A stable phase transmission beam synthesizing device

Abstract

The application discloses a kind of stable phase transmission beam synthesis devices, comprising: proximal component, for realizing stable phase closed-loop control, beam synthesis preprocessing and system expansion management, the proximal component includes optical stable phase transmitting unit, first power divider, 1st wave division multiplexer, optical delay compensator, n 1st transceiving optical module and n optical delay attenuator, proximal component is connected with distal component bidirectionally by optical fiber;Distal component, for being signal distribution and phase reflection execution end, decouples optical signal to each microwave array element and reflects stable phase signal, the distal component includes 2nd wave division multiplexer, optical stable phase receiving unit and n 2nd transceiving optical module;The device of the application is suitable for wideband signal by using optical delay attenuator between array elements in optical transmission link to adjust the amplitude and phase of signal, by increasing the transceiving optical module of different wavelength or increasing power divider to expand the scale of array element, while having the ability of wideband, stable phase transmission and scalability.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of optical phased array technology, and in particular to a phase-stable transmission beamforming device. Background Technology

[0002] As the scale of phased arrays increases, the overall size of the phased array system also increases. Assembling all components together results in a large system size, weight, and power consumption, which does not meet practical application requirements. Decomposing the phased array system into multiple functional units, with signal transmission between each unit, can effectively reduce the pressure on the weight, size, and power consumption of each unit. Therefore, stable phase transmission between functional units is particularly important for improving the performance of the phased array system. Furthermore, the power of a phased array system is directly proportional to the antenna aperture; increasing the size of the phased array can effectively improve system performance. Different application scenarios require antennas of different apertures, so improving the scalability of the phased array system and performing high-performance splicing expansion of arrays with different apertures has significant application value. Broadband phased array systems play an increasingly important role in practical applications due to their broadband performance. Broadband phased array systems often employ adjustable true delay networks to reduce beam dispersion and aperture crossover effects, thereby improving system performance. Therefore, proposing a phased array beamforming device that simultaneously possesses broadband, stable phase transmission, and scalability capabilities has certain practical application significance. Summary of the Invention

[0003] To address the technical problems existing in the background art, the present invention proposes a phase-stable transmission beamforming device.

[0004] The present invention proposes a phase-stable beamforming device, comprising:

[0005] The near-end component is used to realize phase-stable closed-loop control, beamforming preprocessing and system expansion management. The near-end component includes an optical phase-stable transmitter unit, a first power divider, a first wavelength division multiplexer, an optical delay compensator, n first receiver-transmitter modules and n optical delay attenuators. The near-end component is bidirectionally connected to the far-end component through optical fiber.

[0006] The remote component is used as a signal distribution and phase reflection execution end to decouple the optical signal to each microwave array element and reflect the phase-stabilized signal. The remote component includes a second wavelength division multiplexer, an optical phase-stabilized receiving unit, and n second receiving and emitting modules.

[0007] Optical fiber, used to transmit bidirectional optical signals, the bidirectional optical signals including a stable reference optical signal with wavelength λ0 and a wavelength of λ1 to λ2. n The array element optical signal.

[0008] Preferably, the optically stabilized phase-transmitting unit is communicatively connected to the first wavelength division multiplexer, the optically stabilized phase-transmitting unit is communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator, and the first power divider is communicatively connected to each of the n first receive-transmitting modules in a one-to-one correspondence; the n first receive-transmitting modules are communicatively connected to n optical delay attenuators in a one-to-one correspondence; the n optical delay attenuators are all communicatively connected to the first wavelength division multiplexer, the first wavelength division multiplexer is communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator, the optical delay compensator is communicatively connected to the optical fiber; the optical fiber is communicatively connected to the second wavelength division multiplexer; the second wavelength division multiplexer is communicatively connected to the optically stabilized phase-receiving unit, and the second wavelength division multiplexer is communicatively connected to each of the n second receive-transmitting modules.

[0009] Preferably, the optically stable phase-emitting unit receives a stable phase reference signal and performs electro-optical conversion on the stable phase reference signal to obtain an optical signal with wavelength λ0, and outputs the optical signal with wavelength λ0 to the first wavelength division multiplexer; the optically stable phase-emitting unit performs photoelectric conversion on the optical signal with wavelength λ0 input to the first wavelength division multiplexer; the optically stable phase-emitting unit is used to perform phase detection between the stable phase reference signal and the optical signal with wavelength λ0 input to the first wavelength division multiplexer, and controls the optical delay compensator according to the phase detection value.

[0010] Preferably, the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first receiving and emitting modules are λ1 to λ2. n , where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n first-order receiving and transmitting modules receive the optical signals input from the corresponding n optical delay attenuators, and convert the optical signals into corresponding electrical signals and output them to the first power divider; n first-order receiving and transmitting modules respectively receive the electrical signals input from the first power divider, and convert the electrical signals into corresponding optical signals and output them to the corresponding optical delay attenuators.

[0011] Preferably, the optical delay attenuator delays and modulates the amplitude of the transmitted and received optical signals passing through the first transceiver module.

[0012] Preferably, the optically stable receiver receives the optical signal of wavelength λ0 input to the second wavelength division multiplexer and transmits the optical signal of wavelength λ0 to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

[0013] Preferably, the optical delay compensator is used to adjust the optical delay in real time according to the control signal output by the optically stable phase-emitting unit.

[0014] Preferably, both the first wavelength division multiplexer and the second wavelength division multiplexer include n+1 beam splitting channels, and the n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to transmission wavelengths λ0, λ1, ..., λ1, respectively. n The optical signal is transmitted through the same beam combining channel, where n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to n+1 wavelength optical signals, and n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0015] Preferably, the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n second-order receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are λ1 to λ2. n , where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n second receiving and emitting modules respectively receive the optical signal input from the second wavelength division multiplexer, convert the optical signal into the corresponding electrical signal and output it to each microwave element, and n second receiving and emitting modules receive the electrical signal input to the corresponding microwave element and convert the electrical signal into the corresponding optical signal and output it to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

[0016] The present invention proposes a phase-stable beamforming device, comprising:

[0017] m phase-stable transmission beamforming devices as described in any of the above items;

[0018] The second power divider is used to split the phase-stabilized reference signal into m paths, which are then input into the corresponding optical phase-stabilized emission units of each of the m devices.

[0019] The third power divider is used to combine the electrical signals output from the first power divider corresponding to m devices;

[0020] The total number of array elements after expansion is N = m × n, and the wavelengths of the first receiving and emitting modules of each device do not overlap.

[0021] The proposed phase-stabilized beamforming device in this invention, through an active phase-stabilized optical link composed of an optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit, an optical delay compensator, optical fiber, and an optical phase-stabilized receiving unit, can compensate for phase disturbances caused by the optical fiber between near-end and far-end components in real time. A wavelength division multiplexer couples the phased array sub-signals and the phase-stabilized link signal into the same optical fiber for transmission, simultaneously achieving phase stabilization of the phased array sub-signals. This enables long-distance transmission and beamforming between near-end and far-end components, improving the performance of the phased array system. By using an optical delay attenuator in the optical transmission link to adjust the amplitude and phase of the signals between sub-signals, the beam pointing can be flexibly switched and the beam shape edited. Furthermore, the use of true optical delay beamforming is suitable for broadband signals, reducing dispersion and aperture crossing effects. The optical phase-stabilized receiving unit can not only reflect the phase-stabilized reference optical signal for closed-loop phase stabilization in the phase-stabilized optical loop, but also perform photoelectric conversion on the phase-stabilized reference signal, realizing phase-stabilized transmission of the phase-stabilized reference signal between the far-end and near-end components. This invention transmits an array of optical signals using a single wavelength. The array size can be expanded by adding receiving and transmitting modules of different wavelengths. It can also be expanded by adding a phase-stable reference signal power divider and a beamforming signal power divider, demonstrating strong scalability. Attached Figure Description

[0022] Figure 1This is a schematic diagram of the device architecture of a phase-stable transmission beamforming device proposed in this invention;

[0023] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the optically stable transmission unit of a stable transmission beam combining device proposed in this invention;

[0024] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of an embodiment 1 of the optically stable receiving unit of a phase-stable transmission beamforming device proposed in this invention;

[0025] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of an embodiment 2 of the optically stable receiving unit of a phase-stable transmission beamforming device proposed in this invention;

[0026] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the implementation architecture of an array element expansion system proposed in this invention. Detailed Implementation

[0027] Reference Figure 1-4 The present invention proposes a phase-stable transmission beamforming device, comprising:

[0028] The near-end component is used to realize phase-stable closed-loop control, beamforming preprocessing and system expansion management. The near-end component includes an optical phase-stable transmitter unit, a first power divider, a first wavelength division multiplexer, an optical delay compensator, n first receiver-transmitter modules and n optical delay attenuators. The near-end component is bidirectionally connected to the far-end component through optical fiber.

[0029] The remote component serves as a signal distribution and phase reflection execution end, decoupling the optical signal to each microwave array element and reflecting the phase-stabilized signal. The remote component includes a second wavelength division multiplexer, an optical phase-stabilized receiving unit, and n second receiving and transmitting modules.

[0030] Optical fiber is used to transmit bidirectional optical signals, which include a stable reference optical signal with wavelength λ0 and a signal with wavelengths from λ1 to λ2. n The array element optical signal.

[0031] In this embodiment, as Figure 1 As shown, the optically stabilized phase-transmitting unit is communicatively connected to the first wavelength division multiplexer (WDM), and the optically stabilized phase-transmitting unit is communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator. The first power divider is communicatively connected to each of the n first-order receive-transmitter modules. The n first-order receive-transmitter modules are communicatively connected to n optical delay attenuators. The n optical delay attenuators are all communicatively connected to the first WDM, and the first WDM is communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator. The optical delay compensator is communicatively connected to the optical fiber. The optical fiber is communicatively connected to the second WDM, and the second WDM is communicatively connected to the optically stabilized phase-receiving unit. The second WDM is communicatively connected to each of the n second-order receive-transmitter modules.

[0032] In this embodiment, the optical phase-stabilized emission unit receives the phase-stabilized reference signal and performs electro-optical conversion on the phase-stabilized reference signal to obtain an optical signal with wavelength λ0, and outputs the optical signal with wavelength λ0 to the first wavelength division multiplexer; the optical phase-stabilized emission unit performs photoelectric conversion on the optical signal with wavelength λ0 input from the first wavelength division multiplexer, and the optical phase-stabilized emission unit is used to perform phase detection between the phase-stabilized reference signal and the optical signal with wavelength λ0 input from the first wavelength division multiplexer, and controls the optical delay compensator according to the phase detection value.

[0033] Specifically, such as Figure 2 As shown, one embodiment of the optical phase-stabilized transmitter unit includes a fourth power divider, an electro-optical converter, a first optical circulator, a first photodetector, a mixer, and a control unit. The optical phase-stabilized transmitter unit receives a phase-stabilized reference signal and splits it into two reference signals via the fourth power divider. One reference signal is converted into an optical signal with wavelength λ0 by the electro-optical converter and sent to the first optical circulator, then output by the first optical circulator to the first wavelength division multiplexer as a reference optical signal output. The other reference signal is input to the mixer. The optical phase-stabilized transmitter unit receives the optical signal output from the first wavelength division multiplexer, outputs it through the optical circulator to the first photodetector, and converts it into an electrical signal input to the mixer. The mixer performs phase detection and mixing on the two input electrical signals and outputs a phase detection signal to the control unit. The control unit generates a delay control signal based on the phase detection signal and outputs it to the optical delay compensator. The optical delay compensator can adjust the optical delay in real time according to the control signal output by the optical phase-stabilized transmitter unit, compensating for phase disturbances during fiber transmission in real time.

[0034] Specifically, there are two embodiments of the optically stable phase receiver.

[0035] Example 1 of optically stable phase receiver:

[0036] like Figure 3 As shown, it includes a second optical circulator, an optical beam splitter, and a second photodetector. The second optical circulator receives the wavelength λ0 optical signal input from the second wavelength division multiplexer and transmits it to the optical beam splitter. The optical beam splitter splits the input light into two beams. One beam is input to the second photodetector to complete photoelectric conversion and output a phase-stabilized reference signal. The other beam is input to the second optical circulator and output to the second wavelength division multiplexer. After passing through the second optical circulator, the beam is output to the second wavelength division multiplexer, then sequentially through the second wavelength division multiplexer, optical fiber, optical delay compensator, and the first wavelength division multiplexer, and is output as a phase-stabilized reference light to the optical phase-stabilized emission unit for phase-stabilized control.

[0037] Example 2 of optically stable phase receiver:

[0038] like Figure 4As shown, it only includes an optical fiber reflector. The optical fiber reflector is used to reflect the wavelength λ0 optical signal input to the second wavelength division multiplexer. The reflected optical signal passes sequentially through the second wavelength division multiplexer, optical fiber, optical delay compensator and the first wavelength division multiplexer, and is output as a phase-stabilized reference light to the optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit for phase-stabilized control.

[0039] In this embodiment, the optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit, the first wavelength division multiplexer, the optical delay compensator, the second wavelength division multiplexer, and the optical phase-stabilized receiving unit together form an active phase-stabilized loop to compensate for phase disturbances during optical fiber transmission in real time. Since the optical signals transmitted by the first and second receiver-emitting modules are transmitted through the same optical fiber as the optical signal transmitted by the optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit, the phase of the optical signals transmitted between the first and second receiver-emitting modules is also compensated, which can ensure the phase stability of the beamforming signal.

[0040] In this embodiment, the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are λ1 to λ2. n Where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n first-order receive-transmitter modules receive the optical signals input from the corresponding n optical delay attenuators and convert the optical signals into corresponding electrical signals, which are then output to the first power divider; n first-order receive-transmitter modules respectively receive the electrical signals input from the first power divider and convert the electrical signals into corresponding optical signals, which are then output to the corresponding optical delay attenuators. Amplitude weighting of the corresponding element signals can be achieved through amplitude modulation of the optical delay attenuators, and delay switching between elements can be achieved through delay modulation of the optical delay attenuators, thus realizing the effect of switching the transmit and receive beam direction.

[0041] In this embodiment, the optical delay attenuator delays and modulates the amplitude of the transmitted and received optical signals passing through the first transceiver module.

[0042] In this embodiment, the optically stable receiver receives the optical signal with wavelength λ0 input to the second wavelength division multiplexer and transmits the optical signal with wavelength λ0 to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

[0043] In this embodiment, the optical delay compensator is used to adjust the optical delay in real time according to the control signal output by the optically stable phase-emitting unit.

[0044] In this embodiment, both the first and second wavelength division multiplexers include n+1 beam splitting channels, and the n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to transmission wavelengths λ0, λ1, ..., λ1, respectively. n The optical signal is transmitted through the same beam combining channel, where n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to n+1 wavelength optical signals, and n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0045] In this embodiment, the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n second-order receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are λ1 to λ2. n , where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n second-order receive-emit modules respectively receive the input optical signal of the second wavelength division multiplexer, convert the optical signal into the corresponding electrical signal and output it to each microwave element, and n second-order receive-emit modules receive the electrical signal input to the corresponding microwave element and convert the electrical signal into the corresponding optical signal and output it to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

[0046] Reference Figure 1-5 The present invention proposes an array element expansion system, comprising:

[0047] m phase-stable transmission beamforming devices as described above;

[0048] The second power divider is used to split the phase-stabilized reference signal into m paths, which are then input into the corresponding optical phase-stabilized emission units of each of the m devices.

[0049] The third power divider is used to combine the electrical signals output from the first power divider corresponding to m devices;

[0050] The total number of array elements after expansion is N = m × n, and the wavelengths of the first receiving and emitting modules of each device do not overlap.

[0051] In this embodiment, the near-end component, far-end component, and optical fiber constitute a basic beamforming unit. A second power divider with m channels splits the stable reference signal, interconnecting with the input port of the optical stable transmitting unit of each beamforming unit. Simultaneously, a third power divider with m channels splits the beamforming signal, interconnecting with the first power divider of each beamforming unit. This enables stable beamforming of m×n arrays, where m and n are both positive integers greater than or equal to 1. Taking array expansion with m = 2 beamforming units as an example, a schematic diagram of array expansion is shown below. Figure 5 As shown, near-end component 1, optical fiber 1, and far-end component 1 together form beamforming unit 1, and near-end component 2, optical fiber 2, and far-end component 2 together form beamforming unit 2. Beamforming unit 1 and beamforming unit 2 achieve array size expansion through a second power divider 2 and a third power divider 3. The phase-stabilized reference signal is split into two paths by the second power divider 2 and input to optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit 1 and optical phase-stabilized transmitting unit 2 respectively. Since they are input from the same phase-stabilized reference signal source, beamforming unit 1 and beamforming unit 2 are phase-locked with the same signal source, thus achieving phase locking between them. Beamforming unit 1 and beamforming unit 2 achieve beam combining through the third power divider 3. Therefore, the array size expansion from n to 2×n is achieved through two power dividers.

[0052] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any equivalent substitutions or modifications made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in the present invention, based on the technical solution and inventive concept of the present invention, should be covered within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A phase-stable beamforming device, characterized in that, include: The near-end component is used to realize phase-stable closed-loop control, beamforming preprocessing and system expansion management. The near-end component includes an optical phase-stable transmitter unit, a first power divider, a first wavelength division multiplexer, an optical delay compensator, n first receiver-transmitter modules and n optical delay attenuators. The near-end component is bidirectionally connected to the far-end component through optical fiber. The remote component is used as a signal distribution and phase reflection execution end to decouple the optical signal to each microwave array element and reflect the phase-stabilized signal. The remote component includes a second wavelength division multiplexer, an optical phase-stabilized receiving unit, and n second receiving and emitting modules. Optical fiber, used for transmitting bidirectional optical signals, the bidirectional optical signals including wavelengths of The stable reference optical signal and wavelength are The array element optical signal; The optically stabilized phase-transmitting unit is communicatively connected to the first wavelength division multiplexer (WDM), and is also communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator. The first power divider is communicatively connected to each of the n first-order receive-transmitter modules. Each of the n first-order receive-transmitter modules is communicatively connected to one of the n optical delay attenuators. All n optical delay attenuators are communicatively connected to the first WDM, which is also communicatively connected to the optical delay compensator. The optical delay compensator is communicatively connected to the optical fiber. The optical fiber is communicatively connected to the second WDM, which is communicatively connected to the optically stabilized phase-receiving unit. The second WDM is also communicatively connected to each of the n second-order receive-transmitter modules. The optically stable emission unit receives a stable reference signal and performs electro-optical conversion on the stable reference signal to obtain a wavelength. The optical signal, and the wavelength The optical signal is output to the first wavelength division multiplexer; the optical phase-stabilized emission unit transmits the wavelength input to the first wavelength division multiplexer. The optical signal undergoes photoelectric conversion, and the optically stable emission unit is used to convert the stable reference signal and the wavelength input from the first wavelength division multiplexer. The optical signal is phase-detected, and the optical delay compensator is controlled based on the phase detection value.

2. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are: , where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n first-order receiving and transmitting modules receive the optical signals input from the corresponding n optical delay attenuators, and convert the optical signals into corresponding electrical signals and output them to the first power divider; n first-order receiving and transmitting modules respectively receive the electrical signals input from the first power divider, and convert the electrical signals into corresponding optical signals and output them to the corresponding optical delay attenuators.

3. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The optical delay attenuator delays and modulates the amplitude of the optical signals transmitted and received through the first transceiver module.

4. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The optically stable phase receiving unit receives the wavelength input from the second wavelength division multiplexer. The light signal, and emit the wavelength The optical signal is sent to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

5. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The optical delay compensator is used to adjust the optical delay in real time according to the control signal output by the optically stable phase-emitting unit.

6. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, Both the first and second wavelength division multiplexers contain n+1 beam splitting channels, and the n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to transmission wavelengths of... The optical signal is transmitted through the same beam combining channel, where n+1 beam splitting channels correspond to n+1 wavelength optical signals, and n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

7. The phase-stable transmission beamforming device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n second-order receiving and emitting modules are all different, and the operating laser wavelengths corresponding to the n first-order receiving and emitting modules are... , where n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; n second receiving and emitting modules respectively receive the optical signal input from the second wavelength division multiplexer, convert the optical signal into the corresponding electrical signal and output it to each microwave element, and n second receiving and emitting modules receive the electrical signal input to the corresponding microwave element and convert the electrical signal into the corresponding optical signal and output it to the second wavelength division multiplexer.

8. An array element expansion system, characterized in that, include: m phase-stable transmission beamforming devices as described in any one of claims 1-7; The second power divider is used to split the phase-stabilized reference signal into m paths, which are then input into the corresponding optical phase-stabilized emission units of each of the m devices. The third power divider is used to combine the electrical signals output from the first power divider corresponding to m devices; The total number of array elements after expansion is N = m × n, and the wavelengths of the first receiving and emitting modules of each device do not overlap.

Images