Patent ID: 7439901

Claim:
A TAS/TCAS active antenna apparatus, comprising: an antenna element for transmitting TAS/TCAS interrogation signals at a predetermined effective radiated power (ERP) and for receiving TAS/TCAS interrogation response signals; an antenna module configured to be mounted to an aircraft, the antenna module being mounted adjacent to the antenna element and coupled to the antenna element and a communications link to receive the TAS/TCAS interrogation signals from the communications link, the antenna module including a receive path extending between the antenna element and the communications link, and a transmit path extending between the antenna element and the communications link, the transmit path being different than the receive path; a transmit power amplifier provided on the transmit path of the antenna module, the power amplifier increasing a power level of the TAS/TCAS interrogation signals received from the communications link by an amount sufficient to drive the antenna element to transmit the TAS/TCAS interrogation signals at the predetermined ERP; and a receive power amplifier provided on the receive path of the antenna module, the receive power amplifier for increasing a power level of the received TAS/TCAS interrogation response signals before outputting the received signals to the communications link, wherein the antenna module includes first and second circuit boards (CB), the first CB having the antenna element mounted thereon, the second CB having the power amplifiers mounted thereon.