Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A steerable beam antenna includes a feed line and first and second arrays of switchable scatterers along opposite sides of the feed line. The first array scatters an electromagnetic wave propagating through the feed line to form a first beam portion with a first polarization, and the second array scatters the propagating wave to form a second beam portion with a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization. Each scatterer in the first and second arrays is switchable between a high state and a low state, the high state scatterers and the low-state scatterers in each of the first and second arrays defining a periodic pattern. The scatterers in the first and second arrays are switchable to shift the pattern of scatterers in one of the arrays relative to the pattern in the other array by a selectable period shift that yields a desired polarization for the beam.