Interlocking Overlapping Antenna Subarrays for Reduced Component Count
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional array antennas requiring wide angle electronically steered scans often necessitate a large number of independent antenna radiating elements, leading to increased component counts and complexity, especially as the number of beams to be formed increases.
Innovation Solution
The formation of overlapping subarrays with interlocking features, where first-level, second-level, and third-level subarrays are arranged to share beam-steering electronic modules and interconnects, reducing the number of components and simplifying design by using RF interconnects, thereby allowing for a larger number of beams within a limited scan volume.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a large number of independent antenna radiating elements are used to support wide angle electronically steered scans, then the scan coverage and beam forming capability are improved, but the component count and system complexity increase proportionally
Solution Approach 1:
The antenna array is divided into multiple overlapping subarrays, where each subarray contains a subset of radiating elements. This segmentation allows the system to achieve wide scan coverage by electronically steering different subarrays while reducing the need for completely independent components for each beam, as adjacent subarrays share common elements and components.
Solution Approach 2:
Components such as power amplifiers, phase shifters, and feed networks are designed to serve multiple radiating elements across different subarrays. A single component can be shared by multiple elements, allowing the same hardware to support multiple beams and scan angles, thereby reducing overall component count while maintaining versatility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the number of beams to be formed increases, then the beam forming capability is improved, but the number of components per element increases proportionally
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple beam forming functions are merged into shared electronic components. The feed network and control systems are designed to simultaneously support multiple beams by dynamically adjusting phase and amplitude across the array. This allows a single set of components to generate multiple beams through electronic control rather than requiring dedicated hardware for each beam.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses dynamic electronic control to switch between different beam configurations. By dynamically adjusting the phase shifters and amplitude control circuits, the same physical components can adapt to form different beams and scan patterns, replacing what would otherwise require static, dedicated hardware for each beam configuration.
3Measurement precision
If antenna radiating element spacing is reduced to approximately one-half wavelength to support wide angle scans, then the scan accuracy is improved, but the physical size and component density increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple subarrays with overlapping element sets are nested within the overall array structure. This nested configuration allows the system to achieve fine scan accuracy through the dense spacing within each subarray while the overall physical footprint is managed by the hierarchical subarray organization, where smaller subarrays are contained within a larger array framework.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of forming overlapping antenna subarrays includes forming one or more first-level subarrays by combing multiple elements. Each first-level subarray may have a phase center. One or more second-level subarrays may be formed by arranging a number of the first-level subarrays to form each first-level subarray. One or more third-level subarrays may be formed by arranging a number of the second-level subarrays to form each second-level subarray. The first-level, second-level, and third-level subarrays may include overlapping antenna subarrays. Each element may include an antenna element. Some of the first level, second-level, or third level subarrays may have an interlocking feature that allows interlocking of each subarray with another one of the same subarray. Arranging subarrays may include interlocking subarrays.