A portable flat panel antenna system and method for using the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the portable satellite antenna apparatus comprises a flat panel antenna and a container to house the antenna, the container having at least one radio-frequency (RF) transparent material through which the antenna is operable to transmit and receive satellite communications.

Each antenna element within the array is oriented substantially coplanar with respect to the other antenna elements. The array overlies a primary dielectric substrate. A ground plane layer is spaced apart from the array of antenna elements by a first dielectric spacer. A beam-forming layer is spaced apart from the array of antenna elements by a second dielectric spacer. The beam-forming layer has a set of electrically conductive beam-forming antenna elements overlying a secondary dielectric substrate. A combining network is configured for combining the received electromagnetic signal components from the array, wherein the combining network cooperates to yield or receive a radiation pattern that is generally circularly polarized at the target wavelength range.

An antenna includes an upper plate having a fan shape, a lower plate having a shape corresponding to the upper plate, a feeding unit disposed at a center of the fan shape, at least one waveguide formed between the upper plate and the lower plate for propagating signals supplied from the feeding unit, and at least one radiation slot formed in an arc of the fan shape for radiating the signals propagated by the at least one waveguide to the outside.

Disclosed herein is an antenna apparatus which allows adjusting a directional pattern to a desired direction through a simple switching without employing a complicated feed structure of an array antenna and a vehicle having the same. The antenna apparatus includes a power feed unit, a waveguide through which a radio signal provided from the power feed unit propagates, a plurality of antenna elements including radiation slots from which the radio signal propagating through the waveguide is radiated and configured to be shifted by a predetermined angle and stacked, and a switching unit configured to switch at least one of the power feed units included in the plurality of antenna elements in order to select at least one of the plurality of antenna elements.

A slotted waveguide array (SWA) antenna is provided for emitting electromagnetic radiation. The antenna includes a base, a pair of brackets, a pair of spars, a plurality of waveguides, and a radome. The base provides longitudinal and lateral support for the antenna on a platform. The brackets are disposed at longitudinally opposite ends on the base. The spars connect the brackets and are disposed at laterally opposite ends of the base. The waveguides are disposed in stagger array. Each waveguide has a pair of broad walls and a pair of side walls that share longitudinal edges. The broad wall is wider than the side wall. The broad wall includes elliptical slots penetrating each waveguide. The stagger array arranges first and second waveguides share respective first and second longitudinal edges. The radome covers the waveguides and connects to the pair of spars.

In an antenna including a dielectric window and a slot plate provided on one surface of the dielectric window, in a case where a reference position g is a center position in a width direction of each slot S and a center position in a length direction in the slot plate, the reference position g of each slot is located on a virtual circle centered on a center of gravity G0, and line segments connecting the reference positions g of the slots S and virtual point G1 to which the slots belong are located radially from a virtual point G1, angles (1 to 4) between adjacent line segments are equal to each other, and angles (1 to 4) formed by the length directions of the slots S at the reference positions g and the line segments to which the slots belong are equal to each other.

An antenna that includes a radial waveguide defining a waveguide region between opposed first and second surfaces. A radio frequency (RF) probe is disposed in the waveguide region for generating RF signals, and a plurality of radiating slot antenna elements are disposed on the first surface for emitting the RF signals from the waveguide region. A plurality of spaced apart conductive elements are disposed within the waveguide region. The antenna includes tunable elements that each include a quarter wavelength RF choke coupled through a variable capacitance and an inductive line to a respective one of the conductive elements. A plurality of DC control lines are provided, with each DC control line being connected to at least one of the tunable elements to adjust the variable capacitance thereof. A control circuit is coupled to the DC control lines and configured to selectively apply DC current values to adjust the variable capacitances of the tunable elements to control a propagation direction of the RF signals from the RF probe.

A phased array antenna including a plurality of antenna element units mounted to a panel having a first side and a second side. Each antenna unit includes a step aperture integrated radiating (STAIR) antenna element mounted to the first side of the panel and having an outer cylindrical waveguide, a septum polarizer including a plurality of steps and a septum feed structure, and a right hand circularly polarized (RHCP) feed structure electrically coupled to the septum feed structure. Each antenna unit further includes a triplexer module mounted to the second side of the panel and being responsive to a plurality of linearly polarized signals to be transmitted by the STAIR element, where the triplexer module operates to combine the plurality of linearly polarized signals and provide the combined signal to the RHCP feed structure to be converted by the septum polarizer to a circularly polarized signal for transmission.

Antennas such as flat panel, leaky wave antennas with directional coupler feeds and waveguides are disclosed. In one example, an antenna includes a surface having antenna elements, a guided wave transmission line, and a coupling surface. The guided wave transmission line provides a guided feed wave. The coupling surface is between and separates the guided wave transmission line and the surface having antenna elements. The coupling surface controls coupling of the guided feed wave to the antenna elements. The coupling surface can also spatially filter the guided feed wave to provide a more uniform power density for the antenna elements. The guided feed wave can be a high power density electromagnetic wave or a density radially decaying electromagnetic wave.

A method and apparatus for impedance matching for an antenna aperture are described. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an antenna aperture having at least one array of antenna elements operable to radiate radio frequency (RF) energy and an integrated composite stack structure coupled to the antenna aperture. The integrated composite stack structure includes a wide angle impedance matching network to provide impedance matching between the antenna aperture and free space and also puts dipole loading on antenna elements.