| 摘要 |
A combination of doubly folded parallel plate beam combiners or dividers, configured to produce a desired composite beam for use in arrays of antenna elements. The doubly folded combiner or divider functions to expand a transmitted beam, or contract a received beam, in one selected plane. In a transmit mode, a single beam can be expanded first in one direction by a first divider, then expanded in a perpendicular direction by a stack of additional dividers coupled to the first. Optional phase shifting circuits provide beam steering as desired. Second and other additional beams can be processed in the same manner, to produce a composite output of multiple beams for transmission by an antenna array. Another aspect of the invention involves the use of a beam forming structure of this type in conjunction with an array of transmit/receive microwave modules providing amplification and phase shifting functions, and an array of printed circuit antenna elements. With appropriate phase shifting controls, a composite beam transmitted or received by the array or antenna elements can be steered independently in azimuth and elevation, using much less complex control circuitry than a conventional phased array antenna system.
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