Serial pipelined phase weight generator for phased array antenna having subarray controller delay equalization
First Claim
1. An apparatus for controlling the operation of a phased array antenna, said phased array antenna having an array of antenna elements and an associated set of phase control elements through which a composite beam pattern produced by said phased array antenna is established, said apparatus comprising:
- a control processing unit, coupled to receive information signals representative of intended characteristics of said composite beam pattern and being operative to output serial data representative of information for setting phase parameters of said phase control elements and thereby cause said array of antenna elements to produce said composite beam pattern; and
a plurality of subarray control processor units coupled in series along a serial communication link to which said serial data output by said control processing unit is supplied, a respective subarray control processor unit being operative to process serial data received thereby and to produce therefrom phase control signals that are applied to an associated subset of selected ones of said phase control elements and thereby define the contribution to said composite beam pattern of a subarray of antenna elements driven thereby; and
whereinsignal propagation paths from said serial communication link through said subarray control processors to respective associated subsets of selected phase control elements have respectively different delays such that output phase control signals produced by said subarray control processors are applied simultaneously to said associated subsets of phase control elements.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A "just in time" pipelined signal processing architecture for a phased array antenna simultaneously updates the weights of all phase control elements of the antenna with reduced wiring complexity and fast beam steering updates. Signal propagation paths between a pipelined communication link--through subarray control processors distributed along the pipeline link--and phase control elements of the antenna array are provided with respectively different serial pipelined transport delays. These delays are such that all phase control signals produced by the subarray control processors are applied simultaneously to their associated subsets of antenna phase control elements. The use of serial (FIFO) delays to equalize pipeline and weight processing latency allows each subarray controller to process and forward serial beam vector data at the same data rate at which it is received from an upstream host processor.
37 Citations
10 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for controlling the operation of a phased array antenna, said phased array antenna having an array of antenna elements and an associated set of phase control elements through which a composite beam pattern produced by said phased array antenna is established, said apparatus comprising:
-
a control processing unit, coupled to receive information signals representative of intended characteristics of said composite beam pattern and being operative to output serial data representative of information for setting phase parameters of said phase control elements and thereby cause said array of antenna elements to produce said composite beam pattern; and a plurality of subarray control processor units coupled in series along a serial communication link to which said serial data output by said control processing unit is supplied, a respective subarray control processor unit being operative to process serial data received thereby and to produce therefrom phase control signals that are applied to an associated subset of selected ones of said phase control elements and thereby define the contribution to said composite beam pattern of a subarray of antenna elements driven thereby; and
whereinsignal propagation paths from said serial communication link through said subarray control processors to respective associated subsets of selected phase control elements have respectively different delays such that output phase control signals produced by said subarray control processors are applied simultaneously to said associated subsets of phase control elements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method of controlling the operation of a phased array antenna having an array of antenna elements and an associated set of phase control elements through which a composite beam pattern produced by said phased array antenna is established, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) processing information signals representative of intended characteristics of said composite beam pattern and producing serial output data representative of information for setting phase parameters of said phase control elements that cause said array of antenna elements to produce said composite beam pattern; and (b) successively processing said serial output data in a plurality of subarray control processor units to produce phase control signals that are coupled to respectively different subsets of said phase control elements to define the contribution to said composite beam pattern of associated subarrays of antenna elements driven thereby; and
whereinsignal propagation paths through said subarray control processors to respective associated subsets of selected phase control elements have respectively different delays such that said phase control signals produced by said plurality of subarray control processors are applied simultaneously to said subsets of phase control elements. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
-
Specification