Half-Duplex Digital Beamforming with a Shared Local Oscillator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Phased array antennas face challenges in achieving increased bandwidth while maintaining a high main lobe to side lobe power ratio, and they often require significant resources in terms of weight, size, manufacturing cost, and power consumption.
Innovation Solution
A digital beamforming system comprising a plurality of antenna elements, integrated circuit chips, and a local oscillator that generates a common local oscillator signal, allowing for synchronized frequency upconversion and downconversion of RF signals, and a hierarchical network for equal signal pathway lengths to minimize phase differences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If phased array antennas use multiple independent local oscillators for each IC chip to enable simultaneous transmit and receive operations, then full-duplex capability is achieved, but device complexity and power consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple independent local oscillators into a single shared local oscillator that serves all IC chips in the phased array antenna system. This consolidation reduces the total number of oscillators while maintaining full-duplex capability through time-division multiplexing and switching mechanisms that allocate the shared oscillator to different chips at different times.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic switching of the shared local oscillator between different IC chips operating in half-duplex mode. By alternating the oscillator's service between transmit and receive operations across multiple chips in a periodic manner, the system achieves overall full-duplex functionality while using a single oscillator resource.
2Adaptability or versatility
If phased array antennas increase bandwidth to accommodate wider frequency ranges, then frequency versatility improves, but maintaining high main lobe to side lobe power ratio becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic beamforming control that adjusts phase and amplitude parameters in real-time based on the operating frequency within the bandwidth range. This dynamic adaptation allows the antenna system to maintain optimal main lobe to side lobe power ratios across different frequency points by continuously optimizing the beamforming weights as the operating frequency changes.
3Adaptability or versatility
If phased array antennas use dedicated transmit and receive antenna elements, then simultaneous operation is enabled, but weight and size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses periodic time-division switching to allocate the same antenna elements alternately for transmit and receive operations. By rapidly switching the connection between antenna elements and IC chips in half-duplex mode, the system enables simultaneous transmit and receive functionality across the array while using a single set of physical antenna elements, thereby avoiding the weight penalty of duplicate antenna structures.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enables efficient beamforming with reduced component count and power usage, achieving improved signal quality and cost-effectiveness in phased array antennas.
Implementation Method 1
a local oscillator configured to generate a common local oscillator signal and provide the common local oscillator signal to each IC chip of the plurality of IC chips
Data Source
AI summary
In an embodiment, a device is included in a communications system, the device including a plurality of antenna elements configured in a phased array antenna; a plurality of integrated circuit (IC) chips, wherein each IC chip of the plurality of IC chips is associated with a respective subset of antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements, and wherein, for each IC chip of the plurality of IC chips, the associated subset of antenna elements is used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency (RF) signals by the IC chip; and a local oscillator configured to generate a common local oscillator signal and provide the common local oscillator signal to each IC chip of the plurality of IC chips.