Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – Slot type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-03
2001-02-20
Wong, Don (Department: 2821)
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
Slot type
C343S7000MS
Reexamination Certificate
active
06191750
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a traveling wave slot antenna and a method of making it. The invention more particularly relates to a traveling wave slot antenna, which has a broad frequency band width and which has a low profile configuration to enable it to be mounted, for example, in the outer skin of aircraft as well as many other applications.
2. Background Art
Printed circuit antennae have been known as narrow band elements since the 1960's. Elements making up such an antenna usually take the form of a planar structure with a conductive plate suspended above a ground plane fed at one or more feed points. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,152, which is incorporated herein by reference.
These elements have been used in many applications with wide variations in characteristics. Generally, such an antenna is intended to radiate normal to the ground plane surface to which they are mounted. The antenna elements are commonly fabricated using photolithography techniques on printed circuit board materials. Such techniques allow for very accurate reproduction of the elements in large quantities. These antenna are easily combined into arrays for use at microwave frequencies for communication, Radar and sensing applications.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,152 discloses a slot notch antenna which is generally planar in configuration and has a pair of diverging slot sections terminating in an aperture. The planar antenna is positioned within an open top enclosure above a flat base ground plane. Such a configuration is inherently lossy, and thus not sufficiently efficient for many applications.
While such an antenna may be satisfactory for some applications, it would be highly desirable to have such a low-cost, low profile high bandwidth antenna, which has significantly improved radiation efficiency.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved traveling wave slot antenna and a method of making it, wherein such an antenna has a greatly increased radiation efficiency, and which has a low profile.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved antenna and method wherein the method enables the antenna to be manufactured at a relatively low cost.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such an antenna having an element which can be configured as a totally conformal aperture as a single element or in an array.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a conformal antenna that requires a very small volume to achieve its efficient broadband performance.
A yet another object of the present invention is to provide an antenna which can be fabricated with materials and processes that are low cost while sufficiently accurate to enable high yield production of phased matched array elements.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an antenna which can be realized using high temperature dielectric and adhesives for high temperature environments.
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present invention are realized by providing a traveling wave slot antenna, which is made by printed circuit board techniques and materials in a three-dimensional configuration.
A novel low profile non-resonant traveling wave slot antenna operating over broad frequency bands is in the form of a multiple layer circuit, which includes a generally planar slotted conductor sheet having an open smoothly curved tapered planar slot therein and a three-dimensionally smoothly curved conductor sheet having an elongated stem portion fixedly electrically connected at its distal end to a feed point on top of the slotted conductor sheet and extending downwardly through the slot therein and terminating in an enlarged smoothly tapered portion to transition the characteristic impedance between the feed point and an aperture having an impedance of free space.
The novel antenna is a novel combination of microwave transmission line technology, slot antenna concepts, resistive materials and processes and printed circuit fabrication techniques. The invention relates to the manner this novel design enables the antenna designer to meet desired electrical performance parameters. The inventive antenna design facilitates the following design parameters: Frequency bandwidth, Polarization, Gain, aperture efficiency, other electrical requirements and size, all of which are critical to desired design performance.
The novel antenna is a traveling wave slot which can be accurately constructed using printed circuit materials and processes. In one form of the present invention, it is a coaxial transmission line to stripline transmission line transition that then transitions through a covered microstrip region to a covered coplanar waveguide to feed a broadband terminated di-electrically loaded slot aperture. The coaxial cable to stripline transition has an intrinsically broadband frequency response and is realized using conventional components. The novel transition from stripline transmission line to covered microstrip to covered co-planar waveguide is achieved through a combination of tapering the surface of the three dimensionally curved stripline conductor member and shaping the slotted planar member of the circuit board layers. The electric field created across the slot aperture is very well behaved over a great frequency bandwidth and can be configured to radiate efficiently in a low profile or totally conformal installation.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5081466 (1992-01-01), Bitter, Jr.
patent: 5194875 (1993-03-01), Lucas
patent: 5404146 (1995-04-01), Rutledge
patent: 5428364 (1995-06-01), Lee et al.
patent: 5748152 (1998-05-01), Glabe et al.
patent: 5949382 (1999-09-01), Quan
Composite Optics Inc.
Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP
Kleinke Bernard L.
Nguyen Hoang
Wong Don
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