Value chain · CLM-0897
In plain terms
The satellite aims its beam by listening for a low-power signal sent up from the receiving station, measuring the shape of that arriving wave and transmitting a time-reversed copy of it. The patent says in terms that this is what lets the structure be floppy. It is in the patent's claims, the part that sets what the patent protects, not just the explanatory text, and it stayed in the claims of the patent as granted, which was published in 2021.
The claim as recorded
GB2563574 discloses retrodirective phase conjugation against a pilot beam radiated from the target as the PREFERRED method of determining per-element phase, states that this is what permits a flexible array, and claims it at claim 22 and claim 51 rather than describing it only. Two distinct system-wide references are disclosed: a reference FREQUENCY source to which each element's local oscillator is phase-locked (claim 19), and a synchronised TIMING reference defining the "regular system-wide reference instant" at which the dispersed detectors sample the pilot wavefront. An open-loop alternative, phase computed from element geometry relative to a fixed datum, is disclosed and claimed at claim 21 as the less preferred option.
Evidence behind this: A UK patent application as published (GB 2563574 A, filed 5 June 2017, published 26 December 2018), read directly. The patent was granted as GB 2563574 B, published 4 August 2021, and its claims were read too. T3 because it is a published document with a named applicant and a searched disclosure (the Section 17 search report is bound in), and not T2 because a patent document teaches an invention rather than reporting a result.
Scope and limits
A patent specification. Claim 22 depends on claim 20, so the claimed combination is narrower than the description's general statement. The permissive "may" register applies throughout the description. A LIMIT WAS ATTACHED HERE IN ERROR ON 2026-09-14 AND IS REMOVED. It bounded the accuracy of an interpolation closed form against a realistic detector layout. THIS RECORD IS THE MECHANISM CLAIM - retrodirective conjugation as the preferred disclosed method - AND CONTAINS NO CLOSED FORM, so the limit qualified something that is not here. It was attached on the strength of the label it arrived under rather than by checking this record for the thing being limited. THE CLOSED FORM HAS NO REGISTERED RECORD AT ALL: measured 2026-09-14, neither this record nor CLM-0909 contains one, and CLM-0909 is what CLM-0908 cites for it. The limit text is held in gi/ and goes to the closed-form record when one exists.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
internal p6, PDF p18, lines 29-34, verbatim: "However, it is preferable to determine the phase by providing, for each element or spatially fixed subset of element, a means for receiving or generating a system-wide synchronised timing reference and means for sampling the spherical wavefront of an incoming pilot beam (i.e. retrodirective beam steering). This way, the array can be relatively flexible whilst still allowing a coherent beam to be produced." Claim 22 verbatim: "An electromagnetic phased array according to claim 20 which includes means for receiving or generating a system-wide synchronised timing reference and means for sampling the spherical wavefront of an incoming pilot beam." (The printed text ends "incoming pilot beam.0"; the trailing character is a typographical artefact in the published document.) Claim 51 verbatim: "A method according to claim 50, further comprising providing a receiver at the target that also outputs a low power pilot beam that is directed to the apparatus in order to effect retro-directive beam steer, helping the apparatus to send the beam of energy towards it." Claim 19 for the reference frequency source. The granted patent (SRC-795, date of B publication 4 August 2021, read from page images) keeps the same words, apart from the number of the claim each depends on, in its claims 21 and 50 (PDF p38, p42) and the reference frequency source in claim 18 (PDF p37); its claim 21 depends on claim 19, the old claim 20, and the open-loop option of the old claim 21 is its claim 20.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-013 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0897
CLM-0897, Energy Aperture, as of 2017-06-05.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-088
- CLM-0896The patent describes measuring the incoming steering signal at scattered sensors, not at every antenna, and working out the values in...CLM-0899The patent never says the steering signal is protected in any way. There is a difference between scrambling that signal so nobody can read...CLM-0900The satellite can point its beam far further than there is Earth to point at, so moving power from one receiving station to another is not...CLM-0903The shared clock tells every sensor to take its reading at the same moment. How precise that clock must be depends on how fast the thing...CLM-0905Sharing a clock is not the same as being told what to do. The clock and the carrier tell the antennas nothing about where to send the power...CLM-0913When the satellite corrects its own bending by listening to the ground signal, what is left over is not how far the antennas moved. It is...CLM-0942Three documents held here give three different sizes for the same satellite's transmitting antenna. The patent says 1 to 1.5 km across and...CLM-1176Each transmitting element on the satellite is a small cluster of three short rod antennas standing a quarter of a wavelength apart, all...More on the source page.
- Also from SRC-795
- CLM-0896The patent describes measuring the incoming steering signal at scattered sensors, not at every antenna, and working out the values in...CLM-0899The patent never says the steering signal is protected in any way. There is a difference between scrambling that signal so nobody can read...CLM-0900The satellite can point its beam far further than there is Earth to point at, so moving power from one receiving station to another is not...CLM-0905Sharing a clock is not the same as being told what to do. The clock and the carrier tell the antennas nothing about where to send the power...CLM-1485The patent behind the CASSIOPeiA design, both the 2018 application and the granted patent published in 2021, mentions 230 watts per square...