Phased array antenna intermodulation suppression beam smearing method
First Claim
1. A method for beam smearing an antenna beam communicating signals at respective carrier frequencies, the signals communicated through antenna elements of a phased array antenna, the method comprising the steps of, dividing the phased array antenna into subarray comprising respective array elements each being portions of the antenna elements, steering the antenna beam in a direction by equal phase shifting the carrier frequencies for the antenna elements, phase smearing the antenna beam by respective uniform phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements, and angle smearing the antenna beam by respective gradient phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An intermodulation suppression method using phased array antenna electronics insignificantly degrades the desired primary main beams while substantially suppressing undesired intermodulation product beams, and particularly undesired third-ordered intermodulation product beams. The beam smearing method has two aspects, including phase smearing and angle smearing for respective subarrays to reduce the intermodulation-product beams of the phased array antenna beam patterns. With a 1 dB degradation of the primary main beams, a 6 dB to 10 dB suppression of the intermodulation product beams is achieved.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method for beam smearing an antenna beam communicating signals at respective carrier frequencies, the signals communicated through antenna elements of a phased array antenna, the method comprising the steps of,
dividing the phased array antenna into subarray comprising respective array elements each being portions of the antenna elements, steering the antenna beam in a direction by equal phase shifting the carrier frequencies for the antenna elements, phase smearing the antenna beam by respective uniform phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements, and angle smearing the antenna beam by respective gradient phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements.
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11. A method for beam smearing an antenna beam communicating two signals respectively at two carrier frequencies, the two signals communicated through antenna elements of a phased array antenna, the antenna beam comprising two primary main beams and two intermodulation product beams in a field of view of the phased array antenna, the method for reducing amplitudes of two intermodulation product beams in the field of view of the phased array antenna, the method comprising the steps of,
dividing the phased array antenna into subarrays each comprising an equal number of subarray elements, steering the antenna beam in a direction by equal phase shifting the carrier frequencies for the antenna elements, phase smearing the antenna beam by respective uniform phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements, and angle smearing the antenna beam by respective gradient phase shifts of the carrier frequencies for the respective subarray elements, the angular smearing and phase smearing serving to reduce the amplitudes of the intermodulation products.
Specification