1. A mobile radar system comprising:
a vehicle; and
a phased array radar system disposed on a portion of said vehicle, said phased array radar system movable between a stowed position and a deployed position and wherein said phased array radar system is configured to be operational when in the stowed position and when in the deployed position and while said vehicle is moving.
2. The mobile radar system of claim 1 wherein:
said phased array radar system provides substantially continuous 360\xb0 scan coverage when said phased array radar system is in the deployed position; and
said phased array radar system provides substantially continuous 270\xb0 scan coverage when said phased array radar system is in the stowed position.
3. The mobile radar system of claim 2 wherein said phased array radar system comprises an active, electronically-steerable, phased array (AESA) antenna having a plurality of antenna faces.
4. The mobile radar system of claim 3 wherein:
said AESA antenna is provided having four faces arranged to provide substantially continuous 360\xb0 scan coverage when said AESA antenna is in the deployed position; and
said AESA antenna is provided having four faces arranged to provide substantially continuous 270\xb0 scan coverage when said phased array radar system is in the stowed position.
5. The mobile radar system of claim 3 wherein said AESA antenna has four independently controlled faces and wherein when said AESA antenna is in the stowed position three antenna faces are active and when said AESA antenna is in its deployed position four antenna faces are active.
6. The mobile radar system of claim 3 wherein said phased array radar system uses different sub-apertures on different ones of said plurality of faces such that said phased array radar system can transmit an RF signal using a first sub-aperture on a first one of said plurality of faces and can receive an RF signal using a second sub-aperture on a second different one of said plurality of faces.
7. The mobile radar system of claim 1 wherein said phased array radar system comprises:
a movable antenna platform having a first end configured to be mounted on said vehicle and having a second end, said antenna platform movable between the stowed position and the deployed position; and
an active, electronically-steerable, phased array (AESA) antenna coupled to the second end of said movable antenna platform, wherein said AESA antenna is operable while said movable antenna platform is positioned in either the stowed position or the deployed position.
8. The mobile radar system of claim 7 wherein the vehicle is provided as a ground based vehicle.
9. The mobile radar system of claim 8 wherein:
said AESA antenna is provided as a self-contained, solid state AESA antenna having a plurality of faces;
while said vehicle is moving, said AESA antenna is operable in at least two different modes of operation with a first mode of operation corresponding to a scan mode of operation and a second mode of operation corresponding to a tracking mode of operation; and
while said vehicle is at stationary, said AESA antenna is operable in at least two different modes of operation with a first mode of operation corresponding to a scan mode of operation and a second mode of operation corresponding to a tracking mode of operation.
10. The mobile radar system of claim 9 wherein each face of said AESA antenna is provided from a plurality of panel array antenna with each of said plurality of panel array antenna being removably connected to said phased array radar system such that an individual one of said plurality of panel array antennas panel can be removed and replaced without making or breaking power and signal cables to other ones of said plurality of panel array antennas.
11. The mobile radar system of claim 10 wherein said AESA antenna can substantially simultaneously operate sub-apertures on each of said plurality of faces in a transmit mode.
12. The mobile radar system of claim 10 wherein said AESA antenna can simultaneously operate sub-apertures on each of said plurality of faces in a receive mode.
13. The mobile radar system of claim 10 wherein the phased array radar system receives power from a prime power source provided as part of said vehicle.
14. The mobile radar system of claim 10 further comprising a primary power source is shared among the plurality of four of said AESA antenna.
15. The mobile radar system of claim 14 wherein said power source is provided as an independent power source.
16. The mobile radar system of claim 7 wherein said movable antenna platform comprises a scissors-jack structure.
17. The mobile radar system of claim 7 wherein said array antenna is rotatably-mounted to said movable platform and wherein said movable platform raises said AESA antenna to a deployed position such that each face of said AESA antenna is above a top-most surface of said vehicle such that said AESA antenna is able to electronically scan antenna beams substantially unobstructed by any portion of said vehicle.
18. The mobile radar system of claim 7 wherein said movable antenna platform is provided as a telescoping antenna platform.
19. The mobile radar system of claim 7 wherein when said movable antenna platform is in the stowed position, said AESA antenna is operable to provide substantially 270 degrees of scan coverage and when said movable antenna platform is in the deployed position, said AESA antenna is operable to provide substantially 360 degrees of scan coverage.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1-39. (canceled)
40. A probe array, comprising:
means for performing scanning probe contact printing,
means for performing dip pen nanolithography, and
means for forming an image using the means for performing scanning probe contact printing and the means for performing dip pen nanolithography.
41. The array of claim 40, further comprising means for performing atomic force microscopy,
where the means for forming an image comprises means for subsequently reading the image using the means for performing atomic force microscopy.
42. A probe array, comprising:
means for performing scanning probe contact printing,
means for performing atomic force microscopy, and
means for forming an image using the means for performing scanning probe contact printing, and for subsequently reading the image using the means for performing atomic force microscopy.
43. The array of claim 40, where the means for forming an image comprises a handle connected to the means for performing scanning probe contact printing and to the means for performing dip pen nanolithography.
44. The array of claim 43, where the means for forming an image further comprises means for individually adjusting the orientation of the means for performing scanning probe contact printing and of the means for performing dip pen nanolithography, relative to the handle.
45. The array of claim 41, where the means for forming an image comprises a handle connected to the means for performing scanning probe contact printing, to the means for performing dip pen nanolithography and to the means for performing atomic force microscopy.
46. The array of claim 45, where the means for forming an image further comprises means for individually adjusting the orientation of the means for performing scanning probe contact printing, of the means for performing dip pen nanolithography and of the means for performing atomic force microscopy, relative to the handle.
47. The array of claim 42, where the means for forming an image comprises a handle connected to the means for performing scanning probe contact printing and to the means for performing atomic force microscopy.
48. The array of claim 47, where the means for forming an image further comprises means for individually adjusting the orientation of the means for performing scanning probe contact printing and of the means for performing atomic force microscopy, relative to the handle.
49. A method of writing using the array of claim 40, comprising:
performing scanning probe contact printing on a surface to form a first image, and
performing dip pen nanolithography on the surface to form a second image.
50. The method of claim 49, where the first image comprises a first composition, and the second image comprises a second composition different from the first composition.
51. The method of claim 49, where the first image has a first minimum dimension, and the second image has a second minimum dimension different from the first minimum dimension.
52. A method of writing using the array of claim 41, comprising:
performing scanning probe contact printing on a surface to form a first image,
performing dip pen nanolithography on the surface to form a second image, and
performing atomic force microscopy to read the first and second images.
53. The method of claim 52, where the first image comprises a first composition, and the second image comprises a second composition different from the first composition.
54. The method of claim 52, where the first image has a first minimum dimension, and the second image has a second minimum dimension different from the first minimum dimension.
55. A method of writing using the array of claim 42, comprising:
performing scanning probe contact printing on a surface to form an image, and
performing atomic force microscopy to read the image.
56. A probe array, comprising:
means for forming a first image by scanning probe contact printing, and
means for reading the first image.
57. The array of claim 56, where the means for reading the first image comprises means for performing atomic force microscopy.
58. The array of claim 56, further comprising means for forming a second image by dip pen nanolithography;
where the second image can be read by the means for reading the first image.
59. A method of writing using the array of claim 56, comprising:
forming a first image by scanning probe contact printing, and
reading the first image.