Abstract: A method of making an electronic device includes forming a circuit layer on a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate and having at least one solder pad. The method also includes forming an LCP solder mask having at least one aperture therein alignable with the at least one solder pad. The method further includes aligning and laminating the LCP solder mask and the LCP substrate together, then positioning solder paste in the at least one aperture. At least one circuit component may then be attached to the at least one solder pad using the solder paste.

Abstract: An RF communications device may include a circuit board having a dielectric layer and conductive traces, one of the conductive traces defining a transmission line. The RF communications device may also include an RF transmitter carried by the circuit board and coupled to the transmission line, and RF switching circuits, each RF switching circuit including a substrate having a tapered proximal end coupled to the transmission line, and a distal end extending outwardly on the convex side of the transmission line. Each RF switching circuit may include a series diode, and a shunt diode coupled to the series diode, the series diode extending from the tapered proximal end and across an interior of the substrate.

Abstract: An RF communications device may include a circuit board having a dielectric layer and conductive traces, one of the conductive traces defining a transmission line. The RF communications device may also include an RF transmitter carried by the circuit board and coupled to the transmission line, and RF switching circuits, each RF switching circuit including a substrate having a tapered proximal end coupled to the transmission line, and a distal end extending outwardly on the convex side of the transmission line. Each RF switching circuit may include a series diode, and a shunt diode coupled to the series diode, the series diode extending from the tapered proximal end and across an interior of the substrate.

Abstract: Embodiments of switches (10) include electrically-conductive housings (30, 60), and electrical conductors (34, 64) suspended within and electrically isolated from the housings (30, 60). Another electrical conductor (52) is configured to move between a first position at which the electrical conductor (52) is electrically isolated from the electrical conductors (34, 64) within the housings (30, 60), and a second position at which the electrical conductor (52) is in electrical contact with the electrical conductors (34, 64) within the housings (30, 60). The switches (10) further include an actuator (70, 72, 74, 76) comprising an electrically-conductive base (80) and an electrically-conductive arm (82a, 82b) having a first end restrained by the base (80). The electrical conductor (52) is supported by the arm (82a, 82b), and the arm (82a, 82b) is operative to deflect and thereby move the electrical conductor (52) between its first and second positions.

Abstract: Radio frequency system (250) which includes a first and second sub-assembly (100, 200), each formed of a plurality of layers of conductive material (504, 508, 516) disposed on a substrate (102) and arranged in a stack. The stacked layers form signal processing components (108, 110) and at least one peripheral wall (104, 204) surrounding a walled area (118, 218) of each substrate. The second sub-assembly is positioned on the first sub-assembly with a first walled area of a first substrate aligned with a second walled area of a second substrate.

Abstract: The patch antenna includes an electrically conductive patch carried by a dielectric substrate and having a planar shape and a feed point defined therein. A feed conductor is coupled to the feed point of the electrically conductive patch, and a plurality of electrically conductive wings extend upwardly from a periphery of the electrically conductive patch. A method aspect may include adjusting at least one property (e.g. frequency) of the antenna by angling at least one of the plurality of electrically conductive wings outwardly from the electrically conductive patch.

Abstract: An electronic device may include a speaker, and audio circuitry coupled to the speaker. The audio circuitry may generate digitized samples of an audio waveform signal, and compare each digitized sample of the audio waveform signal to a threshold. The audio circuitry may when a given digitized sample is above the threshold, then apply a compression operation to the given digitized sample and successive digitized samples for a set time period, and when the given digitized sample is below the threshold and not within the set time period, then not apply the compression operation.

Abstract: A method of producing hydrocarbons from a subterranean reservoir comprises pre-heating by exposure to electromagnetic radiation from a electromagnetic radiation source, injecting through at least one injection well a solvent into the reservoir to dilute the hydrocarbons contained in the pre-conditioned portion, and producing through at least one production well a mixture of hydrocarbons and solvent. An apparatus for producing hydrocarbons from a subterranean reservoir comprises at least one radio frequency antenna configured to transmit radio frequency energy into a subterranean reservoir, a power source to provide power to the at least one radio frequency antenna, at least one injection well configured to inject a solvent from a solvent supply source into the subterranean reservoir to lower the viscosity of the hydrocarbons, and at least one production well configured to produce a mixture comprising hydrocarbons and solvent from the subterranean reservoir.

Abstract: Systems and methods providing an electrical interface between a male plug (1002) and a female receptacle (100, 500, 1000, 1600). The methods comprise: receiving a conductive pin (402, 800, 1006, 1602) of the male plug in a socket opening (112, 900, 1012, 1612) of the female receptacle; providing (a) first spring loaded floating contact points (460) between an elongate body (422) of the conductive pin and an electrical contact (106A-106B) of the female receptacle and (b) at least one second spring loaded floating contact point (462) between a tip (420) of the conductive pin and the electrical contact (110) of the female receptacle, when the conductive pin is fully inserted into the female receptacle; and maintaining at least two of the spring loaded floating contact points when the pin moves within the socket opening as a result of an external force applied to the male plug or female receptacle.

Abstract: A hybrid processing-based image processing system performs image chain flattening, token queue creation and pipeline prior to image rendering in order to allow various portions of the image processing to be performed in parallel. Tokens are passed between the filters of the pipeline generated from the flattened image chain to allow order-preserving operations to be performed which result in the same image as would have been produced by the original image chain using sequential processing.

