The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued SRC Inc. a patent for the "Shaped Lens Antenna for Direction Finding at the Ka-Band," U.S. Patent No. 9,350,086. The design and application of this high gain antenna allows for improved accuracy when direction finding in the Ka-band. SRC has extensive experience in the development of all types of radar systems, from airborne systems to ground surveillance radars, and from avian surveillance to weapon location applications.
The inventor credited for developing this antenna is Lance Bradstreet, a lead radio frequency engineer at SRC. The invention leverages a shaped lens antenna fed by two micro strip patch antennas. The printed patch antennas are supplied by a 180 degree hybrid coupler. The system together adds and subtracts the signals from the patches to form sum and difference channels. These channels can then be used to determine if a signal entered through the main beam (if the signal is greater than the difference signal), or if the signal came from another angle (if the signal is less than the difference signal). This invention provides both a low cost and low loss solution to direction finding at the Ka-band and will prove useful in a variety of electronic systems.
