Digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for an antenna subsystem are described. The antenna subsystem may include an array of antenna elements that are configured to point in dissimilar directions. Each of the antenna elements may be coupled with a corresponding antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals. A beamforming processor may be coupled with the antenna elements and may measure received signals in a first mode of operation to obtain respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the respective antenna signals concurrently, such as by using digital beamforming. The respective signal strengths and respective noise levels may be associated with a signal from a target device. Based on the measured respective signal strengths and noise levels, the beamforming processor may determine a subset of the antenna signals for communication of a data signal with the target device in a second mode of operation.

Description

DIGITAL BEAMFORMING OF SUBSETS OF ARRAYS WITH ELEMENTS POINTED IN DISSIMILAR DIRECTIONSCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present Application for Patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 694,624 by FRANSON, entitled “DIGITAL BEAMFORMING OF SUBSETS OF ARRAYS WITH ELEMENTS POINTED IN DISSIMILAR DIRECTIONS,” filed September 13, 2024, and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 694,638 by FRANSON, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SIGNAL DETECTION USING PORTIONS OF A DIGITAL BEAMFORMING ANTENNA ARRAY,” filed September 13, 2024, each of which is assigned to the assignee hereof, and each of which is expressly incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.BACKGROUND

[0002] The following relates generally to communications, including digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions.

[0003] Communications devices may communicate with one another using wired connections, wireless (e.g., radio frequency (RF)) connections, or both. Wireless communications between devices may be performed using a wireless spectrum that has been designated for a service provider, wireless technology, or both. In some examples, the amount of information that can be communicated via a wireless communications network is based on an amount of wireless spectrum designated to the service provider, and an amount of frequency reuse within the region in which service is provided.Satellite communications may use beamforming via antenna arrays to establish beams, however, processing and power constraints may limit throughput using beamforming.SUMMARY

[0004] The described techniques relate to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions.

[0005] In accordance with various aspects, an antenna subsystem apparatus is described. The antenna subsystem may include an antenna substrate having a convex surface along at least one dimension, and a set of multiple patch antennas disposed onAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)the convex surface of the antenna substrate, each of the patch antennas respectively coupled with a corresponding antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals. The antenna subsystem may include a beamforming processor configured to measure, in a first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the respective antenna signals concurrently, where the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels are associated with a signal from a target device. The beamforming processor may determine, based on the measured respective signals strengths and measured respective noise levels obtained in the first mode of operation, a subset of the antenna signals for communication of a data signal with the target device, and may communicate, with the target device in a second mode of operation, the data signal according to a set of beamforming weights determined for the subset of the antenna signals based on processing the respective antenna signals in the first mode of operation.

[0006] In some examples of the apparatus, the beamforming processor may be further configured to compare the measured respective signal strengths and the measured respective noise levels to a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold, where the determination of the subset of the antenna signals is based on the comparison. In some examples of the apparatus, the beamforming processor may be further configured to compare the measured respective signal strengths to a signal strength threshold and the measured respective noise levels to a noise threshold, where the subset of the antenna signals correspond to the antenna signals satisfying the signal strength threshold and failing to satisfy the noise threshold.

[0007] In some examples of the apparatus, each patch antenna of the set of multiple patch antennas includes an antenna element configured to communicate circularly polarized signals. In some examples, a first set of patch antennas are associated with left hand circular polarization and a second set of patch antennas are associated with right hand circular polarization. In some examples, each patch antenna of the patch antennas includes a first port associated with left hand circular polarization and a second port associated with right hand circular polarization.

[0008] In some examples of the apparatus, the beamforming processor may be further configured to process, in the first mode of operation, multiple first subsets of the antenna signals concurrently to obtain multiple combined antenna signals, where two orAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)more of the multiple first subsets of the antenna signals are intersecting subsets, and measure, in the first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the multiple combined antenna signals concurrently, where the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the multiple combined antenna signals are associated with a signal from the target device.

[0009] In accordance with various aspects, another antenna subsystem apparatus is described. The antenna subsystem may include an antenna substrate having a convex surface along at least one dimension, and a set of multiple patch antennas disposed on the convex surface of the antenna substrate, the plurality of patch antennas respectively coupled with a plurality of antenna feeds that carry respective antenna signals. The antenna subsystem may also include a beamforming processor configured to communicate, with a first target device according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, a first beam signal using a first subset of the antenna signals associated with a first subset of the patch antennas, and communicate, with a second target device according to a second set of beamforming coefficients, a second beam signal using a second subset of the antenna signals associated with a second subset of the patch antennas.

[0010] In some examples of the apparatus, the first subset of the patch antennas and the second subset of the patch antennas are disjoint subsets. In some examples of the apparatus, the first subset of the patch antennas and the second subset of the patch antennas are intersecting subsets.

[0011] In some examples of the apparatus, the beamforming processor may be further configured to concurrently measure respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels of the respective antenna signals, where the respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels are associated with the first beam signal, and determine the first subset of the patch antennas based on the measured respective first signal strengths and measured respective first noise levels.

[0012] In some examples of the apparatus, the beamforming processor may be further configured to concurrently measure respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels of the respective antenna signals, where the respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels are associated with the second beam signal, and determine the second subset of the plurality of patch antennasAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)based on the measured respective second signal strengths and measured respective second noise levels.

[0013] In accordance with various aspects, another antenna subsystem apparatus is described. The antenna subsystem may include one or more antenna substrates, and a set of multiple antennas disposed on the one or more antenna substrates, each of the antennas including a first conductive element on a first side of the one or more antenna substrates and a second conductive element on a second side of the one or more antenna substrates, the first conductive element and the second conductive element configured to communicate circularly polarized signals, where each of the antennas are respectively coupled with an antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals. The antenna subsystem may also include a beamforming processor configured to communicate, with a first target device according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, a first beam signal using a first subset of the antenna signals associated with a first subset of the antennas, where the first beam signal is communicated using the first subset of the antennas via a first beam that is polarized according to one of left hand circular polarization (LHCP) or right hand circular polarization (RHCP), and communicate, with a second target device according to a second set of beamforming coefficients, a second beam signal using a second subset of the antenna signals associated with a second subset of the antennas, where the second beam signal is communicated using the second subset of the antennas via a second beam that is polarized according to the other of LHCP or RHCP.

[0014] In some examples of the apparatus, the set of multiple antennas includes a first set of antennas associated with LHCP and a second set of antennas associated with RHCP. In some examples, each antenna of the set of multiple antennas includes a first port associated with LHCP and a second port associated with RHCP. In some examples, the set of multiple antennas include a first set of antennas that are surface-emitting antennas and a second set of antennas that are edge-emitting antennas.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1 shows an example of a satellite communication system that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects described herein.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0016] FIGs. 2A and 2B show examples of convex antenna substrates that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] FIGs. 3 A and 3B show examples of antenna elements that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] FIG. 4 shows an example of a radio architecture that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 5 shows an example of an antenna structure that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] FIGs. 6 through 10 show examples of radio architectures that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] FIG. 11 shows an example of a flow chart that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] In recent years, relatively low-cost satellite-based or non-terrestrial communications have become more common. Such communications often involve a ground terminal that communicates via a constellation of, for example, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Communications between the ground terminal and one or more satellites may use beamforming techniques, in which signal processing may be used to enhance signal transmission and reception by directing radio frequency energy toward specific spatial directions. For example, a satellite and a ground terminal may each have multiple antenna elements arranged in arrays, and their signals are coherently combined with appropriate phase and amplitude weights to create directional radiation patterns, referred to as beams. This spatial filtering capability allows wireless systems to focus transmitted power toward intended receivers while also reducing interference to other users, thereby improving signal-to-noise ratios, increasing system capacity, andAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)extending communication range. It can also be used by a receiver to separate received energy coming from a specific spatial direction. Traditional beamforming implementations typically utilize all available antenna elements in the array and require complex digital signal processing to compute optimal weights for each element, resulting in significant computational overhead and power consumption that increases with increasing quantities of antenna elements.

[0023] Further, for ground-based terminals serving terrestrial users, angular coverage (e.g., an amount of the sky over which the terminal can transmit and receive communications) may be limited based on available phase and amplitude weights that can be applied to antenna elements of the antenna array at the terminal. In order to provide broader coverage, it may be beneficial to provide wider angular coverage at ground terminals while maintaining a relatively compact form factor and efficient resource utilization. Further, the computational burden of processing signals from large antenna arrays can strain processing resources and increase power consumption. Therefore, a terminal that provides relatively wide angles of coverage suitable for nonterrestrial communications while also reducing computational complexity and power consumption may be beneficial.

[0024] In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, a terminal may include an antenna subsystem with an array of antenna elements that are configured to point in dissimilar directions. In some aspects, the antenna array includes antenna elements on an antenna substrate having a convex surface along at least one dimension, such that different antenna elements point in different directions. In some aspects, the antenna array may include one or more surface-emitting antennas configured for transmitting and receiving signals above or below a plane of the antenna, and may include one or more edge-emitting antennas configured for transmitting and receiving signals along the plane of the antennas. Each of the antenna elements (e.g., patch antenna elements, edge-emitting antennas) may be coupled with a corresponding antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals.

[0025] In some aspects, a beamforming processor (e.g., which may also be referred to as a processing entity) may be coupled with the antenna elements and may measure received signals in a first mode of operation (e.g., in which a first quantity of antenna elements are active) to obtain respective signal strengths and respective noise levels ofAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)the respective antenna signals concurrently (e.g., using digital beamforming). The respective signal strengths and respective noise levels may be associated with a signal from a target device. Based on the measured respective signal strengths and measured respective noise levels obtained in the first mode of operation, the beamforming processor may determine a subset of the antenna signals for communication of a data signal with the target device in a second mode of operation (e.g., in which a second quantity of antenna elements are active, and the second quantity is less than the first quantity). The communications may be in accordance with a set of beamforming weights determined for the subset of the antenna signals based on processing the respective antenna signals in the first mode of operation. In some aspects, different antennas may use different polarizations, and may communicate with different target devices.

[0026] Aspects of the disclosure are initially described in the context of satellite communication systems. Aspects of the disclosure are then described with reference to a wireless communications system, antenna configurations, and radio architectures. Aspects of the disclosure are further illustrated by and described with reference to apparatus diagrams, system diagrams, block diagrams, and a flowchart that relate to digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions.

[0027] FIG. 1 shows an example of a satellite communication system 100 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects described herein. Satellite communication system 100 may include a ground system 135, terminals 120, and satellite system 101. The ground system 135 may include a network of access nodes 140 that are configured to communicate with the satellite system 101 via feeder links 132. The access nodes 140 may be coupled with access node transceivers 145 that are configured to process signals received from and to be transmitted through corresponding access node(s) 140. The access node transceivers 145 may also be configured to interface with a network 125 (e.g., the Internet) — e.g., via a network device 130 (e.g., a network operations center, satellite and gateway terminal command centers, or other central processing centers or devices) that may provide an interface for communicating with the network 125.

[0028] Terminals 120 may include various devices configured to communicate signals with the satellite system 101 via terminal links 122. Terminals 120 may includeAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)fixed terminals (e.g., ground-based stationary terminals), mobile terminals mounted on or integrated with mobile platforms (e.g., boats, aircraft, ground-based vehicles, and the like) or portable platforms (e.g., laptops, tablets, handsets, and the like). A terminal 120 may communicate data and information with an access node 140 via the satellite system 101. The data and information may be communicated with a destination device such as a network device 130, or some other device or distributed server associated with a network 125.

[0029] Terminals 120 may include an antenna assembly 124 which may also include various hardware for mounting an antenna. An antenna assembly 124 may also include circuits and / or processors for converting (e.g., performing frequency conversion, modulating / demodulating, multiplexing / demultiplexing, filtering, forwarding, etc.) between radio frequency (RF) satellite communication signals, and satellite terminal communications signals transmitted between the antenna and a satellite terminal receiver. For mobile terminals, the antenna assembly may be mounted on the outside of the mobile or portable platform (e.g., outside of the fuselage of an aircraft), and may protrude from the mobile or portable platform, or may be integrated into a housing of the mobile or portable platform. The terminal 120 may include a transceiver, which may be mounted on the inside or outside of a mobile or portable platform and may include circuits and / or processors for performing various RF signal operations (e.g., receiving, performing frequency conversion, modulating / demodulating, multiplexing / demultiplexing, etc.).

[0030] The satellite system 101 may include a single satellite 105, or a network of satellites 105 that are deployed in space orbits (e.g., low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), geosynchronous orbit, geostationary orbit (GEO), etc.). Satellites 105 may include an antenna assembly 104 that may be equipped with one or multiple antennas (e.g., one or more antenna arrays). In some examples, the one or more satellites 105 equipped with multiple antennas may each include one or more antenna panels that include an array of evenly (or unevenly) distributed antennas (which may also be referred to as antenna elements). The ground system 135 may also contain access nodes 140 with multiple antenna array elements. While satellite-based communications are discussed with reference to various examples, the techniques provided herein may be applicable to other non-terrestrial (e.g., high-altitudeAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)communications platforms other than satellites, such as balloons, dirigibles, or aircraft) or terrestrial communications.

[0031] The satellite system 101 may use the one or more satellites 105 to support beamforming techniques within the coverage area 155 of the satellite system to increase a utilization of resources used for communications. Beamforming, including using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques, may be used to exploit multipath signal propagation and increase spectral efficiency by transmitting or receiving multiple signals via different spatial layers over the same frequency resources. The multiple signals may, for example, be transmitted by a transmitting device (e.g., satellite 105, terminal 120) via a set of antennas in accordance with a set of weighting coefficients. Likewise, the multiple signals may be received by a receiving device (e.g., satellite 105, terminal 120) via a set of antennas in accordance with a set of weighting coefficients. Each of the multiple signals may be associated with a separate spatial stream and may carry bits associated with the same data stream (e.g., the same codeword) or different data streams (e.g., different codewords).

[0032] In some examples, some or all of the antenna elements on the satellite and / or the ground system may be arranged as an array of constituent receive and / or transmit feed elements that cooperate to enable various examples of on-board beamforming (OBBF), ground-based beamforming (GBBF), end-to-end beamforming, or other types of beamforming. In the GBBF implementation, there may be multiple transmit or receive antennas on the ground system access node(s).

[0033] To determine weighting coefficients to apply to the set of antennas such that N spatial layers are formed, an (M x N) MIMO matrix may be formed, where M may represent the quantity of antennas of the set of antennas. In some examples, M may be equal to N. The MIMO matrix may be determined based on a channel matrix and used to isolate the different spatial layers of the channel. In some examples, the weighting coefficients are selected to emphasize signals transmitted using the different spatial layers while reducing interference of signals transmitted in the other spatial layers. Accordingly, processing signals received at each antenna of the set of antennas (e.g., a signal received at the set of antennas) using the MIMO matrix may result in multiple signals being output, where each of the multiple signals may correspond to one of the spatial layers. In some examples, the weighting coefficients used for MIMOAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)communications may be referred to as beam coefficients or beamforming coefficients, and the multiple spatial layers may be referred to as beams or spot beams.

[0034] The elements of the MIMO matrix used to form the spatial layers of the channel may be determined based on channel sounding probes communicated between a satellite system 101 and one or more devices. Channel sounding probes include reference signals transmitted periodically between a satellite system and a device (e.g., a terminal 120) coupled with the satellite system 101. For example, a channel sounding probe may be periodically transmitted from a terminal 120 to the satellite system 101, or from the satellite system 101 to a terminal 120, or both, and may include a sequence that is known to the transmitter and receiver (e.g., based on a terminal identifier or other parameters known to the transmitter and receiver). The receiving device (e.g., the terminal or the satellite system) may use the received channel sounding probe to evaluate the connection by correlating a received channel sounding probe to the expected signal for the channel sounding probe (e.g., to determine a signal strength, an interference, etc.) and make decisions based thereon. Due to the periodicity of the signal, the receiving device may know when the signal should be received. In some aspects, the terminal 120 may operate in the first mode (e.g., with all antennas active, or a first quantity of active antennas) to receive the channel sounding probe, and may operate in the second mode (e.g., with a subset of antennas active, or a second quantity of active antennas that is less than the first quantity of active antennas).

[0035] Beamforming techniques may be used to shape or steer a communication beam 150 along a spatial path between a satellite system 101 and a location within the coverage area 155. A communication beam 150 may be formed by determining weighting coefficients for antenna elements of an antenna array that result in the signals transmitted from or received at the antenna elements being combined such that signals propagating in a particular orientation with respect to an antenna array experience constructive interference while others experience destructive interference. Thus, beamforming may be used to transmit signals having energy that is focused in a direction of a communication beam 150 and to receive signals that arrive in a direction of the communication beam 150 with increased signal power (relative to the absence of beamforming). The weighting coefficients may be used to apply amplitude offsets, phase offsets, true time delay (TTD), or combinations thereof to signals carried via the antennas. The beamforming may account for various signal propagation effects ofAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)atmospheric conditions 156 such as clouds, rain, or snow, and objects 158 such as trees, buildings, or vehicles.

[0036] In some examples, the weighting coefficients applied to the antennas may be used to form multiple communication beams 150, each associated with a different direction, where the multiple communication beams 150 may be used to communicate multiple signals having the same frequency at the same time to different user terminals. This may be referred to as multi-beam processing, and may support multiuser MIMO. The weighting coefficients used for beamforming may be referred to as beam coefficients, and the multiple signals may be referred to as beam signals. The resulting communication beams 150 may be referred to herein as beamformed spot beams, spot beams, or beams.

[0037] The amplitude and phase of each weighting coefficient may be calculated given the antenna array and reflector geometry, antenna location, and the desired beam locations. However, due to inaccuracies (e.g., in the satellite location, array orientation, geometry, atmospheric conditions 156, object 158, etc.), such an approach may not be practical. Instead, the weighting coefficients may be calculated by continuously measuring the MIMO propagation channel characteristics (e.g., pairwise channels from each system antenna element to each terminal antenna element) and adjusting the weighting coefficients based on the changing channel characteristics. The measured MIMO channel characteristics may include pairwise gain and phase response and noise level and may be referred to as MIMO channel state information (CSI). Once the MIMO CSI is available, the weighting coefficients may be derived by solving a set of equations or applying a set of adaptation formulas. Various beamformer calculation and adaptation techniques may be used, including minimum mean square (MMSE) beamformer, zero forcing beamformer, singular value decomposition (SVD), MIMO sphere decoder, and others.

[0038] The beamformed communication beams 150 may be associated with a set of resources of the satellite system 101. The set of resources may include frequency resources, time resources, and polarization resources. Beamformed communication beams 150 may overlap spatially without interfering if they are associated with different resources. For example, a given frequency range for the satellite system 101 may be divided into frequency resources or channels, and a given amount of time may beAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)divided into different recurring time slots, where a frequency resource may be used to carry a beam signal (e.g., a modulated signal carried in a beamformed spot beam) on one of the recurring time slots. Each frequency channel may carry a single modulated signal, while in other cases each frequency channel may be further divided to carry multiple modulated signals which may be multiplexed in time (e.g., time division multiple access (TDMA)) or frequency (frequency division multiple access (FDMA)). Information (e.g., data, control information) may be modulated onto the modulated signals using a variety of single-carrier or multi-carrier modulation techniques (e.g., Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), linearly pre-coded OFDM (LP-OFDM)).

[0039] In addition to being multiplexed in time or frequency, different polarizations may be used to define the resources for assignment to beams. For example, a set of resources may include a first sub-set of resources associated with a first polarization and a second sub-set of resources associated with a second, orthogonal, polarization. The first and second polarizations may be any orthogonal polarizations, and may be linearly polarized or circularly polarized (e.g., a right-hand circular polarization (RHCP), a lefthand circular polarization (LHCP)).

[0040] In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, an antenna assembly 124 at terminal 120 may include an array of antenna elements that are configured to point in dissimilar directions. For example, the antenna array include antenna elements on an antenna substrate having a convex surface along at least one dimension, such that different antenna elements point in different directions. In other examples, the antenna array may include one or more surface-emitting antennas configured for transmitting and receiving signals above or below a plane of the antenna, and one or more edge-emitting antennas configured for transmitting and receiving signals along the plane of the antennas. Further, the terminal 120 or antenna assembly 124 may include a beamforming processor that is coupled with the antenna elements and may perform various beamforming functions, including measurement of a received signal, selection of one or more subsets of antenna elements to be used for beamformed communications, determination of beamforming weights for different subsets of antenna signals, determination of polarizations of different antenna signals, or any combination thereof.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0041] For example, the beamforming processor may be configured to communicate a first beam signal (e.g., a channel sounding probe) with a first target device (e.g., a satellite) according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, where the first beam signal uses a first set of the antenna signals associated with a first set of antennas of the terminal 120 (e.g., all of the antennas, or a subset of the antennas when the beamforming processor has an idea of which antennas on a curved surface are candidates for receiving the first beam signal). The beamforming processor may measure respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels of the respective antenna signals of the first beam signal, and determine a subset of the first set of antennas based on the measured respective first signal strengths and measured respective first noise levels. For example, the subset of antennas may include antenna elements of the terminal 120 that are determined to have received the first beam signal. The beamforming processor may communicate (e.g., receive, transmit, or both) a second beam signal with one or more satellites using the subset of antennas, according to a set of beamforming coefficients that are determined based on the measured first signal strengths and noise levels. In some cases, antennas other than those in the subset of antennas may not be used for the communications of the second beam signal and may be deactivated or otherwise placed in a reduced power mode, which may reduce power consumption of the terminal 120, reduce usage of processing resources at the terminal 120, or both.

[0042] Examples of antenna configurations, antenna elements, polarizations, and beamforming processor operations, are discussed for several examples with reference to FIGs. 2 through 11.

[0043] FIGs. 2A and 2B show examples of antenna arrays 200 and 250 that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The convex antenna substrates may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), or other transmitter or receiver device. The convex antenna substrates may be convex along at least one dimension (e.g., cylinder or semicylinder shaped), or may be convex along more than one dimension (e.g., dome or sphere shaped).

[0044] In the example of FIG. 2 A, an antenna array 200 may include an antenna substrate 205 that extends 360 degrees (e.g., around a pole), such that the antenna array 200 may receive a signal from any direction. The antenna array 200 may includeAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)multiple antenna elements 210 that may be mounted to the antenna substrate 205 such that different antenna elements 210 are oriented in different directions. Each antenna element 210 may be, for example, a patch antenna, and may be coupled with a respective antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals, as will be discussed in more detail with reference to FIGs. 4-10. In this example, an antenna element may have a boresight (e.g., the direction of maximum gain of an individual antenna element within the array, such as the direction perpendicular to its radiating surface for a patch or broadside antenna element or along an axis of its radiating surface for an edge-fire antenna element) that is different than a boresight of one or more adjacent antenna elements. In some examples, signals from a subset of antenna elements 210 may be combined for beamforming in a particular direction. More specifically, in the example of FIG. 2, a first antenna element 210-a, a second antenna element 210-b, and a third antenna element 210-c may be included in a first subset 215 of antenna elements that may be combined to form a first beam 230 having a first direction. Further, in this example, the third antenna element 210-c, a fourth antenna element 210-d, and a fifth antenna element 210-e may be included in a second subset 220 of antenna elements that may be combined to form a second beam 235 having a second direction that is different than the first direction. Additionally, in this example, the fifth antenna element 210-e, a sixth antenna element 210-f, and a seventh antenna element 210-g may be included in a third subset 225 of antenna elements that may be combined to form a third beam 240 having a third direction that is different than the first direction and the second direction. In this example, there is overlapping in the first subset 215 and the second subset 220 of antenna elements as well as in the second subset 220 and third subset 225 of antenna elements.

[0045] In some examples, only one of the subsets may be used for communications, such as the first subset 215, and antenna elements 210 other than those included in the first subset 215 may be deactivated or otherwise unused. For example, only the first antenna element 210-a, second antenna element 210-b, and third antenna element 210-c may have components in a transmit chain or a receive chain activated for communications. Thus, remaining antenna elements 210 of the antenna array 200 may be unused to reduce power consumption and usage of computing resources. Further, when receiving communications along the first direction, combining signals from only the first through third antenna elements 210-a-210-c may avoid combining noise fromAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)other antenna elements outside of the first subset 215, which may further reduce computing resource usage because the noise from the other antenna elements does not have to be filtered out through various different filtering techniques. In some examples, the first beam 230 and the second beam 235 may have different polarizations. For example, the first beam 230 may use LHCP and the second beam 235 may use RHCP, and the beams may be concurrently processed to support concurrent communications via the first beam 230 and the second beam 235.

[0046] In the example of FIG. 2B, an antenna array 250 may include an antenna substrate 255 that provides a curved (e.g., convex) surface, such that the antenna array 250 may receive a wider range of angles than an antenna array with a planar substrate (e.g., the antenna array 250 may be able to transmit and receive signals across up to 180 degrees). The antenna array 250 may include multiple antenna elements 260 (e.g., antenna elements 260-a, 260-b, 260-c, 260-d, 260-e, 260-f, 260-g, 260-h, 260-i, 260-j) that may be mounted to the antenna substrate 255 such that different antenna elements 260 are oriented in different directions. Each antenna element 260 may be, for example, a patch antenna and may be coupled with a respective antenna feed that carries respective antenna signals, as will be discussed in more detail with reference to FIGs. 4- 10. In this example, a first subset 265 of antenna elements 260-a-260-e may be used to form a first beam 275 having a first direction for communication with a first satellite 285-a (e.g., a LEO satellite), and a second subset 270 of antenna elements 260-f-260-j may be used to form a second beam 280 having a second direction different than the first direction for communication with a second satellite 285-b (e.g., another LEO satellite).

[0047] Similarly as discussed with reference to FIG. 2A, only signals from one of the subsets of antenna elements 260 may be used for communications. For example, only antenna elements 260-a-260-e may be used for communications with the first satellite 285-a which avoids using other antenna elements 260 and combining received energy from such other antenna elements 260 that would not contain little or no useful signal from the first satellite 285-a. Further, in some examples, by using only a subset of antenna elements 260 for communications with a particular satellite 285, the antenna array 250 may be used for concurrent communications with multiple satellites 285, such as communications with the second satellite 285-b that may be processed separately and concurrently with communications with the first satellite 285-a with reduced processingAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)complexity relative to MIMO communications that use all of the available antenna elements. In some cases, transmit and receive components for communications with first satellite 285-a may be managed independently of components for communications with the second satellite 285-b, allowing for independent communications without additional signal processing and related computing resource usage for processing signals of the antenna elements that are used for communications with the second satellite 285-b. In some examples, the first beam 275 and the second beam 280 may have different polarizations. For example, the first beam 275 may use LHCP and the second beam 280 may use RHCP. In some examples, element usage can be managed to share an aperture with multiple beams. Examples of antenna elements are discussed with reference to FIGs. 3A and 3B.

[0048] FIGs. 3A and 3B show examples of antenna elements 300 and 350 that support digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The antenna elements 300 and 350 may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), and may be examples of antenna elements that may be mounted on convex antenna substrates of antenna arrays 200 and 250 of FIGs. 2A and 2B, or may be used in other transmitter or receiver devices.

[0049] In the example of FIG. 3A, antenna element 300 may be a circular patch antenna configured for different polarizations. For example, a circular patch 305 may include a first port 310 (e.g., a via) located on one side of a slot 320 (e.g., rectangular slot) that may be used to transmit and receive a first polarization (e.g., RHCP), and a second port 315 (e.g., a via) located of the other side of the slot 320 that may be used to transmit and receive a second polarization (e.g., LHCP). In some examples, the antenna element 300 may be formed from a conductor (e.g., copper) on a dielectric substrate (e.g., a low-loss dielectric, air dielectric, or foam substrate), although other conductors and substrates may be used, such as gold-plated copper, silver, aluminum, or copper traces on printed circuit board substrate. A second side of the substrate may include another layer of conductive material, which may serve as a ground plane for the circular patch 305. Although discussed as circular, the slot 320 may modify the characteristics of the circular patch 305 to be suitable for transmission and reception of circularly polarized waves (e.g., LHCP waves, RHCP waves). In some cases, circular patch 305 may include only one of port 310 or port 315, and an antenna array 200 or 250 mayAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)include a combination of circular patch elements associated with LHCP and RHCP (e.g., interspersed). In some cases, an antenna array 200 or 250 may include an array of circular patches 305, each having a port 310 and a port 315, which may be coupled with separate paths of a transmitter or receiver device.

