US Patent 8456360 Beam-forming antenna with amplitude-controlled antenna elements

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.