Method and apparatus for improving the directivity of an antenna
First Claim
1. A method of improving the directivity of a receive system, the method comprising:
- receiving receive signals from an antenna array, the antenna array comprising a plurality of elements;
amplifying the receive signals to form amplified signal-plus-noise signals;
determining a phi-phase equivalent to a difference between a reference phase and a phase of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals;
forming in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) versions of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals by subtracting the phi-phase and adding or subtracting about ninety degrees from the in-phase version to form the quadrature version;
multiplying the phase difference by each of a series of integers to create a plurality of outputs;
summing the outputs coherently to form an improved overall output with an improved sensitivity substantially greater than a normal sensitivity of the receive signals; and
computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal.
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Abstract
A receive system, including special integrated circuits, for providing enhanced directivity in the form of a narrowed receive beam and a relatively small antenna with performance comparable to a much larger antenna at similar frequencies. Received signals are converted to digital values and stored in a manner which enables subsequent processing directed to improving the resolution of the received signals and to reduce the associated noise corresponding to the received data samples. The Signal-to-Noise ratio of the received data signals is improved as a result of processing techniques made possible by the configuration of the antenna and the digitally stored nature of the received data.
38 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of improving the directivity of a receive system, the method comprising:
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receiving receive signals from an antenna array, the antenna array comprising a plurality of elements; amplifying the receive signals to form amplified signal-plus-noise signals; determining a phi-phase equivalent to a difference between a reference phase and a phase of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals; forming in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) versions of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals by subtracting the phi-phase and adding or subtracting about ninety degrees from the in-phase version to form the quadrature version; multiplying the phase difference by each of a series of integers to create a plurality of outputs; summing the outputs coherently to form an improved overall output with an improved sensitivity substantially greater than a normal sensitivity of the receive signals; and computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of improving the directivity of an antenna of a receive system that receives receive signals, the method comprising:
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forming a topological number array (TNA) for at least two successive trials of the receive signals, wherein the TNA contains data consisting of in-phase and quadrature versions of the receive signals; performing an iterative process on the data contained in the TNA to determine an estimate of the magnitude and polarity of the noise portion of the receive signals for each trial, wherein the iterative process consists at least of successively adding a series of equally spaced values to the data and determining a particular value that causes the noise portion to change polarity; subtracting each estimated noise value from the receive signals to obtain a noise-reduced signal; computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A receive system with improved directivity, the system comprising:
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an antenna array comprising a plurality of elements, each element operable to receive electromagnetic waves over a band of frequencies, wherein the electromagnetic waves comprise receive signals; an amplifier operable to amplify the receive signals to form amplified signal-plus-noise signals; means for determining a phi-phase equivalent to a difference between a reference phase and a phase of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals; means for forming in-phase and quadrature versions of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals by subtracting said phi-phase and adding or subtracting about ninety degrees from the in-phase version to form the quadrature version; means for multiplying the phase difference by each of a series of integers to create a plurality of outputs; means for summing the outputs coherently to form an improved overall output with an improved sensitivity substantially greater than a normal sensitivity of the receive signals; and means for computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer program storage medium readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program for executing a process, the process comprising:
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receiving receive signals from an antenna array, the antenna array comprising a plurality of elements; amplifying the receive signals to form amplified signal-plus-noise signals;
determining a phi-phase equivalent to a difference between a reference phase and a phase of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals;forming in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) versions of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals by subtracting the phi-phase and adding or subtracting about ninety degrees from the in-phase version to form the quadrature version; multiplying the phase difference by each of a series of integers to create a plurality of outputs; summing the outputs coherently to form an improved overall output with an improved sensitivity substantially greater than a normal sensitivity of the receive signals; and computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal.
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22. A computer program product encoding a computer program for executing on a computer system a computer process, the computer process comprising:
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receiving receive signals from an antenna array, the antenna array comprising a plurality of elements; amplifying the receive signals to form amplified signal-plus-noise signals;
determining a phi-phase equivalent to a difference between a reference phase and a phase of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals;forming in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) versions of the amplified signal-plus-noise signals by subtracting the phi-phase and adding or subtracting about ninety degrees from the in-phase version to form the quadrature version; multiplying the phase difference by each of a series of integers to create a plurality of outputs; summing the outputs coherently to form an improved overall output with an improved sensitivity substantially greater than a normal sensitivity of the receive signals; and computing the arctangent of a noise reduced quadrature signal divided by a noise reduced in-phase signal to constitute an angle, phi, of the signal. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification