Abstract: The invention relates to a self monitoring/calibrating phased array radar in which the operating path for transmission and the operating path for reception may be monitored/calibrated by the addition of a corporate calibration network coupled at the plural end to the antenna elements and at the singular end to the exciter/receiver, and switching means to selectively route the monitoring/calibrating signal derived from the exciter in a transmit path to calibration path sequence or in a calibration path to receive path sequence.In one embodiment of the invention, a phase shifter common to transmit and receive paths is adjustable in increments under active logical control for calibration, while power and gain performance is monitored but not actively controlled. A novel T/R sub-assembly houses the operating electronics for four antenna elements in the form of four T/R modules with a one to four divider network in the transmit/receive path and in the calibration path.

Abstract: The invention relates to a microstrip to stripline transition which achieves good electrical performance and permits easy, solderless disconnection. The upper portion of the stripline is omitted permitting a flying lead bonded to the microstrip conductor, and which extends across a gap, to be held in contact with the stripline conductor by a removable filler block, which replaces the omitted upper portion of the stripline. The air gap, and the width of the stripline and microstrip conductors adjacent the air gap are dimensioned to form the electrical equivalent of a pi network to achieve a desired response.The filler block is held in place, in one embodiment, by an elongated conductor bridging the upper and lower ground planes of the stripline and which is cut away to form a short waveguide section encircling the transition. The waveguide section is dimensioned to favor only a desired TEM stripline mode and suppress undesired waveguide modes for increased transition efficiency over a desired band.