Patent ID: 11916291
Assignee: DUKE UNIVERSITY
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 9:
10. A method comprising:
selecting an input to provide to a traveling-wave antenna array comprising a plurality of adjacent traveling-wave antennas through a phase diversity feed, the input including a phase diverse input to provide to two or more of the plurality of adjacent traveling-wave antennas, each of the adjacent traveling-wave antennas including a radiating waveguide or cavity and a plurality of tunable elements that are arranged in a single direction along a surface of the radiating waveguide or cavity, wherein the plurality of tunable elements are spaced at, near, or above a Nyquist limit spacing for the traveling-wave antenna array to form an array of tunable elements across the traveling-wave antenna array, the phase diversity feed comprising a feed waveguide or an array of passive phase shifters that is separate from each radiating waveguide or cavity and coupled to a corresponding aperture of each adjacent traveling-wave antenna in the traveling-wave antenna array, the phase diverse input comprising a first phase for a first traveling-wave antenna and a second phase for a second traveling-wave antenna, wherein the first and second phases are specifically selected based on one or more characteristics of the traveling-wave antenna array to suppress or eliminate grating lobes in one or more specific output radiation patterns;
selecting tuning values along one or more ranges of one or more tuning variables for tuning the plurality of tunable elements to form the one or more specific output radiation patterns;
providing the input to the traveling-wave antenna array through the phase diversity feed; and
tuning the plurality of tunable elements through a plurality of grayscale tuning elements according to the tuning values to form the one or more specific output radiation patterns from the input.