Feed structures for tapered slot antennas
First Claim
1. A tapered slot antenna structure comprising:
- (a) a transmission line having a dielectric substrate, a strip conductor feed, and a ground layer, the dielectric substrate having first and second opposing surfaces and the ground layer having front and back opposing surfaces, the strip conductor feed running along one of said first and said second surfaces of the dielectric substrate, the back surface of the ground layer facing and being disposed in parallel to the second surface of the dielectric layer, and the ground layer further having a feed slot formed within it;
(b) a metallization layer lying in a plane which intersects the ground layer at an intersection angle, said metallization layer having a base end connected to the front surface of the ground layer and an aperture end, and said metallization layer having a tapered slot formed within it, said tapered slot having an aperture width at the aperture end of said metallization layer and said tapered slot forming a slot line having a slot line width narrower than the aperture width at the base end of said metallization layer; and
(c) said feed slot having a first portion, a second portion and a transition portion which couples the first and second portions, the first portion of said feed slot intersecting the slot line in the ground layer and the second portion of said feed slot crossing over the strip conductor feed in a parallel plane manner, whereby the slot line and the strip conductor feed are electromagnetically coupled and the first and second portions are not co-linear.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A suspended microstrip line structure for feeding a tapered slot antenna has a ground layer separated by means of an air gap from a dielectric slab with a strip line conductor feed running on the surface of the dielectric. The strip line may run along the surface of the dielectric which faces away from the ground layer, or the structure may be inverted such that the strip line runs along the surface of the dielectric which faces the ground layer. These suspended microstrip line structures exhibit lower transmission loss. In another embodiment, a printed transmission line having a slot in its ground layer feeds a tapered slot antenna element which lies in a plane which intersects, and so is not parallel to, the printed transmission line structure. The ground layer slots cut the current on the ground of the transmission line and couple energy from the line to the tapered slot antenna element. Altering the configuration of the ground layer slots allows the antenna to efficiently operate within different frequency bands without changing the dimensions or parameters of the tapered slot antenna or the printed transmission line. The printed transmission line is preferably a suspended microstrip line. One and two dimensional arrays of these antenna elements fed by a parallel beam forming network (BFN) may also be assembled.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A tapered slot antenna structure comprising:
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(a) a transmission line having a dielectric substrate, a strip conductor feed, and a ground layer, the dielectric substrate having first and second opposing surfaces and the ground layer having front and back opposing surfaces, the strip conductor feed running along one of said first and said second surfaces of the dielectric substrate, the back surface of the ground layer facing and being disposed in parallel to the second surface of the dielectric layer, and the ground layer further having a feed slot formed within it;
(b) a metallization layer lying in a plane which intersects the ground layer at an intersection angle, said metallization layer having a base end connected to the front surface of the ground layer and an aperture end, and said metallization layer having a tapered slot formed within it, said tapered slot having an aperture width at the aperture end of said metallization layer and said tapered slot forming a slot line having a slot line width narrower than the aperture width at the base end of said metallization layer; and
(c) said feed slot having a first portion, a second portion and a transition portion which couples the first and second portions, the first portion of said feed slot intersecting the slot line in the ground layer and the second portion of said feed slot crossing over the strip conductor feed in a parallel plane manner, whereby the slot line and the strip conductor feed are electromagnetically coupled and the first and second portions are not co-linear. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An M×
- N array of tapered slot antenna elements, where M and N are positive integers greater than or equal to one, comprising;
(a) a transmission line having a dielectric substrate, a beam forming network feed, and a ground layer, the dielectric substrate having first and second opposing surfaces and the ground layer having front and back opposing surfaces, the beam forming network running along one of said first and said second surfaces of the dielectric substrate, the back surface of the ground layer facing and being disposed in parallel to the second surface of the dielectric layer, the ground layer further having a feed slot for each of said tapered slot antenna elements formed within it, and the beam forming network having a strip conductor feed for each of said tapered slot antenna elements;
(b) M metallization layers each lying in a plane which intersects the ground layer at an intersection angle, each of said metallization layers having a base end connected to the front surface of the ground layer and an aperture end, and each of said metallization layers having N tapered slots formed within it, the tapered slots having an aperture width at the aperture end of the metallization layer and each of the tapered slots forming a slot line having a slot line width narrower than the aperture width at the base end of the metallization layer; and
,(c) the feed slot for each of said tapered slot antenna elements having a first portion, a second portion and a transition portion which couples the first portion to the second portion, the first portion of each feed slot intersecting the slot line of said tapered slot antenna element in the ground layer and the second portion of said feed slot crossing over the strip conductor feed for said tapered slot antenna element in a parallel plane manner, whereby the slot line and the strip conductor for said tapered slot antenna element feed are electromagnetically coupled and the first and second portions are not co-linear. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
- N array of tapered slot antenna elements, where M and N are positive integers greater than or equal to one, comprising;
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25. A tapered slot antenna feed structure comprising:
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(a) a dielectric substrate having first and second opposing surfaces;
(b) a strip conductor feed running along one of the first and second surfaces;
(c) a ground layer having front and back opposing surfaces, said back surface facing and being disposed in parallel to the second surface of said dielectric substrate; and
(d) first and second metallization layers running along one of said first and second surfaces, each of said metallization layers having a base end and an aperture end, said metallization layers forming a tapered slot therebetween, said tapered slot having an aperture width at the aperture ends of said metallization layers and said tapered slot forming a slot line having a slot line width narrower than the aperture width between the base ends of said metallization layers, the base end of said first metallization layer being connected to a metallization patch on said one of said first and second surfaces of said dielectric substrate, said patch being electrically connected to said ground layer, and the base end of said second metallization layer being electrically connected to the strip conductor feed. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification