Patents Examined by Tashiana Adams
  • Patent number: 9885776
    Abstract: A radar warning receiver system includes an electronic radar receiver unit configured to generate at least one excitation pulse. The at least one excitation pulse initializes at least one antenna during a respective dwell time to receive at least one radar wave output by an active emitter of an active threat object. An electronic enhanced receiver scheduler unit includes a microcontroller configured to determine at least two threat objects from a plurality of possible threat objects. The microcontroller generates at least one enhanced hybrid pattern including a series of non-continuous dwell times respective to each of the at least two determined threat objects. The radar receiver unit generates the at least one excitation pulse according to the enhanced pattern so as to detect the at least two determined threat objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: RAYTHEON COMPANY
    Inventors: Scott M. Newton, Joel Van Sickel
  • Patent number: 9857454
    Abstract: A range-gated Doppler radar configured to mitigate the effects of pulsed interference. A Doppler filter is constructed using a vector of weights, the vector of weights being calculated as the matrix product of (i) the inverse of an reduced overall covariance matrix and (ii) a reduced progressive phasor vector. The reduced overall covariance matrix is formed by deleting from an overall covariance matrix rows and columns corresponding to pulses corrupted by pulsed interference. The reduced progressive phasor vector is formed by deleting from a progressive phasor vector elements corresponding to pulses corrupted by pulsed interference. The elements of the progressive phasor vector have constant modulus and the phase of the elements changes linearly within the vector. The overall covariance matrix is a weighted sum of an identity matrix and several specific covariance matrices, that may represent distributed clutter with positive velocity, distributed clutter with negative velocity, and ground clutter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: Raytheon Command And Control Solutions LLC
    Inventors: Sien-Chang C. Liu, Jih-Fang A. Liu
  • Patent number: 9846237
    Abstract: Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of time preservation. For example, an apparatus may include a time controller to preserve a time of a clock of a mobile device based on signals received by the mobile device from less than four location origin transmitters, the time controller is to determine the time based on a position of a location origin transmitter of the less than four location origin transmitters and one or more parameters relating to a transmission path between the location origin transmitter and the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yaron Alpert, Gil Zukerman
  • Patent number: 9846229
    Abstract: The various technologies presented herein relate to utilizing direction of arrival (DOA) data to determine various flight parameters for an aircraft A plurality of radar images (e.g., SAR images) can be analyzed to identify a plurality of pixels in the radar images relating to one or more ground targets. In an embodiment, the plurality of pixels can be selected based upon the pixels exceeding a SNR threshold. The DOA data in conjunction with a measurable Doppler frequency for each pixel can be obtained. Multi-aperture technology enables derivation of an independent measure of DOA to each pixel based on interferometric analysis. This independent measure of DOA enables decoupling of the aircraft velocity from the DOA in a range-Doppler map, thereby enabling determination of a radar velocity. The determined aircraft velocity can be utilized to update an onboard INS, and to keep it aligned, without the need for additional velocity-measuring instrumentation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: National Technologies & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC
    Inventors: Armin W. Doerry, Douglas L. Bickel, Richard M. Naething, Volker Horndt
  • Patent number: 9841498
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments that relate to phase coded linear frequency modulation for a radar system. Embodiments include transmitting at least two signal pulses. The transmitting includes transmitting a first pulse with a first phase modulation and a first chip rate, and transmitting a second pulse with a second phase modulation and a second chip rate. The second chip rate may be different than the first chip rate. Embodiments also include receiving a signal that includes at least two reflection signals associated with reflection of the at least two transmitted signal pulses. Embodiments further include processing the received signal to determine target information. The processing includes filtering the received signal to time-align the at least two reflection signals. The filtering includes applying a frequency-dependent time delay to one or more of the at least two reflection signals. Additionally, embodiments include removing phase code modulations from the time-aligned reflection signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Tim Campbell, Russell Leigh Smith
  • Patent number: 9823357
