Conical omni-directional coverage multibeam antenna

United States Patent [w]

Martek

[54] CONICAL OMNI DIRECTIONAL

COVERAGE MULTIBEAM ANTENNA

[75] Inventor: Gary Allen Martek, Kent, Wash.

[73] Assignee: Metawave Communications Corporation, Redmond, Wash.

[21] Appl. No.: 08/680,992 [22] Filed: Jul. 16, 1996

[51] Int. CI.6 H01Q 21/00; H01Q 21/20

[52] U.S. CI 343/893; 343/799; 343/853

[58] Field of Search 343/700 MS, 754,

343/778, 846, 848, 853, 895, 893, 799,

872

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

3,710,329 1/1973 Mailloux et al 343/853

4,101,895 7/1978 lones, !r. 343/700 MS

4,162,499 7/1979 Jones, Jr. et al 343/700 MS

4,316,192 2/1982 Acoraci 343/100

4,792,808 12/1988 Hilebrand 343/853

4,799,065 1/1989 Thompson 343/853

4,816,836 3/1989 Lalezari 343/700 MS

4,962,383 10/1990 Tresselt 343/700 MS

4,980,692 12/1990 Rudish et al 343/700 MS

5,552,798 9/1996 Dietrich et al 343/893

5,650,788 7/1997 Jha 343/700 MS

Primary Examiner—Don Wong
Assistant Examiner—-Tan Ho

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
[57] ABSTRACT

An omni directional coverage multibeam antenna relief on a ground surface having simple conical shapes to provide beam steering. One advantage of such a system is that the projected area is always constant and broadside to the intended direction resulting in limited scan loss effects. In the case of a cylinder as the conical shape, z-axis symmetry provides a constant antenna aperture projection in any azimuthal direction. Using this geometry, high level, side lobes are reduced considerably because of the natural aperture tapering from dispersion effects. Coverage area and power can be controlled by changing the ground surface angle and by selectively activating different antenna beam positions around the circumference of the ground surface, and by selectively changing the phase relationship between a given set of antenna beams.

37 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets