Patent ID: 11923618
Assignee: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 18:
19. A phased-array antenna system comprising:
a plurality of discrete antenna modules arranged in an array and configured to be disposed conformally with a surface of a platform, each antenna module comprising:
an antenna element to emit and/or absorb radio frequency (RF) signals;
a digital input/output port to send and/or receive digital signals;
an electronics unit including at least one of an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter to provide an interface between the antenna element and the digital input/output port;
a housing in which the antenna element and electronics unit are integrally packaged;
a ground plane disposed between the antenna element and the electronics unit; and
a substrate disposed between the antenna element and the ground plane, the substrate comprising a tuning resonant disk;

a digital distribution system comprising a digital communications medium to convey digital signals to and/or from respective digital input/output ports of the antenna modules; and
a controller system to supply the digital signals to the antenna modules and/or to receive digital signals from the antenna modules via the digital distribution system, wherein the controller system controls relative phases of the digital signals to enable the antenna elements to form a directive antenna beam pattern.