Phased array phase shifting method and phased array architecture

Abstract

The invention provides a phased array phase shift method and a phased array architecture, the phased array comprises M groups of subarrays, each group of subarrays comprises N array elements, and M and N are integers greater than or equal to 2; each array element is connected with a second phase shifter, and each group of subarrays is connected with a first phase shifter; the precision of the first phase shifter is higher than that of the second phase shifter; determining a first phase shift amount based on the beam direction and the precision of the first phase shifter; determining a second phase shift quantity based on the precision of the second phase shifter and the optimization algorithm; and feeding the first phase shift quantity and the second phase shift quantity to each array element after superposing the first phase shift quantity and the second phase shift quantity. According to the phased array phase shifting method and the phased array architecture, a high-precision phase shifter in a conventional phased array architecture is replaced by the low-precision phase shifter, the cost is greatly reduced, the array is divided into a plurality of sub-arrays by adopting a sub-array division technology, the high-precision phase shifters are additionally introduced among the sub-arrays to compensate the scanning precision of a wave beam, and the scanning precision of the wave beam is improved. And the performance loss of the array is made up.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of phased arrays, and in particular to a phase shifting method for phased array beam scanning and a phased array architecture. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, with the rapid deployment and development of giant satellite constellations, satellite communications, as a supplementary solution to ground communications, have shown extraordinary application potential. The successful commercialization of the Starlink constellation has driven the development of satellite Internet. OneWeb, Project Kuiper, and China's GW constellation are all accelerating their deployment. In the future, satellite communication systems will be deeply integrated with ground networks to play a greater role. As one of the most important components in satellite communication systems, the architecture, technology, and cost of user terminals will directly affect the performance of the system. Under the requirements of high throughput and low latency, low-orbit satellite networks have dominated the satellite communication system. The rapid changes in the positions of satellites and the ground require terminals to be able to quickly track satellites, and user terminals have also shifted from traditional reflector antennas to flexible and controllable phased array antennas. Phased array antennas can achieve flexible scanning and switching of beams by changing the amplitude and phase of the excitation signal. At present, the industry's phased array architecture for user terminals is mainly analog phased array.

[0003] In analog phased arrays, such as Figure 1 As shown in the figure, each antenna unit controls the amplitude and phase of the excitation signal through a set of attenuators and phase shifters with a finite number of bits. The phase difference on different array elements is changed by the phase shifter to achieve flexible scanning of the beam, which means that the accuracy of the phase shifter will directly determine the accuracy of the beam scanning. In the field of satellite communications, in order to ensure the pointing accuracy of the phased array beam, the phased array is generally required to use a 5-bit or even higher-bit phase shifter. However, the accuracy of the phase shifter is positively correlated with the cost, and the higher the accuracy of the phase shifter, the more expensive it is. For large-scale arrays, the cost of using high-precision phase shifters will not be underestimated, and may even be unacceptable.

[0004] Replacing high-precision phase shifters with low-precision phase shifters is one of the effective means to reduce the cost of phased arrays. However, the error between the phase shift that the low-precision phase shifter can actually provide and the phase shift required under a specific beam pointing direction will lead to the deterioration of beam performance, which is specifically manifested in the offset of the beam main lobe (i.e., the reduction of scanning accuracy) and the generation of parasitic side lobes, which will directly affect the availability of phased array antennas. Summary of the invention

[0005] The technical problem to be solved by the present disclosure is to overcome the defects in the prior art and provide a multi-stage phase shifting method for a phased array that is easy to control costs and can compensate for the loss of array performance, as well as a phased array architecture using the method.

[0006] The present invention solves the above technical problems through the following technical solutions:

[0007] A phase-shifting method for a phased array, wherein the phased array comprises M groups of sub-arrays, each group of sub-arrays comprises N array elements, and M and N are integers greater than or equal to 2;

[0008] Each array element is connected to a second phase shifter, and each sub-array group is connected to a first phase shifter; the accuracy of the first phase shifter is higher than the accuracy of the second phase shifter;

[0009] Determining a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and accuracy of the first phase shifter;

[0010] Determining a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm;

[0011] The first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount are superimposed and then fed to each array element.

[0012] Preferably, the determining of the second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm comprises:

[0013] Obtaining an initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter;

[0014] The initial phase shift amount is superimposed on the first phase shift amount and then fed to each array element;

[0015] The second phase shift amount is determined by iteration based on an optimization algorithm.

[0016] Preferably, the optimization algorithm includes optimization targets of beam pointing accuracy, beam highest sidelobe and beam overall sidelobe, and constraints of beam main lobe pointing error and beam highest sidelobe level. The optimization problem is expressed as:

[0017]

[0018] Among them, k1, k2, k3 are the weight coefficients of the optimization target, θ0 is the desired beam pointing direction, θ real is the actual direction of the beam, G sll,th is the threshold value of the highest sidelobe level of the beam, G sll,av is the average sidelobe level of the beam, θ th is the threshold value of beam pointing error, and s is the quantization mode sequence corresponding to the second phase shifter.

[0019] Preferably, the determining of the first phase shift amount based on the beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter comprises:

[0020] The first phase shift amount is determined according to a nearest round-to-nearest quantization method based on the beam direction and the accuracy of the first phase shifter.

[0021] Preferably, the step of superimposing the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feeding the superimposed phase shift amount to each array element comprises:

[0022] The first phase shifter shifts the phase of the signal according to the first phase shift amount and then outputs the phase shifted signal to the second phase shifter;

[0023] The second phase shifter shifts the phase of the signal according to the second phase shift amount and then outputs the signal to each array element.

[0024] Preferably, the obtaining of the initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter includes:

[0025] Acquire an initial quantization mode of the second phase shifter; the quantization mode includes nearest rounding quantization and inverse quantization of nearest rounding quantization;

[0026] An initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter is obtained according to the initial quantization mode and the accuracy of the second phase shifter.

[0027] Preferably, the iterative determination of the second phase shift amount based on an optimization algorithm includes:

[0028] A final quantization method is iteratively determined based on an optimization algorithm, and a second phase shift amount of the second phase shifter is obtained based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and the final quantization method, wherein the final quantization methods corresponding to each second phase shifter are the same or different.

[0029] Preferably, the determining the first phase shift amount according to the nearest rounding quantization method based on the beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter includes:

[0030] The theoretical phase shift between sub-arrays is obtained based on the beam pointing, the operating frequency and the spacing between sub-arrays;

[0031] Based on the theoretical phase shift amount between the sub-arrays and the accuracy of the first phase shifter, the first phase shift amount is determined based on a nearest rounding quantization method.

[0032] The present disclosure provides a phased array phase shifting device, comprising:

[0033] A first determining unit, configured to determine a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and an accuracy of the first phase shifter;

[0034] A second determining unit, configured to determine a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm;

[0035] A sending unit is used for superimposing the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feeding the superimposed amounts to each array element.

[0036] The present disclosure further provides a computer program product, including a computer program, characterized in that when the computer program is executed by a processor, the phased array phase shifting method as described in any one of the above descriptions is implemented.

[0037] The present disclosure further provides a phased array architecture, characterized in that it includes M groups of sub-arrays, each group of sub-arrays includes N array elements, and M and N are integers greater than 2;

[0038] Each array element is connected to a second phase shifter, and each sub-array group is connected to a first phase shifter; the accuracy of the first phase shifter is higher than the accuracy of the second phase shifter;

[0039] It also includes a first distributor, through which the input radio frequency signal enters the M first phase shifters;

[0040] The output of the first phase shifter is connected to a second distributor, and the second distributor is connected to M groups of sub-arrays; the number of the second distributors is the same as the number of sub-arrays;

[0041] The phased array architecture adopts any of the above-mentioned phase shifting methods.

[0042] On the basis of being in accordance with the common sense in the art, the above-mentioned preferred conditions can be arbitrarily combined to obtain the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0043] The positive progressive effect of the present disclosure lies in that the phased array phase shifting method and the phased array architecture provided by the present disclosure use low-precision phase shifters to replace high-precision phase shifters in conventional phased array architectures, which greatly reduces costs. In order to compensate for the performance loss of the array, a sub-array division technology is used to divide the array into several sub-arrays, each sub-array is regarded as a super array element, and high-precision phase shifters are additionally introduced between the super array elements to compensate for the scanning accuracy of the beam, thereby reducing the number of high-precision phase shifters used, overcoming the shortcomings of low-precision phase shifters in traditional architectures, such as poor pointing accuracy and easy generation of parasitic grating lobes, and greatly improving the pointing accuracy and the highest sidelobe level of the beam. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a phased array architecture in the prior art;

[0045] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a phased array architecture provided by the present disclosure;

[0046] Figure 3 A flow chart of a phased array phase shifting method provided in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0047] Figure 4 This is a flow chart of step S20 of a phased array phase shifting method provided in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0048] Figure 5 is the beam pattern of specific implementation mode 1 in embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0049] Figure 6 It is the beam pattern of the specific implementation mode 2 in the embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0050] Figure 7 It is the beam pattern of specific implementation mode 3 in embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0051] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the comparison of pointing errors during beam scanning in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure,

[0052] Fig. 9 This is a schematic diagram of the comparison of the highest side lobes of the beam during beam scanning in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure;

[0053] Fig.10 This is a schematic diagram of the framework of the phased array phase shifting device provided in Example 2 of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0054] The present disclosure is further described below by way of examples, but the present disclosure is not limited to the scope of the examples.

[0055] Prefixes such as "first" and "second" are used in the embodiments of the present disclosure only to distinguish different description objects, and have no limiting effect on the position, order, priority, quantity or content of the described objects. The use of prefixes such as ordinal numbers to distinguish description objects in the embodiments of the present disclosure does not constitute a limitation on the described objects. For the statement of the described objects, please refer to the description in the context of the claims or embodiments, and no unnecessary limitation should be constituted due to the use of such prefixes. In addition, in the description of the present embodiment, unless otherwise specified, the meaning of "plurality" is two or more.

[0056] like Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a phased array architecture provided by the present disclosure, wherein the phased array architecture includes M groups of sub-arrays, each group of sub-arrays includes N array elements, and each sub-array is regarded as a super array element. Wherein, M and N are integers greater than or equal to 2; for example Figure 2 Where M and N are 4 respectively.

[0057] Each array element is connected to a second phase shifter, and each sub-array group is connected to a first phase shifter; the accuracy of the first phase shifter is higher than the accuracy of the second phase shifter; that is, the first phase shifter is a high-precision phase shifter, and the second phase shifter is a low-precision phase shifter.

[0058] It also includes a first distributor, which is not shown in the figure. The input radio frequency signal enters the M first phase shifters through the first distributor.

[0059] The output of the first phase shifter is connected to a second distributor, which is not shown in the figure. The second distributor is connected to M groups of subarrays, that is, connected to N second phase shifters of each subarray. The number of the second distributors is the same as the number of subarrays. The signal after phase shifting by the first phase shifter is distributed by the second distributor and fed to each array element after phase shifting by the second phase shifter.

[0060] The phased array has a total of M×N array elements, which are divided into M groups of sub-arrays. Each sub-array is regarded as a super array element. Each group of sub-arrays has N array elements, and the corresponding second phase shifters are also M×N, corresponding to each array element, and the first phase shifters are M, corresponding to each group of sub-arrays. The phase difference between each group of sub-arrays is generated by M first phase shifters according to the first phase shift amount, and the phase difference of each array element in the sub-array is generated by M×N second phase shifters according to the second phase shift amount. The first phase shift amount is a group of vectors with M elements, each of which corresponds to a first phase shifter, and the second phase shift amount is a group of M×N vectors, each of which corresponds to a second phase shifter. The above-mentioned phased array architecture preferably adopts the following phased array phase shifting method.

[0061] Example 1

[0062] Figure 3 A flow chart of a phased array method provided for an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the phased array phase shifting method comprising:

[0063] S10, determining a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and accuracy of the first phase shifter;

[0064] S20, determining a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm;

[0065] S30: Superimpose the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feed the superimposed amount to each array element.

[0066] Wherein, in step S10, determining the first phase shift amount based on the beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter includes determining the first phase shift amount according to a nearest rounding quantization method based on the beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter.

[0067] More specifically, the theoretical phase difference between the sub-arrays is obtained based on the beam pointing, the operating frequency, and the spacing between the sub-arrays. Specifically, the theoretical phase difference between the sub-arrays is determined according to the following formula:

[0068]

[0069] Where f is the operating frequency in Hz, d is the array element spacing in m, N is the number of array elements in the subarray, θ0 is the beam pointing angle, and c is the speed of light.

[0070] That is, according to the above-mentioned phase difference φ between sub-arrays, the theoretical phase shift amount of each sub-array is obtained as [0, φ, 2×φ, ... (M-1)×φ)], with a total of M elements.

[0071] Based on the theoretical phase shift between the sub-arrays and the accuracy of the first phase shifter, the first phase shift is determined based on the nearest rounding quantization method. Specifically, for example, the theoretical phase shift required for 4 sub-arrays is: [0, 12.5657°, 25.1315°, 37.6972°].

[0072] Specifically, the phase shifter provides a specific phase shift in bits over the entire phase range of [-180°, 180°]. The minimum phase shift unit that a Q phase shifter can provide can be expressed as:

[0073]

[0074] Therefore, based on the fact that the precision of the first phase shifter is 5 bits and the quantization method is the nearest rounding quantization, the first phase shift amount is obtained as [0, 11.25°, 22.5°, 33.75°].

[0075] The step S20 is to determine the second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and the optimization algorithm. The optimization algorithm includes the optimization targets of beam pointing accuracy, beam highest sidelobe and beam overall sidelobe, and the constraints are the pointing error of the beam main lobe and the beam highest sidelobe level. The optimization problem is expressed as:

[0076]

[0077] Among them, k1, k2, k3 are the weight coefficients of the optimization target, θ0 is the desired beam pointing direction, θ real is the actual direction of the beam, G sll,th is the threshold value of the highest sidelobe level of the beam, G sll,av is the average sidelobe level of the beam, θ th is the threshold value of the beam pointing error, s is the quantization mode sequence corresponding to the second phase shifter, and each element in the sequence corresponds to the quantization mode of each second phase shifter. There are usually two quantization modes, one is the nearest rounding quantization, and the other is the inverse quantization of the nearest rounding quantization. The second phase shifter is a vector with the same number of elements as the second phase shifters, then s is a sequence with the same number of elements of M×N. Each element corresponds to the quantization mode of a second phase shifter. In the quantization mode sequence corresponding to the second phase shifter, the quantization mode of each element can be the same or different. Preferably, the nearest rounding quantization s is recorded. n = 1, inverse quantization of the nearest rounded quantization, denoted by s n =0,s n is the element in the quantization sequence s.

[0078] Preferably, the optimization algorithm is a genetic algorithm, and may also be a simulated annealing algorithm, a particle swarm algorithm, an ant colony algorithm, and the like.

[0079] Specifically, step S20 includes: Figure 4 As shown,

[0080] S21, obtaining an initial phase shift of the second phase shifter; preferably, first obtaining an initial quantization method of the second phase shifter, for example, a phased array having four subarrays, each of which has four array elements, and the theoretical phase shift in each subarray is the same. For example, the initial quantization method is s=[1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], if the second phase shifter in the subarray is a 2-bit phase shifter, then the final initial phase shift is [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0].

[0081] S22, superimpose the initial phase shift amount and the first phase shift amount and feed them to each array element; the first phase shift amount is [0, 11.25°, 22.5°, 33.75°], and the phase finally fed to the array element is [0, 0, 0, 0, 11.25°, 11.25°, 11.25°, 11.25°, 22.5°, 22.5°, 22.5°, 33.75°, 33.75°, 33.75°, 33.75°].

[0082] S23, iteratively determining the second phase shift amount based on an optimization algorithm, specifically, iteratively determining the final quantization method based on an optimization algorithm, and obtaining the second phase shift amount of the second phase shifter based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and the final quantization method.

[0083] Under the initial phase in step S22, the maximum sidelobe attenuation is 12.82dB, and the beam pointing error is 0.2°. Although the beam performance is good, the number of iterations is 1, which does not meet the stop condition, and the optimization algorithm is used to solve the quantization sequence. After iteration of the optimization algorithm, the final quantization sequence is s = [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1]. The second phase shift obtained at this time is [0, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 90°, 0]. The phase finally fed to the array element, that is, the phase after the first phase shift and the second phase shift are superimposed, is [0, 90°, 90°, 90°, 101.25°, 101.25°, 101.25°, 112.5°, 112.5°, 112.5°, 123.75°, 123.75°, 33.75°].

[0084] Therefore, in this step, the quantization method of each second phase shifter in the final quantization method sequence can be the same or different. For example, some quantization methods are nearest rounding quantization, and some are inverse quantization of the nearest rounding quantization. They are specifically obtained through an optimization algorithm. Compared with the phase shifting method with the same quantization method, the pointing accuracy and the highest sidelobe level of the beam can be greatly improved.

[0085] Therefore, in step S30, the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount are superimposed and then fed to each array element, which specifically includes:

[0086] S31, the first phase shifter phase-shifts the signal according to the first phase shift amount and outputs the phase shifted signal to the second phase shifter;

[0087] S32: the second phase shifter phase-shifts the signal according to the second phase shift amount and outputs the signal to each array element.

[0088] For example, if the first phase shift is [A1, A2, …AM] and the second phase shift is [B11, B12, …B1N, B21, B22, …B2N …BM1, BM2 …BMN], then after the first phase shift and the second phase shift are superimposed on each other, the phase received by each array element is [A1+B11, A1+B12, …A1+B1N, A2+B21, A2+B22, …A2+B2N …AM+BM1, AM+BM2 …AM+BMN].

[0089] The following is an example of a phased array with 16 array elements and 4 sub-arrays, each sub-array has 4 array elements, the array operating frequency is 11.7 GHz, and the spacing between adjacent array elements is 0.0128 m. The first phase shifter is a 5-bit phase shifter, and the second phase shifter is a 2-bit phase shifter.

[0090] Specific implementation method 1, assuming that the beam pointing is 1°, first calculate the theoretical phase shift required between subarrays as [0, 12.5657°, 25.1315°, 37.6972°], and the first phase shift after quantization by a 5-bit phase shifter is [0, 11.25°, 22.5°, 33.75°]. The theoretical phase shift in each subarray is the same, which is [0, 3.1414°, 6.2829°, 9.4243°]. Assuming that the initial quantization sequence of the low-precision phase shifter is s = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], the phases in the four subarrays are quantized by a 2-bit phase shifter as [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]. At this time, the phase within and between subarrays is combined, and the phase fed to each array element is: [0,0,0,0,11.25°,11.25°,11.25°,11.25°,22.5°,22.5°,22.5°,22.5°,33.75°,33.75°,33.75°,33.75°]. Under the action of this set of phases, the maximum sidelobe relative attenuation is 12.82dB, and the beam pointing error is 0.2°. Although the beam performance is good, the number of iterations is 1 at this time, and the stop condition is not met, and the optimization algorithm enters the sequence of solving the quantization method.

[0091] The sequence solved by the optimization algorithm is: s = [1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1]. At this time, the phases in the four sub-arrays are quantized by the 2-bit phase shifter to: [0,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,90°,0]. The phases fed to the array element after merging are: [0,90°,90°,90°,101.25°,101.25°,101.25°,112.5°,112.5°,112.5°,112.5°,123.75°,123.75°,123.75°,33.75°]. Under this phase effect, the relative attenuation of the maximum sidelobe of the beam is 13.04dB, the beam pointing error is 0.1°, and the beam pattern is as follows: Figure 5 shown. Figure 5 The other two curves are the beam patterns quantized directly using a high-precision phase shifter (5 bits) and a low-precision phase shifter (2 bits).

[0092] Specific implementation method 2, assuming that the beam is pointed at 14°, first calculate the theoretical phase shift required by the four super elements between sub-arrays: [0, 174.1838°, -11.6325°, 162.5513°], and quantize it to [0, 168.75°, -11.25°, 157.50°] after a 5-bit phase shifter; the theoretical phase shift in each sub-array is the same, which is: [0, 43.5459°, 87.0919°, 130.6378°]. Assuming that the initial quantization sequence of the low-precision phase shifter is: s = [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], the phases in the four subarrays are quantized by the 2-bit phase shifter to: [0,0,90°,90°,0,0,90°,90°,0,0,90°,90°,0,0,90°,90°]. At this time, the phase within the subarray and between subarrays are combined, and the phase fed to each array element is: [0, 0, 90°, 90°, 168.75°, 168.75°, -101.25°, -101.25°, -11.25°, -11.25°, 78.75°, 78.75°, 157.5°, 157.5°, -112.5°, -112.5°]. Under this set of phases, the maximum sidelobe relative attenuation is 7.71 dB, the beam pointing error is 0.2°, the beam performance is poor, and the stop condition is not met, and the optimization algorithm enters the sequence of solving the quantization method.

[0093] The sequence solved by the optimization algorithm is: s = [1,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1]. At this time, the phases in the four sub-arrays are quantized by the 2-bit phase shifter to: [0,0,90°,180°,0,90°,90°,90°,0,90°,90°,180°,0,90°,90°,90°], and the phases fed to the array element after merging are: [0,0,90°,180°,168.75°,-101.25°,-101.25°,-101.25°,-11.25°,78.75°,78.75°,168.75°,157.50°,-112.50°,-112.50°,-112.50°]. Under this phase effect, the relative attenuation of the maximum sidelobe of the beam is 10.7dB, the beam pointing error is 0.1°, and the beam pattern is as follows: Figure 6 shown. Figure 6 The other two curves are the beam patterns quantized directly using a high-precision phase shifter (5 bits) and a low-precision phase shifter (2 bits).

[0094] Specific implementation method 3, assuming that the beam is pointed at 49°, first calculate the theoretical phase shift required by the four super elements between the sub-arrays: [0, -176.6091°, 6.7818°, -169.8273°], and quantize it to [0, 180°, 11.25°, -168.75°] after a 5-bit phase shifter; the theoretical phase shift in each sub-array is the same, which is: [0, 135.8477°, -88.3046°, 47.5432°]. Assuming that the initial quantization sequence of the low-precision phase shifter is: s = [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], the phases in the four subarrays are quantized by the 2-bit phase shifter to: [0,180°,-90°,90°,0,180°,-90°,90°,0,180°,-90°,90°,0,180°,-90°,90°]. At this time, the phase within and between subarrays is combined, and the phase fed to each array element is: [0,180°,-90°,90°,180°,0,90°,-90°,11.25°,-168.75°,-78.75°,101.25°,-168.75°,11.25°,101.25°,-78.75°]. Under this set of phases, its maximum sidelobe relative attenuation is 7.61dB, and the beam pointing error is 0.4°. The beam performance is poor and the stop condition is not met. The optimization algorithm enters the sequence of solving the quantization method.

