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US 11,309,953 B2Granted
Beamforming architecture for multi-beam multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsYeong-Sun Hwang, Yuan Zhu, Elmar Wagner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna array configuration is described in one example comprising a plurality of Radio Frequency (RF) chains, a plurality of antenna elements, and a plurality of phase shifters, wherein the antenna elements and phase shifters form a plurality of antenna arrays, and coupled to the RF chains, and the number of antenna arrays is larger than the number of RF chains.
Claims20
A user equipment (UE), comprising:
- a plurality of antenna arrays configured to form respective receive (RX) beams for receiving one or more reference signals;
- and
- an radio frequency (RF) chain coupled with at least two antenna arrays of the plurality of antenna arrays and configured to:
- receive at least two RX beam-formed reference signals with respect to respective antenna arrays of said at least two antenna arrays, using a plurality of candidate RX beams, for respective reference signal measurements;
- and
- perform signal reception, via a determined beam of the plurality of the candidate RX beams for each of the at least two antenna arrays, based on the respective reference signal measurements;
- baseband circuitry coupled to the RF chain, wherein the baseband circuitry is configured to perform operations comprising:
- via each antenna array of the at least two antenna arrays, measuring the respective RX beam-formed reference signal using the plurality of candidate RX beams, to obtain the respective reference signal measurements for the antenna array, wherein each of the plurality of candidate RX beams corresponds to a different beam direction;
- and
- selecting said determined beam for each antenna array of the at least two antenna arrays based on the respective reference signal measurements for the antenna array.
7 more elements
A method for operating a communication device, the method comprising:
- via each antenna array of a plurality of antenna arrays, making observations of a reference signal through candidate receive beams of the antenna array;
- and
- for each antenna array of the plurality of antenna arrays, select a corresponding receive beam from the candidate receive beams of the antenna array;
- performing beamforming at the plurality of antenna arrays to obtain a respective plurality of beamformed signals, wherein beamforming is separately applied at each of the antenna arrays, wherein the beamforming performed at each antenna array is based on the corresponding selected receive beam;
- receiving the plurality of beamformed signals at a radio frequency (RF) chain, wherein said receiving includes receiving (a) a first output signal from a first of the antenna arrays and (b) a second output signal from a second of the antenna arrays, wherein said receiving of (a) and said receiving of (b) partially overlap in time, wherein the first output signal is beamformed at the first antenna array based on the selected receive beam of the first antenna array, wherein the second output signal is beamformed at the second antenna array based on the selected receive beam of the second antenna array.
2 more elements
A user equipment comprising:
- a plurality of antenna arrays, wherein each of the antenna arrays includes a corresponding plurality of phase shifters and a corresponding plurality of antenna elements;
- a radio frequency front end (RFFE) coupled to the plurality of antenna arrays;
- and
- one or more baseband processors coupled to the RFFE, wherein the one or more baseband processors are configured to perform operations comprising:
- with respect to each antenna array in the plurality of antenna arrays, measuring a reference signal using a corresponding plurality of candidate beam directions, to obtain a corresponding plurality of measurements, and selecting a candidate beam direction from among the plurality of candidate beam directions based on the corresponding plurality of measurements;
- wherein the RFFE includes a first radio frequency (RF) chain, wherein the operations also comprise:
- receiving, via the first RF chain, (a) a first output signal from a first of the antenna arrays and (b) a second output signal from a second of the antenna arrays, wherein said receiving of (a) and said receiving of (b) partially overlap in time, wherein the first output signal has been beamformed at the first antenna array based on the selected candidate beam direction of the first antenna array, wherein the second output signal has been beamformed at the second antenna array based on the selected candidate beam direction of the second antenna array.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.