Method and apparatus for beam steering and switching
AssigneeMetawave Corporation
InventorJun Fang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and apparatus for beam steering and switching are disclosed. In one or more examples, a method for operating a communication system comprises switching, at least one switch in a rearrangeable switch network, to control input levels to power amplifiers in a power distribution network. The method further comprises outputting, by the power amplifiers in the power distribution network, power to a plurality of antenna elements. Further, the method comprises steering and distributing power, by the antenna elements, in beams associated with each of the antenna elements according to a level of the power in each of the antenna elements.
Claims16
A communication system, comprising:
- a transceiver module;
- a rearrangeable switch network comprising output ports and coupled to the transceiver module;
- a power distribution network coupled to the output ports of the rearrangeable switch network, the power distribution network comprising a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein the power distribution network is a multi-port amplification (MPA) matrix comprising:
- a first set of hybrid couplers;
- a second set of hybrid couplers coupled to the plurality of antenna elements;
- and
- a power amplifier bank connected to the first set of hybrid couplers and the second set of hybrid couplers, wherein the power amplifier bank includes the plurality of power amplifiers;
- and
- a plurality of antenna elements, each coupled to the power distribution network.
A communication system comprising:
- a transceiver module;
- level control drivers coupled to the transceiver module;
- a switch network coupled to the level control drivers, the switch network having M number of input ports and M number of output ports, wherein M is an integer;
- a power distribution network having M number of input ports and M number of output ports, the input ports of the power distribution network coupled to the output ports of the switch network, the power distribution network having a plurality of power amplifiers and hybrid couplers;
- and
- a plurality of antenna elements directly coupled to the power distribution network, wherein each output of the plurality of power amplifiers corresponds to a single one of the plurality of antenna elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.