U.S. patent number 3,918,064 [Application Number 05/427,797] was granted by the patent office on 1975-11-04 for wide angle antenna system.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Cubic Corporation. Invention is credited to Jacob Joseph Gustincic.
United States Patent |
3,918,064 |
Gustincic |
November 4, 1975 |
Wide angle antenna system
Abstract
An antenna employing electronically controlled radiating
elements that produce a primary illumination of a circular ring
source aperture. The aperture is fed by a parallel plate waveguide
that contains radiating elements curved around to conform to a
cylindrical surface, and that is fed by a similarly curved widely
flared feed horn forming a power divider to the radiating
elements.
Inventors: |
Gustincic; Jacob Joseph (Los
Angeles, CA) |
Assignee: |
Cubic Corporation (San Diego,
CA)
|
Family
ID: |
23696328 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/427,797 |
Filed: |
December 26, 1973 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
343/783; 342/371;
343/786 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01Q
3/34 (20130101); H01Q 19/138 (20130101); H01Q
21/0031 (20130101); H01Q 13/04 (20130101); H01Q
3/46 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H01Q
19/13 (20060101); H01Q 3/30 (20060101); H01Q
3/46 (20060101); H01Q 13/04 (20060101); H01Q
13/00 (20060101); H01Q 3/34 (20060101); H01Q
19/10 (20060101); H01Q 3/00 (20060101); H01Q
21/00 (20060101); H01Q 003/26 () |
Field of
Search: |
;343/754,755,786,787,837,914,783,854 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Lieberman; Eli
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Brown & Martin
Claims
Having described, my invention I now claim:
1. A microwave antenna comprising,
a parallel plate waveguide with a parallel plate flared feed
horn,
said feed horn having outwardly diverging edge walls to said
parallel plate waveguide,
said waveguide and feed horn having a curved shape with said
waveguide being open at one end forming a curved ring source
aperture,
and a plurality of separate phase shifters positioned in said
waveguide adjacent said feed horn and arranged around the curved
volume for dividing the power of the received electromagnetic waves
and controlling the phase of the electromagnetic waves through each
phase shifter.
2. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 1 wherein,
said waveguide and said feed horn being curved to cylindrical
shape.
3. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 2 wherein,
said phase shifters being positioned in equal spaced locations
across the entire aperture.
4. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 3, wherein,
said phase shifters are positioned in parallel.
5. A microwave antenna as claimd in claim 2 wherein,
each of said phase shifters being positioned with equal distant
spacing across the aperture of said waveguide,
and said phase shifters are positioned in a curved arrangement
relative to said aperture for providing a substantially uniform
radiating beam distribution that is not substantially affected by
changes in frequency.
6. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 5 wherein,
said flared feed horn has a neck portion,
said neck portion being connected to said flared feed horn at a
first location,
and said phase shifters being arranged in a circular orientation
relative to said first position.
7. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 5 wherein,
said waveguide and said feed horn are positioned in side by side
parallel relationship with the horn aperture being connected to the
waveguide by a 180.degree. waveguide bend,
and said phase shifters being positioned adjacent said bend.
8. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 7 wherein,
said interconnecting bend having a substantially circular lower end
configuration across the width of said waveguide and horn aperture,
whereby said phase shifters are thereby positioned in a circular
configuration relative to the waveguide aperture.
9. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 2 wherein,
said waveguide and said feed horn have a cylindrical configuration
with said feed horn being concentric inside of said waveguide.
10. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 9 wherein,
said waveguide aperture having a 90.degree. bend for radiating the
beam at right angles to the parallel plate waveguide.
11. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 2 wherein,
said aperture of said waveguide having a 90.degree. bend to radiate
a beam at right angles to said parallel plate waveguide.
12. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 2 including,
means for spreading and guiding the energy in said horn to the
phase shifters for providing a collimated beam in a direction
broadside to the antenna when the radiating elements are set at
0.degree..
13. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 12 wherein,
the edge walls of said parallel plate flared feed horn being curved
inwardly to provide a uniform distribution for frequency shifts of
the energy to said radiating elements.
14. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 10 wherein,
said flared feed horn being an E-plane sectoral horn in which the
energy is distributed with uniform phase and amplitude over the
horn aperture and guided to the phase shifters,
and said phase shifters being arranged in a circular configuration
relative to the energy input to said horn.
15. A microwave antenna system comprising,
a parallel plate waveguide with a flared feed horn,
said feed horn having outwardly diverging edge walls to said
parallel plate waveguide,
said waveguide and feed horn having a cylindrical curved shape with
said waveguide being open at one end forming a circular ring source
aperture,
a plurality of separate phase shifters positioned in said waveguide
adjacent said feed horn and arranged around the cylindrical volume
for feeding said circular aperture,
means for supplying energy to said feed horn that distributes over
a wide region and is guided to the phase shifters,
circuit means for electronically controlling the phase shifters to
provide a collimated beam to emanate from the ring aperture,
and said circuit means including means for introducing a phase
gradient along the radiating elements to move the beam around the
periphery of the ring aperture.
16. A microwave antenna as claimed in claim 15 wherein,
said flared feed horn having means forming a power divider horn
that provides energy to said phase shifters causing said beam to be
steered over a 180.degree. sector with relatively minor variations
in individual phase shifter settings as a function of
frequency.
17. The method of radiating a beam from or scanning a microwave
antenna comprising,
directing RF energy through a parallel-plate, flared feed horn
forming a power divider horn to a plurality of phase shifters
positioned across a parallel plate waveguide,
said waveguide and power divider horn having a cylindrical
shape,
directing the energy controlled by the phase shifters through a
90.degree. radiating aperture forming a circular ring aperture
directed normal to the waveguide,
shifting the phase gradient along the phase shifters providing a
collimated radiated beam,
directing the energy through the power divider horn to the phase
shifters in the manner to provide a collimated beam set at
0.degree. broad side to the antenna,
and steering the beam over a .+-. 180.degree. sector with
relatively minor variations in individual phase shifter settings as
a function of frequency.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is well known that a microwave antenna beam can be scanned by
means of electronic phase shifters. There are, however, severe
limitations associated with the size of the angular range over
which such existing antennas can be scanned. In a typical
conventional scanning antenna, a power divider network distributes
the microwave energy among a number of radiating elements, each of
which has an electronic phase shifter. By adjusting the phase
shifter to produce a phase gradient across the antenna aperture,
the antenna beam can be scanned through a given angle. Because the
antenna is scanned, the projected aperture in the direction of the
antenna beam is less than the actual aperture at broadside. Thus
the effective antenna size is reduced with scan and consequently
the beam becomes broader and the antenna loses gain. So such planar
arrays are generally restricted to scan ranges of about .+-.
45.degree. in which the gain loss is held to about 30 percent at
the limits of scan. Additional mutual coupling losses due to
reflections at the radiating elements at large scan angles also
limit the useful scan range of this type of antenna.
Existing schemes designed to overcome the scan limitations of the
planar arrays can involve a switching procedure, wherein two planar
arrays are arranged so that their combined .+-. 45.degree. scan
ranges covers the forward 180.degree. sector. By means of an
additional microwave electronic switch, the microwave energy can be
commutated to the appropriate antenna and this antenna scanned to
the desired angle in its half of the 180.degree. sector. By
increasing the number of arrays and switches, it is possible to
achieve any angular coverage and reduce the range of scan over
which the individual arrays must operate. A variation of this
approach, which does not require quite the multiplicity of array
elements, is the circular conformal array. In this array, the
elements are arranged in a circle and multiple switches are used to
commutate the energy to a certain number of adjacent elements.
There are two major disadvantages in these switched wide angle
scanning techniques that are overcome by the invention herein. The
first limitation of the existing wide angle systems is that they
require electronic microwave switches. The power handling
capability of the antenna is thus entirely determined by the power
limitations of the switch. This is a severe limitation in the many
applications that require high peak and average power handling.
Also, the switches are in series with the total antenna input and
thus their loss represents a direct loss in antenna gain. At high
frequencies or in applications where multiple switching is used,
the switch loss can become prohibitive.
The second disadvantage in the switched antenna scheme lies in the
inefficient use that is made of the antenna aperture and radiating
components. In any given scan position, the antenna contains "dead
elements". These are unexcited elements and phase shifters that are
switched off and do not contribute to the radiating beam. These
unused elements represent a substantial inefficiency in antenna
size, weight, cost and complexity.
Thus it is advantageous to have an antenna that will provide
continuous wide angle electronic scanning of a microwave antenna
beam over an azimuthal angular region of at least 180.degree.
without an appreciable reduction in gain due to scanning, and to
provide the scanning solely by means of electronic phase shifters
feeding a singular circular aperture in a geometrical
configuration, without the use of additional microwave electronic
switches to commutate energy to various parts of a curved
aperture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In preferred embodiments of this invention, a parallel plate wave
guide is fed by a flared feed horn that functions as a power
divider horn. The waveguide and feed horn are curved to a
cylindrical shape with the waveguide being open at one end and
having a 90.degree. aperture forming a curved ring source aperture.
A plurality of separate radiating elements, such as phase shifters,
are positioned in the waveguide adjacent the feed horn and arranged
around the cylindrical volume for feeding the circular ring source
aperture.
The radiating elements are in effect arranged on a cylindrical
surface within the parallel plate waveguide and radiate into the
wave guide. The parallel plate waveguide is curved so as to conform
to the surface of the cylinder. So the radiation from the radiating
elements or phase shifters illuminates the portion of the aperture
as defined by an arc on a curve, which is the cylindrical portion
of the ring aperture. Because of the cylindrical geometry, the
radiation from the arc collimates to form an antenna beam in the
plane of the arc. By introducing a phase gradient along the
radiating elements, the illuminated arc portion can be made to move
around the periphery of the cylinder or end ring aperture with
little change in the amplitude and relative phase of the
illumination. As the arc beam moves around the periphery, a wide
angle scan is achieved without projected aperture loss. Since no
switches are used, the antenna has a power handling capability of a
planar array and the antenna eliminates the inefficiencies
associated with the unexcited elements.
In applications, the radiating elements need only be scanned
through relatively small angles, for example .+-. 25.degree., in
order to move the arc beam half way around the periphery and
generate a 180.degree. scan. Thus the antenna acts as a scan
transformer, multiplying the angle of scan at a slight cost of
aperture reduction, since the total radiating aperture formed by
all of the elements in parallel plate waveguide is less than the
arc projection. This reduction in aperture is actually an advantage
in high power applications where it is desired to spread the power
out over as many phase shifters as possible so as to minimize the
maximum power each phase shifter is required to handle.
In operating the antenna as an antenna system, the antenna
functions as a scan transmit and receive antenna. The antenna
rapidly switches a highly directive beam through a 360.degree.
angular sector with a minimum of gain loss. The rapid beam
switching capability is made possible through the use of electronic
scanning elements, which cannot be performed by mechanical beam
positioning. Yet the antenna has the capability to control a beam
over a complete 360.degree. angular sector. The antenna provides a
single RF output which can be connected to any receiver or
transmitter system and the antenna can accept DF steering commands
or can generate or provide a complete antenna system with a minimum
of interfacing electronics. Besides having the ability to scan a
directive antenna beam through a 360.degree. sector, the antenna
system has the ability to adjust the shape of the beam according to
system requirements. Thus the beam may be widened to provide
instantaneous wide angle coverage for, for example, coverage of
multiple targets. In general the electronics system for operating
the antenna employs any suitable means for driving the radiating
units or the phase shifters in a transmit or receive mode, and
providing individual control to the phase shifters for controlling
the scan in the desired azimuth. An example of one way of driving
the system is to employ a position memory via a position generator
to track particular targets in sequence.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new and
improved method and apparatus for providing a wide angle antenna
and a wide angle antenna system for scanning and transmitting
microwave beams.
Other objects and many advantages of this invention will become
more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description
and an examination of the drawings, wherein like reference numerals
designate like parts throughout and in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a basic form of the antenna.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the structure of FIG. 1 rolled into a
cylindrical configuration.
FIG. 4 is a side elevation view, partially cut away, of a
particular form of the antenna.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5--5 of FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is a side elevation view, partially cut away, of an
alternate form of the antenna structure.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7--7 of FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of a further, non-folded
form of the antenna structure.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view, illustrating the combining of a power
divider horn with a parallel plate wave guide for the configuration
illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 5.
FIG. 10 is a plan view of an embodiment of the invention, with the
power divider horn and wave guide being in a flat configuration and
with the phase shifters arranged horizontally.
FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken on line 11--11 of FIG. 10.
FIG. 12 is a plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 1, illustrating
the position of the phase shifters.
FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic illustration of the beam radiated by the
phase shifters through the wave guide in the flat configuration of
FIG. 10.
FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic illustration similar to FIG. 13, but with
the beam being directed at an angle.
FIG. 15 is a diagrammatic illustration of the beam with the phase
shifters being arranged in a curved configuration.
FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic illustration of the distance
relationships of the beam radiated from a circular antenna
aperture.
FIG. 17 illustrates the distances the beam travels from a circular
wave front converging on a single point.
FIG. 18 is a graph illustrative the curve divergence for different
value of O in the antenna beam configurations of this
invention.
FIG. 19 is a diagrammatic illustration of the RF wave fronts of the
antenna configuration illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7.
FIG. 20 is still another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 21 is a block diagram of a representative circuit for driving
the antenna in a transmit mode and receive mode, with electronic
scanning through electronic control of the phase shifters.
Referring now to the drawings, the initial approach and concept of
the antenna of this invention is the utilization of a space feed to
excite multiple radiators or phase shifters arranged in parallel to
control RF energy from a single power divider horn. With reference
to FIGS. 10 and 11, a widely flared horn 152 receives RF energy
from input 150. The horn 152 spreads the energy over a wide region
and guides it to N phase shifters 154, all arrayed in parallel.
These phase shifters 154 are positioned in a parallel plate wave
guide 156 having a 90.degree. aperture 158. This arrangement makes
it possible to divide the relatively high power levels of the
transmit mode into reasonable power increments that can be handled
conveniently with high speed electronic devices. This power
division occurs in an open region between two parallel metal
surfaces of the wave guide 156 and does not require loss of
power-dividing networks or electronic components. Once the power
division has occurred, the phase of the electromagnetic waves
through each phase shifter can be controlled in such fashion as to
produce a shaped-beam pointing in any spacial direction. In this
embodiment, the antenna illustrated is planar, rather than
circular, and it serves also to explain the concept of the
invention. Each phase shifter intercepts approximately 1/N of the
input power. The phase shifters are adjusted to produce any type of
phase distribution across the aperture 158.
While this antenna has many applications and can be steered to any
direction in a plane on a line normal to the antenna, the structure
and operation suffers from a loss of aperture with increasing angle
of scan. This results in a decreased gain and an increased beam
width as the antenna beam is scanned from the broadside direction.
However, these problems can be alleviated by folding the planar
antenna illustrated in FIG. 11 into a cylinder. In this structure,
the antenna is folded so that the side 151 and 155 is coincident
with the other side 157 and 161 of the antenna at the rear of the
array. The antenna is thus folded into a cylindrical configuration
with the input 150 at one side of the cylinder. This structure has
the general configuration of that illustrated in FIG. 8, and can
have the folded over feed input such as is illustrated in FIG.
2.
In this cylindrical embodiment, the phase shifter or radiating
elements 154 must be recomputed for each desired angle of scan.
However, the antenna will then scan over plus or minus 90.degree.
with no loss in aperture for any angle of scan. The difficulty with
this embodiment is the frequency sensitiveness of the antenna.
Additional phase shifter settings must be programmed even for
slight frequency changes.
In the non-folded configuration 9, more improved version of the
invention for most uses is that generally illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2
and 12. With specific reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a widely flared
feed horn 14 receives RF energy through opening 18 in the guide 16.
The horn 14 is connected to a parallel plate, wave guide 12 that is
connected by a 180.degree. mitered bend connection 22. The wave
guide aperture 24 is curved to a 90.degree. angle providing an
output in the azimuth normal to the wave guide. It will be noted,
that the bottom configuration of the connection 22 is curved.
Referring to FIG. 12, the bottom edge surface 57 from A to C and
from C to A' is circular. This circular outer wall surface extends
from the upper edge surfaces 20 of the horn 14. Since the phase
shifters are positioned inside the wave guide immediately adjacent
the aperture of the horn 14, the phase shifters 56 are positioned
with a circular orientation relative to the input connection 32 to
the horn 14. Thus the input radiated RF energy contacts all of the
phase shifters simultaneously. This provides a major advantage of
relative insensitivity to frequency changes. In this configuration,
the contour of the curve of surface 57 is such that for all phase
shifters set at 0.degree., a perfectly formed pencil beam is
produced in a direction broadside to the antenna. The antenna beam
can thus be steered in a collimated beam over a .+-. 180.degree.
sector when the antenna is folded into a cylindrical form, as will
be described hereinafter, with relatively minor variations in the
individual phase shifter settings as a function of frequency.