[0050] In the example of FIG. 3B, a crossed-dipole antenna element 350 may be configured for different polarizations. In this example, a first dipole 355 and a second dipole 360 may be coupled with a first feed 365 and a second feed 370, respectively. The crossed-dipole antenna element 350 may be used to transmit and receive multiple types of polarization. For example, different linear polarizations may be used to transmit or receive signals, such as horizontal polarization by exciting one dipole (e.g., the opposite arms of the first dipole 355), a vertical polarization by exciting the other dipole (e.g., the opposite arms of the second dipole 360), or a slant polarization (e.g., ±45°) by exciting both the first dipole 355 and the second dipole 360 with appropriate phase relationships (e.g., a signal on the first feed 365 that is in phase (0°) or out of phase (180°) with a signal on the second feed 370). In some examples, different circular polarizations may be used to transmit or receive signals, such as RHCP by feeding both the first dipole 355 and the second dipole 360 with equal amplitude signals that have a 90° phase difference, or LHCP by feeding both the first dipole 355 and the second dipole 360 with equal amplitude signals that have a -90° phase difference. Further, an elliptical polarization may be used to transmit or receive signals by adjusting the amplitude and phase relationships between the first dipole 355 and the second dipole 360. In some examples, the crossed-dipole antenna element 350 may be formed from copper on a dielectric substrate (e.g., a low-loss dielectric, air dielectric, or foam substrate), although other conductors and substrates may be used, such as gold-plated copper, silver, aluminum, or copper traces on printed circuit board substrate. In some cases, circular polarization may be provided via a polarizer 375, which may have a first feed 366 associated with one of LHCP or RHCP and a second feed 371 associated with the other of LHCP or RHCP.

[0051] It is to be understood that the antenna element 300 of FIG. 3A (circular patch antenna) and the antenna element 350 of FIG. 3B (crossed-dipole antenna element) are provided for purposes of discussion and illustration, and that aspects of phased array antennas as discussed herein may be implemented using any of multiple different types of antenna elements (e.g., rectangular or square patch antennas, triangular or otherAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)shaped patch antennas, folded dipoles, bow-tie dipoles, circular slot antennas, tapered slot antennas, horn antennas, etc.), or combinations of different types of antenna elements.

[0052] FIG. 4 shows an example of a radio architecture 400 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The radio architecture 400 may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), and / or in conjunction with convex antenna substrates of antenna arrays 200 and 250 of FIGs. 2A and 2B, for example, and may use antenna elements such as antenna element 300 of FIG. 3A, the antenna element 350 of FIG. 3B, one or more other types of antenna elements, or any combinations thereof.

[0053] In this example, each antenna element 405 of a set of antenna elements 405 may have a corresponding antenna feed 407 that includes an amplifier 410, a mixer 415, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) such as ADC 420. A synthesizer 425 may output signals to each of the mixers 415 to down-convert received RF signal to a lower intermediate frequency (IF) signal prior to ADC 420. A beamforming processor 430 may receive the output from each ADC 420 and perform digital beamforming on the signals to generate a received signal.

[0054] In accordance with some aspects, the antenna elements 405 may be mounted on an antenna substrate having a convex surface along at least one dimension, such as discussed with reference to FIGs. 1, 2A, and 2B, where each antenna element 405 is coupled with an associated antenna feed 407 that carries respective antenna signals. In some aspects, the beamforming processor 430 may be configured to measure, in a first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the respective antenna signals concurrently, where the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels are associated with a signal from a target device (e.g., a satellite). The beamforming processor 430 may determine, based at least in part on the measured respective signals strengths and measured respective noise levels obtained in the first mode of operation, a first subset of the antenna signals 435 for communication of a data signal with the target device, and may communicate with the target device, in a second mode of operation, the data signal according to a set of beamforming weights determined for the first subset of the antenna signals 435 based at least in part on processing the respective antenna signals in the first mode of operation.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0055] In some examples, the beamforming processor 430 may be further configured to compare the measured respective signal strengths and the measured respective noise levels to a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold, and the determination of the first subset of the antenna signals 435 is based at least in part on the comparison. In some examples, the beamforming processor 430 may compare the measured respective signal strengths to a signal strength threshold and the measured respective noise levels to a noise threshold, and the first subset of the antenna signals 435 correspond to the antenna signals that satisfy the signal strength threshold and fail to satisfy the noise threshold. In this example, a second subset of antenna signals 440 may correspond to antenna elements 405 that do not satisfy the signal strength and noise threshold criteria, and may not be used. In such cases, amplifiers 410 and ADCs 420 associated with the second subset of antenna signals 440 may be powered down to conserve power. Further, in some examples, the second subset of antenna signals 440 may not be provided to processing components within the beamforming processor 430, which may simplify beamforming computations (e.g., allowing processing using smaller matrices, using fewer inputs to obtain faster convergence of beamforming parameters, etc.). While the example of FIG. 4 shows radio architecture 400 in a receive configuration, a corresponding architecture may be used to transmit signals, where beamforming processor 430 may output signals to digital-to-analog converters (DACs), that are upconverted to high frequency RF, amplified, and transmitted via antenna elements 405.

[0056] In some examples, as discussed, each antenna element 405 may be a patch antenna (e.g., a circular patch antenna) that is configured to communicate circularly polarized signals. In some examples, different antenna elements 405 may have different polarizations. For example, a first subset of the antenna elements 405 may be patch antennas associated with LHCP and a second subset of the antenna elements 405 may be patch antennas associated with RHCP. In some examples, each patch antenna may include a first port associated with left hand circular polarization and a second port associated with right hand circular polarization.

[0057] Additionally, or alternatively, the beamforming processor 430 may be configured to process, in the first mode of operation, multiple different first subsets of the antenna signals concurrently (e.g., the first subset of antenna signals 435 and the second subset of antenna signals 440), to obtain a set of combined antenna signals, where two or more subsets of the multiple different first subsets include one or moreAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)common antenna elements (e.g., two or more subsets are intersecting subsets). The beamforming processor 430 in such cases may measure, in the first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the multiple combined antenna signals concurrently, where the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the multiple combined antenna signals are associated with a signal from the target device.

[0058] As discussed, in some examples the radio architecture 400 may have an associated transmit configuration, which may include multiple DACs having inputs coupled with digital component transmit signals of the beamforming processor 430 and outputs coupled with the plurality of antenna elements 405 (e.g., via an upconverting mixer and amplifier). In such transmit configurations, the beamforming processor 430 may be further configured to apply the set of beamforming weights to the data signal to obtain the digital component transmit signals. Further, as discussed for some receive configuration examples, the ADCs 420 may have inputs coupled with the antenna elements 405 (e.g., via respective down-converting mixers 415 and amplifiers 410), and outputs coupled with digital component receive signals of the beamforming processor 430, and the beamforming processor may be configured to apply the set of beamforming weights to the digital component receive signals to obtain the data signal. Thus, digital beamforming may be used in conjunction with the selected subset(s) of antenna elements 405 used for communications, where the antenna elements 405 may be located on a convex surface or may otherwise have configurations that provide for adjacent antenna elements 405 to have different boresight directions.

[0059] In some further examples, additionally, or alternatively, the beamforming processor 430 may be configured to communicate a first beam signal with a first target device (e.g., a first satellite) according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, using a first subset of the antenna signals 435 associated with a first subset of the antenna elements 405 (e.g., a first subset of patch antennas). The beamforming processor also may be configured to communicate a second beam signal with a second target device (e.g., a second satellite) according to a second set of beamforming coefficients, a second beam signal using a second subset of the antenna signals 440 associated with a second subset of the antenna elements (e.g., a second subset of patch antennas). In some examples, the first subset of antenna elements and the second subset of antenna elements may be disjoint subsets or may be intersecting subsets.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0060] In some examples, the beamforming processor may be further configured to concurrently measure respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels of the respective antenna signals, wherein the respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels are associated with the first beam signal and determine the first subset of antenna elements based on the measured respective first signal strengths and measured respective first noise levels. In some examples, the beamforming processor 430 may be further configured to concurrently measure respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels of the respective antenna signals, where the respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels are associated with the second beam signal, and determine the second subset of the antenna elements based on the measured respective second signal strengths and measured respective second noise levels.

[0061] Additionally, or alternatively, the set of antenna elements 405 may be disposed on the one or more antenna substrates, and each antenna element 405 may include a first conductive element on a first side of the one or more antenna substrates and a second conductive element on a second side of the one or more antenna substrates. In some examples, the first conductive element and the second conductive element may be configured to communicate circularly polarized signals. An example of an antenna element with this configuration is discussed in more detail with reference to FIG. 5. In such examples, the beamforming processor 430 may be configured to communicate a first beam signal with a first target device according to a first set of beamforming coefficients using a first subset of the antenna signals 435 associated with a first subset of the antenna elements 405, where the first beam signal is communicated using the first subset of the antenna elements 405 via a first beam that is polarized according to one of LHCP or RHCP. Further, the beamforming processor 430 may be configured to communicate a second beam signal with a second target device according to a second set of beamforming coefficients using a second subset of the antenna signals 440 associated with a second subset of the antenna elements, where the second beam signal is communicated using the second subset of the antenna elements via a second beam that is polarized according to the other of LHCP or RHCP.

