The present invention discloses a bi-directional flat plate foldable unit, including a first row of antenna plates and a second row of antenna plates distributed along a first direction; the first row of antenna plates and the second row of antenna plates both include three antenna plates distributed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, three antenna plates in the first row of antenna plates and three antenna plates in the second row of antenna plates are set opposite to each other and hinged to form a first rotating pair; any two antenna plates adjacent to each other in the same row of antenna plates are hinged to form a second rotating pair; three antenna plates in the first row of antenna plates and three antenna plates in the second row of antenna plates are connected by a vertical support mechanism, and the first row of antenna plates are connected to the second row of antenna plates by a lateral support mechanism. The bi-directional flat plate foldable antenna mechanism includes at least two bi-directional flat plate foldable units mentioned above. The present invention facilitates the folding and unfolding of planar antennas with larger physical diameter and high rigidity.

Antennas having a multi-beam (e.g., dual beam, etc.) launcher and methods for using the same are described. In some embodiments, the antenna comprises: an array of antenna elements; two parallel plate waveguides coupled to the array of antenna elements, the two parallel plate waveguides sharing a common radial plane and arranged in a stacked configuration; and a dual feed launcher to launch first and second TEM waves into the two parallel plate waveguides, the first and second TEM waves being different and being simultaneously launched in the two parallel plate waveguides.

A quasi-optical beam former includes a set of beam ports, a set of network ports, a quasi-optical device and at least one parallel-plate waveguide extending between the beam ports and the network ports, the beam ports and/or the network ports being superposed in at least two stages, each of the at least two stages being separated by a conductive plane common to two adjacent stages, the quasi-optical beam former comprising a resistive film placed in the continuity of the conductive plane.

A lens elements array comprises at least two lens elements aligned along an alignment axis. Each lens element includes a spherical lens and a feed element. The feed elements are tilted such that the RF signals generated by the feed elements have major axes form an angle (preferably between 5° and 30°) other than a perpendicular angle with respect to the alignment axis. The combined RF signals produced collectively by these feed elements have amplitude that has minimal dips across the array. The feed elements that are farther away from the center of the array have higher levels of tilts than the feed elements that are closer to the center of the array.

A radar system includes a transmit front end device including a transmit planar component, and a receive front end device including a receive planar component. Each of the transmit planar component and the receive planar component includes a first end, a second end, a cavity space and a linear array of antennas. The cavity space is bounded by beam ports along a first side of the cavity space and by array ports along a second side of the cavity space. The cavity space is in operative communication with the beam ports and with the array ports to form a Rotman lens. A linear array of antennas is located along the second end of the planar component. The transmit planar component and receive planar component are arranged such that the linear array of antennas of the transmit planar component and the linear array of antennas are perpendicular to one another.

An apparatus is disclosed herein for a cylindrically fed antenna and method for using the same. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises: an antenna feed to input a cylindrical feed wave; a first layer coupled to the antenna feed and into which the feed wave propagates outwardly and concentrically from the feed; a second layer coupled to the first layer to cause the feed wave to be reflected at edges of the antenna and propagate inwardly through the second layer from the edges of the antenna; and a radio-frequency (RF) array coupled to the second layer, wherein the feed wave interacts with the RF array to generate a beam.

An apparatus is disclosed herein for a cylindrically fed antenna and method for using the same. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an antenna feed to input a cylindrical feed wave and a tunable slotted array coupled to the antenna feed.

An antenna device includes a first conductor plate including a first end portion and a second end portion, the first conductor plate being provided with a first feeding portion between the first end portion and the second end portion, a second conductor plate including a third end portion connected to the first feeding portion, a fourth end portion located at a position away from the first conductor plate, and a plate surface of which width in a direction parallel to the first conductor plate increases with a distance from the third end portion toward the fourth end portion, and a third conductor plate including a fifth end portion capacitively coupling with the fourth end portion, a sixth end portion connected, on a same side as the first end portion with respect to the first feeding portion, to the first conductor plate, and a counter portion opposite the plate surface.

The disclosed structures and methods are directed to antenna systems configured to transmit and receive a wireless signal in and from different directions. A switchable lens antenna has excitation ports radiating radio-frequency (RF) wave into a parallel-plate waveguide structure, and a frequency selective structure (FSS). The antenna presented herein is configured to operate in two modes depending on an initial steering angle of the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the initial steering angle is about or less than a threshold steering angle, FSS is OFF due to its stubs being electrically disconnected from the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the initial steering angle is higher than the threshold, FSS is ON with stubs being electrically connected to the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When ON, FSS provides phase variance to the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure and increases steering angle of the RF wave.

Antennas and methods for using the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises an aperture having a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) radiating antenna elements, the plurality of RF radiating antenna elements being grouped into three or more sets of RF radiating antenna elements, with each set being separately controlled to generate a beam at a frequency band in a first mode.