To achieve the preferred embodiment of this invention, the antenna
structure, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, is curved into a
cylindrical shape after being connected together as generally
illustrated in FIG. 9. This cylindrical shaped embodiment is that
illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the
horn 12 is folded into a cylinder having an outer cylindrical
surface 48 and an inner cylindrical surface 64. The inner
cylindrical surface 64 also functions as the outer wall of horn 14,
which has an inner surface 54. In this curved configuration, the
180.degree. mitered bend 22 forms a trough 62 having a low point
74. The input wave guide 44 has a connector 42 and feeds energy
through connection 76 to the horn channel 66, where the RF energy
spreads to the mitered bend 62 and then passes through phase
shifters 56 in the cylindrical wave guide 60 and then through the
90.degree. aperture 50 forming a wave guide rim aperture that is
circular in configuration. The ring shaped aperture has an upper
lip 46 that aids in directing the beam radially outward in an
azimuth normal to the wave guide surface 48. The upper end of the
antenna structure is filled by a cylindrical member having a ring
wall portion 70 and a wall 71. The center 52 of the antenna
structure is open and the open portions between walls 48 and 54
below the 180.degree. mitered bend 62 are filled with a powdered
aluminium material 72. Thus the bottom end of the mitered bend 62
has the shape of the mitered bend 22 in FIGS. 2 and 12, with the
phase shifters 56 positioned in a circular configuration relative
to the inputs of the RF energy and relative to the outputs through
the wave guide.
In operation, the horn 14 functions as a power divider for feeding
RF energy to the parallel plate wave guide. The power divider may
take, for example, the form of an E-plane sectorial horn in which
the energy distributes itself with uniform phase and amplitude over
the horn aperture, which has the lower end curved at 57. The
90.degree. mitered bend that provides the ring shaped aperture of
the wave guide, gives an improved aperture match for the beam,
which beam radiates at right angles to the parallel plate wave
guide 12. A mathematical analysis that will be described in more
detail hereinafter, illustrates that if the radiating elements or
phase shifters are phased to focus their energy at a point F, see
FIGS. 13 and 14, then the region E-E' included between the rays
emanating from the outer elements to point F, approximately 90
percent of the cylinder radius beyond the end of the parallel
plates, will be illuminated with the proper phase to form the
azimuth beam when the cylinder is rolled up. Thus for illustrative
purposes, when RF energy is supplied from RF energy source 160 to
antenna phase shifters 162, and directed by electronic scanning
control the phase shifters 162, then the beam 164 in passing
through aperture E-E' is focused on point F and will have the
proper phase when focused on point F' as illustrated in FIG. 14.
The amplitude of the illumination on E-E' is controlled by the
amplitudes of the radiating elements, that illuminate the various
portions of E-E'. Introducing an amplitude taper over the radiating
elements produces a corresponding amplitude taper over E-E'
allowing control over the antenna side lobes.
In order to scan the antenna, it is only necessary to refocus the
radiating elements toward a point F' translated to the right or
left of F, but the same distance from the end of the parallel
plates as represented by 165. The new illumination D-D' illustrated
in FIG. 14 will almost be the same as the old illumination E-E' as
shown in FIG. 13, since both are caused by similar converging wave
fronts. The illustration D-D' of FIG. 14 will be translated on the
periphery, since the wave front from the radiators is converging to
F' instead of F. As previously mentioned, this translation of the
illumination is the equivalent of a scanning of the antenna.
It may be understood that by so orientating the beam as illustrated
in FIGS. 13 and 14, with a curved wave guide as illustrated in
FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, the beam 164 becomes collimated. This can
correspond to a configuration of FIG. 10 where the phase shifters
or radiators are arranged parallel. Since it is desired to produce
a wave front that converges to the point F, it is advantageous to
arrange the radiating elements or phase shifters at equal distances
from the point F as shown in FIG. 15. With the radiating elements
162 arranged on a circle and being fed from microwave source 160,
no phase shift is required to generate the broadside beam 163 and
the phase shifters are only used to scan the beam to either side of
broadside. Since electronic phase shifters are not true time delay
devices, this arrangement of radiators produces an antenna with the
greatest mocrowave band width. When the antenna of this
configuration is rolled into cylindrical form, the antenna is
provided as illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5.
When the radiating elements are not arranged on a circle but in a
line as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14, and the power divider is
designed to produce uniform illumination, the antenna is
symmetrical and invariant to a rotation about the axis of the
cylinder. Under these conditions, the antenna pattern will have
high side lobe levels and a high gain associated with an antenna
beam generated by a uniformly illuminated aperture. In addition,
the antenna will be capable of a full 360.degree. scan. To
demonstrate the ability of the antenna to maintain phase coherence
while the beam is scanned through large angles, and to provide a
qualitative explanation for the operation of the antenna in
electronic-scanned transmit and receive modes, reference is made to
the diagrammatic illustrations in FIGS. 16 and 17 that complement
the illustrations previously described in FIGS. 13, 14 and 15.