[0062] In some examples, the antenna elements 405 include a first set of antennas associated with LHCP and a second set of antennas associated with RHCP. In some examples, each antenna of the antenna elements 405 may include a first port associatedAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)with LHCP and a second port associated with RHCP (e.g., as shown in the example of FIG. 3 A). In some examples, a first subset of the ADCs 420 may have inputs coupled with the first ports of the first set of antenna elements and outputs coupled with the beamforming processor 430, and a second subset of the ADCs 420 may have inputs coupled with the second ports of the second set of antenna elements and outputs coupled with the beamforming processor 430. In some examples, the antenna elements 405 may include one or more surface-emitting antennas and one or more edge-emitting antennas.

[0063] FIG. 5 shows an example of an antenna structure 500 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The antenna structure 500 may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), in conjunction with convex antenna substrates of antenna arrays 200 and 250 of FIGs. 2A and 2B, as one or more antenna elements 405 of FIG. 4, or any combinations thereof.

[0064] In this example, antenna structure 500 includes a substrate 505 (e.g., a dielectric substrate such as a low-loss dielectric of a printed circuit board or foam substrate) and a mounting surface 510. Mounting points 515 may secure antenna substrates 520 to the mounting surface 510 (e.g., top and bottom mounting surfaces 510), where the antenna substrates 520 include conductive elements 525 on a top surface of the antenna substrates 520 and conductive element(s) 526 on a bottom surface of the antenna substrates 520. In some examples, based on a configuration of the conductive elements 525 and amplitudes and / or phases of RF signals provided to the conductive elements 525 (e.g., via one or more ports that are coupled with an antenna feed via mounting points 515), the antenna structure 500 may emit a signal in one of multiple different direction, such as a first direction 530 or a second direction 545 that are perpendicular to a plane of the antenna substrates 520 when used in a broadside antenna element configuration, or in a third direction 535 or a fourth direction 540 when used in an edge-emitting antenna element configuration.

[0065] FIG. 6 shows an example of a radio architecture 600 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The radio architecture 600 may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), and may include convex antenna substrates of antenna arrays 200 and 250 of FIGs. 2A and 2B, may use antenna elements such as antenna element 300 of FIG. 3A, the antenna element 350 of FIG. 3B,Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)or the antenna structure 500 of FIG. 5, may be an example of radio architecture 400, or any combinations thereof. In some examples, the radio architecture 600 may be employed for receive operations.

[0066] In some examples, architectures for digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions may involve the use of ADCs 618 at an element level (e.g., one or more ADCs per antenna element or patch 610). This may be done to increase a quantity of beams that can be formed and the scan range for each of them, and to provide flexibility in digital beamforming in which signals from only certain antenna elements may be used for communications. In this example, direct sampling may be used in which each ADC 618 is directly coupled with an amplifier 616 and an associated patch 610. Alternatively, mixers (e.g., mixers 415) may be used for downconversion prior to input to ADCs 618. While this example illustrates patch 610 antennas, other types of antenna elements may be used in other examples, such as dipole antennas, horn antennas, etc. Such direct coupling may reduce a quantity of components used, which may be helpful in certain frequency bands (e.g., the Ka-band and above), where a geometrical lattice may affect the physical space available for components. In contrast, a corresponding analog beamforming alternative may provide analog phase shifters and amplifiers for each antenna element which may result in gain and phase imbalances at each analog recombination (e.g., in addition to the distributed losses next to the elements which may directly affect the antenna gain and throughput).

[0067] In this example, the radio architecture 600 includes multiple patch 610 antenna elements of an antenna array (e.g., a phased antenna array). In some examples, each patch 610 may output a right hand (RH) circularly polarized signal and a left hand (LH) circularly polarized signal, which may be achieved, at least in part, by coupling to different points on an antenna element to capture the different polarizations. In some examples, the amplifier 616 may be a low noise amplifier (LNA).

[0068] A processing entity 630, which may be an example of a beamforming processer, may include the ADCs 618, a digital signal processor (DSP), such as DSP 620, and a serializer / deserializer (SERDES), such as the SERDES 628. In some examples, once processed, the digital signals may be passed to the SERDES 628, which may convert signaling between serial and parallel arrangements (e.g., to facilitate further processing or communication of the digital signals).Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0069] In some examples, it may be desirable to provide the ADCs 618 with circularly polarized signals. In a single beam scenario, the signal provided to the ADC 618 will either be RHCP or LHCP, and as such, half of the ADCs 618 (e.g., the half that is configured to digitize the other, “unused” polarization) of a signal path associated with a patch 610 may be deactivated, resulting in power and processing savings. Similarly, in a multi beam scenario, similar power and processing savings may be achieved if the multiple beams are of the same circular polarization, thereby allowing some of the ADCs 618 to be deactivated.

[0070] In some examples, the ADCs 618 may be of a given bit rate or resolution, and the DSP 620 may perform one or more operations on the signals digitized by the ADCs 618 that may result in a digital signal that is of a higher bit rate or resolution. Such operations may include a combination operation or other DSP operations involving one or more digital signals. In some examples, the ADCs 618 may be of various architectures, including a successive approximation register ADC architecture, a delta-sigma ADC architecture, a flash ADC architecture, an integrating ADC architecture, a pipeline ADC architecture, or any combination thereof. In some examples, all of the ADCs 618 may be of the same architecture, and in other examples, different groups or individual ADCs 618 may be of different architectures (e.g., based on whether its associated antenna element is a surface-emitting element or an edgeemitting element).

[0071] In some examples, the DSP 620 may include multiple processing layers. A first processing layer may process the signals output from the ADCs 618 and identify whether the signals contain a signal of interest (e.g., based on a correlation between a received signal and a defined signal sequence that may indicate a presence of the signal of interest at the associated patch 610). A second processing layer may process the signals of two or more combined signals from the ADCs 618 to identify one or more subsets of antenna elements (e.g., patches 610) that may have a signal of interest. An example of such DSP 620 processing layers is described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7. In some examples, the DSP 620 may perform one or more operations on input signals, including fractional filtering, complex multi-beam processing, coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) processing, complex multiplication, phase shifting, buffering, true time delay processing, or any combination thereof.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0072] In some aspects, the radio architecture 600 may be used in a first mode of operation, such as during a pointing or detection phase of communications operations, where it may be desirable to obtain signals from all antenna elements (or less than all antenna elements if there is some knowledge of where a signal is coming from) to enhance the likelihood of detection of a signal of interest. Based on the first mode of operation, one or more beams may be identified, and after the pointing phase is over (e.g., a link is closed and a modem is connected), the radio architecture 600 may operate in a second mode of operation, which may be used for data signal communications. In some examples, the processing entity 630 may be included in or may itself be a radio architecture manager that configures one or more parameters associated with the amplifiers 616, the ADCs 618, the DSP 620, or any combination thereof, based on one or more communication characteristics associated with the radio architecture.

[0073] In some examples, to allow for control of the various elements of the radio architecture 600, such elements may be implemented in one or more programmable logic elements (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic elements). For example, the ADCs 618 and the DSP 620 (e.g., all or a subset of multiple processing cells, processing layers, or any other processing elements) may be implemented through such programmable logic. Further, the processing entity 630 may configure the one or more programmable logic elements to configure the ADCs 618 and the DSP 620 in accordance with the techniques described herein.

[0074] FIG. 7 shows an example of a radio architecture 700 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The radio architecture 700 may include a DSP 620-a that may be an example of DSP 620 of FIG. 6.

[0075] In this example, DSP 620-a may include multiple correlators 705 that may be coupled directly or indirectly with an ADC (e.g., ADC 618 of FIG. 6). In a first processing layer 720, for example, each correlator 705 may be coupled with an associated ADC, and may provide a single bit value as an output that indicates whether a signal 702 from the ADC passes a correlation metric and thus is likely to include a signal of interest (e.g., based on a whether one or more portions of a defined sequence of the signal of interest is detected in the received signal). In some examples, a second processing layer 730 may include correlators 705 that receive the output of a multiplier 710 (e.g., with a weighting coefficient) and summation component 715. For example, ifAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)the first processing layer indicates two or more particular antenna feeds are likely to include the signal of interest, the output of each of the identified feeds (e.g., weighted according to signal strength detected on the antenna feeds) may be used at a second processing layer that may sum the identified feeds and provide a summed output to a correlator 705 to determine whether a combined correlation is stronger than an initial correlation. Based on the resultant outputs, one or multiple different subsets of antenna elements may be selected for use in data communications. For example, in some cases DSP 620-a with a convex antenna substrate such as that shown in FIG. 2 A or FIG. 2B may detect signals coming from greater than 180 degrees, or greater than 270 degrees concurrently.

[0076] In some cases, the different processing layers may be performed at different times by the DSP 620-a to detect at different directivities and sensitivity levels. For example, the second processing layer 730 may be more sensitive than the first processing layer 720 due to having higher directivity. Thus, if no signal from a target is detected using the first processing layer 720, the second processing layer 730 may be used to detect the signal.

[0077] In some examples, three or more layers of such processing may be performed to identify a particular subset of antenna elements that are to be used for data communications. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates a third processing layer 740 that includes correlators 705 that receive the output of multipliers 710 and a summation component 715 associated with a quantity (e.g., 3, 4, 5, etc.) of antenna feeds. In some cases, some of the subsets of antenna feeds coupled with different correlators of a processing layer may overlap. For example, at processing layer 740, some of the antenna feeds coupled with one correlator 705 may also be coupled with a second correlator 705 (e.g., correlators 705 may be coupled with different overlapping subsets of antenna feeds). In this way, multiple narrower beams may be processed concurrently to enhance sensitivity.

