ULTRALIGHT MICROWAVE ANTENNA AND METHOD OF FABRICATION

摘要

An antenna assembly (10) fabricated of lightweight, aluminum alloy foil material which forms individual parts that are laser welded together. The parts include mating projecting tabs (18) and slots (20) which render the unit self-jigging in assembly and provide added strength in the finally welded unit. Common tooling pins (not shown) are used to stack the piece parts in proper alignment during assembly by inserting the pins through particular tooling holes (46) in individual parts. Laser welding is used at various levels of assembly and a base module sub-assembly is initially fabricated, to which additional individual components are affixed and welded in place. The resulting unit is a precision antenna assembly, light in weight and structurally strong, which can be built with very low fabrication costs. The microwave aperture features of the unit are developed and located with the feature relationship being held to very precise tolerances.