Patent ID: 8896400

Claim:
A waveguide beamformer comprising: a dielectric substrate sheet with conductive cladding including an RF circuit, a substrate input pin hole corresponding to an RF circuit input, and a substrate output pin hole corresponding to an RF circuit output; a conductive preform adjacent to a first side of the dielectric substrate sheet, the conductive preform including a preform input pin hole coaxial with the substrate input pin hole, and a preform output pin hole coaxial with the substrate output pin hole; an input pin disposed coaxially within the preform input pin hole and the substrate input pin hole, the input pin having an input pin head section and input pin body section, wherein the input pin head section is generally coplanar with the conductive preform and the input pin body section extends perpendicularly from the input pin head section through the substrate input pin hole; an output pin disposed coaxially within the preform output pin hole and the substrate output pin hole, the output pin having an output pin head section and output pin body section, wherein the output pin head section is generally coplanar with the conductive preform and the output pin body section extends perpendicularly from the output pin head section through the substrate output pin hole; and a conductive backplate adjacent to the conductive preform, the conductive backplate and the dielectric substrate sheet sandwiching the conductive preform, the input pin head section and the output pin head section.