[0078] In some cases, multiple processing layers are enabled concurrently to detect in different directions at the same time. The information obtained from multi-layer correlation may be used to identify antenna elements used for forming a beam for communication of data with a target. For example, a first subset of correlators 705 of the first processing layer 720 may detect a signal of the target, while a second subset ofAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)correlators 705 of the second processing layer 730 may detect the signal, and a third subset of correlators 705 of the third processing layer 740 may detect the signal.

[0079] FIG. 8 shows an example of a radio architecture 800 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The example of FIG. 8 illustrates a more detailed example of the radio architecture 600 that may be used in some implementations. In some examples, the radio architecture 800 may be employed for receive operations.

[0080] In this example, similarly as described with reference to FIG. 6, the radio architecture 800 includes multiple patch antennas 810 of an antenna array (e.g., a phased antenna array). While this example illustrates patch antennas 810, other types of antenna elements may be used in other examples, such as dipole antennas, edgeemitting antenna elements, horn antennas, etc. In some examples, each patch antenna 810 may output a RH and LH circularly polarized signal, which may be achieved, at least in part, by coupling to different points on an antenna element to capture the different polarizations. The polarized signals may be provided to an amplifier 812, and a polarizer 814. A processing entity 830, which may be an example of a beamforming processer, may include amplifiers 816 (e.g., LNAs), ADCs 818, a DSP 820, and a SERDES 828. In some examples, once processed, the digital signals may be passed to the SERDES 828, which may convert signaling between serial and parallel arrangements (e.g., to facilitate further processing or communication of the digital signals).

[0081] In some examples, the polarizer 814 may be an analog polarizer circuit that may transform a horizontally polarized signal and a vertically polarized signal into an RHCP signal and a LHCP signal. Such transformation may be performed in the analog domain, which may reduce the amount of processing performed in the DSP 820 in the processing entity 830, resulting in power and processing consumption. For example, the polarizer 814 may perform one or more transformations, such as Hilbert transformations, in the analog domain to achieve the transformation from a horizontally polarized signal and a vertically polarized signal into an RHCP signal and a LHCP signal.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0082] The RHCP and LHCP signals may further be amplified by the amplifiers 816, after which the RHCP and LHCP signals may be converted to the digital domain by the ADCs 818. Once digitized, additional digital processing may be performed on the digitized signals. However, since the transformation to RCHP and LCHP was performed by the polarizer 814 in the analog domain, the DSP 820 need not perform such conversion, which may reduce the overall power and resource consumption or free up power and resources to be used for other processing operations. In some examples, once processed, the digital signals may be passed to the SERDES 828, which may convert signaling between serial and parallel arrangements (e.g., to facilitate further processing or communication of the digital signals).

[0083] In some examples, it may be desirable to provide the ADCs 818 with circularly polarized signals. In a single beam scenario, the signal provided to the ADC 818 will either be RHCP or LHCP, and as such, half of the ADCs 818 (e.g., the half that is configured to digitize the other, “unused” polarization) of a signal path associated with a patch antenna 810 may be deactivated, resulting in power and processing savings. Similarly, in a multi beam scenario, similar power and processing savings may be achieved if the multiple beams are of the same circular polarization, thereby allowing some of the ADCs 818 to be deactivated.

[0084] In some examples, the radio architecture 800 may maintain the bias and other parameters of the system to maintain a DC point in the middle of a possible range of a 1 bit comparator or the DSP 820 such that the digitized noise signal may be flipping between zeros and ones that represent the noise. Such a signal, if averaged out, may be representative of the signal, even though the received noise may be quite strong, and subsequent stages of processing may be used to reveal the signal that is “buried” within the noise, while still allowing the ADCs 818 to have reduced bit depths, resulting in power and resource savings. Additionally, or alternatively, and in some examples, by reducing the dynamic range of the ADCs 818, the amount of amplification applied to the digital signal may be reduced, which may result in significant power and resource savings, particularly when such savings are achieved relatively early in the signal chain (e.g., closer to the patch antennas 810). Such savings may be particularly significant in systems that employ large quantities of ADCs 818. Further, power consumption of the ADCs 818, the DSP 820, or both, may be significantly reduced due to the reduced bit depths of the ADCs 818. For example, the ADCs 818 themselves may consume lessAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)power in the analog to digital conversion operations, and the DSP 820 may consume less power as the processing applied by the DSP 820 may be of a reduced bit depth.

[0085] In some examples, the ADCs 818 may be of a given bit rate or resolution, and the DSP 820 may perform one or more operations on the signals digitized by the ADCs 818 that may result in a digital signal that is of a higher bit rate or resolution. Such operations may include a combination operation or other DSP operations involving one or more digital signals. In some examples, the bit rate or resolution of the ADCs 818 may be based on an SNR associated with the signals received at the ADCs 818 (e.g., after being transformed by the polarizer 814 and amplified by the amplifiers 816). For example, the ADCs 818 may be adapted or configured to be of a greater bit depth or resolution based on the SNR being higher, or a lesser bit depth or resolution based on the SNR being lower. In some examples, associations between SNR values and bit depths or resolutions may be established and the bit depth or resolution may be configured or selected based on such associations.

[0086] In some examples, the ADCs 818 may be of various architectures, including a successive approximation register ADC architecture, a delta-sigma ADC architecture, a flash ADC architecture, an integrating ADC architecture, a pipeline ADC architecture, or any combination thereof. In some examples, all of the ADCs 818 may be of the same architecture, and in other examples, different groups or individual ADCs 818 may be of different architectures.

[0087] In some examples, such as discussed with reference to FIG. 7, the DSP 820 may include multiple processing layers. A first processing layer may process the signals output from the ADCs 818, and such signals may be of a first bit rate (e.g., sample rate) or resolution. After being processed by the DSP 820, the signals may be of a higher resolution than the first bit rate or resolution (and optionally, of a different sample rate). A second processing layer may further process the intermediate signals and may output signals that are of a yet higher bit rate or resolution than the intermediate signals (and, optionally, of another different sample rate). Such processing may be carried on for any quantity of DSP layers to increase the bit rate or resolution through multiple layers of processing. In some examples, the DSP 820 may perform one or more operations on input signals, including fractional filtering, complex multi-beam processing, coordinateAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)rotation digital computer (CORDIC) processing, complex multiplication, phase shifting, buffering, true time delay processing, or any combination thereof.

[0088] In some examples, the processing entity 830 may include one or more control elements, such as the control element 822, which may provide an interface for controlling one or more aspects of the processing entity 830. For example, the control element 822 may dynamically configure one or more elements of the processing entity 830 to adapt the radio architecture 800 for different scenarios. For example, the radio architecture 800 may be used in satellite scenarios where, during a pointing phase of communications operations, it may be desirable to obtain signals from a relatively large number of patch antennas 810 to identify which patch antennas 810 may be receiving a signal of interest (e.g., based on the patch antennas 810 being located at different areas on a convex surface of an antenna subsystem). After the pointing phase is over (e.g., a link is closed and a modem is connected), the control element 822 may configure the processing entity 830 (or one or more elements thereof) to reduce the quantity of patch antennas 810 that are used for data communications. In some examples, the control element 822 may be included in or may itself be a radio architecture manager that configures one or more parameters associated with the polarizers 814, the amplifiers 812, the amplifiers 816, the ADCs 818, the DSP 820, or any combination thereof, based on one or more communication characteristics associated with the radio architecture (e.g., SNR, bandwidth, a bit depth of one or more of the ADCs 818, a dynamic range one or more of the ADCs 818, a gain associated the amplifiers 812 and / or the amplifiers 816, a transformation function associated with the polarizers 814, any other communication characteristics described herein, or any combination thereof).

[0089] In some examples, to allow for control of the various elements of the radio architecture 800, such elements may be implemented in one or more programmable logic elements (e.g., FPGAs or other programmable logic elements). For example, the ADCs 818 and the DSP 820 (e.g., all or a subset of multiple processing cells, processing layers, or any other processing elements), may be implemented through such programmable logic. Further, the control element 822 may configure the one or more programmable logic elements to configure the ADCs 818 and the DSP 820 in accordance with the techniques described herein.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0090] In some examples, the processing entity 830 may include the DC supply 824, which may provide DC current to one or more elements of the processing entity 830. In some examples, the DC supply 824 may be scaled down (e.g., configured to provide less energy or power) as the elements of the processing entity 830 may consume less power as a result of the techniques described herein. In some examples, the processing entity 830 may include a phase locked loop (PLL) entity, such as the PLL 826, which may support the operations of the DSP 820 or other elements of the processing entity 830.

[0091] FIG. 9 shows an example of a radio architecture 900 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The example of FIG. 9 illustrates a more detailed example of the radio architecture 600 that may be used in transmit operations in some implementations.

[0092] In this example, the radio architecture 900 includes multiple patch antennas 910 of an antenna array (e.g., a phased antenna array). While this example illustrates patch antennas 910, other types of antenna elements may be used in other examples, such as dipole antennas, horn antennas, edge-emitting antennas, etc. In some examples, each patch antenna 910 may output a RH and LH circularly polarized signal, which may be achieved, at least in part, by coupling to different points on an antenna element to capture the different polarizations.

