Channel extraction digital beamforming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11817894-B2
Application number	US-202217944041-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2022
Priority date	May 14, 2019
Publication date	Nov 14, 2023
Grant date	Nov 14, 2023

Abstract

In an embodiment, a receiver included in a communications system includes a channel extractor configured to segregate a received signal into a plurality of channel signals, wherein the plurality of channel signals includes a plurality of data signals; and a plurality of decoders electrically coupled to the channel extractor and configured to decode each of the plurality of channel signals into a respective plurality of decoded data beam portions.

First claim

What we claim is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) receiver section configured to receive a RF signal from a phased array antenna, the RF signal comprising at least a portion of a plurality of data beams included in a single channel;
a plurality of channel separators electrically coupled with the RF receiver section and configured to generate a plurality of channel signals based on the RF signal, wherein generating the plurality of channel signals comprises separating the RF signal into a plurality of channels in which each channel of the plurality of channels includes at least a portion of a respective subset of the plurality of data beams; and
a plurality of signal conditioning components electrically coupled to the plurality of channel separators and configured to decode each data beam of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase and a respective time delay, wherein the plurality of signal conditioning components outputs the plurality of data beams of the plurality of channels.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of signal conditioning components includes a first plurality of phase shifters and a second plurality of phase shifters, wherein the first plurality of phase shifters is associated with a first channel of the plurality of channels and, the first plurality of phase shifters configured to decode each data beam portion of a first channel with a respective phase to generate a first plurality of decoded phase data beam portions, wherein the second plurality of phase shifters is associated with the first channel of the plurality of channels and electrically coupled with a second channel separator of the plurality of channel separators, the second plurality of phase shifters configured to decode each data beam portion of the first channel of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase to generate a second plurality of decoded phase data beam portions.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising a combiner electrically coupled with select phase shifters of the first plurality of phase shifters and the second plurality of phase shifters, the combiner configured to collate a first decoded phase data beam portion of the first plurality of decoded phase data beam portions, associated with a first data beam of the first channel, and a second decoded phase data beam portion of the second plurality of decoded phase data beam portions, associated with the first data beam of the first channel, to generate a signal of the first data beam of the first channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein a time delay filter of a plurality of time delay filters is electrically coupled with the combiner and configured to decode a time delay included in the signal of the first data beam of the first channel to obtain the first data beam of the first channel.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a down converter included in a first beam extraction section of the RF receiver section and a first channel separator of the plurality of channel separators, wherein the down converter is configured to down convert the RF signal to a baseband frequency prior to separation of the RF signal into the plurality of channels.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein:
a first channel signal of the plurality of channel signals has a first central frequency and a second channel signal of the plurality of channel signals has a second central frequency;
a first digital mixer is electrically coupled to the first channel separator and configured to shift the first central frequency by Δf; and
a second digital mixer is electrically coupled to the first channel separator and configured to shift the second central frequency by −Δf.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a sum of bandwidths of the plurality of channels.

8. A receiver included in a communications system, the receiver comprising:
a channel extractor configured to segregate a received signal comprising a single channel including a plurality of data signals into a plurality of channel signals, wherein the plurality of channel signals includes a plurality of data signals, wherein one or more channels of the plurality of channels includes more than one data signal of the plurality of data signals;
a plurality of decoders electrically coupled to the channel extractor and configured to decode each of the plurality of channel signals into a respective plurality of decoded data beam portions; and
a plurality of RF receiver sections and a plurality of channel extractors, wherein the channel extractor is included in the plurality of channel extractors, and wherein a number of RF receiver sections of the plurality of RF receiver sections equals a number of channel extractors of the plurality of channel extractors.

9. The receiver of claim 8 , further comprising a radio frequency (RF) receiver section electrically coupled to the channel extractor, wherein the RF receiver section includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a down converter, and wherein the RF receiver section is configured to receive a RF signal from an antenna element of a phased array antenna and generate the received signal based on the RF signal.

10. The receiver of claim 9 , wherein a first data signal of the plurality of data signals arrives at the phased array antenna from a first direction, and a second data signal of the plurality of data signals arrives at the phased array antenna from a second direction, different from the first direction.

11. The receiver of claim 8 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a bandwidth of a channel of the plurality of channels.

12. The receiver of claim 8 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a sum of bandwidths of the plurality of channels.

13. The receiver of claim 8 , wherein the communications system comprises a satellite communications system, and wherein the receiver is included in any of a satellite, a user terminal associated with a user device, a gateway, a repeater, or a communication node of the satellite communications system.

14. The receiver of claim 8 , further comprising a plurality of signal paths defined by electrical components configured to process the received signal and generate the plurality of data signals in the plurality of channels, wherein the electrical components include the channel extractor, the plurality of decoders, and wherein one or more of particular signal paths of the plurality of signal paths is dynamically set to zero gain.

15. A receiver included in a communications system, the receiver comprising:
a channel extractor configured to segregate a received signal comprising a single channel including a plurality of data signals into a plurality of channel signals, wherein the plurality of channel signals includes a plurality of data signals, each channel of the plurality of channels including more than one data signal of the plurality of data signals;
a plurality of decoders electrically coupled to the channel extractor and configured to decode each of the plurality of channel signals into a respective plurality of decoded data beam portions; and
a radio frequency (RF) receiver section electrically coupled to the channel extractor, wherein the RF receiver section includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a down converter, wherein the channel extractor comprises a first channel separator, wherein the first plurality of decoders is configured to decode each data signal portion of a first channel of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase to generate a first plurality of decoded phase da

Assignees

• Space Exploration Tech Corp

Inventors

• Mehrnia Alireza
• Kahrizi Masoud
• Mirzaei Alex Ahmad
• Afshar Bagher
• Sajjadi Ali
• Pregardier Bernd
• Pun Ka Shun Carson
• Nasiby Omid
• Elgorriaga Igor

Classifications

• H04B1/16 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04B7/08

  at the receiving station · CPC title

• H04L7/0033

  Correction by delay · CPC title

• H04B7/0897 Primary

  using beamforming per multi-path, e.g. to cope with different directions of arrival [DOA] at different multi-paths · CPC title