Excitation and use of guided surface waves
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method, comprising:
- positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium;
adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;
adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; and
exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; and
wherein the feed network comprises a feed line conductor coupled to the charge terminal and a coil coupled between the lossy conducting medium and the feed line conductor, where the phase delay (Φ
) of the feed network includes a phase delay (θ
y) associated with the feed line conductor and a phase delay (θ
c) associated with the coil.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are various embodiments for transmitting and receiving energy conveyed in the form of a guided surface-waveguide mode along the surface of a lossy medium such as, e.g., a terrestrial medium excited by a guided surface waveguide probe.
107 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
-
positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; and exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; and wherein the feed network comprises a feed line conductor coupled to the charge terminal and a coil coupled between the lossy conducting medium and the feed line conductor, where the phase delay (Φ
) of the feed network includes a phase delay (θ
y) associated with the feed line conductor and a phase delay (θ
c) associated with the coil. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method, comprising:
-
positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; wherein the load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal is adjusted based upon a reactive component of the image ground plane impedance (Zin); and wherein the load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal is adjusted to match the reactive component of the image ground plane impedance (Zin) with a structure impedance (Zbase) associated with the feed network and the charge terminal.
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11. A method, comprising:
-
positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; and wherein the phase delay (Φ
) of the feed network is fixed while the load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal is adjusted.
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12. A method, comprising:
-
positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; and wherein the charge terminal has an effective spherical diameter, and the defined height of the charge terminal is at least four times an effective spherical diameter to reduce bound capacitance. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method, comprising:
-
positioning a charge terminal at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a phase delay (Φ
) of a feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) corresponding to a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;adjusting a load impedance (ZL) of the charge terminal based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the feed network, where the excitation voltage establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium; sensing a change in a characteristic of the lossy conducting medium; and adjusting the phase delay (Φ
) of the feed network connected to the charge terminal to match a modified wave tilt angle in response to the change in the characteristic of the lossy conducting medium, the modified wave tilt angle corresponding to the complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium having the changed characteristic. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A guided surface waveguide probe, comprising:
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a charge terminal elevated over a lossy conducting medium, the charge terminal having a load impedance (ZL) that is determined based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; a feed network configured to couple an excitation source to the charge terminal, the feed network configured to provide a voltage to the charge terminal with a phase delay (Φ
) that matches a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) associated with a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium; andwherein the feed network comprises a feed line conductor coupled to the charge terminal and a coil coupled between the lossy conducting medium and the feed line conductor, where the phase delay (Φ
) of the feed network includes a phase delay (θ
y) associated with the feed line conductor and a phase delay (θ
c) associated with the coil. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A guided surface waveguide probe, comprising:
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a charge terminal elevated over a lossy conducting medium, the charge terminal having a load impedance (ZL) that is determined based upon an image ground plane impedance (Zin) associated with the lossy conducting medium; a feed network configured to couple an excitation source to the charge terminal, the feed network configured to provide a voltage to the charge terminal with a phase delay (Φ
) that matches a wave tilt angle (Ψ
) associated with a complex Brewster angle of incidence (θ
i,B) associated with the lossy conducting medium;a probe control system configured to adjust the feed network based at least in part upon characteristics of the lossy conducting medium; and wherein the feed network comprises a coil coupled between the excitation source and the charge terminal, the charge terminal coupled to the coil via a variable tap. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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26. A method comprising:
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positioning a charge terminal of a guided surface waveguide probe at a defined height over a lossy conducting medium; adjusting a traveling wave phase delay (Φ
) of the guided surface waveguide probe to match a wave-tilt angle (Ψ
) of a surface wave of the lossy conducting medium;exciting a superposed standing wave on the guided surface waveguide probe by exploiting phase delays from transmission line sections of the guided surface waveguide probe plus phase jumps arising from discontinuities in characteristic impedances of the transmission line sections, the superposed standing wave being excited based upon a complex image plane located at a complex depth from a base of the guided surface waveguide probe; and exciting the charge terminal with an excitation voltage via the transmission line sections, where an excitation charge distribution establishes an electric field that couples into a guided surface-wave waveguide mode along a surface of the lossy conducting medium.
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Specification