Multi-beam active phased array architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9537214-B2
Application number	US-201314109306-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2013
Priority date	Apr 13, 2009
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

In an exemplary embodiment, a phased array antenna comprises multiple subcircuits in communication with multiple radiating elements. The radio frequency signals are adjusted for both polarization control and beam steering. In a receive embodiment, multiple RF signals are received and combined into at least one receive beam output. In a transmit embodiment, at least one transmit beam input is divided and transmitted through multiple radiating elements. In an exemplary embodiment, the phased array antenna provides multi-beam formation over multiple operating frequency bands. The wideband nature of the active components allows for operation over multiple frequency bands simultaneously. Furthermore, the antenna polarization may be static or dynamically controlled at the subarray or radiating element level.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A dual-circular polarization multi-beam receive antenna comprising:
a first network of splitters to receive a vertical polarization signal from a radiating element, and to divide the vertical polarization signal into a plurality of divided vertical polarization signals;
a second network of splitters to receive a horizontal polarization signal from the radiating element, and to divide the horizontal polarization signal into a plurality of divided horizontal polarization signals; and
a beam steering portion to form a plurality of circular polarized beams from the plurality of divided vertical polarization signals and the plurality of divided horizontal polarization signals, wherein the beam steering portion comprises vector generators to adjust the divided vertical polarization signals and the divided horizontal polarization signals prior to forming the circular polarized beams.

2. The receive antenna of claim 1 , wherein the beam steering portion comprises:
a filter to inject a 90° relative phase difference between a divided vertical polarization signal of the divided vertical polarization signals and a divided horizontal polarization signal of the divided horizontal polarization signals, and to combine the divided vertical polarization signal and the divided horizontal polarization signal to generate a combined phase adjusted signal; and
a vector generator of the vector generators to adjust the divided vertical polarization signal and the divided horizontal polarization signal by adjusting at least one of phase and amplitude of the combined phase adjusted signal to form a circular polarized beam of the plurality of circular polarized beams, wherein the vector generator comprises a first quadrant select in parallel with a second quadrant select and a first variable gain amplifier in parallel with a second variable gain amplifier.

3. The receive antenna of claim 1 , wherein a vector generator of the vector generators comprises a modified vector generator comprising:
a first quadrant select to generate a first quadrant shifted signal from a divided vertical polarization signal of the divided vertical polarization signals;
a second quadrant select to generate a second quadrant shifted signal from a divided horizontal polarization signal of the horizontal polarization signals;
a first variable gain amplifier to amplify the first quadrant shifted signal to form a first amplified signal;
a second variable gain amplifier to amplify the second quadrant shifted signal to form a second amplified signal; and
a combiner to combine the first amplified signal and the second amplified signal to form a circular polarized beam of the plurality of circular polarized beams.

4. The receive antenna of claim 1 , wherein the beam steering portion comprises:
a first vector generator of the vector generators to adjust at least one of phase and amplitude of a divided vertical polarization signal of the divided vertical polarization signals to form a first output signal;
a second vector generator of the vector generators to adjust at least one of phase and amplitude of a divided horizontal polarization signal of the divided horizontal polarization signals to form a second output signal; and
a power combiner to combine the first output signal and the second output signal to form a circular polarized beam of the plurality of circular polarized beams.

5. The receive antenna of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of circular polarized beams includes at least one right-hand circular polarized beam and at least one left hand circular polarized beam.

6. The receive antenna of claim 1 , wherein a vector generator of the vector generators comprises:
a first quadrant select in parallel with a second quadrant select, and
a first variable gain amplifier in parallel with a second variable gain amplifier.

7. The receive antenna of claim 2 , wherein the filter is a quadrature allpass filter.

8. A dual-circular polarization multi-beam transmit antenna comprising:
a beam steering portion to form a plurality of pairs of vertical and horizontal polarization signals from a plurality of input beams, wherein the beam steering portion comprises vector generators to adjust the vertical and horizontal polarization signals prior to forming the pairs;
a first network of combiners to combine the vertical polarization signals of the plurality of pairs to form a combined vertical polarization signal, and to provide the combined vertical polarization signal to a radiating element; and
a second network of combiners to combine the horizontal polarization signals of the plurality of pairs to form a combined horizontal polarization signal, and to provide the combined horizontal polarization signal to the radiating element.

9. The transmit antenna of claim 8 , wherein a vector generator of the vector generators adjusts a pair of a vertical polarization signal and a horizontal polarization signal by receiving an input beam of the plurality of input beams and adjusting at least one of phase and amplitude of the input beam to generate an adjusted input beam, and the beam steering portion further comprises:
a filter to divide the adjusted input beam to generate the pair of the vertical polarization signal and the horizontal polarization signal, wherein the filter is configured to inject a 90° relative phase difference between the vertical polarization signal and the horizontal polarization signal of the pair.

10. The transmit antenna of claim 8 , wherein the beam steering portion comprises:
a power splitter to divide an input beam of the plurality of input beams to generate a first divided beam and a second divided beam;
a first vector generator of the vector generators to adjust at least one of phase and amplitude of the first divided beam to generate a vertical polarization signal of a pair of the plurality of pairs;
a second vector generator of the vector generators to adjust at least one of phase and amplitude of the second divided beam to generate a horizontal polarization component of the pair; and
wherein the first vector generator and the second vector generator each comprise a first quadrant select in parallel with a second quadrant select and a first variable gain amplifier in parallel with a second variable gain amplifier.

11. The transmit antenna of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of input beams includes at least one right-hand circular polarized beam and at least one left hand circular polarized beam.

12. The transmit antenna of claim 8 , wherein a vector generator of the vector generators comprises a first quadrant select in parallel with a second quadrant select and a first variable gain amplifier in parallel with a second variable gain amplifier.

13. The transmit antenna of claim 9 , wherein the filter is a quadrature allpass filter.

14. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first network of splitters of a dual-circular polarization multi-beam receive antenna, a vertical polarization signal from a radiating element and dividing the vertical polarization signal into a plurality of divided vertical polarization signals;
receiving, by a second network of splitters of the multi-beam receive antenna, a horizontal polarization signal from the radiating element and dividing the horizontal polarization signal into a plurality of divided horizontal polarization signals;
adjusting, by vector generators of a beam steering portion of the multi-beam receive antenna, the divided vertical polarization signals and the divided horizontal polarization signals; and
after the adjusting, forming, by the beam steering portion, a plurality of circular polariz

Assignees

• Viasat Inc

Inventors

• Corman David W
• Zienkewicz Rob
• Saunders David

Classifications

• H01Q3/36

  with variable phase-shifters · CPC title

• H01Q3/34 Primary

  by electrical means (active lenses or reflecting arrays H01Q3/46) · CPC title

• H01Q15/242

  Polarisation converters · CPC title

• G06G7/12

  Arrangements for performing computing operations, e.g. {operational} amplifiers specially adapted therefor · CPC title

• H01Q3/26 Primary

  varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture ({H01Q3/12,} H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence) · CPC title