COHERENT COMBINING FOR WIDELY-SEPARATED APERTURES
First Claim
1. A method for coherently combining a plurality of widely separated apertures, comprising:
- positioning a first antenna aperture at a first location spaced apart a distance with respect to at least a second location associated with at least a second antenna aperture;
selecting said distance to be a plurality of wavelengths at a predetermined operating frequency of said first antenna aperture and said second antenna aperture;
selectively directing toward a remote target a first antenna beam defined by said first antenna aperture and a second antenna beam defined by said second antenna aperture;
coherently combining a common RF signal received from said target at said first antenna aperture and at least said second antenna aperture in an adaptive process which eliminates a large aperture effect caused by said distance between said first and second antenna apertures.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method for coherently combining signals received from two widely separated antenna apertures (204, 206). The method includes positioning a first antenna aperture (204) at a first location spaced apart a distance with respect to a second location of a second antenna aperture (206). A distance between the first antenna aperture and the second antenna aperture is selected to be at least a plurality of wavelengths at a predetermined operating frequency of the first antenna aperture and the second antenna aperture. An antenna beam or pattern (208, 210) from each antenna aperture (204, 206) is directed toward a target (212) positioned at a location remote from the first antenna aperture and the second antenna aperture. Adaptive digital processing (416) is then used to coherently combine the signals independently received by each aperture from the common source.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method for coherently combining a plurality of widely separated apertures, comprising:
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positioning a first antenna aperture at a first location spaced apart a distance with respect to at least a second location associated with at least a second antenna aperture; selecting said distance to be a plurality of wavelengths at a predetermined operating frequency of said first antenna aperture and said second antenna aperture; selectively directing toward a remote target a first antenna beam defined by said first antenna aperture and a second antenna beam defined by said second antenna aperture; coherently combining a common RF signal received from said target at said first antenna aperture and at least said second antenna aperture in an adaptive process which eliminates a large aperture effect caused by said distance between said first and second antenna apertures. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for coherently combining RF signals from a plurality of widely separated apertures, comprising:
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a first antenna aperture positioned at a first location; at least a second antenna aperture positioned at a second location spaced apart a distance with respect to said first location, said distance comprising a plurality of wavelengths at a predetermined operating frequency of said first antenna aperture and said second antenna aperture; an antenna position controller configured for directing toward a remote target at least a first antenna beam defined by said first antenna aperture and a second antenna beam defined by said second antenna aperture; signal processing means for coherently combining an RF signal received from a common target at said first antenna aperture and at least said second antenna aperture in an adaptive process which eliminates a large aperture effect caused by said distance between said first and second antenna apertures. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification