Phased-array antenna scanning device with constant wave beam

Abstract

The invention discloses a phased-array antenna scanning device with a constant wave beam, which adopts radiation assemblies in a one-dimensional linear array form to radiate or receive radio-frequency signals, active TR assemblies are in one-to-one correspondence with the radiation assemblies, receive excitation signals sent by a radio-frequency network, perform phase shift amplification and then send the excitation signals to the radiation assemblies, and the active TR assemblies are in one-to-one correspondence with the radiation assemblies. Or receiving a radio frequency signal sent by the radiation assembly, performing phase shift and low-noise amplification, and then sending the radio frequency signal to the radio frequency network for combination; a power supply control module receives a control instruction transmitted by an upper computer, wakes up a corresponding TR assembly, calls an amplitude phase compensation value of a wakened active TR channel, and superposes a scanning phase compensation code calculated in real time and an amplitude windowing to realize electric scanning of a constant wave beam.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of phased array antennas, and in particular relates to a phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam. Background Art

[0002] According to the electromagnetic field equivalence principle, when the array antenna is scanning, the equivalent projection area of ​​the antenna array surface is reduced, which reduces the antenna's directivity coefficient and widens the beam width. Meteorological radar is a high-resolution shaping radar that uses radar beams to scan the target area and generates a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image of the atmosphere by receiving the reflected signal of the radar beam. Meteorological radar has extremely high requirements for beam stability and low sidelobe performance.

[0003] At present, meteorological phased array radars are mainly divided into two systems: planar phased array meteorological radars and cylindrical phased array meteorological radars. After the planar phased array meteorological radar beam is scanned, the beam is widened, the gain decreases, and the detection accuracy is low. Cylindrical phased array meteorological radar can achieve constant beam scanning through the array sliding window, but it comes with disadvantages such as low antenna efficiency, complex structure, and difficult testing and debugging. Summary of the invention

[0004] The object of the present invention is to provide a phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam, so that the beam width is constant during phase scanning, the radiation components are in the same form, and the antenna array surface radiation efficiency is consistent.

[0005] To solve the above problems, the technical solution of the present invention is: A phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam, comprising: a radiation component, an active TR component, a power supply control module and a radio frequency network; The radiation component is in the form of a one-dimensional linear array for radiating or receiving radio frequency signals; The active TR component corresponds to the radiation component one by one, receives the excitation signal sent by the RF network, performs phase shifting and amplification, and then sends it to the radiation component, or receives the RF signal sent by the radiation component, performs phase shifting and low-noise amplification, and then sends it to the RF network for combining; The power supply control module is configured to receive control instructions transmitted by the host computer, wake up the corresponding TR component, and retrieve the amplitude and phase compensation values ​​of the awakened active TR channel, superimpose the real-time calculated scanning phase compensation code and amplitude windowing, and realize the electronic scanning of the constant beam.

[0006] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the phased array antenna is in the form of a planar array, which is composed of N one-dimensional linear arrays arranged at a preset interval; The one-dimensional linear array integrates dual-polarized radiating units, a linear array feeding network with a suspended stripline structure, and a structural mounting plate, and is provided with two external radio frequency interfaces, which are respectively connected to the radiating component and the radio frequency network.

[0007] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the number N of the one-dimensional linear arrays is determined by the following formula: in, is the maximum scanning angle, is the working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna when it is in the beam normal state.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna in the beam normal state is Determined by the following formula: Where BW is the beam width, is the beam width expansion coefficient, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

[0009] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the RF network is configured with N equally divided power dividers according to the calculated N value, and distributes the transmitted excitation signal to each active TR component, or receives the RF signal of each radiating component for combining.

[0010] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the power supply control module receives a beam pointing signal sent by the host computer. After the information is received, the active TR components in the middle symmetric area are awakened, and the active TR components in the awakened area are retrieved. Amplitude compensation value for test trim of active TR channels and phase complement value , superimposed real-time calculated scanning phase compensation , and the Taylor-weighted amplitude distribution required for low sidelobes , the phase distribution of the phased array antenna is obtained as , the amplitude distribution is , achieving constant beam electronic scanning performance; among them, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

[0011] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the power supply control module is further configured to receive control instructions from a host computer to compensate for the radiation aperture of the phased array antenna to correct the antenna gain reduction and beam broadening caused by beam scanning.

