Patent ID: 11936415
Assignee: BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A modular radio frequency (RF) aperture comprising:
a first air interface plane (AIP) including a first matrix of tapered elements, wherein neighboring pairs of tapered elements within the first matrix define aperture pixels and are configured to at least one of receive or transmit over-the-air radio frequency (RF) signals;
a first circuit board electrically connected to the first AIP, the first circuit board being selectively operative to at least one of condition or amplify individual signals at least one of provided to or received from each aperture pixel of the first AIP;
a second circuit board electrically connected to the first circuit board, the second circuit board being selectively operative to at least one of: (i) receive a modulated transmit signal from a digital personality circuit board (DPB) and divide the received modulated transmit signal into individual signals for each pixel of the first AIP; or (ii) combine individual received signals from each pixel of the first AIP into a combined receive signal and provide the combined receive signal to the DPB; and
a third circuit board electrically connected to at least one of the first circuit board, the second circuit board, and the DPB, wherein the third circuit board selectively provides electrical power to operate at least one of the first circuit board, the second circuit board, and DPB;
wherein the first AIP, the first circuit board, the second circuit board, the third circuit board, and the DPB are modularly interconnected such that any given one thereof may be selectively removed and replaced without removing and replacing any other one thereof.