Self-healing antenna arrays

• US 9,780,446 B1
• Filed: 10/24/2011
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Yu, Kai-Bor
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chuong P
• Application Number:
  US13/279,602
• Time in Patent Office: 2,171 Days
• Field of Search: 342371, 342372, 342377, 342379
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/2813 Means providing a modification of the radiation pattern for cancelling noise, clutter or interfering signals, e.g. side lobe suppression, side lobe blanking, null-steering arrays specially adapted to secondary radar systems G01S13/762; aerials or aerials systems H01Q21/29, H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/22 varying the orientation in accordance with variation of frequency of radiated wave
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/26 varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture H01Q3/12, H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/2605 Array of radiating elements provided with a feedback control over the element weights, e.g. adaptive arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0634 Antenna weights or vector/matrix coefficients

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing an antenna. A current radiation pattern is identified for the antenna using initial coefficients for a modulation function for the antenna. A first constraint is applied to the current radiation pattern to form a modified radiation pattern. New coefficients for the modulation function are identified as coefficients for which a difference between a radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the coefficients and the modified radiation pattern is reduced. A second constraint is applied to a set of coefficients in the new coefficients to form modified coefficients for the modulation function. The steps of applying the first constraint, identifying the new coefficients for the modulation function, and applying the second constraint are iterated until a new radiation pattern based on the modified coefficients for the modulation function meets the first constraint.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a radiation pattern generated by an antenna, the method comprising:

using a computer system having a processor to perform the steps of;

identifying a current radiation pattern for the antenna using initial coefficients for a modulation function for the antenna;

(a) applying a first constraint to the current radiation pattern to form a modified radiation pattern;

(b) identifying new coefficients for the modulation function as trial coefficients for which a difference between a radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the coefficients trial and the modified radiation pattern is reduced;

(c) applying a third constraint to the new coefficients such that the new coefficients have a selected number of coefficients equal to a number of elements in an array of elements in the antenna;

(d) substantially removing a contribution to the modified radiation pattern of a set of elements in the array of elements that are operating outside of selected parameters by applying a second constraint to a set of coefficients in the new coefficients that correspond to the set of elements to form modified coefficients for the modulation function;

iterating through the steps of (a), (b), (c), and (d) until a new radiation pattern based on the modified coefficients for the modulation function meets the first constraint; and

in response to the new radiation pattern meeting the first constraint, operating the antenna using the modulation function with the modified coefficients such that a performance of the antenna is within selected tolerances.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying, by the computer system, the new radiation pattern for the antenna using the modified coefficients.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the first constraint to the current radiation pattern to form the modified radiation pattern comprises:

applying, by the computer system, the first constraint to the current radiation pattern to form the modified radiation pattern such that side lobe levels for side lobes of the current radiation pattern that are greater than a selected threshold are set to the selected threshold in the modified radiation pattern.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the second constraint to the set of coefficients in the new coefficients comprises:

setting, by the computer system, the set of coefficients in the new coefficients corresponding to the set of elements in the array of elements in the antenna to substantially zero.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the new coefficients comprises:

identifying, by the computer system, the new coefficients for the modulation function as the trial coefficients for which a sum of differences between first values for the radiation pattern generated using the trial coefficients at a plurality of angular directions with respect to the antenna and second values for the modified radiation pattern at the plurality of angular directions is reduced to a minimum value for the sum of the differences.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the new coefficients comprises:

identifying, by the computer system, trial the coefficients for the modulation function in which the trial coefficients have a same number as the selected number of coefficients; and

iterating, by the computer system, through the step of identifying the trial coefficients using a least squares algorithm until the radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the trial coefficients and the modified radiation pattern is reduced to a minimum.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the radiation pattern of the antenna is a product of a matrix and the modulation function in the form of a vector, wherein the matrix identifies contributions of each of a set of elements in the array of elements in the antenna to the radiation pattern for a selected number of samples of the radiation pattern.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the trial coefficients for the modulation function in which the trial coefficients have the same number as the selected number of coefficients comprises:

identifying, by the computer system, the trial coefficients for the modulation function using a first product of a transpose of a complex conjugate of the matrix and the modified radiation pattern divided by a second product of the transpose of the complex conjugate of the matrix and the matrix.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the least squares algorithm is a minimum-norm least squares algorithm.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the set of elements in the array of elements in the antenna that are operating outside of the selected parameters;

wherein the set of elements in the array of elements in the antenna operating outside of selected parameters have failed.

