Phased array antenna cell with adaptive quad polarization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9929886-B2
Application number	US-201615174370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2016
Priority date	Jun 6, 2016
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

A transceiver includes a vector modulator and a phased array antenna including a plurality of quad polarization antenna cells. The vector modulator is configured to modify an information signal to generate two excitation signals based on a selected polarization. The polarization is selected as one of at least vertical, horizontal, right hand circular, and left hand circular. The vector modulator is configured to drive at least one of the quad polarization antenna cells with the two excitation signals to achieve the selected polarity.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A transceiver comprising:
a phased array antenna having a plurality of quad polarization antenna cells;
a vector modulator configured to:
determine a first selected polarization for a first information signal corresponding to either vertical, horizontal, right hand circular, or left hand circular;
modify the first information signal to generate a first two excitation signals based on the first selected polarization;
apply the first two excitation signals to a radiating element of one of the plurality of quad polarization antenna cells to cause the quad polarization antenna cell to transmit the first information signal having the first selected polarization;
determine a second selected polarization for a second information signal corresponding to either vertical, horizontal, right hand circular, or left hand circular, wherein the first selected polarization is different from the second selected polarization;
modify the second information signal to generate a second two excitation signals based on the second selected polarization; and
apply the second two excitation signals to the radiating element of one of the plurality of quad polarization antenna cells to cause the quad polarization antenna cell to transmit the second information signal having the second selected polarization.

2. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is configured to:
modify the first information signal based on a first beamforming signal to generate the first two excitation signals; and
modify the second information signal based on a second beamforming signal to generate the second two excitation signals.

3. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator comprises a plurality of phase shifter-variable gain amplifier pairs, wherein each phase shifter-variable gain amplifier pair modifies i) an instance of the first information signal to generate one of the first two excitation signals and ii) an instance of the second information signal to generate one of the second two excitation signals.

4. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is further configured to operate at an RF frequency of the transceiver.

5. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is further configured to operate at an IF frequency of the transceiver.

6. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is configured to, when the first selected polarization is vertical:
generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal.

7. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is further configured to, when the first selected polarization is horizontal:
generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal phase shifted by about 180 degrees.

8. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is configured to, when the first selected polarization is left hand circular:
generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal phase shifted by about 90 degrees.

9. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is configured to, when the first selected polarization is right hand circular:
generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal phase shifted by about −90 degrees.

10. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator comprises two phase shifter-variable gain amplifier pairs having a gain of α 0 and α 1 , respectively, further wherein the vector modulator is configured to, when the first selected polarization is

45
+

tan

-
1

⁡

(

α
1

α
0

)

⁢

:

generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal having a normalized amplitude of α 0 ; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal having a normalized amplitude of α 1 .

11. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator comprises two phase shifter-variable gain amplifier pairs having a gain of α 0 and α 1 , respectively, further wherein the vector modulator is configured to, when the first selected polarization is

45
-

tan

-
1

⁡

(

α
1

α
0

)

⁢

:

generate a first excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal having a normalized amplitude of α 0 ; and
generate a second excitation signal in the first two excitation signals corresponding to the information signal having a normalized amplitude of α 1 and phase shifted by about 180 degrees.

12. The transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the vector modulator is configured to drive the quad polarization antenna cell by simultaneously applying the first two excitation signals to the quad polarization antenna cell and then simultaneously applying the second two excitation signals to the quad polarization antenna cell.

13. A method comprising:
determining a first selected polarization for a first information signal corresponding to either vertical, horizontal, right hand circular, or left hand circular;
modifying the first information signal to generate a first two excitation signals based on the first selected polarization;
applying the first two excitation signals to a radiating element of a quad polarization antenna cell to cause the quad polarization antenna cell to transmit the first information signal having the first selected polarization;
determining a second selected polarization for a second information signal corresponding to either vertical, horizontal, right hand circ

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Amadjikpe Arnaud
• Choudhury Debabani

Classifications

• H01Q21/0025

  Modular arrays · CPC title

• H01Q9/0407

  Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna (dipole H01Q9/285; monopole H01Q9/40) · CPC title

• H01Q21/245

  provided with means for varying the polarisation  (polarising devices H01Q15/24; tracking by comparing linear polarisation compounds G01S3/146; reducing depolarisation effects H04B7/00; polarisation diversity H04B7/10) · CPC title

• H04L27/20 Primary

  Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits · CPC title

• H01Q1/243 Primary

  with built-in antennas · CPC title