METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DOUBLING THE CAPACITY OF A LENS-BASED SWITCHED BEAM ANTENNA SYSTEM

• US 20130162478A1
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Published: 06/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: James D. Hill, Joel C. Roper, Kevin W. Ommodt
• Inventors: ROPER, Joel C., OMMODT, Kevin W., HILL, James D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,041,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/373
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/062 for focusing
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/008 lens fed multibeam arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/2658 Phased-array fed focussing structure

Abstract

A lens-based switched beam antenna system including a beam-forming lens, and a beam port router coupled to the beam-forming lens, including a plurality of beam ports, and configured to transmit beams via corresponding ones of the beam ports, wherein a first group of the beam ports corresponds to a first signal, and wherein a second group of the beam ports corresponds to a second signal.

Claims

1. A lens-based switched beam antenna system comprising:

a beam-forming lens; and

a beam port router coupled to the beam-forming lens, comprising a plurality of beam ports, and configured to transmit beams via corresponding ones of the beam ports,

wherein a first group of the beam ports corresponds to a first signal, and

wherein a second group of the beam ports corresponds to a second signal.

2. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first switch matrix coupled to the beam port router and configured to transmit or receive a first subset of the beams corresponding to the first signal to or from selected ones of the first group of the beam ports; and

a second switch matrix coupled to the beam port router and configured to transmit or receive a second subset of the beams corresponding to the second signal to or from selected ones of the second group of the beam ports.

3. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 2, further comprising an antenna array configured to form a far field beam corresponding to the beams transmitted from the beam port router to the beam-forming lens.

4. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 3, further comprising a processor for operating the first switch matrix and the second switch matrix corresponding to an angle or shape of the far field beam.

5. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 2, further comprising an antenna array configured to detect a far field signal in a far field and to transmit the beams corresponding to the far field signal to the beam port router via the beam-foaming lens.

6. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 2, wherein the first group of the beam ports are even-numbered beam ports, and wherein the second group of the beam ports are odd-numbered beam ports.

7. A lens-based switched beam antenna system comprising:

a plurality of switch matrices, each comprising a plurality of switches, and each for transmitting transmitted beams corresponding to a transmit signal, or for transmitting a receive signal corresponding to received beams;

a beam port router coupled to the switch matrices, comprising a plurality of beam ports corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of switches, and configured to transmit the transmitted beams or received beams;

a beam-forming lens configured to transmit the received beams to, or receive the transmitted beams from, the beam port router; and

an antenna array configured to be illuminated by the transmitted beams passing through the beam-forming lens to form a far field beam, or configured to transmit the received beams to the beam-forming lens corresponding to a detected far field signal.

8. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 7, wherein the transmitted beams comprise a plurality of beam sets each corresponding to respective ones of the transmit signals.

9. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 8, wherein the beam ports comprise a plurality of groups, each group corresponding to a corresponding one of the beam sets.

10. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 7, further comprising a processor for operating the plurality of switches.

11. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to operate the plurality of switches corresponding to an angle of the far field beam.

12. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 10, further comprising a lookup table for mapping angles of the far field beam corresponding to operation of the plurality of switches.

13. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to analyze one or more receive signals to estimate at least one of a location and a strength of the detected far field signal.

14. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 7, wherein the antenna array comprises a plurality of antenna elements for transmitting the received beams to selected ones of the beam ports via the beam-forming lens corresponding to the detected far field signal.

15. The lens-based switched beam antenna system of claim 14, wherein the antenna elements each correspond to one or more of the beam ports, and are respectively illuminated by the transmitted beams passing through the corresponding beam ports.

16. A method for doubling a capacity of a lens-based switched beam antenna system, the method comprising:

processing a plurality of signals;

delivering each of the plurality of signals to corresponding switch matrices;

determining a desired far field beam angle corresponding to the plurality of signals;

operating switches of the switch matrices according to the desired far field beam angle;

passing one or more beams corresponding to the plurality of signals through open ones of the switches into a beam port router;

passing the one or more beams into a beam-forming lens; and

illuminating an antenna array with the one or more beams from the beam-forming lens to produce a far field beam corresponding to the desired far field beam angle.