Patent ID: 6856290

Claim:
A reduced size TM cylindrical shaped microstrip antenna array comprising: (a) a first dielectric layer (b) a plurality of rectangular shaped antenna elements mounted on an upper surface of said first dielectric layer, said antenna elements being aligned with one another and fabricated from copper, said antenna elements being adapted to transmit RF carrier signals containing telmetry data; (c) a copper cross hatch pattern mounted on the upper surface of said first dielectric layer around a periphery for each of said antenna elements wherein a gap forms between first, second and third edges of the periphery of each of said antenna elements and said copper cross hatch pattern; (d) an antenna feed network mounted on a bottom surface of said first dielectric layer for connecting each of said antenna elements to an antenna feed network input terminal, said antenna feed network including a plurality of transmission lines configured to provide for an equal transmission line length from said antenna feed network input terminal to each of said antenna elements such that the RF carrier signals transmitted by each of said antenna elements are in phase and have equal amplitudes; (e) a band stop filter integrally formed with said antenna feed network on the bottom surface of said first dielectric layer, said band stop filter providing for a minimum band-stop rejection of 60 decibels to isolate said RF carrier signals containing telmetry data from L-Band Radio Frequency signals containing GPS data; (f) a second dielectric layer positioned below said first dielectric layer in alignment with said first dielectric layer; and (g) a solid copper ground plane affixed to a bottom surface of said first dielectric layer.