Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim
164 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement comprising: a ground plane including an annular cavity within the ground plane comprising a width between inner walls which approximates a quarter-wavelength of a radio wave to be launched or received by the antenna feed arrangement to prevent a shorting of the radio wave within the cavity, and an annular slot forming an opening from the cavity in a first major surface of the ground plane, the annular slot including a predetermined width which produces a predetermined capacitive reactance that is substantially balanced by an inductive reactance produced by the approximate quarter-wavelength width of the cavity in the ground plane; and means, disposed at multiple spaced-apart locations around a first edge of the annular slot, and capable of simultaneously delivering or receiving a radio frequency message signal to or from multiple locations around the annular slot for exciting or extracting a corresponding radio wave in the cavity and slot and launching or receiving said radio wave from the slot.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
164 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement comprising: a ground plane including an annular cavity within the ground plane comprising a width between inner walls which approximates a quarter-wavelength of a radio wave to be launched or received by the antenna feed arrangement to prevent a shorting of the radio wave within the cavity, and an annular slot forming an opening from the cavity in a first major surface of the ground plane, the annular slot including a predetermined width which produces a predetermined capacitive reactance that is substantially balanced by an inductive reactance produced by the approximate quarter-wavelength width of the cavity in the ground plane; and means, disposed at multiple spaced-apart locations around a first edge of the annular slot, and capable of simultaneously delivering or receiving a radio frequency message signal to or from multiple locations around the annular slot for exciting or extracting a corresponding radio wave in the cavity and slot and launching or receiving said radio wave from the slot.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
61 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said delivering means is capable of simultaneously delivering a radio message signal to each of the multiple locations around the annular slot via separate leads with an amplitude and phase which is a complex conjugate of a separate transmission coefficient associated with each multiple location for adaptive maximal ratio diversity operation.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
80 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said delivering means comprises a switching means connected to each multiple location around the annular slot via separate leads, said switching means being responsive to control signals from a remote base station for switching signals to be transmitted between each of the multiple locations to provide the strongest signal to the base station, and for selecting which of the multiple locations provides the strongest received signal from the base station.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
36 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 1 wherein the annular slot has a width which substantially does not exceed a tenth-wavelength of the radio wave to be launched or received by the feed arrangement.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
45 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 1, 2, or 3 wherein an outer surface of the ground plane, wherein the annular slot is disposed, comprises annular corrugations for forming a surface wave arrangement for radio waves launched or received by the annular slot.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
29 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 5 wherein the annular corrugations are filled with a dielectric material to form a smooth outer surface of the feed arrangement.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
48 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 5 wherein the feed arrangement is mounted in an aperture in an outer surface of a surface-wave antenna, and said outer surface of the antenna includes corrugations which continue the annular corrugations in the outer surface of the ground plane.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
42 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 7 wherein the annular corrugations in the outer surface of the ground plane and the outer surface of the surface-wave antenna are filled in with a dielectric material to form a smooth outer surface.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
47 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 1, 2, or 3 wherein the outer surface of the ground plane wherein the slot is disposed is covered with a layer of dielectric material to form a surface-wave launching arrangement for radio waves launched from the annular slot.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
55 words
A multidirectional antenna feed arrangement according to claim 9 wherein the feed arrangement is mounted in an aperture in an outer surface of a surface wave antenna, and the outer surface of the ground plane and the outer surface of the surface-wave antenna include a layer of dielectric material thereon forming a smooth outer surface.