Patents by Inventor Régis Levaufre

Régis Levaufre 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: 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, Régis Levaufre
  • Publication number: 20160131754
    Abstract: A device for detecting electromagnetic signals comprising an array receive antenna having N radiating elements and M receive channels downstream of the receive antenna, M less than N, the pointing directions of the antenna, equal to the radiating elements, obtained by adaptive beamforming and regularly spaced apart, comprises: switching the M receive channels onto the radiating elements in successive sequence cycles, M radiating elements connected to the receive channels with each sequence, the same radiating element, being the reference element, connected to the receive channels for all sequences, one cycle completed when all radiating elements are connected to one of the receive channels; for each sequence, estimating two-by-two spatial correlations of the signal received on the reference channel and the signals received on the other M-1 receive channels, then estimating the spatial power spectral density in N incoming directions based on a coherent sum of N correlation terms obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Inventors: Pascal CORNIC, Patrick LE BIHAN, Régis LEVAUFRE
  • Publication number: 20140225761
    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: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2014
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Inventors: Patrick GARREC, Pascal CORNIC, Régis LEVAUFRE
  • Publication number: 20120001794
    Abstract: A system for response to a signal transmitted by a radar includes: a passive antenna capable of receiving and then backscattering a signal transmitted by said radar; a microwave switch connected to said antenna; at least two microwave lines each having a distinct impedance and being connected to the microwave switch; and a generator capable of generating a parametrizable control signal and sending it to the microwave switch so that it switches onto one or other of the microwave lines, so as to modulate the signal backscattered by said antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2010
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: THALES
    Inventors: Régis Levaufre, Pascal Cornic