Patent ID: 7719471

Claim:
A phased array Plasma-tube antenna characterized by a plurality of localized gas discharge areas, each gas area being selectively and sufficiently ionized to form a reflector to incident radiation, each localized gas discharge area being confined within a gas encapsulating Plasma-tube, each Plasma-tube affixed to a substrate, at least two or more electrodes in contact with each gas encapsulating Plasma-tube, said electrodes being affixed to or embedded within the substrate, and electronic circuitry including PDP addressing and sustain waveform electronics for addressing and sustaining the electrodes so as to selectively ionize a gas within a Plasma-tube and produce a controllable level of electron density over time within each Plasma-tube, a selected portion of each Plasma-tube acting alone or in concert with a selected portion of one or more other Plasma-tubes to form dipoles or patterns of dipoles.