Phased-array antenna control system and control method

Abstract

The invention discloses a phased-array antenna control system and method, and the system comprises an antenna control module which is used for generating a global control instruction according to the working parameters of a target wave beam, and modulating the global control instruction into a control signal; the radio frequency combining module is used for combining the control signal and the radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal; the radio frequency distribution network is used for transmitting the composite radio frequency signals to a plurality of beam forming chips in parallel; and the beam forming chip is used for demodulating a global control instruction from the received composite radio frequency signal and calculating a local control parameter of the corresponding antenna array element based on the global control instruction and locally pre-stored calibration data so as to control the radiation characteristic of the corresponding antenna array element. Therefore, the refresh rate bottleneck caused by serial control can be fundamentally solved, the digital interconnection design of the antenna array plane is greatly simplified, and the PCB complexity and the system cost are reduced.

Description

Phased array antenna control system and control method Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of satellite communication technology, and in particular to a phased array antenna control system and control method. Background Technology

[0002] In 6G-NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) broadband low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication terminals, the introduction of phased array antennas is a key technology choice for achieving high-speed and stable satellite links. The fundamental reason is that the high-speed movement of LEO satellites, short coverage time, and rapid dynamic changes in the link place stringent requirements on the antenna system, including high gain, rapid pointing, no mechanical rotation, and real-time beam control.

[0003] A typical low-Earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite terminal usually consists of two main parts: a satellite communication baseband subsystem and a phased array antenna subsystem. Within the entire phased array antenna system, the beamforming IC (BFIC) plays a central role. A phased array antenna array typically comprises hundreds to thousands of antenna elements, which are centrally driven and managed by multiple BFICs. The core function of a BFIC is to precisely control the amplitude and phase of each connected radio frequency (RF) channel, thereby achieving beamforming. Existing BFICs need to support real-time, rapid updates of the parameters of each RF channel via a high-speed digital control interface to achieve accurate tracking of target satellites in high-speed LEO satellite operation scenarios.

[0004] The current mainstream BFIC architecture and its application in the system have the following technical defects: (1) The SPI serial control architecture leads to a low array refresh rate: Existing BFICs generally use SPI as the main digital control interface. SPI is a serial, time-division multiplexing bus mechanism. On the same bus, multiple BFICs can only be refreshed one by one in strict timing order. Even if the daisy chain method is used, the overall refresh process is still serial. Taking 256 BFICs and each BFIC needs to update multiple amplitude and phase parameters as an example, the amount of data required for a complete array refresh reaches tens of kbits. Under the common 10-20 MHz SPI clock conditions, the overall refresh cycle usually falls in the millisecond level. This order of magnitude is significantly higher than the requirement for continuous and rapid beam pointing adjustment in the high-speed transit scenario of low-orbit satellites, which means that the beam can only be updated discretely at a lower frequency, which limits the dynamic pointing capability of the phased array antenna from the architecture level. (2) Poor scalability of SPI bus and high system complexity: Due to the objective limitations of SPI bus in terms of load capacity, capacitance and timing margin, a single SPI can usually only connect a limited number of BFICs. As the antenna array size increases, the antenna control unit (ACU) needs to provide a large number of independent SPI interfaces. This often forces the system to introduce an FPGA to expand the SPI master, increasing device cost, power consumption, and the complexity of hardware and software co-design. At the same time, the array side needs to route these large numbers of control signal lines, which usually requires 8-12 layers or more of PCB board to complete, significantly increasing the manufacturing difficulty and cost of the antenna array.

[0005] Therefore, it is necessary to provide improved technical solutions to overcome the above-mentioned technical problems existing in the prior art. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The purpose of this application is to provide a phased array antenna control system and control method that can solve the technical problems of complex control architecture and limited refresh rate in the prior art.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives: In a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide a phased array antenna control system, comprising: an antenna control module, configured to generate a global control command based on the operating parameters of a target beam, and modulate the global control command into a control signal; a radio frequency combining module, configured to combine the control signal with a radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal; multiple beamforming chips distributed in the phased array antenna array, each beamforming chip driving at least one antenna element; and a radio frequency distribution network, configured to transmit the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to the multiple beamforming chips; wherein the beamforming chips are further configured to demodulate the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal, and calculate the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna element based on the global control command and locally pre-stored calibration data, so as to control the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna element.

[0008] In one embodiment, the antenna control module includes a control unit and a modulation unit; the control unit is used to generate the global control command according to the target pointing angle, power level and operating mode of the target beam; the modulation unit modulates the global control command onto multiple orthogonal subcarriers based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing to form the control signal; wherein, the multiple orthogonal subcarriers and the multiple beamforming chips have a preset mapping relationship for parallel control of frequency division multiplexing.

[0009] In one embodiment, each beamforming chip includes: a radio frequency interface unit, including a common radio frequency port and multiple transceiver ports, each transceiver port being connected to an antenna element; the common radio frequency port being used to receive a composite radio frequency signal containing global control commands, and the multiple transceiver ports being used to transmit the radio frequency signals of the antenna element; a demodulation unit, connected to the common radio frequency port, being used to extract the global control commands on the corresponding subcarriers from the composite radio frequency signal; a local computing unit, being used to calculate the amplitude control word and phase control word of each transceiver port according to the global control commands and locally pre-stored amplitude and phase calibration data; and an amplitude and phase control array, respectively connected to the local computing unit and the multiple transceiver ports, being used to independently adjust the amplitude and phase of the radio frequency signals of each transceiver port according to the amplitude control word and phase control word.

[0010] In one embodiment, each of the beamforming chips further includes: a downconversion module for downconverting the composite radio frequency signal from the radio frequency distribution network to baseband or intermediate frequency, or upconverting the uplink signal of the antenna array element to radio frequency.

[0011] The local oscillator input interface is used to receive the local oscillator signal provided externally to drive the up and down frequency conversion modules.

[0012] In one embodiment, the modulation scheme of the control signal includes at least one of 64QAM, 16QAM or QPSK, the encoding scheme adopts cyclic redundancy check combined with lightweight block coding, and the retransmission mechanism for data transmission errors is completed by the next subframe.

[0013] In one embodiment, the mapping relationship between the plurality of orthogonal subcarriers and the plurality of beamforming chips is achieved through one or more of the following resource allocation methods: frequency domain addressing, where each beamforming chip is allocated at least one frequency domain resource set, and the frequency domain resource set corresponds one-to-one with the address identifier of the beamforming chip; multicast or broadcasting, where multiple beamforming chips in the same beam region are allocated the same frequency domain resource set, and the beam region is a subset of beamforming chips participating in forming the same beam; and a frequency division and time division hybrid method, where the phased array antenna array is divided into multiple subarrays, and corresponding frequency domain resource sets are allocated to beamforming chips in different subarrays in different time slots; wherein, the frequency domain resource set contains at least one subcarrier.

[0014] In one embodiment, the radio frequency distribution network includes a multi-stage power divider structure, and the radio frequency distribution network operates in the Sub-6 GHz band.

[0015] In one embodiment, the center frequency of the control signal is 2.9 GHz, the bandwidth is 20 MHz, and it maintains a frequency isolation of more than 800 MHz from the frequency of the radio frequency signal.

[0016] Secondly, embodiments of this application provide a phased array antenna control method, applied to the phased array antenna control system described above. The method includes the following steps: generating a global control command based on the operating parameters of the target beam, and modulating the global control command into a control signal; combining the control signal with a radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal; transmitting the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to multiple beamforming chips distributed in the phased array antenna array; demodulating the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal through each beamforming chip; calculating the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna element based on the global control command and locally pre-stored calibration data; and controlling the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna element according to the local control parameters.

[0017] In one embodiment, the method further includes: down-converting the received composite radio frequency signal to baseband or intermediate frequency using the beamforming chip, or up-converting the uplink signal of the antenna element to radio frequency. The phased array antenna control system and method provided in this application involve generating a global control command based on the operating parameters of the target beam using an antenna control module, and modulating the global control command into a control signal; combining the control signal and the radio frequency signal using a radio frequency combining module to form a composite radio frequency signal; transmitting the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to multiple beamforming chips using a radio frequency distribution network; demodulating the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal using the beamforming chip, and calculating the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna element based on the global control command and locally pre-stored calibration data to control the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna element. In this way, by modulating the control commands onto the RF channel and transmitting them in parallel with the RF signals to each beamforming chip, the traditional SPI serial control bus is completely eliminated, avoiding large-scale digital control bus fan-out. This fundamentally solves the refresh rate bottleneck caused by serial control, greatly simplifies the digital interconnection design of the antenna array, reduces PCB complexity and system cost, and can support 1000+ phased array elements. Attached Figure Description

[0018] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the phased array antenna control system provided in the first embodiment of this application.

[0019] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture and interface of the antenna control module in one embodiment of this application.

[0020] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the architecture and interface of the antenna control unit in the prior art.

[0021] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the instruction structure of a radio frequency beam control protocol provided in an embodiment of this application.

[0022] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the beamforming chip provided in the first embodiment of this application.

[0023] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the phased array antenna system provided in the second embodiment of this application.

