Slot coupled microstrip constrained lens
US4899164A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 16, 1988 |
| Grant date | Feb 6, 1990 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 16, 2008 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01Q21/0018
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The microstrip constrained lens is a three-dimensional beamformer comprised of two printed circuit layers. The two circuit boards contain planar arrays of microstrip patches that face in opposite directions, to respectively collect and reradiate energy from a feed suspended behind the structure. It is a wide angle beamformer due to its use of two geometric degrees of freedom: the length of line joining front and back face lens elements varies with radius; and the back face elements are displaced radially instead of being placed directly behind their front face counterparts. An early version of this microwave lens used feed-through pins. In the most recent design the feed-through pins of the first model were replaced with a solderless slot coupler, or capacitive coupler. Without the need to solder the many hundreds of feed-throughs, the device is much easier to fabricate, and its performance is better because there is no degradation introduced by misalignment of the feed-through pins.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.