Patent ID: 7872614

Claim:
A deployable microwave phasing structure comprising: a plurality of planar sub-panels forming a continuous non-planar reflective surface when in a deployed state, at least one of the plurality of sub-panels comprising only one contiguous planar reflective surface; a plurality of joints configured to inter-connect the plurality of sub-panels, the plurality of joints enabling at least two of the plurality of planar sub-panels to fold together along an axis that is non-normal to any portion of the non-planar reflective surface; and means for arranging said phasing structure into a plurality of states, the plurality of states comprising the deployed state and a collapsed state, wherein the collapsed state is characterized by a substantially planar profile; and wherein said plurality of said planar sub-panels are jointed together without any gap between at least one pair of adjacent planar sub-panels to form said continuous non-planar reflective surface when the phasing structure is in the deployed state, the adjacent planar sub-panels being selected from a set of only those planar sub-panels that are equally disposed farthest from a center of the phasing structure.