at least two antenna sub-arrays is operable to form a beam in a second direction different than the first direction and that the angle between the two beams is greater than 10 degrees.

19. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprise combined transmit and receive antenna arrays of antenna elements operable to perform reception and transmission simultaneously.

20. The antenna defined in claim 19 wherein transmission and reception are in the Ku transmit and receive bands, respectively.

21. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein the at least two antenna sub-arrays comprise combined interleaved dual receive antenna arrays of antenna elements operable to perform reception in two different receive bands and pointing at two different sources in two different directions simultaneously.

22. The antenna defined in claim 21 wherein the two bands comprise the Ka and Ku receive bands.

23. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein each of the at least two antenna sub-arrays is to operate based on holographic beam forming.

24. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein the tunable slotted array for a first of the at least two antenna sub-arrays has a number of elements and element density that is different than that of a second of the at least two antenna sub-arrays.

25. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein most elements in each of the tunable slotted arrays of the at least two antenna sub-arrays are interleaved and spaced with respect to each other.

26. The antenna defined in claim 17 wherein elements in each of the tunable slotted arrays are positioned in one or more rings.

27. The antenna defined in claim 26 wherein one ring of the one or more rings for operation in a first frequency of the multiple frequencies has a different number of elements than one ring of the one or more rings for operation in a second frequency of the multiple frequencies, the first frequency being different than the second frequency.

28. The antenna defined in claim 26 wherein at least one ring has elements of both tunable slotted arrays.

29. A method for transmission comprising:
exciting, with radio-frequency (RF) energy, first and second independently operating sets of interleaved surface scattering antenna elements in first and second antenna sub-arrays, respectively, the sub-arrays being combined in a single physical aperture of a flat panel antenna; and
generating two RF waves using the first and second sets of elements simultaneously, the two RF waves being in two differe

Assignees

• Bily Adam
• Sazegar Mohsen
• Kundtz Nathan
• Stevenson Ryan
• Kymeta Corp

Inventors

• Bily Adam
• Sazegar Mohsen
• Kundtz Nathan
• Stevenson Ryan

Classifications

• H01Q5/42

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

• H01Q25/002

  providing at least two patterns of different beamwidth; Variable beamwidth antennas · CPC title

• H01Q21/064

  using horn or slot aerials (slotted waveguides arrays H01Q21/005) · CPC title

• H01Q9/0457

  electromagnetically coupled to the feed line · CPC title

• H01Q21/0012 Primary

  Radial guide fed arrays · CPC title