Patent ID: 6072432
Filing Date: 2000-06-06
Classification: H01Q

Abstract:
An antenna system comprising:a multi-beam antenna having a plurality of co-linear arrays positioned with respect to an electrically conductive back plane, including:a plurality of central co-linear arrays, each central co-linear array having an identical number of electromagnetic radiating elements, the number of electromagnetic radiating elements in each central co-linear array being greater than two, each radiating element within each respective central co-linear array being electrically connected to all other radiating elements in said respective central co-linear array, andat least two additional outermost co-linear arrays, each outermost co-linear array having one electromagnetic radiating element; andphased array feed network means having a plurality of radio receivers/transmitter ports for connection to receiver or transmitter equipment, and a number N of antenna ports, said number N of antenna ports being an integer greater than 1 and being the same as the number of central co-linear arrays;wherein N-2 of the antenna ports are directly connected to N-2 of the central co-linear arrays, and wherein the two remaining antenna ports are each connected via power divider/combiner means to a respective one of said outermost co-linear arrays and one of said central co-linear arrays adjacent to the other one of said outermost co-linear arrays.