    Abstract: A wireless receiver being capable of determining its velocity with respect to a number of wireless transmitters is provided. The wireless receiver includes a communication interface for receiving a number of carrier signals originating from the number of wireless transmitters, and a processor being configured to determine a number of carrier phases of the carrier signals at two different time instants, to determine a number of carrier phase differences from the determined number of carrier phases for each carrier signal between the two different time instants, to determine a location matrix indicating a geometric relationship between a location of the wireless receiver and a number of locations of the number of transmitters, and to determine the velocity of the wireless receiver upon the basis of the number of carrier phase differences and the location matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Vladimir Iosifovich Ivanov, Yanxing Zeng, Jianqiang Shen, Lev Borisovich Rapoport
  • Patent number: 9784830
    Abstract: A transponder, able to equip a cooperative target facing a Doppler radar, includes at least one receiving antenna able to receive a signal transmitted by said radar and a transmitting antenna able to retransmit a signal. The signal received by the receiving antenna is amplitude-modulated before being retransmitted by the transmitting antenna to produce a variation of the radar cross-section of the target, the variation triggering a frequency shift between the signal transmitted and the signal received by the radar comparable to a Doppler echo. The transponder applies notably to the field of radars, more particularly for collaborative systems also operating at low velocity or nil velocity. It applies for example to assisted take-off, landing and deck-landing of drones, in particular rotary-wing drones, as well as manned helicopters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: THALES
    Inventors: Patrick Garrec, Pascal Cornic, RĂ©gis Levaufre
  • Patent number: 9784818
    Abstract: The various technologies presented herein relate to correcting a time-dependent phase error generated as part of the formation of a radar waveform. A waveform can be pre-distorted to facilitate correction of an error induced into the waveform by a downstream operation/component in a radar system. For example, amplifier power droop effect can engender a time-dependent phase error in a waveform as part of a radar signal generating operation. The error can be quantified and an according complimentary distortion can be applied to the waveform to facilitate negation of the error during the subsequent processing of the waveform. A time domain correction can be applied by a phase error correction look up table incorporated into a waveform phase generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC
    Inventors: Armin W. Doerry, Stephen Buskirk
  • Patent number: 9768501
    Abstract: Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, devices systems and/or methods of steering an antenna array. For example, an apparatus may include a baseband processor including a plurality of baseband processing chains to process signals to be communicated via a plurality of antenna modules of an antenna array, wherein the baseband processing chains include a plurality of frequency domain delay modules, a frequency domain delay module of the delay modules is to apply a time delay to a signal to be communicated via an antenna module of the plurality of antenna modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: INTEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Alexander Maltsev, Ali S. Sadri, Alexei Davydov, Vadim Sergeyev, Andrey Pudeyev
  • Patent number: 9746543
    Abstract: The invention pertains to a method for detecting a tag (100) in an area monitored by one or more beacons (200), the tag (100) comprising a magnetic induction module (121) and a transmitter (140), the method comprising the following steps at said tag: receiving, by means of said magnetic induction module, a first beacon message as variations in a magnetic field, said first beacon message comprising beacon information; extracting said beacon information from said first beacon message; and conditionally on said beacon information, transmitting a localisation message by means of said transmitter (140).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Televic Healthcare NV
    Inventors: Pieter Crombez, John Gesquiere
  • Patent number: 9720097
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for receiving satellite radio-navigation signals comprising a plurality of receiving antennas forming an antenna array. The invention consists in using a plurality of antennas disposed around the circumference of a carrier and in demodulating the signals received by each antenna separately. The diversity of the demodulation chains is utilized to compensate the signal loss on one of the chains when the corresponding antenna experiences a signal loss due to the masking of the satellite by the carrier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Nicolas Martin, Vincent Chopard, David Depraz
  • Patent number: 9705183
    Abstract: A reconfigurable antenna element is controlled using a wirelessly powered and wirelessly activated switch, where the antenna element is part of an antenna or antenna array. A control signal for reconfiguring the antenna element is embedded into a wirelessly transmitted data signal for transmission by the antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: INTERMEC IP CORP.