[0024] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the beamforming chip provided in the second embodiment of this application.

[0025] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the phased array antenna control method provided in the third embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0026] Exemplary embodiments will now be described in detail, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description relating to the drawings, unless otherwise indicated, the same numerals in different drawings denote the same or similar elements.

[0027] It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element. Furthermore, components, features, and elements with the same names in different embodiments of this application may have the same meaning or different meanings, the specific meaning of which must be determined by its interpretation in that specific embodiment or further in conjunction with the context of that specific embodiment.

[0028] It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are used only to distinguish information of the same type from one another. For example, without departing from the scope of this document, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information. Depending on the context, the word "if," as used herein, can be interpreted as "when," "when," or "in response to determination." Furthermore, as used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to also include the plural forms unless the context indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "comprising," "including," indicate the presence of a feature, step, operation, element, component, item, kind, and / or group, but do not exclude the presence, occurrence, or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, kinds, and / or groups. The terms "or" and "and / or" as used herein are interpreted as inclusive, or mean any one or any combination thereof. Therefore, "A, B, or C" or "A, B, and / or C" means "any one of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B, and C". Exceptions to this definition will only occur if the combination of elements, functions, steps, or operations is inherently mutually exclusive in some way.

[0029] It should be understood that although the steps in the flowcharts of this application's embodiments are shown sequentially according to the arrows, these steps are not necessarily executed in the order indicated by the arrows. Unless explicitly stated herein, there is no strict order restriction on the execution of these steps, and they can be executed in other orders. Moreover, at least some of the steps in the figures may include multiple sub-steps or multiple stages. These sub-steps or stages are not necessarily completed at the same time, but can be executed at different times, and their execution order is not necessarily sequential, but can be performed alternately or in turn with other steps or at least a portion of the sub-steps or stages of other steps.

[0030] It should be noted that step designations such as S1 and S2 are used in this document for the purpose of more clearly and concisely describing the corresponding content, and do not constitute a substantial limitation on the order. In specific implementation, those skilled in the art may execute S2 first and then S1, etc., but these should all be within the protection scope of this application.

[0031] It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of this application and are not intended to limit this application.

[0032] In the following description, the use of suffixes such as "module," "part," or "unit" to denote elements is solely for the purpose of illustrative purposes and has no specific meaning in itself. Therefore, "module," "part," or "unit" may be used interchangeably.

[0033] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the phased array antenna control system provided in the first embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 1, this embodiment provides a phased array antenna control system that can be applied to 6G-NTN low-orbit broadband satellite terminals to achieve parallel, low-latency control of large-scale phased array antennas. The phased array antenna system mainly includes an antenna control module 110, an RF combining module 120, an RF distribution network 130, and multiple beamforming chips (BFICs) 140 distributed in the phased array antenna array.

[0034] The antenna control module 110 serves as the control center of the system. It is connected to the upper-layer 6G-NTN baseband module via a digital control bus. It is used to receive the target beam operating parameters sent by the 6G-NTN baseband module, generate global control commands based on the target beam operating parameters, and modulate the global control commands into control signals.

[0035] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture and interface of the antenna control module in one embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 2, this embodiment provides an antenna control module 110 based on a general-purpose embedded microcontroller (MCU). This module abandons the reliance on high-performance FPGAs in traditional architectures and achieves a significant reduction in system cost by offloading the complex amplitude and phase calculation tasks to the BFIC (Browser-Fit Integrated Circuit). In other words, by redistributing and offloading the control functions, the system cost is significantly reduced. The antenna control module 110 in this embodiment includes a control unit 111 and a modulation unit 112.

[0036] The control unit 111 mainly consists of a central processing unit (CPU) and a general-purpose embedded microcontroller (MCU). As shown in Figure 3, the existing ACU architecture uses a CPU to implement complex parallel computing and expands a large number of SPI digital control interfaces through an FPGA to transmit amplitude and phase control words for controlling each RF channel to multiple BFICs. Unlike the prior art, the control unit in this embodiment generates structured global control instructions based on the operating parameters of the target beam. These instructions are high-level abstract parameters, rather than the specific amplitude and phase control words for each channel in the traditional architecture.

[0037] Specifically, in this embodiment, the control unit 111 receives the target beam operating parameters transmitted from the 6G-NTN baseband module. These operating parameters include: target pointing angle, i.e., the beam pointing direction expressed in azimuth and elevation angles; power level, i.e., transmit power control strategy or receive gain requirements; operating mode, i.e., transmit (Tx), receive (Rx), calibration (Calibration), or standby mode; and beam identifier, i.e., beam area number in a multi-beam scenario. Based on these parameters, the control unit 111 generates a structured global control command. This command uses a simplified data format, containing only the high-level semantic information required for target beamforming, rather than the specific amplitude and phase control words for each RF channel in traditional solutions. Because the data volume of the global control command is significantly smaller than the data volume of the amplitude and phase control words sent per channel in traditional solutions, the requirements for control link bandwidth and antenna control module (ACU) processing capabilities are greatly reduced, thus enabling a general-purpose embedded MCU to handle the control task.

