Patents Assigned to Sierra Nevada Corporation
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Publication number: 20150215279Abstract: A cyber-security device provides secure communications bi-directionally between an external network and an internal network including a supervisor control and data acquisition (SCADA) device. The device includes a processor in data communication with the external and internal networks, the processor being programmed with a rule-set establishing validation criteria configured to validate data received from the external and internal networks. The processor is operable in an operational mode to pass between the external and internal networks only data that are compliant with the validation criteria. The processor is re-programmable with a new rule-set only in a programming mode. The device includes a switch that is manually operable to switch the processor from the operational mode to the programming mode.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 30, 2014Publication date: July 30, 2015Applicant: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Peter Fischer, Andrew Feldkamp, Nelson Rodriguez, Joshua Edwards
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Patent number: 8976066Abstract: A beam-forming antenna for transmission and/or reception of an electromagnetic signal having a given wavelength in a surrounding medium includes a transmission line electromagnetically coupled to an array of individually controllable antenna elements, each of which is oscillated by the signal with a controllable amplitude. The oscillation amplitude of each of the individual antenna elements is controlled by a switch. The antenna elements are arranged in various shapes such as a parabolic arc, a circular arc, a cylindrical surface or a conic surface. The antenna elements have various spacing such as uniform, parabolic, circular, or raised cosine.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 2013Date of Patent: March 10, 2015Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir A. Manasson, Lev S. Sadovnik
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Publication number: 20150042521Abstract: Disclosed is a winglet radome assembly, which can include at least one antenna assembly that can send and receive signals, such as radio waves. Some implementations of the winglet radome assembly can be secured to a wing of an aircraft, such as a fixed-wing aircraft. In addition, the winglet radome assembly can be configured to secure to a distal end of the wing and can be securely adapted to a variety of aircraft.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 8, 2013Publication date: February 12, 2015Applicant: SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATIONInventor: Timothy M. Hazen
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Publication number: 20140330582Abstract: A medical data point of care device is configured to collect, access, store, and distribute patient medical data. The device is particularly suited for use in a mobile environment and may be particularly useful in an urgent care mobile environment, such as a battlefield or disaster area. In such environments, data transmission services may be intermittent and the bandwidth of such services may be low. The device is configured to adjust the flow of data transmission from a point of care location to a remote location so as to maximize or otherwise increase the likelihood of successful transmission of the data. The device is further configured to collect data from both a care provider and a medical device.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 28, 2014Publication date: November 6, 2014Applicant: SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATIONInventors: Kitty Tong, Richard J. Moss, Ashkan Moghaddam, James Rowe, Joseph T. Sanford, Brian K. Streng, Roger Andersen, David M. Howard, David C. Uhrig, Samuel Hancock, Russell B. Pillers
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Publication number: 20140330584Abstract: A software application enables a user (such as for example a medical care provider) to acquire, enter, view, and store data related to medical care and/or transport of a patient. The software application enables one or more care providers to acquire and enter data in a timely manner beginning at the time medical care commences until a later time, such as until disposition of the patient at a medical care facility.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 28, 2014Publication date: November 6, 2014Applicant: SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATIONInventors: Russell B. Pillers, Brian K. Streng, Rob Harker, Roger W. Andersen, Khanh Dac Le
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Patent number: 8456360Abstract: A beam-forming antenna for transmission and/or reception of an electromagnetic signal having a given wavelength in a surrounding medium includes a transmission line electromagnetically coupled to an array of individually controllable antenna elements, each of which is oscillated by the signal with a controllable amplitude. The oscillation amplitude of each of the individual antenna elements is controlled by a switch. The antenna elements are arranged in various shapes such as a parabolic arc, a circular arc, a cylindrical surface or a conic surface. The antenna elements have various spacing such as uniform, parabolic, circular, or raised cosine.Type: GrantFiled: December 29, 2010Date of Patent: June 4, 2013Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir A. Manasson, Lev S. Sadovnik
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Patent number: 8171853Abstract: A projectile for delivering an incapacitating agent through a barrier includes a canister containing the agent and having a closure. The canister is retained in a holder to which is fixed a sleeve formed of a plurality of axial fingers configured to spread radially outward upon impact with the barrier. A ballistic body, configured to penetrate the barrier and having a dispersion port, is connected to the holder forward of the canister so as to be axially movable from a forward position to a rearward position upon impact with the barrier, the ballistic body including a closure-breaching member located so as to breach the closure as the ballistic body moves rearward, thereby placing the canister in fluid communication with the dispersion port. The fingers spread radially against the surface of the barrier opposite the dispersion port so as to lodge the projectile in the barrier.Type: GrantFiled: March 2, 2010Date of Patent: May 8, 2012Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventor: John W. Purvis
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Patent number: 8059051Abstract: A waveguide includes a dielectric substrate having first and second opposed surfaces defining a longitudinal wave propagation path therebetween; and a conductive grid on the first surface of the substrate and comprising a plurality of substantially parallel metal strips, each defining an axis. The grid renders the first surface of the substrate opaque to a longitudinal electromagnetic wave propagating along the longitudinal wave propagation path and polarized in a direction substantially parallel to the axes of the strips. The grid allows the first surface of the substrate to be transparent to a transverse electromagnetic wave having a transverse propagation path that intersects the first and second surfaces of the substrate and having a polarization in a direction substantially normal to the plurality of metal strips. A diffraction grating on the second surface allows the waveguide to function as an antenna element that may be employed in a beam-steering antenna system.Type: GrantFiled: July 7, 2008Date of Patent: November 15, 2011Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir Manasson, Victor Khodos, Lev Sadovnik, Aramais Avakian, Vladimir Litvinov, Dexin Jia, Mikhail Felman, Mark Aretskin
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Patent number: 7995000Abstract: An electronically controlled monolithic array antenna includes a transmission line through which an electromagnetic signal may be propagated, and a metal antenna element defining an evanescent coupling edge located so as to permit evanescent coupling of the signal between the transmission line and the antenna element. The antenna element includes a conductive ground plate; an array of conductive edge elements defining the coupling edge, each of the edge elements being electrically connected to a control signal source, and each of the edge elements being electrically isolated from the ground plate by an insulative isolation gap; and a plurality of switches, each of which is selectively operable in response to the control signal to electrically connect selected edge elements to the ground plate across the insulative isolation gap so as to provide a selectively variable electromagnetic coupling geometry of the coupling edge.Type: GrantFiled: September 8, 2009Date of Patent: August 9, 2011Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir Manasson, Vladimir I. Litvinov, Lev Sadovnik, Mark Aretskin, Mikhail Felman, Aramais Avakian
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Patent number: 7864112Abstract: A beam-forming antenna for transmission and/or reception of an electromagnetic signal having a given wavelength in a surrounding medium includes a transmission line electromagnetically coupled to an array of individually controllable antenna elements, each of which is oscillated by the signal with a controllable amplitude. The antenna elements are arranged in a linear array and are spaced from each other by a distance that does not exceed one-third the signal's wavelength in the surrounding medium. The oscillation amplitude of each of the individual antenna elements is controlled by an amplitude controlling device, such as a switch, a gain-controlled amplifier, or a gain-controlled attenuator. The amplitude controlling devices, in turn, are controlled by a computer that receives as its input the desired beamshape, and that is programmed to operate the amplitude controlling devices in accordance with a set of stored amplitude values derived empirically for a set of desired beamshapes.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 2008Date of Patent: January 4, 2011Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir A. Manasson, Lev S. Sadovnik
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Patent number: 7777286Abstract: A microwave switch array includes a plurality of microwave slotlines, each of which is controlled by a semiconductor switch including a first PIN junction formed by a primary P-type electrode and a primary N-type electrode separated by the slotline. The switches inject a plasma into the slotline in response to a potential applied across the first PIN junction. Each of the switches includes a second PIN junction between the primary P-type electrode and a secondary N-type electrode, and a third PIN junction between the primary N-type electrode and a secondary P-type electrode. Metal contacts connect the primary P-type electrode and the secondary N-type electrode across second PIN junction, and the primary N-type electrode and the secondary P-type electrode across the third PIN junction. The secondary electrodes extract plasma that diffuses away from the first PIN junction, thereby minimizing the performance degrading effects of plasma diffusion.Type: GrantFiled: November 13, 2007Date of Patent: August 17, 2010Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir Manasson, Vladimir I. Litvinov, Lev Sadovnik, Aramais Avakian
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Patent number: 7688248Abstract: A 3D rendered image of a radar-scanned terrain surface is provided from a radar return signal from the surface, wherein the return signal includes data indicative of azimuth, elevation, and range of a radar-illuminated area of the surface. The data are processed for transformation into X, Y, and Z coordinates. The X and Y coordinates corresponding to each illuminated area are triangulated so as to create a mesh of triangles representing the terrain surface, each of the triangles in the mesh being defined by a vertex triplet. 3D imaging information (grey scale shading and/or coloring information) is added to each triangle in the mesh, based on the amplitude of the radar return signal from the coordinates represented by each vertex in the triplet and the value of the Z coordinate at each vertex, so as to form the 3D rendered image.Type: GrantFiled: November 24, 2008Date of Patent: March 30, 2010Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Jack Cross, Theodore Bosworth, Craig Chapman, David Howard
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Patent number: 7683832Abstract: A method of calculating position data for an airborne aircraft using a GPS-based airborne navigation system includes the processing of a position component of a relative state function by fusing a plurality of different types of measurement data available in the GPS-based system into a weighted least squares algorithm to determine an appropriate covariance matrix for the plurality of different types of measurement data.Type: GrantFiled: August 13, 2007Date of Patent: March 23, 2010Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Joseph H. Hansen, Jr., William G. Wright