    Inventor: Pavel Nikitin
  • Patent number: 9698479
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for electronically steering an antenna system. The apparatus comprises a dielectric substrate, a plurality of radiating spokes, and a number of surface wave feeds. The plurality of radiating spokes is arranged radially with respect to a center point of the dielectric substrate. Each radiating spoke in the plurality of radiating spokes forms a surface wave channel configured to constrain a path of a surface wave. Each of the number of surface wave feeds couples at least one corresponding radiating spoke in the plurality of radiating spokes to a transmission line that carries a radio frequency signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Daniel J. Gregoire, Amit M. Patel, Michael de La Chapelle
  • Patent number: 9689989
    Abstract: A device for detection of falsified signals in a satellite navigation system includes at least two antennas having one or more receivers for receiving navigation signals, a phase difference measuring unit for determining phase differences of the received navigation signals for each antenna, and a detection unit for detecting falsified navigation signals among the received navigation signals on the basis of the phase differences determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: Astrium GmbH
    Inventors: Hans Trautenberg, Johann Vilzmann
  • Patent number: 9689969
    Abstract: A system is provided that includes a Doppler radar unit that transmits a first electromagnetic wave having a first frequency, which a test system converts to a first electrical signal having the first frequency. The test system generates a second electrical signal having a second frequency, and mixes the first and second electrical signals to produce a third electrical signal having a third, sum or difference frequency. The third frequency represents a Doppler-shifted frequency caused by reflection of the first electromagnetic wave by a target at a distance from the Doppler radar unit. The test system converts the third electrical signal to a second electromagnetic wave having the third frequency, and transmits the second electromagnetic wave back to the Doppler radar unit for calculation of a speed representing that of the target as a function of the first and third frequencies, from which the Doppler radar unit may be calculated/certified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Dennis M. Lewis, Wayne L. Cooper
  • Patent number: 9640865
    Abstract: A device and method are provided for forming a beam of a transmit antenna array in the direction of a positioning receiver. Since the beam of the transmit antenna array is formed remotely by the positioning receiver, the received gain of the incoming positioning signal is maximized while signals from other directions are attenuated, thereby mitigating any unwanted effects of multipath. Depending on the number of elements in the transmit antenna array and their physical distribution, the width of the beam can be made finer such that the positioning receiver only requires a simple omni-directional antenna to achieve an accurate positioning solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Locata Corporation Pty Ltd
    Inventor: David Small
  • Patent number: 9625566
    Abstract: A direct geolocation approach for estimating a location of a stationary emitter located on the Earth surface is provided. The approach uses data collected during a plurality of time periods including Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA) measurements of a radar pulse sent from the emitter, and altitude measurements of an aircraft above the Earth surface. The approach includes estimating a location of the emitter for each of the time periods based on the TDOA, FDOA, and altitude measurements associated with a respective time period. The estimated location of the stationary emitter includes possible longitude and latitude of the emitter. The approach further includes averaging the estimated locations associated with the plurality of time periods to form an averaged estimated location of the emitter. A convenient example of the approach computes the location of the emitter based on the averaged estimated location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: John T. Broad
  • Patent number: 9519064
    Abstract: In order to enable a geopositioning receiver of a user to resolve phase ambiguities without necessarily using multi-frequency observations, assistance data is developed thanks to measurements made at a reference network (10, 12, 14) and sent to the receiver of the user. The assistance data used preferably consist of transmitter clock values associated with the carrier code sliding combination (?eme) or with data sufficient for reconstructing said values. The transmitter clock values associated with the carrier code sliding combination (?eme) can be reconstructed from iono-free transmitter clock values (heme) and clock biases (C?eme), for example.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: CENTRE NATIONAL D'ETUDES SPATIALES
    Inventors: Denis Laurichesse, Flavien Mercier
  • Patent number: 9519065
    Abstract: A method for determining geolocation of a mobile device, and a system for performing the method. The mobile device includes a location component, a local positioning component, and a reference positioning component. The method includes determining a local-positioning period based on an identified factor, and obtaining a location fix for the device from the reference positioning component. The method further includes commencing the period and measuring movement using the location component. The method also includes determining a present location of the device, using the location component, based on the location fix and the movement data and, during the period, repeating the measuring and determining steps. The method further includes, after the period expires, updating the location fix with a new location fix from the reference positioning component, resetting the local-positioning period; and repeating the steps for determining location during the reset period using the new location fix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Paul Henry, Christopher Rice
  • Patent number: 9459344
    Abstract: There may be situations in which a ship at sea is lost and GPS is not available due to jamming, and neither a position fix nor GPS is available. A system and method allow estimation of ship position (SPOS) using only single radar range measurements and satellite ephemeris data. The same radar can determine ship velocity using radar range rate information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jack Gray, Jonathan A. Boardman