Yeah that's what I thought at first too. But I kept wading on through. Buried in all the lawyerly boilerplate and tedious patent lingo is the real substance. In plain English, its an array.
In astronomy, an array of relatively small radiotelescopes performs better and at lower cost than one large radiotelescope. Same goes for conventional optical telescopes where an array of cells are aligned to perform as one much larger mirror. It costs a lot less to make the smaller mirrors, they can be made more accurately, and with less risk per mirror.
If this seems unrelated, well stop and think about it. The bigger mirror has the same problems of maintaining precisely the same shape as the cone of a driver. Mass needs to be kept low. Stiffness and stability high. You want both to perform as if they are big, when the laws of physics dictate smaller is better.
They'll be some details to work out. Like the radiotelescope array where they have to correct for what theoretically should be one big curve being on a flat surface, there will be some timing details to perfect. According to the OP they've already got it working pretty damn good. Which considering its such new technology is encouraging.
In astronomy, an array of relatively small radiotelescopes performs better and at lower cost than one large radiotelescope. Same goes for conventional optical telescopes where an array of cells are aligned to perform as one much larger mirror. It costs a lot less to make the smaller mirrors, they can be made more accurately, and with less risk per mirror.
If this seems unrelated, well stop and think about it. The bigger mirror has the same problems of maintaining precisely the same shape as the cone of a driver. Mass needs to be kept low. Stiffness and stability high. You want both to perform as if they are big, when the laws of physics dictate smaller is better.
They'll be some details to work out. Like the radiotelescope array where they have to correct for what theoretically should be one big curve being on a flat surface, there will be some timing details to perfect. According to the OP they've already got it working pretty damn good. Which considering its such new technology is encouraging.