This TFT substrate includes a TFT provided with a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode; a gate metal layer including the gate electrode; a gate insulating layer formed on the gate metal layer; and a source metal layer that is formed on the gate insulating layer and includes the source electrode, the drain electrode, and a patch electrode. The source metal layer includes a first metal layer that contains one of Ti, Mo, Ta, W and Nb, and a second metal layer that is formed on the first metal layer and contains one of Cu, Al, Ag and Au. The source electrode and the drain electrode each include the first metal layer and the second metal layer. A distance from the first metal layer of the source electrode to the first metal layer of the drain electrode in a channel direction is less than a distance from the second metal layer of the source electrode to the second metal layer of the drain electrode in the channel direction.

An antenna system and method use an electronically-scanned antenna array and a hybrid beam former architecture. The antenna system includes a matrix of antenna elements and a feeder network. The feeder network includes a first layer including phase shifters. Each of the phase shifters is for a respective antenna element of the antenna elements. The feeder network also includes a second layer and a third layer. Each of the first set of the first time delay units in the second layer is for a respective first subarray of the first subarrays of the antenna elements. Each of the second set of the second time delay units in the third layer is for a respective second subarray of the second subarrays of the first subarrays.

A mobile terminal, operational both to receive and transmit, may comprise a mobile antenna and an antenna controller that may be configured to control the mobile antenna at least for keeping it pointed towards the satellite, e.g. as the mobile terminal and/or the satellite move. Disclosed is a method that may be used by the antenna controller for optimizing the pointing of the mobile antenna, the method may be based on assessing both the reception quality and the transmission quality. This method may be used for overcoming degradation, mainly to transmission quality, that may result from squints between an optimal reception direction and an optimal transmission direction associated with the mobile antenna.

A signal receiving method and apparatus, a computer readable storage medium and an electronic device are disclosed. The signal receiving method includes: acquiring a maximum scanning angle range of a phased-array antenna; and reducing the maximum scanning angle range by a binary search method, based on power of signals received by the phased-array antenna, until a difference between a maximum and a minimum of a reduced scanning angle range is less than a set value; and using the reduced scanning angle range to receive a signal.

A system comprises a first transceiver circuit, a second transceiver circuit, and a first data bus. The first transceiver circuit is configured to receive first signals from first antenna elements, beamform the first signals to generate a first beamformed signal, downconvert the first beamformed signal as part of generation of a first downconverted beamformed signal, and transmit the first downconverted beamformed signal onto the first data bus. The second transceiver circuit is configured to receive second signals from second antenna elements, beamform the second signals to generate a second beamformed signal, downconvert the second beamformed signal as part of generation of a second downconverted beamformed signal, receive the first downconverted beamformed signal via the first data bus, and combine the first downconverted beamformed signal and the second downconverted beamformed signal to generate a combined signal for demodulation.

A beamforming IC operates in a transmit mode or a receive mode to respectively transmit and receive signals at different times. To that end, the beamforming IC has an element interface, a transmit branch configured to produce an output transmit signal through the element interface when in the transmit mode, and a receive branch configured to receive an input signal through the element interface when in the receive mode. The beamforming circuit also has a sampling circuit with an electrical coupling with the transmit branch. The sampling circuit is configured to sample the output transmit signal with the electrical coupling to produce a sample signal. The sampling circuit also is configured to direct the sample signal through the receive branch, which is configured to modify the phase of the sample signal to produce a modified sample signal. This modified sample signal can be used to manage the IC transmission.

A system may include an optical phased array, a photodiode array, and a radiofrequency (RF) antenna element array. The optical phased array may be configured to: receive a laser signal from a signal laser; and output an optical beam. Each photodiode may be configured to: receive at least a portion of the optical beam and at least a portion of an optical plane wave beam, wherein the optical plane wave beam is formed based at least on a local oscillator (LO) laser that outputs a laser beam having a different wavelength from the signal laser; and output an electronic signal based on the at least the portion of the optical beam and the at least a portion of the optical plane wave beam. The RF antenna element array may be configured to output an RF beam based on received electronic signals from the photodiode array.

Disclosed is a system and method for a complex domain radio frequency (RF) frontend, adaptive beamforming can separate the relatively slowly changed waveform delay information required from wideband RF signals, upon which a self-contained beamforming system is implemented with a low-speed baseband. By introducing vector RF multipliers in the frontend of the present invention, the amplitude and phase of RF signals are simultaneously controlled by the real and imaginary parts of complex numbers, such that beamforming algorithms derived in complex domain can be directly applied without any form of transformation. By doing so, the massive use of conventional T/R modules and high-speed baseband devices can be avoided, thus simplifying the realization and decreasing the cost of wideband digital beamforming systems for use in low cost, power efficient beamforming applications.

Methods and apparatus to provide clutter rejecting built-in-test and/or fault isolation of individual array elements in assignment-based AESAs. BIT beam states for array element testing can be stored in AESA memory for rapid assignment sequencing of RF waveform generators and receive processing. Simultaneously transmitted signals for BIT sequences have unique signal characteristics that allow test signal clutter rejection on the receive side processing.

A hybrid antenna having an active array on a tracking pedestal is configured to facilitate simultaneous multibeam operation with first and second satellites. The hybrid antenna system includes a pedestal having a base and a support pivotally mounted with respect to the base about a first axis, a one-dimensional active electronically scanned array (AESA) configured to scan along a scanning plane and rotatably mounted on the support about a skew axis, and a skew positioner configured to rotate the AESA about the skew axis for aligning the scanning plane with the first and second satellites to facilitate the simultaneous multibeam operation with the first and second satellites. A method of using the hybrid antenna having an active array on a tracking pedestal is also disclosed.