[0012] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the power supply control module takes the center of the phased array antenna as a reference, symmetrically increases the radiation aperture on both sides, and dynamically changes the number of radiation components participating in beam forming.

[0013] Due to the adoption of the above technical solution, the present invention has the following advantages and positive effects compared with the prior art: A phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam in one embodiment of the present invention adopts a one-dimensional linear array radiating component to radiate or receive radio frequency signals. The active TR component corresponds to the radiating component one by one. The excitation signal sent by the received radio frequency network is phase-shifted and amplified before being sent to the radiating component, or the radio frequency signal sent by the received radiating component is phase-shifted and low-noise amplified before being sent to the radio frequency network for combining. The control command transmitted by the host computer is received through the power supply control module, the corresponding TR component is awakened, and the amplitude and phase compensation value of the awakened active TR channel is retrieved, and the scanning phase compensation code and amplitude windowing calculated in real time are superimposed to realize electrical scanning of the constant beam.

[0014] Among them, the radiating component adopts a one-dimensional linear array form to realize linear array fixed beam radiation, and the feeding network of the linear array adopts a suspended stripline structure, which can effectively reduce the insertion loss of the feeding network.

[0015] Phased array antennas adopt a planar array form, with simple structure, high aperture efficiency, and easy to obtain low sidelobe performance. They are suitable for the field of meteorological radars that have extremely high requirements for beam width and low sidelobe performance. In addition, they are scalable, and expansion only requires adaptive changes in the number of radiating components according to the beam width index. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] Figure 1 A phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam in one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 A simulation model of a radiation component in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a linear array dimension distribution curve in one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 is a simulated directivity diagram of the central frequency point of the linear array in one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 is an amplitude distribution curve of different scanning angles of an active TR component in one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 This is a simulated directivity pattern of the center frequency point of the constant beam scanning in one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The following is a further detailed description of a phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam proposed by the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. The advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and claims.

[0018] Please see Figure 1The present embodiment provides a phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam, comprising: a radiation component, an active TR component, a power supply control module and a radio frequency network; wherein the radiation component adopts a one-dimensional linear array form for radiating or receiving radio frequency signals, and the linear array dimensional beam is fixed; the active TR component corresponds to the radiation component one by one, receives the excitation signal sent by the radio frequency network, phase-shifts and amplifies it, and then sends it to the radiation component, or receives the radio frequency signal sent by the radiation component, phase-shifts and low-noise amplifies it, and then sends it to the radio frequency network for combining; the power supply control module is configured to receive the control instruction transmitted by the host computer, wake up the corresponding TR component, and retrieve the amplitude and phase compensation value of the awakened active TR channel, superimpose the scanning phase compensation code calculated in real time and the amplitude windowing, so as to realize the electronic scanning of the constant beam.

[0019] The phased array antenna adopts a planar array form, which is composed of N one-dimensional linear arrays arranged at a preset spacing. Each one-dimensional linear array integrates a dual-polarized radiation unit, a linear array feed network with a suspended stripline structure, and a structural mounting plate, and is provided with two external RF interfaces, which are connected to the radiation component and the RF network respectively.

[0020] The number N of the one-dimensional linear array is determined by the following formula: in, is the maximum scanning angle, is the working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna when it is in the beam normal state.

[0021] The working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna in the beam normal state Determined by the following formula: Where BW is the beam width, is the beam width expansion coefficient, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

[0022] The RF network sets N equally divided power dividers according to the calculated N value to distribute the transmitted excitation signal to each active TR component, or receives the RF signal of each radiating component for combining.