Referring to the antenna configuration, which is essentially
illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, there is illustrated the top view
of a cylinder 168 having a radius r. Radiation leaves a point P on
the periphery of the cylinder that is located at an angle .theta.
with respect to a reference direction. The distance d.sub.1 which
the radiation travels in going from P to a reference plan tangent
to the cylinder, as illustrated, is given by:
d.sub.1 = r(1-cos.theta.)
Let the cylinder 168 now be underdeveloped into a rectangular
sheet, as illustrated in FIG. 16, and let the radiation impinging
on point P be that of a circular wave converging on point F, a
distance D in front of the undeveloped periphery. Then the distance
d.sub.2, which the radiation must travel to go from P to the point
of constant phase, F, is given by:
d.sub.2 = .sqroot.D.sup.2 + (r.theta.).sup.2
Now if d.sub.2 = d.sub.1 plus a constant for all values of .theta.,
then the radiation of the developed cylinder will emerge from point
P and reach all parts of the reference plane in phase. In general,
this is only approximately true, because the values of d.sub.1 /r
and (d.sub.2 - D)/r for different values of .theta. will vary
slightly when D/r is chosen to be 1. However, these amounts of
variance are not significant enough to affect the operation of the
device. As can be seen in FIG. 18 the respective curves for the
values are identical for small amounts of .theta. so that d.sub.1
and d.sub.2 differ only by the constant value D. As .theta.
increases, the difference between the curves increases. It has been
found that for a value of D/r = 0.9, the two curves most closely
approximate each other over the range of .theta. from 0.degree. to
60.degree..
In another embodiment, see FIGS. 6 and 7, the antenna structure 100
comprises a widely flared horn 120 that received RF energy through
input 124. The input horn has a volume 118, that extends on the
input side to the 180.degree. mitered bend 110 formed by bottom
member 108. In this embodiment, the phase shifters 106 are
positioned in a parallel alignment in the wave guide 103. The edge
wall 116 of the horn 120 has a configuration that provides
substantially uniform contact of the wave fronts of the RF energy
with the radiating elements of phase shifters 106, providing an
output beam to the circular aperture 104 of the wave guide 103 to
provide phase coherence while the beam is scanned through changes
of angles. As illustrated in FIG. 19, the wave fronts 182, because
of the configuration of side walls 116, achieve a general lateral
configuration at the contacting of the phase shifters 106 to
maintain the correct orientation of the RF energy to reduce
frequency sensitivity.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, the configuration of the embodiment of
FIGS. 6 and 7 is illustrated in an end line configuration wherein
the horn 120 is not doubled back to provide a horn aperture
connection of 180.degree.. Thus the feed 124 feeds directly through
the antenna to the lip portion 114 and the circular ring shaped
aperture 104.
In another embodiment, see FIG. 20, an antenna similar to that
previously disclosed in FIGS. 3 through 5 has a completely reversed
input 230 that feeds RF energy through guide 234 to the horn 236
and into the inner phase shifter aperture 255 and passes through
the 180.degree. bend 267 of the wave guide aperture into the phase
shifters 250 and through the outer phase shifter aperture 252 and
through the outer wave guide 238 to the ring shaped apertue 246
formed by upper and lower lips 240 and 242. This configuration
allows the feed to be supplied to the lower side of the antenna
rather than to the upper end of the antenna and still provides a
compact configuration.
Referring to FIG. 21, there is illustrated in a block diagram, a
form representative circuit of a driving circuit that may be used
to drive the antennas of this invention. In this circuit, an input
energy signal is supplied through line 196, to a modulator 194 that
is modulated by the output of a local oscillator 198. The RF
frequency of the modulator 194 is fed through an IF amplifier 192,
a power amplifier 190, a band pass filter 188 and through a
circulator 186 to supply the RF energy of the desired frequency and
information to the antenna 184 in the transmit mode. In the receive
mode, the antenna 184 is scanned and the information signal is
passed through circulator 186, through band pass filter 206 and
into mixer 200 where the input signal is mixed with the output of
the local oscillator 198 and the output is fed through IF amplifier
202 to an output 204 that is processed in the known manner. In
driving the phase shifters, the ferrite phase shifters, such as
ferrite phase shifters A, B and N that are positioned in the
antenna 184, are drived by integrated circuit drivers 216. The
integrated circuit drivers may be programmed to provide any desired
array in the manner previously described. One system is through use
of a read only memory 220 that is controlled by a position
generator control 222 that is responsive to an input 224 that
functions in the known manner. Other known circuit arrangements can
be used to drive the phase shifters and to provide RF energy to the
antenna horn in the antenna 180.
* * * * *