Channel extraction digital beamforming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12537553-B2
Application number	US-202318483988-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2023
Priority date	May 14, 2019
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

In an embodiment, a receiver included in a communications system is configured to receive a radio frequency (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, generate a plurality of channel signals based on the RF signal. Generating the plurality of channel signals includes 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. The receiver is further configured to decode each data beam of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase and a respective time delay. The receiver is further configured to output the plurality of data beams of the plurality of channels.

First claim

What we claim is:

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) receiver 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; 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; decode each data beam of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase and a respective time delay; and output the plurality of data beams of the plurality of channels.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first plurality of phase shifters associated with a first channel of the plurality of channels, wherein the first plurality of phase shifters is 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; and a second plurality of phase shifters associated with the first channel of the plurality of channels, wherein the second plurality of phase shifters is 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 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 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 configured to shift the first central frequency by Δf, and a second digital mixer is configured to shift the second central frequency by −Δf.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein a bandwidth of the first channel signal is equal to 2*Δf.

8 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein a bandwidth of the first channel signal is different from 2*Δf.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a sum of bandwidths of the plurality of channels divided by a total number of channels of the plurality of channels.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is different from a frequency separation between the single channel and an additional channel of the plurality of channels adjacent in frequency to the single channel.

11 . A receiver included in a communications system, the receiver configured to:
segregate a received signal comprising a single channel into a plurality of channel signals, wherein the plurality of channel signals includes a plurality of data signals, wherein one or more channel signals of the plurality of channel signals includes more than one data signal of the plurality of data signals, wherein a first data signal of the plurality of data signals arrives at a 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; and decode each of the plurality of channel signals into a respective plurality of decoded data beam portions.

12 . The receiver of claim 11 , further comprising a radio frequency (RF) receiver section including an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a down converter, wherein the RF receiver section is configured to receive a RF signal from an antenna element of the phased array antenna and generate the received signal based on the RF signal.

13 . The receiver of claim 11 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a bandwidth of a channel signal of the plurality of channel signals.

14 . The receiver of claim 11 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is equal to a sum of bandwidths of a plurality of channels included in the received signal divided by a total number of channels of the plurality of channels.

15 . The receiver of claim 11 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is different from a frequency separation between the single channel and an additional channel included in the received signal.

16 . The receiver of claim 11 , 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 channel signals, and wherein one or more of particular signal paths of the plurality of signal paths is dynamically set to zero gain.

17 . The receiver of claim 11 , further configured to decode a time delay included in a signal comprising a first data beam of the single channel to obtain a first data signal of the single channel.

18 . A method comprising:
receiving 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; generating 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; decoding each data beam of the plurality of channel signals with a respective phase and a respective time delay; and outputting the plurality of data beams of the plurality of channels.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein a bandwidth of the single channel is different from a frequency separation between the single channel and an additional channel of the plurality of channels adjacent in frequency to the single channel.

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

• H04L7/0033

  Correction by delay · CPC title

• H04B7/08

  at the receiving station · CPC title

• H04B1/16 Primary

  Circuits · 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