Abstract: Systems (100) and methods (400) for providing Digital Selective Calling (“DSC”) based services. The methods involve: using Space-Born Maritime (“SBM”) receivers of satellites (104) deployed in space as a satellite constellation to collect and process DSC emergency messages transmitted from DSC transmitters of terrestrial radios; using the satellites to position validate the DSC emergency messages; determining first positions of the DSC transmitters in transit based on geolocation data and time location data respectively assigned by the satellites to the DSC emergency messages; and validating the first positions to more precise second positions based on results of cross-correlations of the geolocation data and time location data with Automatic Identification Systems (“AIS”) data obtained for the DSC transmitters.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method and system register plural images using a computer processor and computer memory, where computer code stored in the computer memory causes the computer processor to perform the registration. The registration includes receiving a reference image; receiving a sensed image; computing an approximate image transformation between the reference image and the sensed image; finding plural candidate tie points by utilizing template matching; applying radiometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; applying geometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; computing a calculated image transformation using candidate points of the plural candidate points that were not filtered out by the radiometric and geometric filtering; transforming the sensed image using the calculated image transformation; and registering the sensed image with the reference image.

Abstract: A managed access system for mobile wireless devices (MWDs) in a facility that is geographically within a wireless communications network includes a plurality of antennas arranged at the facility and at least one MWD monitoring device. Radio equipment is coupled to the antennas. A management access controller cooperates with the radio equipment to communicate with a given MWD within the facility, block outside communications via the wireless communications network when the given MWD is an unauthorized MWD, and provide outside communications when the given MWD is an authorized MWD. The management access controller cooperates with at least one MWD monitoring device to determine whether the radio equipment and at least one MWD monitoring device both detect the given MWD.

Abstract: A communication network is defended using a distributed infrastructure that leverages coordination across disparate abstraction levels. At each node computing device comprising a communication network, a stored event list is used to detect at least one node event which occurs at a machine code level and is known to have the potential to interfere directly with the internal operation of the node computing device. The at least one node event is one which is exclusive of an event within a network communication domain. In response to detecting the at least one node event at one of the plurality of network nodes, an optimal network-level defensive action is automatically selectively determined by the network. The network level defensive action will involve a plurality of network nodes comprising the communication network.

Abstract: Systems (100) and methods for co-channel separation of communication signals. The methods involve: simultaneously receiving a plurality of communication signals transmitted at disparate relative Doppler frequencies from different locations within a multi-access system; performing matched filtering operations to pre-process each of the plurality of communication signals so as to generate pre-processed digitized samples using a priori information contained in pre-ambles (302, 304) of messages present within the plurality of communication signals; using estimated signal parameters to detect the plurality of communication signals from the pre-processed digitized samples; and demodulating the plurality of communication signals without using a Viterbi decoder.

Abstract: A system, various methods, and a specific apparatus are provided for the purpose of supporting push-to-talk (PTT) service for a very large group featuring a significantly higher number of listeners than the number of potential talkers, as well as a constrained vocabulary in normal usage. The invention takes advantage of speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion in end user devices for maximum utterance compression. The invention uses the Iridium Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) system and its Short Burst Data (SBD) service for unicast transmission of talker utterances to a PTT Server, and the same system's Global Data Broadcast (GDB) service for multicast retransmission of utterances from the PTT Server to an effectively unlimited number of listeners. The PTT Server provides priority ordering and preemption as necessary when multiple talkers provide near-simultaneous utterances, effectively managing the floor without interactive protocols among the talkers.

Abstract: A method is for making an electronic device and includes forming an interconnect layer stack on a sacrificial substrate and having a plurality of patterned electrical conductor layers, and a dielectric layer between adjacent patterned electrical conductor layers. The method also includes laminating and electrically joining through an intermetallic bond a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate to the interconnect layer stack on a side thereof opposite the sacrificial substrate. The method further includes removing the sacrificial substrate to expose a lowermost patterned electrical conductor layer, and electrically coupling at least one first device to the lowermost patterned electrical conductor layer.

Abstract: During data resampling, bad samples are ignored or replaced with some combination of the good sample values in the neighborhood being processed. The sample replacement can be performed using a number of approaches, including serial and parallel implementations, such as branch-based implementations, matrix-based implementations, and function table-based implementations, and can use a number of modes, such as nearest neighbor, bilinear and cubic convolution.

Abstract: An antenna includes first and second conductive antenna bodies. The first conductive antenna body has first and second opposing ends with an enlarged width medial portion therebetween, a first slot extending from at least adjacent the first end to at least adjacent the second end, and first antenna feed points adjacent the first slot for a first polarization. The second conductive antenna body has first and second opposing ends with an enlarged width medial portion therebetween, a second slot extending from at least adjacent the first end to at least adjacent the second end, and second antenna feed points adjacent the second slot for the first polarization. The first end of the second conductive antenna body is adjacent the second end of the first conductive antenna body. Third antenna feed points are between the first and second conductive antenna bodies for a second polarization.

Abstract: An air-to-ground communications system includes at least one base station to be positioned on the ground and including a ground-based transceiver, a phased array antenna coupled to the ground-based transceiver, and a beamforming network coupled to the ground-based transceiver. The ground-based transceiver is configured to provide data traffic and control information to an aircraft. The beamforming network is configured to simultaneously generate at least one narrow antenna beam for the data traffic and at least one wide beam for the control information.