[0023] The power supply control module receives the beam pointing signal sent by the host computer. After the information is received, the active TR components in the middle symmetric area are awakened, and the active TR components in the awakened area are retrieved. Amplitude compensation value for test trim of active TR channels and phase complement value , superimposed real-time calculated scanning phase compensation , and the Taylor-weighted amplitude distribution required for low sidelobes , the phase distribution of the phased array antenna is obtained as , the amplitude distribution is , achieving constant beam electronic scanning performance; among them, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

[0024] The power supply control module is also configured to receive control instructions from the host computer to compensate for the radiation aperture of the phased array antenna to correct the antenna gain drop and beam broadening caused by beam scanning. Specifically, the power supply control module uses the center of the phased array antenna as a reference, symmetrically increases the radiation aperture on both sides, and dynamically changes the number of radiation components involved in beam forming.

[0025] The above-mentioned phased array antenna scanning device with constant beam scanning adopts the method of radiation aperture compensation combined with array sliding window to achieve constant beam width during phase scanning, and the radiation components are in the same form, the antenna array radiation efficiency is consistent, and the antenna gain can be guaranteed to be consistent under the premise of constant beam width. The principle of array sliding window technology is to dynamically change the number of radiation components involved in beam forming. During beam scanning, the number of working radiation components is increased according to the scanning angle. By increasing the radiation aperture, the problems of beam broadening and gain reduction caused by beam scanning are solved, and constant beam width and gain scanning are achieved.

[0026] The following describes the phased array antenna scanning device in detail using an example. Figure 1 The schematic diagram shows that this example uses 70 one-dimensional linear arrays and 70 active TR components corresponding to them, with a linear array spacing of 22mm. The array surface operates at a frequency of 9.2-9.4GHz and a scanning range of ±25°, that is, =25°. The number of one-dimensional linear arrays in the phased array antenna in the beam normal state is 64, the beam width is 1.5°, and the antenna side lobe is -30dB. The power supply control module receives the control signal of the host computer, distributes it to each active TR component after analysis, and provides the active TR component with the DC power required for operation.

[0027] The power supply control module receives the beam pointing After the information is received, the active TR components in the middle symmetric area are awakened, and the active TR components in the awakened area are retrieved. Amplitude compensation value for test trim of active TR channels and phase complement value , superimposed real-time calculated scanning phase compensation , and the Taylor-weighted amplitude distribution required for low sidelobes , the phase distribution of the phased array antenna is obtained as , the amplitude distribution is , achieving low sidelobe performance and beam scanning. The 70-equal power division RF network realizes the distribution of the transmission excitation signal or the combination of the signals received by each radiating component. Where d=22mm, is the working wavelength, which can be determined according to the situation; amplitude compensation value and phase complement value It is obtained in advance through debugging and stored in the storage area of ​​the power supply control module.

[0028] The one-dimensional linear array in this example integrates 64 dual-polarization radiating elements, a -30dB weighted feed network, and a structural mounting plate. Its simulation model is as follows: Figure 2 For the amplitude distribution curve of the -30dB weighted feed network in the linear array of the radiating component, please refer to Figure 3 ; For the simulated directivity diagram of the center frequency point of the linear array weighted -30dB of the radiating component, please refer to Figure 4 , the side lobe of the radiating component meets the -30dB requirement.

[0029] After receiving the beam pointing angle information from the host computer, the power supply control module dynamically wakes up the active TR components distributed in the area according to the algorithm, retrieves the array compensation data, and calculates the beam scanning compensation code in real time. When the beam points to the normal direction, the beam width BW corresponds to the number of active TR components in the wake-up area: , the beam is pointed to The number of active TR components in the time region is , at this time the beam width is still BW, so that the beam pointing is constant during phase scanning.

[0030] When gain reduction and beam broadening occur after beam scanning, they can be corrected by controlling the radiation aperture of the phased array antenna. This example uses radiation aperture compensation combined with array sliding windows. The radiation aperture increases on both sides based on the center of the array. The array sliding window dynamically changes the number of radiation components involved in beam forming. When scanning the beam, the number of working radiation components is increased according to the scanning angle. By increasing the radiation aperture, the problems of beam broadening and gain reduction caused by beam scanning are solved, and constant beam width and gain scanning are achieved.

[0031] For details, please see Figure 5, when correcting the gain and beam width of the phased array antenna, the active TR component scans at different angles. When the scanning angle is 0°~7.5°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 4-67, with a total of 64 lines; When the scanning angle is 7.5°~12.5°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 4-68, with a total of 65 lines; When the scanning angle is 12.5°~16°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 3-68, with a total of 66 lines; When the scanning angle is 16°~19°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 3-69, with a total of 67 lines; When the scanning angle is 19°~21°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 2-69, with a total of 68 lines; When the scanning angle is 21°~23°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 2-70, with a total of 69 lines awakened; When the scanning angle is 21°~25°, the array surface works with line arrays numbered 1-70, with a total of 70 lines.

[0032] This example uses radiation aperture compensation combined with a sliding window to achieve a constant beam width during phase scanning. Figure 6 As shown, during the beam scanning process from 0° to 25°, the beam width is about 1.47°, the gain change is within 0.4dB, and the beam basically does not change.

[0033] In summary, the phased array antenna scanning device with constant beam scanning adopts the method of radiation aperture compensation combined with array sliding window to achieve constant beam width during electronic scanning, and the radiation components are in the same form, the antenna array radiation efficiency is consistent, and the antenna gain can be guaranteed to be consistent under the premise of constant beam width. The device adopts a planar array form, with a simple structure, high aperture efficiency, and easy to obtain low sidelobe performance. It is suitable for the field of meteorological radar with extremely high requirements on beam width and low sidelobe performance.

[0034] The embodiments of the present invention are described in detail above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Even if various changes are made to the present invention, if these changes fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, they still fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam, characterized in that: include: Radiating components, active TR components, power supply control modules and RF networks; The radiation component is in the form of a one-dimensional linear array for radiating or receiving radio frequency signals, and the beam is fixed in the linear array dimension; The active TR component corresponds to the radiation component one by one, receives the excitation signal sent by the RF network, performs phase shifting and amplification, and then sends it to the radiation component, or receives the RF signal sent by the radiation component, performs phase shifting and low-noise amplification, and then sends it to the RF network for combining; The power supply control module is configured to receive control instructions transmitted by the host computer, wake up the corresponding TR component, and retrieve the amplitude and phase compensation values ​​of the awakened active TR channel, superimpose the real-time calculated scanning phase compensation code and amplitude windowing, and realize the electronic scanning of the constant beam.

2. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The phased array antenna adopts a planar array form, which is composed of N one-dimensional linear arrays arranged at a preset spacing; The one-dimensional linear array integrates dual-polarized radiating units, a linear array feeding network with a suspended stripline structure, and a structural mounting plate, and is provided with two external radio frequency interfaces, which are respectively connected to the radiating component and the radio frequency network.

3. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that: The number N of the one-dimensional linear array is determined by the following formula: in, is the maximum scanning angle, is the working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna when it is in the beam normal state.

4. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: The working number of the one-dimensional linear array of the phased array antenna in the beam normal state Determined by the following formula: Where BW is the beam width, is the beam width expansion coefficient, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

5. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that: The radio frequency network is configured with N equally divided power dividers according to the calculated N value, and distributes the transmission excitation signal to each active TR component, or receives the radio frequency signal of each radiating component for combining.

6. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that: The power supply control module receives the beam pointing signal sent by the host computer. After the information is received, the active TR components in the middle symmetric area are awakened, and the active TR components in the awakened area are retrieved. Amplitude compensation value for test trim of active TR channels and phase complement value , superimposed real-time calculated scanning phase compensation , and the Taylor-weighted amplitude distribution required for low sidelobes , the phase distribution of the phased array antenna is obtained as , the amplitude distribution is , achieving constant beam electronic scanning performance; among them, is the working wavelength, is the spacing of the one-dimensional linear array.

7. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The power supply control module is also configured to receive control instructions from the host computer to compensate for the radiation aperture of the phased array antenna to correct the antenna gain drop and beam broadening that occur after beam scanning.

8. The phased array antenna scanning device with a constant beam as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that: The power supply control module takes the center of the phased array antenna as a reference, symmetrically increases the radiation aperture on both sides, and dynamically changes the number of radiation components participating in beam forming.

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