SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRONICALLY STEERING AN ANTENNA

• US 20100207819A1
• Filed: 03/17/2010
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Altamira Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: Invertix
• Inventors: Law, Daniel A., Uhl, Brecken H., Hurtado, Arthur D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,391,376 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/372
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/2605 Array of radiating elements provided with a feedback control over the element weights, e.g. adaptive arrays

Abstract

A system and method for electronically steering an antenna. An array is assembled from direct spatial antenna modulation (DSAM) antenna elements each of which makes use of the spatial characteristics of a radiating antenna structure to directly alter a signal transmitted or received by the radiating structure. A data stream maps a carrier to spatial points directly to In-Phase and Quadrature components (IQ) of the output. The DSAM antennas elements control I and Q directly. The assembled array provides beam forming phase shifts with amplitude only control as well as providing joint modulation and beam forming. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this Abstract.

Claims

1. An antenna array comprising;

a plurality of radiating elements, wherein each radiating element comprises a plurality of spatial points of origination and one or more ports configured to accept a carrier signal that is unmodulated;

a control system, wherein the control system is configured to;

accept a baseband data signal;

accept beam steering parameters;

identify a binary sequence in the baseband data signal;

arrange the binary sequence as unique symbols comprising one or more bits, wherein a unique symbol comprises a modulation phase and an amplitude;

determine an adjusted phase and amplitude for the unique symbol for each antenna element in the array in order to achieve the desired beam steering parameters;

identify one or more spatial points of origination of each of the radiating elements and calculate a carrier amplitude adjustment for each of the identified spatial points of origination required to produce the adjusted phase and amplitude of the unique symbol; and

direct an adjusted carrier signal to the identified spatial points of origination, wherein the adjusted carrier signal for each identified spatial point of origination comprises the calculated adjusted carrier amplitude for that identified spatial point of origination.

2. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the control system further comprises fixed phase shifting devices and wherein the control system is further configured to respond to polarization parameters to:

identify one or more spatial points of origination of each of the radiating elements to further accept a phase shifted unmodulated carrier; and

direct a phase shifted unmodulated carrier to the identified spatial points of origination.

3. The antenna array of claim 2, wherein the control system is further configured to respond to the polarization parameters to adjust the amplitude of the phase shifted unmodulated carrier.

4. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the beam steering parameters are selected from the group consisting of individual phase shift parameters for each element and individual phase and amplitude shift parameters for each element.

5. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the signal transmitted by the array conforms to a modulation scheme that is selected from the group consisting of a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), binary phase shift keying (BPSK), M-Ary, and dual circular polarized QPSK.

6. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the control system comprises one or more switching devices and wherein the control system directs the adjusted carrier signal to the identified spatial points of origination by controlling the state of the one or more switching devices in response to the baseband data signal.

7. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the radiating structures are selected from the group consisting of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna, a circular disc microstrip patch antenna, a quadrifilar helix antenna, a waveguide horn antenna, a crossed dipole antenna, a quadri-filar helix antenna, and a dual-arm sinuous antenna.

8. The antenna array of claim 1, wherein the control system comprises a processor and wherein the configuration of the control system is determined by the processor in response to software executable instructions.

9. An antenna array comprising;

a plurality of radiating elements, wherein each radiating element comprises a plurality of spatial points of origination and one or more ports configured to accept a carrier signal that is modulated;

a control system, wherein the control system is configured to;

accept a modulated signal;

accept beam steering parameters;

identify one or more spatial points of origination of each of the radiating elements and calculate a carrier amplitude adjustment for each of the identified spatial points of origination required to achieve the desired beam steering parameters; and

direct an adjusted carrier signal to the identified spatial points of origination, wherein the adjusted carrier signal for each identified spatial point of origination comprises the calculated carrier amplitude adjustment for that identified spatial point of origination.

10. The antenna array of claim 9, wherein the control system further comprises one or more fixed phase shifting devices and wherein the control system is further configured to respond to polarization parameters to:

identify one or more spatial points of origination of each of the radiating elements to further accept a phase shifted adjusted unmodulated carrier;

apply the polarization parameters to an unmodulated carrier using the one or more fixed phase shifting devices to produce a phase shifted unmodulated carrier; and

direct the phase shifted unmodulated carrier to the identified spatial points of origination.

11. The antenna array of claim 10, wherein the control system is further configured to respond to the polarization parameters to adjust the amplitude of the phase shifted unmodulated carrier.

12. The antenna array of claim 9, wherein the beam steering parameters are selected from the group consisting of individual phase shift parameters for each element and individual phase and amplitude shift parameters for each element.

13. The antenna array of claim 9, wherein the control system further comprises one or more amplitude control devices, wherein the control system configures the one or more amplitude control devices to apply the carrier amplitude adjustment to the unmodulated carrier in response to the beam steering parameters.

14. The antenna array of claim 9, wherein the radiating structures are selected from the group consisting of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna, a circular disc microstrip patch antenna, a quadrifilar helix antenna, a waveguide horn antenna, a crossed dipole antenna, a quadri-filar helix antenna, and a dual-arm sinuous antenna.

15. The antenna array of claim 9, wherein the control system comprises a processor and wherein the configuration of the control system is determined by the processor in response to software executable instructions.

16. An antenna array comprising;

a plurality of receiving DSAM antenna elements, wherein each receiving antenna element comprises;

a plurality of spatial points of origination;

a plurality of attenuators for each spatial point of origination; and

one or more ports configured to output a received signal;

a control system, wherein the control system is configured to

accept beam steering parameters;

determine a phase and an amplitude shift required by each antenna element in the array in order to produce the beam steering parameters;

identify one or more spatial points of origination required from each antenna element and determine an attenuation factor for each spatial point of origination for each antenna element in order to produce the determined phase shift for each antenna element in the array; and

direct the output ports of each array antenna to;

connect to the identified spatial points of origination in each array antenna; and

apply the determined attenuation factor to each identified spatial port of origination, thereby shifting the phase of each receiving antenna element as necessary to steer the array and an output signal received by the array.

17. The antenna array of claim 16, wherein the radiating structures are selected from the group consisting of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna, a circular disc microstrip patch antenna, a quadrifilar helix antenna, a waveguide horn antenna, a crossed dipole antenna, a quadri-filar helix antenna, and a dual-arm sinuous antenna.

18. The antenna array of claim 16, wherein the beam steering parameters are selected from the group consisting of individual phase shift parameters for each element and individual phase and amplitude shift parameters for each element.