Affordable Phased Array Radar for Ship Self-Defense

The Radant Lens (TM) is a technique for implementing one-or two-dimensional electronic scanning at a lower cost than discrete element phased arrays. The Radant Lens (TM) configuration - parallel conducting plates with PIN switching diode controlled phase shift circuits - interacts directly with a plane wave to produce beam scanning, thereby eleminating the discrete components and connectors that add to the high cost of conventional, discrete element phased arrays. Previous implementations of the Radant Lens (TM) utilized glass-packaged diodes that are easy to handle and are adequate for applications up to 10 or 12 GHz. Chip diodes cost less than glass-packaged diodes and also eliminate stray package capacitance that decreases the transmission and bandwidth and requires experimental characterization for each application. Use of chip diodes in the Radant Lens (TM) would decrease the cost and improve RF performance. Such improvements would increase the feasibility of commercial applications of the Radant Lens (TM) to Air Traffic Control radars, for example.