Granted Patent B2

US 12,289,421 · App. 17/990,444 · Granted Apr 29, 2025

Inventors: John Lettow (Washington, MD); Sriram Manivannan (Elkridge, MD); James A Turney (Silver Spring, MD); Jennifer Pinkos (Hanover, MD); Kate Redmond (Baltimore, MD); Dan Scheffer (Frederick, MD)

Assignee: Vorbeck Materials Corp.

H04M1/05A41D1/002A41D31/08H01Q1/273H01Q1/368H04B1/385H04B2001/3855H04W84/04H04W84/18

Abstract

Claims (24)

1. A method for preparing a communications tarpaulin, comprising:

forming a tarpaulin comprising a textile layer, the textile layer comprising a first textile layer and a second textile layer, the first textile layer comprising an external surface and an internal surface, the second layer is coterminous with the first textile layer;

forming a plurality of antenna elements that each comprise a conductive composition;

forming a front plate;

forming a back plate;

affixing the front plate to the external surface and the back plate to the internal surface to thereby form a communications hub comprising a plurality of radio frequency (“RF”) connectors that each receive a communications device, the front plate comprising the RF connectors;

affixing the first textile layer and the second textile layer together to thereby form a multilayered structure;

conductively coupling each RF connector to an antenna element;

affixing the communications hub to the textile layer in a manner that allows the internal surface and the back plate to be positioned within the multilayered structure; and

affixing the antenna elements to the textile layer.

2. The method for preparing a communications tarpaulin of claim 1 , wherein

forming the plurality of antenna elements comprises:

preparing a conductive composition that comprises a polymer and fully exfoliated single sheets of graphene that are present as a three-dimensional percolated network within the polymer; and

forming each of the antenna elements using the conductive composition.

3. The method for preparing a communications tarpaulin of claim 1 , wherein

forming the plurality of antenna elements comprises:

applying the conductive composition to a substrate that is conductive or non-conductive; and

affixing the substrate to the textile layer.

4. The method for preparing a communications tarpaulin of claim 1 , wherein

the communications hub comprises a control circuit conductively coupled to a communications device and a power source; and

the communications device is conductively coupled to at least one of the antenna elements.

5. The method for preparing a communications tarpaulin of claim 1 , wherein

the textile layer comprises an EMI shielding layer; and

the EMI shielding layer comprises one or more of a conductive coating, a conductive mesh, a conductive fabric, and a conductive film.

Continuity (6)

References Cited (15)