[0093] In some examples, digital signals may be received by a SERDES 928, which may convert signaling between serial and parallel arrangements (e.g., to facilitate further processing or communication of the digital signals). In some examples, the RHCP and LHCP signals may be converted to analog signals by the DACs 918, after which the RHCP and LHCP signals may be amplified by the amplifiers 916 and passed to the polarizer 914. In some examples, the polarizer 914 may be an analog polarizer circuit that may transform an RHCP signal and an LHCP signal into a horizontally polarized signal and a vertically polarized signal for transmission by the patch antenna 910. In other examples, polarization may be achieved based on the structure of the associated antenna element. In cases where a polarizer is used, such transformation may be performed in the analog domain, which may reduce the amount of processing performed in the DSP 920 in the processing entity 930, resulting in reduced power and processing consumption. For example, the polarizer 914 may perform one or moreAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)transformations, such as Hilbert transformations, in the analog domain to achieve the transformation from an RHCP signal and an LHCP signal into a horizontally polarized signal and a vertically polarized signal. Since the transformation to vertical and horizontal polarizations was performed by the polarizer 914 in the analog domain (and not performed by the DSP 920), the DSP 920 need not perform such conversion, which may reduce the overall power and resource consumption or free up power and resources to be used for other processing operations.

[0094] In some examples, each patch antenna 910 may receive signals for transmission, and may transmit polarized signals, which may be achieved, at least in part, by coupling to different points on an antenna element to transmit the different polarizations. In some examples, each of the polarized signals may be amplified by an amplifier 912 before being passed to the patch antenna 910. In some examples, the amplifier 912 may be a power amplifier. In some examples, it may be desirable for the DSP 920 to process circularly polarized signals. In a single beam scenario, the signal at the DSP 920 will either be RHCP or LHCP, and as such, half of the DACs 918 (e.g., the half that is configured to digitize the other, “unused” polarization) of a signal path associated with a patch antenna 910 may be deactivated, resulting in power and processing savings. Similarly, in a multi beam scenario, similar power and processing savings may be achieved if the multiple beams are of the same circular polarization, thereby allowing some of the DACs 918 to be deactivated. Additionally, in some examples, based on a pointing direction associated with each patch antenna 910, one or more patch antennas 910 may be unused for transmissions (e.g., due to their location on a convex antenna element mounting surface), thereby allowing some of the DACs 918, amplifiers 916, polarizers 914, and amplifiers 912 to be deactivated, thereby reducing power consumption.

[0095] In some examples, the DACs 918 may be of various architectures, including a string DAC architecture, a delta-sigma DAC architecture, a binary weighted DAC architecture, a ladder DAC architecture, one or more other DAC architecture, or any combination thereof. In some examples, all of the DACs 918 may be of the same architecture, and in other examples, different groups or individual DACs 918 may be of different architectures. In some examples, the processing entity 930 may include one or more control elements, such as the control element 922, which may provide an interface for controlling one or more aspects of the processing entity 930.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0096] For example, the control element 922 may dynamically configure or control one or more elements of the processing entity 930 to adapt the radio architecture 900 for different scenarios. For example, the radio architecture 900 may be used in satellite scenarios which may include a pointing phase of communications operations with a first configuration, and a data communications phase of communications operations with a second configuration, and the control element 922 may configure the processing entity 930 (or one or more elements thereof) in accordance with the operational scenario. In some examples, the control element 922 may be included in or may itself be a radio architecture manager that configures one or more parameters associated with the polarizers 914, the amplifiers 912, the amplifiers 916, the DACs 918, the DSP 920, or any combination thereof, based on one or more communication characteristics associated with the radio architecture.

[0097] In some examples, to allow for control of the various elements of the radio architecture 900, such elements may be implemented in one or more programmable logic elements (e.g., FPGAs or other programmable logic elements). For example, the DACs 918 and the DSP 920 (e.g., all or a subset of multiple processing cells, processing layers, or any other processing elements), may be implemented through such programmable logic. Further, the control element 922 may configure the one or more programmable logic elements to configure the DACs 918 and the DSP 920 in accordance with the techniques described herein.

[0098] In some examples, the processing entity 930 may include the DC supply 924, which may provide DC current to one or more elements of the processing entity 930. In some examples, the DC supply 924 may be scaled down (e.g., configured to provide less energy or power) as the elements of the processing entity 930 may consume less power as a result of the techniques described herein. In some examples, the processing entity 930 may include a PLL 926, which may support the operations of the DSP 920 or other elements of the processing entity 930.

[0099] FIG. 10 shows an example of a radio architecture 1000 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The radio architecture 1000 may be used, for example, at a terminal (e.g., terminal 120 of FIG. 1), and may include convex antenna substrates of antenna arrays 200 and 250 of FIGs. 2A and 2B, may use antenna elements such as antenna element 300 of FIG. 3A, the antenna element 350 of FIG. 3B,Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)or the antenna structure 500 of FIG. 5, may be an example of radio architectures 400, 600, 700, or 800 of FIGs. 4 or 6 through 8, or any combinations thereof. In some examples, the radio architecture 1000 may be employed for receive operations.

[0100] The radio architecture 1000 may include a device 1005, which may be an example of an antenna subsystem. The device 1005 may include multiple patch antennas 1010, which may be examples of antenna element 300 described herein, although other types of antenna elements may be used in accordance with the techniques discussed herein (e.g., edge-emitting antenna elements). Each patch antenna 1010 may have an associated antenna feed that may include ADC 1018, and one or more amplifiers or other components. The ADCs 1018 may be addressable by a processor 1040, an antenna selection manager 1025, or both, to perform one or more operations described herein. It should be noted that additional elements depicted and discussed elsewhere is not included here for clarity, but that implementations of the techniques described herein may include any combination of any elements described herein.

[0101] In some examples, the antenna selection manager 1025 may configure the ADCs 1018 for processing of signals associated with patch antennas 1010, and may receive outputs of the ADCs 1018, in accordance with techniques as discussed herein. For example, as described herein, a signal from a target device (e.g., a satellite) may be present on one or more patch antennas 1010, and the antenna selection manager 1025, processor 1040, or both, may identify which patch antennas 1010, or one or more subsets of patch antennas 1010, have a signal of interest. The antenna selection manager 1025, processor 1040, or both, may configure ADCs 1018, for data communications based on which patch antennas 1010 or subsets of patch antennas 1010 are identified. In some examples, the ADCs 1018 may be configured for various patch antennas 1010 to digitize the signals received from the patch antennas 1010 for evaluation by the antenna selection manager 1025, processor 1040, or both.

[0102] As described herein, various configurations of processing blocks, DSP layers, ADCs 1018, any other elements or entities described herein (including similarly named elements described herein), or any combination thereof, may be configured by the antenna selection manager 1025 in accordance with one or more desired arrangements of the device 1005 to support the various techniques described herein.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0103] Although the antenna selection manager 1025 is illustrated as a separate component, in some examples, one or more functions described with reference to the antenna selection manager 1025 may be supported by or performed by the at least one processor 1040, the at least one memory 1030, the code 1035, or any combination thereof. For example, the code 1035 may include instructions executable by the at least one processor 1040 to cause the device 1005 to perform various aspects of antenna selection and signal processing as described herein, or the at least one processor 1040 and the at least one memory 1030 may be otherwise configured to, individually or collectively, perform or support such operations.

[0104] The at least one memory 1030 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM). The at least one memory 1030 may store computer- readable, computer-executable, or processor-executable code, such as the code 1035. The code 1035 may include instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor 1040, cause the device 1005 to perform various functions described herein. The code 1035 may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as system memory or another type of memory. In some cases, the code 1035 may not be directly executable by the at least one processor 1040 but may cause a computer (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform functions described herein. In some cases, the at least one memory 1030 may include, among other things, a basic I / O system (BIOS) which may control basic hardware or software operation such as the interaction with peripheral components or devices.

[0105] The at least one processor 1040 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices (e.g., one or more general-purpose processors, one or more DSPs, one or more CPUs, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more neural processing units (NPUs) (also referred to as neural network processors or deep learning processors (DLPs)), one or more microcontrollers, one or more ASICs, one or more FPGAs, one or more programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, one or more discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof). In some cases, the at least one processor 1040 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In some other cases, a memory controller may be integrated into the at least one processor 1040. The at least one processor 1040 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., the at least one memory 1030) to cause the device 1005 to perform various functions (e.g., functions orAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)tasks supporting antenna selection and signal processing). For example, the device 1005 or a component of the device 1005 may include at least one processor 1040 and at least one memory 1030 coupled with or to the at least one processor 1040, the at least one processor 1040 and the at least one memory 1030 configured to perform various functions described herein.

[0106] In some examples, the at least one processor 1040 may include multiple processors and the at least one memory 1030 may include multiple memories. One or more of the multiple processors may be coupled with one or more of the multiple memories, which may, individually or collectively, be configured to perform various functions described herein. In some examples, the at least one processor 1040 may be a component of a processing system, which may refer to a system (such as a series) of machines, circuitry (including, for example, one or both of processor circuitry (which may include the at least one processor 1040) and memory circuitry (which may include the at least one memory 1030)), or components, that receives or obtains inputs and processes the inputs to produce, generate, or obtain a set of outputs. The processing system may be configured to perform one or more of the functions described herein. For example, the at least one processor 1040 or a processing system including the at least one processor 1040 may be configured to, configurable to, or operable to cause the device 1005 to perform one or more of the functions described herein. Further, as described herein, being “configured to,” being “configurable to,” and being “operable to” may be used interchangeably and may be associated with a capability, when executing code 1035 (e.g., processor-executable code) stored in the at least one memory 1030 or otherwise, to perform one or more of the functions described herein.

[0107] FIG. 11 shows an example of a flow chart 1100 that supports digital beamforming of subsets of arrays with elements pointed in dissimilar directions in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the flow chart 1100 may be implemented by an antenna subsystem (e.g., as part of a terminal 120) or its components as described herein. For example, the operations of the flow chart 1100 may be performed by a beamforming processor as described with reference to FIGs. 1 through 10. In some examples, a beamforming processor may execute a set of instructions to control the functional elements of the beamforming processor to perform the described functions. Additionally, or alternatively, the beamforming processor may perform aspects of the described functions using special-purpose hardware.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0108] At 1105, the antenna subsystem may measure signal strengths and noise levels of antenna signals. The operations of 1105 may be performed in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operations of 1105 may be performed by an antenna selection manager 1025 as described with reference to FIG. 10, a beamforming processor 430 as described with reference to FIG. 4, or a processing entity 630 or 830 as described with reference to FIGs. 6 or 8.

[0109] At 1110, the antenna subsystem may determine, based on the measured signals strengths and measured noise levels, a subset of the antenna signals and corresponding antenna elements for communication of a data signal with a target device. In some examples, aspects of the operations of 1110 may be performed by an antenna selection manager 1025 as described with reference to FIG. 10, a beamforming processor 430 as described with reference to FIG. 4, or a processing entity 630 or 830 as described with reference to FIGs. 6 or 8.

[0110] At 1115, the antenna subsystem may communicate the data signal with the target device according to a set of beamforming weights determined for the subset of the antenna signals and corresponding antenna elements based at least in part on processing the respective antenna signals. In some examples, aspects of the operations of 1115 may be performed by an antenna selection manager 1025 as described with reference to FIG. 10, a beamforming processor 430 as described with reference to FIG. 4, or a processing entity 630 or 830 as described with reference to FIGs. 6 or 8.[OHl] It should be noted that these methods describe examples of implementations, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified such that other implementations are possible. In some examples, aspects from two or more of the methods may be combined. For example, aspects of each of the methods may include steps or aspects of the other methods, or other steps or techniques described herein.

[0112] Information and signals described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

[0113] The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).

[0114] The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described herein can be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. Features implementing functions may also be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations.

[0115] Computer readable media includes both non transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non transitory storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, non transitory computer readable media may include RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, compact disk read-only memory (CDROM) or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non transitory medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer, or a general purpose or special purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxialAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, include CD, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer readable media.

[0116] As used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items (e.g., a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “at least one of’ or “one or more of’) indicates an inclusive list such that, for example, a list of at least one of A, B, or C means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). Also, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall not be construed as a reference to a closed set of conditions. For example, an exemplary step that is described as “based on condition A” may be based on both a condition A and a condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall be construed in the same manner as the phrase “based at least in part on.”

[0117] In the appended figures, similar components or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If just the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label, or other subsequent reference label.

[0118] The description set forth herein, in connection with the appended drawings, describes example configurations and does not represent all the examples that may be implemented or that are within the scope of the claims. The term “exemplary” used herein means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” and not “preferred” or “advantageous over other examples.” The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing an understanding of the described techniques. These techniques, however, may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances,Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described examples.

[0119] The description herein is provided to enable a person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. An antenna subsystem (124), comprising: an antenna substrate (255) having a convex surface along at least one dimension; a plurality of patch antennas (260) disposed on the convex surface of the antenna substrate, the plurality of patch antennas respectively coupled with a plurality of antenna feeds (407) that carry respective antenna signals; and a beamforming processor (430) configured to: measure, in a first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the respective antenna signals concurrently, wherein the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels are associated with a signal from a target device (285); determine, based at least in part on the measured respective signals strengths and measured respective noise levels obtained in the first mode of operation, a subset of the antenna signals (435) for communication of a data signal with the target device; and communicate, with the target device in a second mode of operation, the data signal according to a set of beamforming weights determined for the subset of the antenna signals based at least in part on processing the respective antenna signals in the first mode of operation.

2. The antenna subsystem of claim 1, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: compare the measured respective signal strengths and the measured respective noise levels to a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold, wherein the determination of the subset of the antenna signals is based at least in part on the comparison.

3. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 1 through 2, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: compare the measured respective signal strengths to a signal strength threshold and the measured respective noise levels to a noise threshold, wherein the subset of the antenna signals correspond to the antenna signals satisfying the signal strength threshold and failing to satisfy the noise threshold.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)4. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 1 through 3, wherein each patch antenna of the plurality of patch antennas comprises an antenna element (300) configured to communicate circularly polarized signals.

5. The antenna subsystem of claim 4, wherein the plurality of patch antennas comprises a first set of patch antennas (265) associated with left hand circular polarization and a second set of patch antennas (270) associated with right hand circular polarization.

6. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 4 through 5, wherein each patch antenna of the plurality of patch antennas comprises a first port (310) associated with left hand circular polarization and a second port (315) associated with right hand circular polarization.

7. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 1 through 6, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: process, in the first mode of operation, a plurality of first subsets of the antenna signals concurrently to obtain a plurality of combined antenna signals, wherein two or more of the plurality of first subsets of the antenna signals are intersecting subsets; and measure, in the first mode of operation, respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the plurality of combined antenna signals concurrently, wherein the respective signal strengths and respective noise levels of the plurality of combined antenna signals are associated with a signal from the target device.

8. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 1 through 7, further comprising: a plurality of digital -to-analog converters (DACs) (918) having inputs coupled with digital component transmit signals of the beamforming processor and outputs coupled with the plurality of antenna feeds, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: apply the set of beamforming weights to the data signal to obtain the digital component transmit signals.

9. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 1 through 8, further comprising:Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)a plurality of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) (420) having inputs coupled with the plurality of antenna feeds and outputs coupled with digital component receive signals of the beamforming processor, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: apply the set of beamforming weights to the digital component receive signals to obtain the data signal.

10. An antenna subsystem (124), comprising: an antenna substrate (255) having a convex surface along at least one dimension; a plurality of patch antennas (260) disposed on the convex surface of the antenna substrate, the plurality of patch antennas respectively coupled with a plurality of antenna feeds (407) that carry respective antenna signals; and a beamforming processor (430) configured to: communicate, with a first target device (285-a) according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, a first beam signal (275) using a first subset of the antenna signals (435) associated with a first subset (265) of the plurality of patch antennas; and communicate, with a second target device (285-b) according to a second set of beamforming coefficients, a second beam signal (280) using a second subset of the antenna signals (440) associated with a second subset (270) of the plurality of patch antennas.

11. The antenna subsystem of claim 10, wherein the first subset of the plurality of patch antennas and the second subset of the plurality of patch antennas are disjoint subsets.

12. The antenna subsystem of claim 10, wherein the first subset of the plurality of patch antennas and the second subset of the plurality of patch antennas are intersecting subsets.

13. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 10 through 12, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to:Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)concurrently measure respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels of the respective antenna signals, wherein the respective first signal strengths and respective first noise levels are associated with the first beam signal; and determine the first subset of the plurality of patch antennas based at least in part on the measured respective first signal strengths and measured respective first noise levels.

14. The antenna subsystem of claim 13, wherein the beamforming processor is further configured to: concurrently measure respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels of the respective antenna signals, wherein the respective second signal strengths and respective second noise levels are associated with the second beam signal; and determine the second subset of the plurality of patch antennas based at least in part on the measured respective second signal strengths and measured respective second noise levels.

15. An antenna subsystem (124), comprising: one or more antenna substrates (255); a plurality of antennas (260) disposed on the one or more antenna substrates, each of the plurality of antennas comprising a first conductive element (525) on a first side of the one or more antenna substrates and a second conductive element (525) on a second side of the one or more antenna substrates, the first conductive element and the second conductive element configured to communicate circularly polarized signals, the plurality of antennas respectively coupled with a plurality of antenna feeds (407) that carry respective antenna signals; and a beamforming processor (430) configured to: communicate, with a first target device (285-a) according to a first set of beamforming coefficients, a first beam signal (275) using a first subset of the antenna signals associated with a first subset (265) of the plurality of antennas, wherein the first beam signal is communicated using the first subset of the plurality of antennas via a first beam that is polarized according to one of left hand circular polarization (LHCP) or right hand circular polarization (RHCP); andAttorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)communicate, with a second target device (285-b) according to a second set of beamforming coefficients, a second beam signal (280) using a second subset of the antenna signals associated with a second subset (270) of the plurality of antennas, wherein the second beam signal is communicated using the second subset of the plurality of antennas via a second beam that is polarized according to the other of LHCP or RHCP.

16. The antenna subsystem of claim 15, wherein the plurality of antennas comprises a first set of antennas associated with LHCP and a second set of antennas associated with RHCP.

17. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 15 through 16, wherein each antenna of the plurality of antennas comprises a first port (305) associated with LHCP and a second port (310) associated with RHCP.

18. The antenna subsystem of claim 17, further comprising: a first plurality of analog to digital converters (ADCs) (420) having inputs coupled with the first ports of the plurality of antennas and outputs coupled with the beamforming processor; and a second plurality of ADCs (420) having inputs coupled with the second ports of the plurality of antennas and outputs coupled with the beamforming processor.

19. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 15 through 18, wherein a surface of the one or more antenna substrates is convex along at least one dimension.

20. The antenna subsystem of any one of claims 15 through 18, wherein the plurality of antennas comprises a first set of antennas that are surfaceemitting antennas and a second set of antennas that are edge-emitting antennas.Attorney Docket No. VS2609-WO-1 (78120.0711)

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