SRC-795

GB2563574B: A phased array antenna and apparatus incorporating the same (UK patent as granted; date of B publication 04.08.2021, as printed on PDF 1)

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0896 The patent describes measuring the incoming steering signal at scattered sensors, not at every antenna, and working out the values in between. The patent does not say how far apart those sensors are, which is the number that decides whether the method works.
• CLM-0897 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.
• CLM-0899 The patent never says the steering signal is protected in any way. There is a difference between scrambling that signal so nobody can read it and signing it so the satellite can tell a fake from the real thing. Only the second would stop someone aiming the beam. The patent has neither.
• CLM-0900 The 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 limited by the antenna. It is limited by other things, including whether a receiving station has been built there and whether that country has allowed it.
• CLM-0905 Sharing 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 - that comes from the ground signal, and each antenna works it out for itself. If the shared signal fails, the beam does not go somewhere wrong, it stops being a beam.
• CLM-1485 The patent behind the CASSIOPeiA design, both the 2018 application and the granted patent published in 2021, mentions 230 watts per square metre in passing as an ideal and safe figure while describing the design. Neither version sets out to show that the figure is safe, and neither cites any safety standard.

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