[0095] The sequence solved by the optimization algorithm is: s = [1,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1]. At this time, the phases in the four sub-arrays are quantized by the 2-bit phase shifter to: [0,180°,-90°,0°,0,90°,-90°,90°,0,90°,-90°,0°,0,90°,-90°,90°]. The phases fed to the array element after merging are: [0,180°,-90°,0°,180°,-90°,90°,-90°,11.25°,101.25°,-78.75°,11.25°,-168.75°,-78.75°,101.25°,-78.75°]. Under this phase effect, the relative attenuation of the maximum sidelobe of the beam is 10.94dB, the beam pointing error is 0.1°, and the beam pattern is as follows: Figure 7 shown. Figure 7 The other two curves are the beam patterns quantized directly using a high-precision phase shifter (5 bits) and a low-precision phase shifter (2 bits).

[0096] like Figure 8 , which is a schematic diagram of the comparison of pointing errors during beam scanning. Fig. 9As shown, it is a schematic diagram of the comparison of the highest side lobe of the beam during beam scanning. When the beam is scanned, the pointing error does not exceed 0.2°, and the pointing error does not exceed 0.1° at most scanning angles; the relative attenuation of the side lobe level during beam scanning is not less than 10.69dB. The method provided by the present disclosure can obtain beam performance that is far superior to that of a low-precision phase shifter under a traditional architecture, and in most cases the beam performance is close to that of a high-precision phase shifter under a traditional architecture.

[0097] The phased array phase shifting method of the disclosed embodiment uses a low-precision phase shifter to replace the high-precision phase shifter in the conventional phased array architecture, which greatly reduces the cost. In order to compensate for the performance loss of the array, a sub-array division technology is adopted to divide the array into a number of sub-arrays, each sub-array is regarded as a super array element, and high-precision phase shifters are additionally introduced between the super array elements to compensate for the scanning accuracy of the beam, thereby reducing the number of high-precision phase shifters used, overcoming the shortcomings of low-precision phase shifters in traditional architectures, such as poor pointing accuracy and easy generation of parasitic grating lobes, and greatly improving the pointing accuracy and the highest sidelobe level of the beam.

[0098] Example 2

[0099] Corresponding to the phased array phase shifting method embodiment of the aforementioned embodiment 1, the present disclosure further provides an embodiment of a phased array phase shifting device.

[0100] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of a module of a phased array phase shifting device provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the device comprising:

[0101] A first determining unit 1, configured to determine a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter;

[0102] A second determining unit 2, configured to determine a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm;

[0103] The sending unit 3 is used for superimposing the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feeding the superimposed amounts to each array element.

[0104] As for the system embodiment, since it basically corresponds to the method embodiment, the relevant parts can refer to the partial description of the method embodiment. The system embodiment described above is only illustrative, wherein the units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or they may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the disclosed solution.

[0105] Example 3

[0106] The embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, and when the program is executed by a processor, the phased array phase shifting method provided in any of the above embodiments is implemented.

[0107] The readable storage medium may include but is not limited to: a portable disk, a hard disk, a random access memory, a read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device or any suitable combination of the above.

[0108] Example 4

[0109] The embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer program product, including a computer program, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the phased array phase shifting method described in any one of the above items is implemented.

[0110] Among them, the program code for executing the computer program product of the present disclosure can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, and the program code can be executed completely on the user device, partially on the user device, as an independent software package, partially on the user device and partially on a remote device, or completely on the remote device.

[0111] Although the specific embodiments of the present disclosure are described above, those skilled in the art should understand that this is only an example, and the protection scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims. Those skilled in the art may make various changes or modifications to these embodiments without departing from the principles and essence of the present disclosure, but these changes and modifications all fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A phased array phase shifting method, characterized in that: The phased array includes M groups of sub-arrays, each group of sub-arrays includes N array elements, and M and N are integers greater than or equal to 2; Each array element is connected to a second phase shifter, and each group of sub-arrays is connected to a first phase shifter; The accuracy of the first phase shifter is higher than the accuracy of the second phase shifter; Determining a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and accuracy of the first phase shifter; Determining a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm; The first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount are superimposed and then fed to each array element.

2. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Determining the second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm; include, Obtaining an initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter; The initial phase shift amount is superimposed on the first phase shift amount and then fed to each array element; The second phase shift amount is determined by iteration based on an optimization algorithm.

3. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The optimization algorithm includes optimization targets of beam pointing accuracy, beam highest sidelobe and beam overall sidelobe, and constraints of beam main lobe pointing error and beam highest sidelobe level. The optimization problem is expressed as: Among them, k1, k2, k3 are the weight coefficients of the optimization target, θ0 is the desired beam pointing direction, θ real is the actual direction of the beam, G sll,th is the threshold value of the highest sidelobe level of the beam, G sll,av is the average sidelobe level of the beam, θ th is the threshold value of beam pointing error, and s is the quantization mode sequence corresponding to the second phase shifter.

4. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Determining a first phase shift amount based on beam pointing and accuracy of the first phase shifter; include, The first phase shift amount is determined according to a nearest round-to-nearest quantization method based on the beam direction and the accuracy of the first phase shifter.

5. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step of superimposing the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feeding the superimposed phase shift amount to each array element comprises: The first phase shifter shifts the phase of the signal according to the first phase shift amount and then outputs the phase shifted signal to the second phase shifter; The second phase shifter shifts the phase of the signal according to the second phase shift amount and then outputs the signal to each array element.

6. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 2, characterized in that: obtaining an initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter, include, Acquire an initial quantization mode of the second phase shifter; The quantization method includes nearest rounding quantization and inverse quantization of nearest rounding quantization; An initial phase shift amount of the second phase shifter is obtained according to the initial quantization mode and the accuracy of the second phase shifter.

7. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The iterative determination of the second phase shift amount based on the optimization algorithm includes: A final quantization method is iteratively determined based on an optimization algorithm, and a second phase shift amount of the second phase shifter is obtained based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and the final quantization method, wherein the final quantization methods corresponding to each second phase shifter are the same or different.

8. The phased array phase shifting method according to claim 4, characterized in that: The determining the first phase shift amount according to the nearest rounding quantization method based on the beam pointing and the accuracy of the first phase shifter includes: The theoretical phase shift between sub-arrays is obtained based on the beam pointing, the operating frequency and the spacing between sub-arrays; Based on the theoretical phase shift amount between the sub-arrays and the accuracy of the first phase shifter, the first phase shift amount is determined based on a nearest rounding quantization method.

9. A phased array phase shifting device, characterized in that: include, A first determining unit, configured to determine a first phase shift amount based on the beam pointing direction and the accuracy of the first phase shifter; A second determining unit, configured to determine a second phase shift amount based on the accuracy of the second phase shifter and an optimization algorithm; A sending unit is used for superimposing the first phase shift amount and the second phase shift amount and feeding the superimposed amounts to each array element.

10. A phased array architecture, characterized in that: comprising M groups of sub-arrays, each group of sub-arrays comprising N array elements, wherein M and N are integers greater than 2; Each array element is connected to a second phase shifter, and each group of sub-arrays is connected to a first phase shifter; The accuracy of the first phase shifter is higher than the accuracy of the second phase shifter; It also includes a first distributor, through which the input radio frequency signal enters the M first phase shifters; The output of the first phase shifter is connected to a second distributor, and the second distributor is connected to M groups of sub-arrays; the number of the second distributors is the same as the number of sub-arrays; The phased array architecture adopts the phase shifting method described in any one of claims 1-8.

Images