[0038] The modulation unit (BFIC CONTROL (DE) MODULATOR) 112, based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), modulates global control commands onto multiple orthogonal subcarriers, forming control signals that can be transmitted in parallel on the radio frequency channel. The multiple orthogonal subcarriers and the multiple beamforming chips have a preset mapping relationship for parallel control of the frequency division multiplexing. Thus, by employing OFDM modulation and utilizing its multi-carrier characteristics, different BFIC control commands are mapped to different subcarriers, achieving parallel control of the BFIC and significantly improving control efficiency. Simultaneously, mature communication modulation technologies can be utilized, reducing implementation difficulty.

[0039] In this embodiment, the radio frequency beam control protocol can use OFDM modulation technology at the physical layer and be compatible with the traditional SPI instruction format at the protocol layer, thereby achieving a smooth transition from serial control to parallel control.

[0040] Specifically, in the physical layer design, the mapping relationship between multiple orthogonal subcarriers and multiple beamforming chips can be realized through one or more of the following resource allocation methods, depending on the size and type of phased array antenna. The first method: frequency domain addressing; each beamforming chip is allocated at least one set of frequency domain resources, such as a subcarrier or a PRB (Physical Resource Block), and this set of frequency domain resources corresponds one-to-one with the address identifier of the beamforming chip. For example, BFIC_ADDRESS (e.g., 10 bits, corresponding to 1024 addresses) is directly mapped to the subcarrier index, realizing parallel control of frequency division multiplexing. The second method: multicast or broadcast; multiple beamforming chips within the same beam area are allocated the same set of frequency domain resources, and the beam area is a subset of the beamforming chips participating in forming the same beam; that is, all BFICs within the same beam area receive global beam commands from the same subcarrier, and then each calculates its local amplitude and phase values ​​based on its local location and calibration data. The third approach is a hybrid frequency-division and time-division approach. For ultra-large-scale arrays, the phased array antenna array can be divided into multiple subarrays. Within different time slots, corresponding frequency domain resource sets are allocated to the beamforming chips in different subarrays. Each frequency domain resource set contains at least one subcarrier. For example, the array can be divided into four subarrays, with four time slots. Within each time slot, each subcarrier is used to control a designated beamforming chip in one subarray. This approach can support continuous expansion of the array size without increasing system bandwidth.

[0041] In terms of protocol layer design, as shown in Figure 4, the protocol retains the traditional SPI LINK_ID concept, but converts it from a physical bus identifier to a logical link identifier. For example, the bit width of LINK_ID is still set to 4 bits, supporting 16 LINK_IDs; mapping LINK_ID to the 7th bit and above of BFIC_ADDRESS, combined with the original 6 bits, forms a 10-bit address space. Large-scale phased array antennas can be divided into multiple logical regions, each corresponding to a LINK_ID, supporting up to 16 regions (LINK_ID_00 to LINK_ID_15). When defining 1024 subcarriers, each region can have up to 64 BFICs.

[0042] Preferably, the modulation unit 120 in this embodiment can adopt 64QAM modulation, and each OFDM symbol can carry 6 bits of information. In other embodiments, 16QAM or QPSK modulation can be selected according to channel conditions, wherein QPSK is suitable for the initialization or calibration stage, and 16QAM is suitable for scenarios requiring higher robustness.

[0043] For example, the modulation unit 112 can adopt the parameter set of μ=0 (subcarrier spacing 15 kHz) in the LTE / NR standard (such as subcarrier spacing 15 kHz, FFT number 2048, effective subcarrier number 1024, 14 OFDM symbols per subframe, and subframe length 1 ms). When using 64QAM modulation, a single subcarrier can transmit a maximum of 84 bits (14 symbols × 6 bits / symbol) within 1 ms, with a transmission rate of 84 kbps. Each BFIC achieves a unified time reference through the OFDM symbol synchronization mechanism, which is sufficient to complete multiple updates of BFIC amplitude and phase control words within a 1 ms subframe, providing a feasible physical layer basis for parallel, low-latency control of large-scale phased array antennas.

[0044] Furthermore, by modulating the global control commands onto 1024 orthogonal subcarriers, an OFDM control signal with a center frequency of approximately 2.9 GHz and a bandwidth of 20 MHz can be formed. This frequency point is closest to the 3GPP LTE Band 7 / NR n7 region in terms of spectral location, which facilitates the reuse of mature OFDM physical layer parameters and RF implementation architecture. At the same time, this frequency point maintains a frequency isolation of more than 800 MHz from the commonly used 2 GHz receive intermediate frequency and 4 GHz transmit intermediate frequency, which can significantly reduce PCB transmission loss and crosstalk risk, thereby improving the stability of control signaling distribution and system reliability.

[0045] When issuing global control commands in parallel, the modulation unit can map the 24-bit control command to the corresponding subcarrier according to the LINK_ID and address of the target beamforming chip; all subcarriers are modulated in parallel with 64QAM and generated into time-domain OFDM symbols via IFFT; the generated control signal is combined with the radio frequency signal and broadcast to the entire array via the radio frequency distribution network; each target beamforming chip demodulates the control command from the corresponding subcarrier according to the preset subcarrier mapping relationship, and performs register read / write or amplitude / phase control operations after parsing.

[0046] The radio frequency (RF) combining module 120 combines control signals and RF signals to form a composite RF signal. The RF signal is the uplink and downlink data signal for satellite communication. The control signal and RF signal are separated in the frequency domain and frequency division multiplexing is achieved through a combiner. In this embodiment, the RF combining module 120 may include a first combining unit 121 and an up / down conversion module (UC / DC) 122. The first combining unit 121 integrates the control signal output from the modulation unit 112 and the RF signal (IF intermediate frequency signal) output from the 6G-NTN baseband module. The up / down conversion module 122 realizes frequency conversion between the intermediate frequency (IF) and the radio frequency (Ku / Ka), allowing the antenna control module 110 to operate in a lower IF band while the antenna array radiates high-frequency signals. Simultaneously, the up / down conversion module 122 also incorporates the local oscillator (LO) signal and supports frequency division multiplexing transmission of control signals and RF signals, providing a physical layer foundation for the OFDM-based parallel BFIC control architecture.

[0047] The RF distribution network 130 is used to transmit composite RF signals in parallel to multiple beamforming chips 140. The RF distribution network 130 can adopt a multi-stage power divider structure, and its input is connected to the RF combining module 120. Unlike the prior art scheme that uses an SPI bus to serially connect the ACU and BFIC and transmits control signaling through a digital control interface, this embodiment realizes the parallel distribution of control signals through the RF distribution network. All BFICs receive control signals simultaneously, eliminating the time delay accumulation caused by serial refresh.

[0048] Beamforming chips 140 are distributed in the phased array antenna array, and each beamforming chip 140 drives at least one antenna element. For example, one beamforming chip can drive 4, 8, 16 or 32 RF channels, corresponding to 4 to 32 antenna elements.

[0049] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the beamforming chip provided in the first embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 5, each beamforming chip 140 includes an RF interface unit 141, a demodulation unit 142, a local computing unit 143, and an amplitude and phase control array 144.

[0050] The radio frequency interface unit 141 includes a common radio frequency port (COM port) and multiple transceiver ports (Tx / Rx ports). The common radio frequency port is used to receive composite radio frequency signals from the radio frequency distribution network 130, which include radio frequency data signals and OFDM modulated control signals. Each transceiver port is connected to a corresponding antenna element for transmitting the radio frequency signals of the antenna element. Unlike existing technologies, the beamforming chip 140 in this embodiment no longer requires an SPI digital control interface, significantly simplifying chip pin definitions and PCB routing.

[0051] Demodulation unit 142 is connected to a common radio frequency port and is used to extract global control commands on corresponding subcarriers from the composite radio frequency signal. Specifically, demodulation unit 142 may include an OFDM demodulator, a subcarrier selector, and a decoder. The OFDM demodulator performs an FFT transform on the received composite radio frequency signal to convert the time-domain signal into a frequency-domain signal; the subcarrier selector selects the corresponding subcarrier according to the BFIC address identifier; the decoder demodulates and decodes the selected subcarrier signal to recover the global control commands.

[0052] The local computing unit 143 calculates the amplitude control word and phase control word for each transceiver port based on the demodulated global control command and the locally pre-stored amplitude and phase calibration data. The pre-stored calibration data may include amplitude error, phase error, and temperature compensation coefficient for each RF channel. The local computing unit 143 calculates the theoretically required phase delay based on the target pointing angle in the global control command and the physical coordinates of the beamforming chip in the antenna array, then superimposes the calibration data to generate the final amplitude control word and phase control word. This embodiment employs a distributed computing architecture, offloading the tasks of centralized computation in the traditional ACU to each BFIC. The antenna control module 110 only needs to transmit higher-layer beam parameters and does not participate in the calculation of the amplitude and phase control words for each RF channel.

[0053] The amplitude and phase control array 144 is connected to the local computing unit 143 and multiple transceiver ports (Tx / Rx ports), including multiple independent programmable phase shifters and variable gain amplifiers (or attenuators). Based on the amplitude control word and phase control word generated by the local computing unit 143, the RF signal of each transceiver port is independently adjusted in amplitude and phase to achieve target beamforming.

[0054] In this embodiment, to achieve unified management and precise control of hundreds of beamforming chips in a large-scale array, the beamforming chip 140 also includes an address or location identifier interface (BFIC_ADDRESS) to identify the unique position of the BFIC in the entire phased array antenna array at the physical level. The address or location identifier interface is implemented in the form of a set of GPIO pins (such as Address[0:N]). For example, in this embodiment, N=9, that is, 10 address lines (Address[0:9]) are used, which can support the unique addressing of up to 1024 BFICs. The binary value (0 or 1) of each GPIO pin is determined by hardware pull-high or pull-low. Under normal operating conditions, the beamforming chip 140 receives the global control command of OFDM modulation through the radio frequency interface unit 141, and the demodulation unit 142 extracts the command according to the subcarrier index corresponding to BFIC_ADDRESS. In this embodiment, the physical address of the beamforming chip directly determines the subcarrier resources it occupies in control signaling transmission, realizing the binding of hardware address and frequency domain resources, eliminating the need for the antenna control module to perform complex dynamic address allocation at the software level.

[0055] The phased array antenna control system provided in this embodiment completely eliminates the need for the traditional SPI serial control bus by modulating control commands onto the RF channel and transmitting them in parallel with the RF signal to each BFIC. This fundamentally solves the refresh rate bottleneck caused by serial control and greatly simplifies the digital interconnection design of the array, reducing PCB complexity and system cost. Furthermore, by integrating demodulation units into the BFIC, it can decouple control commands from composite RF signals and perform distributed calculations using locally stored calibration data (such as errors caused by manufacturing processes, temperature changes, etc.) to ultimately generate accurate amplitude and phase control words. Thus, through the distributed computing architecture, the centralized computing pressure on the ACU is reduced, lowering the demand on the ACU's processing power.

[0056] In the second embodiment, in the traditional phased array antenna control system architecture, Ku / Ka band RF signals are typically up-converted and down-converted before being directly fed into the COM port of the BFIC as high-frequency analog signals, where multi-stage power distribution and combining are performed on the array side. However, in the 12–30 GHz band, the insertion loss of transmission lines and power divider networks is significant (up to 15–20 dB). To compensate for this loss, the system needs to configure a higher output power amplifier after the up-conversion and down-conversion modules to offset the distribution loss on the array side. This not only leads to a sharp increase in power consumption and heat dissipation pressure but also reduces the system's RF efficiency and energy utilization, making the system performance largely limited by the RF distribution network itself.

[0057] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the phased array antenna system provided in the second embodiment of this application. Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the beamforming chip provided in the second embodiment of this application. As shown in Figures 6 and 7, in order to further solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the up-conversion / down-conversion (UC / DC) function is migrated to the beamforming chip 140 in this embodiment, so that the RF distribution network on the array side operates in the Sub-6GHz band (e.g., 2 / 4GHz), instead of the Ku / Ka high-frequency band.

[0058] Unlike the first embodiment described above, the RF combining module 120 in this embodiment includes a first combining unit 121 and a second combining unit 123. The first combining unit 121 is used to integrate the control signal output by the modulation unit 112 and the RF signal output by the 6G-NTN baseband module. The second combining unit 123 is used to combine the local oscillator (LO) signal, which is consistent with the LO signal input to the BFIC, and supports frequency division multiplexing transmission of the control signal and the RF signal.

[0059] In this embodiment, each beamforming chip 140 further includes an up / down conversion module 145 and a local oscillator input interface (LO port). The up / down conversion module 145 is used to downconvert composite radio frequency signals from the radio frequency distribution network 130 to baseband or intermediate frequency (IF), or to upconvert uplink signals from antenna elements to radio frequency (Ku / Ka). The local oscillator input interface (LO port) is used to receive externally provided local oscillator signals to drive the up / down conversion module.

[0060] In this embodiment, the conversion between intermediate frequency and high frequency is completed inside the beamforming chip, so that the power distribution network on the array side operates in Sub-6GHz. This significantly reduces the transmission loss of the power distribution network, reduces the need for high-power amplifiers, thereby improving system energy efficiency and reducing power consumption and heat dissipation pressure.

[0061] The phased array antenna control system provided in the above embodiments of this application can also achieve other additional technical effects when using a glass substrate. Because the glass substrate has extremely low dielectric loss, excellent dielectric constant uniformity, and significantly reduced conductor surface roughness, the following synergistic enhancement effects occur when the technical solution of this application is applied to a glass substrate.

[0062] Improved Control Signaling Transmission Consistency: Under glass substrate conditions, the OFDM multi-carrier-based BFIC parallel control mechanism proposed in this application can achieve higher consistency in control signaling transmission across the array. The group delay difference in the frequency and time domains of the control signaling is significantly reduced, further reducing the time jitter of amplitude and phase update commands received by each beamforming chip within the same control cycle, thereby improving array-level amplitude and phase consistency. This improved consistency directly translates into improved beamforming accuracy, effectively suppressing phenomena such as sidelobe rise and main lobe drift, making it particularly suitable for low-Earth orbit broadband satellite communication scenarios with high requirements for dynamic beam tracking accuracy.

[0063] Leveraging the high wiring density and high interconnect consistency supported by the glass substrate, this application eliminates traditional serial digital control buses such as SPI, mapping BFIC control signaling uniformly to the RF OFDM multi-carrier distribution network. This removes the fan-out capability and interconnect resource limitations of the digital bus from the expansion of the array size. Under glass substrate conditions, the control signaling distribution network can be symmetrically laid out using high-density transmission lines and via structures. Its physical implementation complexity does not increase linearly with the number of BFICs, thus enabling this architecture to naturally support phased array antenna arrays exceeding a thousand elements or even larger.

[0064] The energy efficiency advantages are further highlighted: Because this application integrates up-conversion and down-conversion functions within the BFIC (Block Component Integrated Circuit), the power distribution network within the array resides in the Sub-6GHz band for extended periods. Under glass substrate conditions, this fully leverages the material's advantages of low transmission loss and high amplitude-phase consistency in the mid-to-low frequency bands. Compared to large-scale power distribution in the Ku / Ka band directly on the glass substrate, this architecture significantly reduces high-frequency transmission loss, mode switching, and parasitic resonance risks, while also reducing reliance on additional RF drive amplifier stages. This improves overall energy efficiency while reducing system power consumption and thermal design pressure.

[0065] In summary, the OFDM multi-carrier-based BFIC parallel control architecture proposed in this invention is not only applicable to traditional FR4 or low-loss high-frequency substrates, but also fully leverages its decentralized, high-consistency, and low-loss system advantages under glass substrate conditions. It is particularly suitable for the realization of ultra-large-scale phased array antennas and highly integrated antenna panels, and provides a scalable and low-complexity control solution for the engineering implementation of glass substrate arrays.

[0066] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the phased array antenna control method provided in the third embodiment of this application. Based on the phased array antenna control system described in any of the above embodiments, as shown in Figure 8, this embodiment provides a phased array antenna control method, including the following steps: Step S1: Generate a global control command based on the operating parameters of the target beam, and modulate the global control command into a control signal.

[0067] Specifically, the global control command can be a higher-level parameter such as the pointing angle and power level, without needing to include the specific amplitude and phase values ​​for each channel. OFDM multi-carrier modulation is preferred, and the subcarrier spacing, symbol structure, and modulation coding scheme can be configured as shown in Example 1.

[0068] Step S2: Combine the control signal and the radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal.

[0069] Specifically, this step can be achieved through an RF combining module to ensure that control signals and RF signals are transmitted in the same physical channel.

[0070] Step S3: Transmit the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to multiple beamforming chips distributed in the phased array antenna array.

[0071] Step S4: Demodulate the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal through each beamforming chip.

[0072] Specifically, the demodulation unit inside the beamforming chip extracts the global control command from the corresponding composite radio frequency signal from the corresponding subcarrier based on its address identifier or the beam region it belongs to.

[0073] Step S5: Calculate the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna array element based on the global control command and the locally stored calibration data.

[0074] Specifically, this step is performed by a local computing unit inside the beamforming chip to achieve a distributed computing architecture.

[0075] Step S6: Control the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna array element according to the local control parameters.

[0076] Specifically, the amplitude and phase control array inside the beamforming chip independently adjusts the radio frequency signals of each transceiver port according to the calculated amplitude control word and phase control word to complete beamforming.

[0077] Optionally, the phased array antenna control method in this embodiment further includes: down-converting the received composite radio frequency signal to baseband or intermediate frequency using a beamforming chip, or up-converting the uplink signal of the antenna array element to radio frequency. This step enables the radio frequency distribution network to operate in the Sub-6GHz band, reduces transmission loss, and improves the efficiency of the phased array antenna control system.

[0078] The phased array antenna control method provided in this embodiment realizes parallel, fast, and low-complexity control of large-scale phased array antennas (BFIC), solving the problems of limited control speed and excessive system complexity in the prior art.

[0079] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined in any way. For the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0080] The above are merely specific embodiments of this application, but the scope of protection of this application is not limited thereto. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in this application should be included within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A phased array antenna control system, characterized in that, include: The antenna control module is used to generate global control commands based on the operating parameters of the target beam, and modulate the global control commands into control signals. A radio frequency combining module is used to combine the control signal and the radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal; multiple beamforming chips are distributed in the phased array antenna array, and each beamforming chip drives at least one antenna element; a radio frequency distribution network is used to transmit the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to the multiple beamforming chips; wherein, the beamforming chips are also used to demodulate the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal, and calculate the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna element based on the global control command and locally pre-stored calibration data, so as to control the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna element.

2. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The antenna control module includes a control unit and a modulation unit. The control unit generates the global control command based on the target pointing angle, power level, and operating mode of the target beam. The modulation unit modulates the global control command onto multiple orthogonal subcarriers using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing to form the control signal. The multiple orthogonal subcarriers and the multiple beamforming chips have a preset mapping relationship for parallel control of frequency division multiplexing.

3. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, Each beamforming chip includes: a radio frequency interface unit, comprising a common radio frequency port and multiple transceiver ports, each transceiver port being connected to an antenna element; the common radio frequency port being used to receive a composite radio frequency signal containing global control commands, and the multiple transceiver ports being used to transmit the radio frequency signals of the antenna element; a demodulation unit, connected to the common radio frequency port, for extracting the global control commands on the corresponding subcarriers from the composite radio frequency signal; a local computing unit, for calculating the amplitude control word and phase control word of each transceiver port based on the global control commands and locally pre-stored amplitude and phase calibration data; and an amplitude and phase control array, respectively connected to the local computing unit and the multiple transceiver ports, for independently adjusting the amplitude and phase of the radio frequency signals of each transceiver port based on the amplitude control word and phase control word.

4. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 3, characterized in that, Each beamforming chip further includes: an up / down conversion module for downconverting the composite RF signal from the RF distribution network to baseband or intermediate frequency, or upconverting the uplink signal of the antenna array element to RF; and a local oscillator input interface for receiving an externally provided local oscillator signal to drive the up / down conversion module.

5. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The modulation scheme of the control signal includes at least one of 64QAM, 16QAM or QPSK, and the encoding scheme adopts cyclic redundancy check combined with lightweight block coding. The retransmission mechanism for data transmission errors is completed by the next subframe.

6. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The mapping relationship between the multiple orthogonal subcarriers and the multiple beamforming chips is achieved through one or more of the following resource allocation methods: frequency domain addressing, where each beamforming chip is allocated at least one frequency domain resource set, and the frequency domain resource set corresponds one-to-one with the address identifier of the beamforming chip; multicast or broadcasting, where multiple beamforming chips in the same beam region are allocated the same frequency domain resource set, and the beam region is a subset of beamforming chips participating in forming the same beam; and a hybrid frequency division and time division method, where the phased array antenna array is divided into multiple subarrays, and corresponding frequency domain resource sets are allocated to beamforming chips in different subarrays in different time slots; wherein, the frequency domain resource set contains at least one subcarrier.

7. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 4, characterized in that, The radio frequency distribution network includes a multi-stage power divider structure and operates in the Sub-6GHz band.

8. The phased array antenna control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The control signal has a center frequency of 2.9 GHz, a bandwidth of 20 MHz, and maintains a frequency isolation of more than 800 MHz from the frequency of the radio frequency signal.

9. A phased array antenna control method, characterized in that, The method, applied to the phased array antenna control system as described in any one of claims 1-8, comprises the following steps: generating a global control command based on the operating parameters of the target beam, and modulating the global control command into a control signal; combining the control signal with a radio frequency signal to form a composite radio frequency signal; transmitting the composite radio frequency signal in parallel to multiple beamforming chips distributed in the phased array antenna array; demodulating the global control command from the received composite radio frequency signal through each beamforming chip; calculating the local control parameters of the corresponding antenna element based on the global control command and locally pre-stored calibration data; and controlling the radiation characteristics of the corresponding antenna element according to the local control parameters.

10. The phased array antenna control method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The method further includes: downconverting the received composite radio frequency signal to baseband or intermediate frequency using the beamforming chip, or upconverting the uplink signal of the antenna array element to radio frequency.

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