Patents by Inventor James P. McKay

James P. McKay has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8643543
    Abstract: A phased array antenna system with intermodulation beam nulling device includes nulling phase shifters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: James P. McKay, David A. Ksienski
  • Publication number: 20130039574
    Abstract: System and method for detecting a smooth/rough boundary from an aerial image to solve the problem of isolating image features without access to the subject of the image. The system and method convert the image to gray scale, edge pad the converted image, calculate an image entropy based on a distribution of local entropy across the padded, converted image, threshold the image entropy to binarize the padded, converted image, clean noise, and close defects and voids by mathematical morphologically opening and closing the binarized image, and detect the smooth/rough boundary of the opened/closed binarized image as a gradient across the pixels of the opened/closed binarized image resulting in a single pixel width edge. The single pixel width edge can be, for example, provided to numerical prediction models and computer games.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2012
    Publication date: February 14, 2013
    Inventors: James P. McKay, Cheryl Ann Blain, Robert S. Linzell
  • Patent number: 8314748
    Abstract: An antenna system includes a heptagonal antenna array having one center antenna element and seven circumferentially surrounding antenna elements offering improved near and far sidelobe rejection, which is well suited for mechanically-gimbaled and time delayed electrical steering antenna applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Ksienski, Walter L. Bloss, Eric K. Hall, II, James P. McKay
  • Publication number: 20120062425
    Abstract: A phased array antenna system with intermodulation beam nulling device includes nulling phase shifters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Publication date: March 15, 2012
    Inventors: James P. McKay, David A. Ksienski
  • Publication number: 20110063178
    Abstract: An antenna system includes a heptagonal antenna array having one center antenna element and seven circumferentially surrounding antenna elements offering improved near and far sidelobe rejection, which is well suited for mechanically-gimbaled and time delayed electrical steering antenna applications.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2010
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Inventors: David A. Ksienski, Walter L. Bloss, Eric K. Hall, II, James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 7710346
    Abstract: An antenna system includes a heptagonal antenna array having one center antenna element and seven circumferentially surrounding antenna elements offering improved near and far sidelobe rejection, which is well suited for mechanically-gimbaled and time delayed electrical steering antenna applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: Walter L. Bloss, Eric K. Hall, II, David A. Ksienski, James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 7692518
    Abstract: A transmission line junction for a coaxial conductor line has mating ends of interfitting cores, sleeves, and dielectrics for communicating broadband signals through the junction that blocks DC currents and voltages, the junction maintaining a quarter wavelength junction length for high frequency coupling while providing improved low frequency coupling across the junction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventor: James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 7663548
    Abstract: A receiving system includes a combiner configured to receive signals from two or more antenna elements and to generate sum and difference outputs, and a switch configured to sequentially provide the sum and difference outputs as inputs to a receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: James P. McKay, Gan-Tai Tseng
  • Publication number: 20090009271
    Abstract: A transmission line junction for a coaxial conductor line has mating ends of interfitting cores, sleeves, and dielectrics for communicating broadband signals through the junction that blocks DC currents and voltages, the junction maintaining a quarter wavelength junction length for high frequency coupling while providing improved low frequency coupling across the junction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2007
    Publication date: January 8, 2009
    Inventor: James P. McKay
  • Publication number: 20090002249
    Abstract: An antenna system includes a heptagonal antenna array having one center antenna element and seven circumferentially surrounding antenna elements offering improved near and far sidelobe rejection, which is well suited for mechanically-gimbaled and time delayed electrical steering antenna applications.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Inventors: Walter L. Bloss, Eric K. Hall, II, David A. Ksienski, James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 7420508
    Abstract: A method for reducing intermodulation beams includes applying a beam-smearing phase distribution in addition to a beam-steering distribution for scanning to an array of antenna elements such that multiple higher-order intermodulation products are simultaneously reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2008
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Ksienski, James P. McKay, Samuel S. Osofsky, Keven S. MacGowan, Gwendolyn M. Shaw
  • Patent number: 7064710
    Abstract: A phased array antenna system divides the array into a plurality of subarrays that are driven by fine phase shifters with each subarray having a plurality of antenna elements driven by respective coarse phase shifters that are preferably MEMS coarse phase shifters having low weight and low cost and are infrequently used for improved reliability for selecting a coarse beam coverage area while the fine phase shifters are used to scan a high-gain antenna pattern within the selected coarse beam coverage area. Two-bit MEMS phase shifters are used to scan the beams from subarrays to various coverage areas within the required antenna field of view, thereby providing coarse beam steering for an array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2006
    Assignee: The Aerospace Corporation
    Inventors: David A. Ksienski, James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 6522218
    Abstract: A symmetric N×N branch-line hybrid power divider/combiner has N input ports and N output ports. The divider/combiner divides received powers at each input port and transmits and combines the divided powers to the output ports. The divider/combiner includes N through transmission lines, each coupling a respective input port to a respective output port. The divider/combiner also includes N input branch transmission lines, each coupling a respective input port to a central input node and N output branch transmission lines, each coupling a respective output port to a central output node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: James P. McKay
  • Publication number: 20020079984
    Abstract: A symmetric N×N branch-line hybrid power divider/combiner has N input ports and N output ports. The divider/combiner divides received powers at each input port and transmits and combines the divided powers to the output ports. The divider/combiner includes N through transmission lines, each coupling a respective input port to a respective output port. The divider/combiner also includes N input branch transmission lines, each coupling a respective input port to a central input node and N output branch transmission lines, each coupling a respective output port to a central output node.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2002
    Publication date: June 27, 2002
    Applicant: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 6118353
    Abstract: A power divider/combiner for dividing received powers at 4 input ports, transmitting the divided powers to each of 4 output ports and combining the transmitted powers at each of the output ports. The power divider combiner has through transmission lines flanked on either side by secondary through transmission lines that interconnect corresponding input and output ports. The through transmission lines are likewise interconnected at a center node by a plurality of branch transmission lines. A method for making a power divider/combiner includes merging two 0 dB couplers by joining the center points of each of the branch transmission lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2000
    Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: James P. McKay
  • Patent number: 6072438
    Abstract: A reflectarray antenna for achieving increased dynamic phase range has a plurality of dipole elements positioned across the antenna surface. The elements include a single dipole element having a predetermined length that is approximately proportional to the dynamic phase range through which the first dipole element can reflect. The elements also include a coupled dipole element which comprises a longer dipole and a shorter dipole. The longer dipole and the shorter dipole are positioned on the reflectarray surface such that they are spaced a predetermined distance apart.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2000
    Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: James P. McKay, Michael E. Cooley, Michael E. Pekar
  • Patent number: 5883552
    Abstract: Microwave power divider/combiners are provided which divide received powers at each of 2.sup.n input ports transmit the divided powers to each of 2.sup.n output ports and combine the transmitted powers at each of the output ports. They have through transmission lines which each couple respective pairs of the input and output ports. In addition, they include shunt transmission lines, an input network of transmission lines which couples the input ports to first ends of the shunt transmission lines and an output network of transmission lines which couples second ends of the shunt transmission lines to the output ports to thereby provide transmission paths from each of the input ports to each of the output ports. The input and output transmission-line networks are configured to be identical and to cause the power divider/combiner to have interport symmetry between the input and output ports and intraport symmetry between any equal sets of input and output ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 16, 1999
    Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: James P. McKay