A TFT substrate includes a transmission and/or reception region including a plurality of antenna unit regions, and a non-transmission and/or reception region other than the transmission and/or reception region. The TFT substrate includes a dielectric substrate, and the plurality of antenna unit regions, a plurality of gate bus lines, and a plurality of source bus lines supported on the dielectric substrate. Each of the antenna unit regions includes a TFT and a patch electrode electrically connected to a drain electrode of the TFT. The TFT substrate further includes a first conductive layer including one of a gate electrode or a source electrode of the TFT, a first insulating layer on the first conductive layer, and a plurality of terminal sections provided in the non-transmission and/or reception region.

An antenna and method for using the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, an antenna comprises a radial waveguide; an aperture operable to radiate radio frequency (RF) signals in response to an RF feed wave fed by the radial waveguide; and a radio frequency (RF) choke operable to block RF energy from exiting through a gap between outer portions of the waveguide and the aperture.

A non-circular center-fed antenna and method for using the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises: a non-circular antenna aperture with radio-frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements; and a non-radially symmetric directional coupler to supply a RF feed wave to the aperture at a central location within the antenna aperture to enable the feed wave to propagate outward from the central location to an edge of the aperture.

A slot antenna and a communication device including the slot antenna are provided. The slot antenna includes: a dielectric layer having a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, a radiation layer on the first surface of the dielectric layer and having a plurality of slots therein, and a first shielding layer on the second surface of the dielectric layer and electrically connected to the radiation layer.

An embodiment of an antenna includes first and second transmission lines, first antenna elements, and second antenna elements. The first transmission line is configured to guide a first signal such that the first signal has a characteristic of a first value, and the second transmission line is configured to guide a second signal such that the second signal has the same characteristic but of a second value that is different than the first value. The first antenna elements are each disposed adjacent to the first transmission line and are each configured to radiate the first signal in response to a respective first control signal, and the second antenna elements are each disposed adjacent to the second transmission line and are each configured to radiate the second signal in response to a respective second control signal. Such an antenna can have better main-beam and side-lobe characteristics, and a better SIR, than prior antennas.

A liquid crystal cell in which antenna units are arranged includes a TFT substrate, a slot substrate, and a liquid crystal layer. The TFT substrate includes a first dielectric substrate, TFTs supported by the first dielectric substrate and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs, and a first alignment film covering a groove part between the adjacent patch electrodes. The slot substrate includes a second dielectric substrate, a slot electrode including slots and supported by the second dielectric substrate, and a second alignment film covering the slot electrode. The liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate. The liquid crystal layer includes a liquid crystal material having a lower limit temperature of a nematic phase of the liquid crystal material of −32° C. or lower and an upper limit temperature of the nematic phase of the liquid crystal material of 110° C. or higher.

A liquid crystal cell includes a TFT substrate including a first dielectric substrate, TFTs supported by the first dielectric substrate, and patch electrodes electrically connected to the TFTs, a slot substrate including a second dielectric substrate and a slot electrode including slots and supported by the second dielectric substrate, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the TFT substrate and the slot substrate that are disposed such that the patch electrodes and the slot electrode face each other. Liquid crystal molecules included in the liquid crystal layer are oriented in all azimuthal angle directions in a state in which voltage is not applied between the patch electrodes and the slot electrode.

A detection device that is capable of being attached to a through hole includes a main body portion, a detection portion, a cover portion, an insulation portion, and an oscillation portion. The main body portion has an insertion portion and a head portion. The detection portion is arranged in the insertion portion and detects the state of a fluid. The cover portion is arranged so as to form a gap with the head portion. The insulating portion has a lateral wall having a cylindrical shape. An oscillation portion is accommodated inside the insulation portion, and performs a wireless output of a detection result of the detection portion by using the head portion, the cover portion and the gap as a slot antenna.

An apparatus for exchanging liquid crystal (LC) between two areas of an antenna array and method for using the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an antenna element array having a plurality of radiating radio-frequency (RF) antenna elements formed using portions of first and second substrates with a liquid crystal (LC) therebetween, and a structure between the first and second substrates and outside the area of the RF antenna elements to collect LC from an area between the first and second substrates forming the RF antenna elements due to LC expansion.

A method and apparatus for testing an antenna are described. In on embodiment, the antenna comprises: a memory; an antenna aperture with a plurality of electronically controlled radio frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements; a pattern generator, including one or more processors, to generate a plurality of patterns to apply to the antenna aperture during testing to cause the antenna to generate a beam in response to each pattern of the plurality of patterns while pointing at a satellite; a receiver to receive satellite signals from the satellite in response to generating beams with the aperture; a metric provider, including one or more processors, to generate one or more satellite signal metrics for the received satellite signals; and antenna parameter selector to select one or more parameters associated with beamforming based on the satellite signal metrics indicating antenna performance reached a predetermined level, wherein selection of the one or more parameters is for storage in the memory and used to generate a beam with the antenna aperture when performing data communication.