LOW PROFILE CAVITY BACKED LONG SLOT ARRAY ANTENNA WITH INTEGRATED CIRCULATORS

摘要

The present invention relates to active electronically scanned array antennas. A thin, low cost design is provided by coupling electromagnetic energy into periodically driven long slots (205) using circulators with integrated probes (107). The long slots (205) are formed as grooves (114) in a conductive base plate (103), each groove (114) bracketed on both sides by conductive strips (108). The circulators with integrated probes (107) are installed between the conductive strips (108) and the base plate (103), to reduce fabrication costs of the machined parts and to facilitate the making of connections between the circulators and the antenna electronics. The probes (128) protrude partway into the slots (205) and provide coupling to waves propagating in free space.