3-dimensional beam steering system
First Claim
1. A beam steering system having a front surface and comprising at least two beam steering devices on the front surface, each including an antenna unit and an individual driving unit capable of electrically and mechanically steering the antenna units, the beam steering devices being arranged to focus the beam at one spatial point.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a beam steering system. The system includes an array of a plurality of antenna elements, each antenna element being electrically and mechanically controlled for steering a beam in a specific direction, and a millimeter wave subsystem quasi-optically integrated with a 3-dimensional beam steering device and an MMIC-type active circuit. The antenna element is controlled in real time by an electrical driving method so as to be moved in 2-dimensional space. That is, in the 3-dimensional system of the present invention, the beam is electrically controlled by a phase shifter, and each antenna element is physically moved by a mechanical driving mechanism. The 3-dimensional beam steering antenna and the associated devices are monolithically integrated on a substrate using MEMS technology, and the active circuit elements such as a mixer, a power amplifier (PA), a low noise amplifier (LNA), a VCO, etc. are integrated in an MMIC active array. The 3-dimensional beam steering device and the active MMIC circuit are integrated into one system by being interconnected using the quasi-optical technique. According to the present invention, shortcomings of the millimeter wave in that the SNR is low due to the low device output and high transmission loss in the free space can be overcome using the new RF transmission technique of 3-dimensional beam steering, and by introducing a micro antenna structure which is electrically and mechanically controlled such that wideband RF communication and 3-dimensional imaging is allowed in a Pico cell environment.
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Citations
10 Claims
- 1. A beam steering system having a front surface and comprising at least two beam steering devices on the front surface, each including an antenna unit and an individual driving unit capable of electrically and mechanically steering the antenna units, the beam steering devices being arranged to focus the beam at one spatial point.
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10. An antenna for three dimensional beam steering, the antenna having a front surface and comprising an array of individually controlled beam generating elements on the front surface, each beam generating clement being associated with an individual driving unit capable of electrically and mechanically steering the beam generating element, the beam generating elements being arranged to focus the beam at one spatial point.
Specification