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Patent number: 7667660Abstract: A scanning antenna with an antenna element having an evanescent coupling portion includes a waveguide assembly including a transmission line, adjacent the coupling portion, through which an electromagnetic signal is transmitted, permitting evanescent coupling of the signal between the transmission line and the antenna element. First and second conductive waveguide plates, on opposite sides of the transmission line, define planes that are substantially parallel to the axis of the transmission line, each plate extending distally from a proximal end adjacent the antenna element, whereby the propagated signal forms a beam that is confined to the space between the plates and thus limited to a plane that is parallel to the planes defined by the plates. The signal coupled between the transmission line and the antenna element is preferably polarized so that its electric field component is in a plane parallel to the planes defined by the plates.Type: GrantFiled: March 26, 2008Date of Patent: February 23, 2010Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir Manasson, Vladimir I. Litvinov, Lev Sadovnik, Mark Aretskin, Mikhail Felman, Aramais Avakian
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Patent number: 7609223Abstract: An electronically controlled monolithic array antenna includes a transmission line through which an electromagnetic signal may be propagated, and a metal antenna element defining an evanescent coupling edge located so as to permit evanescent coupling of the signal between the transmission line and the antenna element. The antenna element includes a conductive ground plate; an array of conductive edge elements defining the coupling edge, each of the edge elements being electrically connected to a control signal source, and each of the edge elements being electrically isolated from the ground plate by an insulative isolation gap; and a plurality of switches, each of which is selectively operable in response to the control signal to electrically connect selected edge elements to the ground plate across the insulative isolation gap so as to provide a selectively variable electromagnetic coupling geometry of the coupling edge.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2007Date of Patent: October 27, 2009Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir Manasson, Vladimir I. Litvinov, Lev Sadovnik, Mark Aretskin, Mikhail Felman, Aramais Avakian
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Patent number: 7456779Abstract: A 3D rendered image of a radar-scanned terrain surface is provided from a radar return signal from the surface, wherein the return signal includes data indicative of azimuth, elevation, and range of a radar-illuminated area of the surface. The data are processed for transformation into X, Y, and Z coordinates. The X and Y coordinates corresponding to each illuminated area are triangulated so as to create a mesh of triangles representing the terrain surface, each of the triangles in the mesh being defined by a vertex triplet. 3D imaging information (grey scale shading and/or coloring information) is added to each triangle in the mesh, based on the amplitude of the radar return signal from the coordinates represented by each vertex in the triplet and the value of the Z coordinate at each vertex, so as to form the 3D rendered image.Type: GrantFiled: August 31, 2006Date of Patent: November 25, 2008Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Jack Cross, Theodore Bosworth, Craig Chapman, David Howard
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Patent number: 7456787Abstract: A beam-forming antenna for transmission and/or reception of an electromagnetic signal having a given wavelength in a surrounding medium includes a transmission line electromagnetically coupled to an array of individually controllable antenna elements, each of which is oscillated by the signal with a controllable amplitude. The antenna elements are arranged in a linear array and are spaced from each other by a distance that does not exceed one-third the signal's wavelength in the surrounding medium. The oscillation amplitude of each of the individual antenna elements is controlled by an amplitude controlling device, such as a switch, a gain-controlled amplifier, or a gain-controlled attenuator. The amplitude controlling devices, in turn, are controlled by a computer that receives as its input the desired beamshape, and that is programmed to operate the amplitude controlling devices in accordance with a set of stored amplitude values derived empirically for a set of desired beamshapes.Type: GrantFiled: August 11, 2005Date of Patent: November 25, 2008Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: Vladimir A. Manasson, Lev S. Sadovnik
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Patent number: 7286085Abstract: A long baseline interferometer antenna system and method for determining the location of an emitter. The long baseline interferometer antenna system comprises a first antenna, a second antenna, an inertial navigation system, an antenna baseline measurement system, a multi-channel receiver and a processor. The first and second antenna elements are positioned on a platform and are both configured to receive signals from the emitter. The first and second antenna elements form a long baseline antenna pair. The inertial navigation system measures the platform position and attitude; and the antenna baseline measurement system measures the antenna baseline vector between the first and second antenna elements. The multi-channel receiver measures the differential phase between antenna pairs, and the processor computes the emitter location. Additional antenna elements can be included and some can be configured as squinted beam pair and make use of amplitude difference of arrival measurements.Type: GrantFiled: August 11, 2005Date of Patent: October 23, 2007Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventors: James Kolanek, Eric Carlsen
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Patent number: 7147184Abstract: An aerodynamic fairing system for an airship having a substantially spherical balloon portion includes an inflatable fairing that is attachable to the balloon portion, and a fairing actuation mechanism that selectively inflates and deploys the fairing after lift-off, and deflates and retracts the fairing before landing. The actuation mechanism includes an inflation/deflation mechanism and a deployment/retraction mechanism that cooperate to deploy and inflate the fairing, and to deflate and retract the fairing. The fairing includes a substantially conical, inflatable tail section tapering from a wide forward end to a narrow aft end, and a collapsible annular collar connecting the forward end of the tail section to the balloon portion. The inflation/deflation mechanism includes a fan system in the tail section, and the deployment/retraction mechanism includes a plurality of cables attached between the tail section and a plurality of winches mounted on the balloon portion.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2005Date of Patent: December 12, 2006Assignee: Sierra Nevada CorporationInventor: John Whitefield Meade Purvis, IV