Antenna element placement for a cylindrical feed antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9905921-B2
Application number	US-201615059837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 3, 2016
Priority date	Mar 5, 2015
Publication date	Feb 27, 2018
Grant date	Feb 27, 2018

Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for antenna element placement are disclosed. In one embodiment, an antenna comprises an antenna feed to input a cylindrical feed wave; a single physical antenna aperture having at least one antenna array of antenna elements, where the antenna elements are located on a plurality of concentric rings concentrically located relative to an antenna feed, wherein rings of the plurality of concentric rings are separated by a ring-to-ring distance, wherein a first distance between elements along rings of the plurality of concentric rings is a function of a second distance between rings of the plurality of concentric rings; and a controller to control each antenna element of the array separately using matrix drive circuitry, where each of the antenna elements is uniquely addressed by the matrix drive circuitry.

First claim

We claim:

1. A flat panel antenna comprising:
an antenna feed to input a cylindrical feed wave;
a single physical antenna aperture having at least one antenna array of antenna elements, wherein each of the antenna elements is operable to radiate radio frequency (RF) energy and the antenna elements are located on a plurality of concentric rings concentrically located relative to an antenna feed, wherein rings of the plurality of concentric rings are separated by a ring-to-ring distance, wherein a first distance between elements along rings of the plurality of concentric rings is a function of a second distance between rings of the plurality of concentric rings; and
a controller to control each antenna element of the array separately using matrix drive circuitry, each of the antenna elements being uniquely addressed by the matrix drive circuitry.

2. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the array of antenna elements has rotational symmetry.

3. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein a ratio of second distance to the first distance is constant over the antenna aperture.

4. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein each ring in the plurality of concentric rings has a number of additional elements over an adjacent ring that is closer to the cylindrical feed, and the number of additional elements is constant.

5. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein rings of the plurality of rings have an identical number of antenna elements.

6. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein elements on each ring of the plurality of concentric rings are positioned based on locations on a rectangular grid representation of the elements.

7. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein elements on each ring of the plurality of concentric rings are positioned based on locations on an octagon representation of the elements.

8. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the first distance between the elements along rings of the plurality of rings is based on a frequency of operation of the antenna aperture.

9. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein placement of each antenna element forms multiple spirals.

10. The antenna defined in claim 9 wherein placement of antenna elements on the plurality of concentric rings forms first and second sets of spirals of antenna elements, the first set of spirals bending in a clockwise direction and the second set of spirals bending in a counterclockwise direction.

11. The antenna defined in claim 10 wherein the first and second sets of spirals in one section of the aperture represent a repeated pattern of antenna elements that occurs a plurality of instances throughout the aperture array rotation-wise.

12. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein layout of the plurality of antenna elements comprises four groups of antenna elements, each group of antenna elements having an equal number of antenna elements laid out as one pattern such that a combination of the four groups forms concentric rings of antenna elements.

13. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the controller applies a control pattern to control which antenna elements are on and off to perform holographic beam forming.

14. The antenna defined in claim 1 wherein each of the at least one antenna array comprises a tunable slotted array of antenna elements.

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

16. The antenna defined in claim 15 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.

17. The antenna defined in claim 14 wherein the tunable 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 to cause generation of a beam.

18. A flat panel antenna comprising:
an antenna feed to input a cylindrical feed wave;
a single physical antenna aperture having at least one antenna array of antenna elements, wherein each of the antenna elements is operable to radiate RF energy and the antenna elements are located on a plurality of concentric rings concentrically located relative to an antenna feed, wherein rings of the plurality of concentric rings are separated by a ring-to-ring distance, wherein a first distance between elements along rings of the plurality of concentric rings is based on a frequency of operation of the antenna aperture and is a function of a second distance between rings of the plurality of concentric rings; and
a controller to control each antenna element of the array separately using matrix drive circuitry, each of the antenna elements being uniquely addressed by the matrix drive circuitry.

19. The antenna defined in claim 18 wherein a ratio of the second distance to the first distance is constant over the antenna aperture.

20. The antenna defined in claim 18 wherein each ring in the plurality of concentric rings has a number of additional elements over an adjacent ring that is closer to the cylindrical feed, and the number of additional elements is constant.

21. The antenna defined in claim 18 wherein rings of the plurality of rings have an identical number of antenna elements.

22. The antenna defined in claim 18 wherein elements on each ring of the plurality of concentric rings are positioned based on locations on a rectangular grid representation of the elements.

23. The antenna defined in claim 18 wherein elements on each ring of the plurality of concentric rings are positioned based on locations on an octagon representation of the elements.

24. A method for forming an array of antenna elements, the method comprising:
assigning unique drive addresses to antenna elements in a plurality of groups of antenna elements by grouping antenna elements into the plurality of groups as if placement of such antenna elements would be on non-circular concentric grids, with each group of antenna elements having an associated placement on one of the non-circular concentric grids, wherein each antenna element is operable to radiate RF energy; and
laying out antenna elements into concentric rings, where antenna elements of each group associated with one of the non-circular concentric grids is placed in one of the concentric rings.

25. The method defined in claim 24 wherein the non-circular concentric grids comprise concentric rectangular grids evenly spaced apart.

26. The method defined in claim 25 wherein the concentric rectangular grids are concentric square grids.

27. The method defined in claim 24 wherein the non-circular concentric grids comprise concentric octagon grids evenly spaced apart.

28. The method defined in claim 24 wherein laying out antenna elements comprises placing antenna elements on the plurality of concentric r

Assignees

• Kymeta Corp

Inventors

• Sazegar Mohsen
• Kundtz Nathan

Classifications

• H01Q21/0025

  Modular arrays · CPC title

• H01Q21/0012

  Radial guide fed arrays · CPC title

• H01Q3/36

  with variable phase-shifters · CPC title

• H01Q21/0087

  Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing antenna arrays (manufacturing waveguides H01P11/00) · CPC title

• H01Q21/064

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