10. An apparatus for controlling a radiation pattern generated by an antenna, the apparatus comprising:

an antenna manager configured to;

identify a current radiation pattern for the antenna using initial coefficients for a modulation function for the antenna;

(a) apply a first constraint to the current radiation pattern to form a modified radiation pattern;

(b) identify new coefficients for the modulation function as trial coefficients for which a difference between a radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the coefficients trial and the modified radiation pattern is reduced;

(c) apply a third constraint to the new coefficients such that the new coefficients have a selected number of coefficients equal to a number of elements in an array of elements in the antenna;

(d) substantially removing a contribution to the modified radiation pattern of a set of elements in the array of elements that are operating outside of selected parameters by applying a second constraint to a set of coefficients in the new coefficients that correspond to the set of elements to form modified coefficients for the modulation function; and

iterate through the steps of (a), (b), (c), and (d) until a new radiation pattern based on the modified coefficients for the modulation function meets the first constraint, and in response to the new radiation pattern meeting the first constraint, operating the antenna using the modulation function with the modified coefficients such that the performance of the antenna is within selected tolerances.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna manager is further configured to identify the new radiation pattern for the antenna using the modified coefficients.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising:

the antenna comprising an array of elements in the antenna.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first constraint includes a selected threshold for side lobe levels for side lobes of the current radiation pattern.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna manager is configured to apply the second constraint by setting the set of coefficients in the new coefficients corresponding to the set of elements in the array of elements in the antenna to substantially zero.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the antenna manager is configured to identify the new coefficients by identifying trial the coefficients for the modulation function in which the trial coefficients have a same number of elements in the array of elements in the antenna and iterate through the step of identifying the trial coefficients using a least squares algorithm until the radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the trial coefficients and the modified radiation pattern is reduced to a minimum.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the least squares algorithm is a minimum-norm least squares algorithm.

17. A computer system for controlling a radiation pattern generated by an antenna comprising:

a bus system;

a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device is configured to store program code; and

a processor unit, wherein the processor unit is configured to run the program code to;

identify a current radiation pattern for the antenna using initial coefficients for a modulation function for the antenna;

(a) apply a first constraint to the current radiation pattern to form a modified radiation pattern;

(b) identify new coefficients for the modulation function as trial coefficients for which a difference between a radiation pattern for the antenna generated using the coefficients trial and the modified radiation pattern is reduced;

(c) applying a third constraint to the new coefficients such that the new coefficients have a selected number of coefficients equal to a number of elements in an array of elements in the antenna;

(d) substantially remove a contribution to the modified radiation pattern of a set of elements in the array of elements that are operating outside of selected parameters by applying a second constraint to a set of coefficients in the new coefficients that correspond to the set of elements to form modified coefficients for the modulation function; and

iterate through the steps of (a), (b), (c), and (d) until a new radiation pattern based on the modified coefficients for the modulation function meets the first constraint, and in response to the new radiation pattern meeting the first constraint, operating the antenna using the modulation function with the modified coefficients such that the performance of the antenna is within selected tolerances.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the processor unit configured to run the program code to identify the new coefficients further comprises:

the processor unit configured to run the program code to identify the new coefficients for the modulation function as the trial coefficients for which a sum of differences between first values for the radiation pattern generated using the trial coefficients at a plurality of angular directions with respect to the antenna and second values for the modified radiation pattern at the plurality of angular directions is reduced to a minimum value for the sum of the differences.