Cylindrical phased array antenna system to prodce wide open coverage of a wide angular sector with high directive gain and wide frequency bandwidth

摘要

A cylindrical phased array antenna system capable of scanning at rates faster than the information rate of signals being received so that no information is lost by the scanning process, and without sensitivity loss due to sampling and with reduced frequency selectivity. The cylindrical phased array is comprised of the means to decompose the distribution of current on the radiator elements caused by wave incidence into component signals which are the Fourier spatial harmonics of the distribution, heterodyne means to differentially phase shift these component signals at rates exceeding 4 radians per cycle of the highest frequency present in the information content of the incident wave, and means to form multiple complex-weighted sums of the component signals. The sums are multiple time sequenced responses, each response corresponding to a different beam of sensitivity. The beam responses from any particular incident signal to be differentially delayed to occur in unison, and then noncoherently added, giving rise to a compressed pulse whose time of occurrence is related to the signal angle of incidence.