Digital Beamforming Circuit With Threshold Permutation and Delay Steering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital beamforming techniques in electronically steerable antennas (ESAs) face challenges with high power consumption and cost due to the need for RF signal conversion and complex signal processing, while analog implementations suffer from inaccuracies and implementation difficulties.
Innovation Solution
A novel digital beamforming architecture that reduces power consumption and cost by using a low-resolution digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for RF sampling and digital signal processing, with threshold permutation and delay line circuitry to steer beams, and incorporates multi-level DACs to minimize quantization noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If digital implementation of ESAs is used, then accuracy and reliability are improved, but power consumption and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the RF-to-IF conversion function from the digital beamforming path, performing beamforming operations at IF frequency instead of RF. This removes the need for high-power RF synthesizers and amplifiers in each channel, significantly reducing power consumption while maintaining beamforming accuracy through digital signal processing at lower frequencies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operating frequency parameter from RF to IF for the beamforming operations. By transforming the signal to a lower intermediate frequency before digital processing, the system achieves accurate beamforming with reduced power consumption, as the same beamforming algorithms can operate at IF with lower energy requirements than at RF.
2Reliability
If digital implementation of ESAs is used, then accuracy and reliability are improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the expensive RF-to-IF conversion stage from each antenna channel by performing beamforming directly at IF frequency. This eliminates the need for multiple high-frequency synthesizers and RF amplifiers per channel, significantly reducing component count and system cost while preserving beamforming accuracy through digital processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal IF beamforming architecture that can serve multiple antenna elements through a single set of digital signal processing resources. By converting all channels to IF first, then applying digital beamforming, the system achieves accurate multi-beam capability with shared hardware resources, reducing overall implementation cost compared to dedicated RF processing per channel.
3Use of energy by moving object
If analog RF phase shifting is used, then power consumption is reduced, but manufacturing precision and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical/analog RF phase shifting system with a digital signal processing system operating at IF frequency. This substitution eliminates sensitivity to manufacturing tolerances in phase shifters and amplitude controllers, achieving high precision beamforming through programmable digital algorithms while maintaining lower power consumption than full RF digital implementation.
Data Source
AI summary
A digital beamforming circuit that includes a plurality of channels, each having an input port configured to receive a digital input signal and an output port configured to feed an antenna element with an analog signal, wherein the plurality of channels forms an electronically steerable antenna (ESA). Each channel includes: a comparator configured to compare the digital input signal with one of a plurality of thresholds that linearly span the digital input signal; a multi-level digital-to-analog converter (DAC) connected at an output of the comparator; and a delay line circuitry configured to apply a time delay to the channel, wherein the delay line circuitry of each channel is separately controlled to apply a respective time delay, collectively enabling to steer a beam of the PPA, wherein the digital beamforming circuit further includes a threshold permutation circuitry configured to periodically permutate the plurality of thresholds between the plurality of channels.