Patent ID: 7474249

Claim:
A system that supplies power to a radar antenna onboard a space vehicle, said system comprising: a plurality of antenna modules of the radar antenna onboard the space vehicle, wherein each antenna module includes: a radio frequency module, a dedicated power cell that supplies a power signal to the radio frequency module of the antenna module and includes a dedicated solar power module that generates electrical energy for the power signal, and a dedicated signal conditioner coupled to the power cell and to the radio frequency module of the antenna module, the signal conditioner conditioning the power signal for use by the radio frequency module, wherein the radio frequency module receives conditioned power from the signal conditioner to use in processing a radio frequency signal, and wherein the signal conditioner includes a dedicated voltage regulator that regulates a voltage of the power signal, wherein the voltage regulator is configured with a single ended primary inductance converter topology that includes a processor and an inductor, the processor included in the voltage regulator configured to execute software instructions to detect characteristics of the power signal and transfer the detected characteristics to a central processing system of the space vehicle, and wherein the signal conditioner further includes a dedicated charge storage unit coupled to the voltage regulator to temporarily store the power signal thereby deterring voltage droop resulting from transmission of pulsed electromagnetic energy by the radio frequency module, the charge storage unit comprising an array of integrated circuit capacitors connected in parallel.