Patent ID: 7813766

Claim:
An antenna system comprising: an aperture including a first sub-array and a second sub-array, wherein the first sub-array comprises two or more branches, each branch of the first sub-array comprising a plurality of adjacent antenna elements, the second sub-array comprises two or more branches, each branch of the second sub-array comprising a plurality of adjacent antenna elements, and the branches of the first sub-array are interleaved with the branches of the second sub-array in the aperture; a first divider configured to receive a first signal from the first sub-array and to provide a first plurality of divided signals to a corresponding first plurality of variable attenuators; a second divider configured to receive a second signal from the second sub-array and to provide a second plurality of divided signals to a corresponding second plurality of variable attenuators; a first combiner configured to receive a first attenuated signal from a first one of the first plurality of variable attenuators and a second attenuated signal from a first one of the second plurality of variable attenuators, and to combine the first attenuated signal and the second attenuated signal into a first combined signal; and a second combiner configured to receive a third attenuated signal from a second one of the first plurality of variable attenuators and a fourth attenuated signal from a second one of the second plurality of variable attenuators, and configured to combine the third attenuated signal and the fourth attenuated signal into a combined signal.