Antenna System Architecture with Calibration Feedback Routing for Per Element Calibration with Digital Beamformer
AssigneeCesiumAstro, Inc.
InventorsTanim Taher, Thomas Magesacher, James Wesley McCoy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system may include multiple digital beamformer (DBF) circuits coupled to an analog front end that includes an antenna array. Each DBF circuit is coupled to a subset of the antenna elements of the array. Each DBF may be configured to adjust coefficients of complex multipliers to selectively enable and disable beams, antenna elements, transmit paths, receive paths, or any combination thereof to enable per-element calibration of the antenna array.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a plurality of digital beamformer (DBF) circuits coupled to a plurality of antenna elements, wherein individual ones of the plurality of DBF circuits comprise:
- a plurality of beam modules corresponding to the plurality of antenna elements, wherein individual ones of the plurality of beam modules include a multiplier comprising a first input to receive data, a second input to receive one or more complex multipliers, and an output to provide one or more complex products,
- a controller configured to provide coefficients to the one or more complex multipliers to enable or disable at least one of a selected beam module, a selected antenna element, a transmit path, or a receive path to determine calibration data or health check data for the selected antenna element;
- and
- a centralized controller configured to transmit configuration data to the controller and receive the calibration data or health check data from the plurality of DBF circuits.
An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of digital beamformer (DBF) circuits coupled to one another in a daisy-chain configuration, each DBF circuit comprising:
- a DBF interface to couple to the integrated circuit or to another DBF circuit of the plurality of DBF circuits;
- a plurality of beam modules, each beam module including a plurality of multipliers and adders, each multiplier to receive complex data at a first input, to receive a complex multiplier at a second input, and to provide an output signal corresponding to a product of the complex data and the complex multiplier;
- and
- a controller to provide the complex multiplier to the input of each of the plurality of multipliers, the controller further to selectively activate or deactivate one or more of a beam, a selected antenna element, a transmit path, or a receive path to determine calibration data or health check data for a selected antenna element and to reserve a selected beam for communication of calibration data or health check data to a baseband processing circuit coupled with the integrated circuit.
A plurality of digital beamformer (DBF) circuits coupled to a plurality of antenna elements, wherein individual ones of the plurality of DBF circuits comprise:
- a plurality of beam modules, wherein individual ones of the plurality of beam modules include a multiplier comprising a first input to receive data, a second input to receive one or more complex multipliers, and an output to provide one or more complex products;
- a controller to:
- provide coefficients to the one or more complex multipliers to enable or disable at least one of a selected beam module, a selected antenna element, a transmit path, or a receive path to determine calibration data or health check data for the selected antenna element, and
- transmit, to a centralized controller, calibration data or health check data regrading the plurality of DBF circuits.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.