US 6,661,375 B2 · Beam steering in sub-arrayed antennae

Abstract

A method is presented for operating a phased array antenna comprising a number of sub-arrays. The method comprises the steps of introducing phase offsets into signals received from/transmitted to each element in the antenna, to provide directional transmit or receive sensitivity in a first direction; summing signals received from each element in each sub-array to provide respective sub-array signals; introducing respective phase offsets into the respective sub-array signals to adjust the direction of maximum sensitivity within a sensitivity envelope defined by the phase offsets applied to each element of the antenna as a whole. The method further comprises the step of adjusting the phase offset of each element of each respective sub-array by a respective amount, thereby to alter the directional sensitivity of each respective sub-array, respective sub-arrays having the phase offset of their elements adjusted by differing amounts thereby providing the sub-arrays with a variety of directional sensitivities diverging from the first direction.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method for operating a phased array antenna, itself comprising a plurality of sub-arrays, said method comprising:

for each sub-array, introducing phase offsets into signals received from/transmitted to each element in the sub-array, to provide directional transmit or receive sensitivity in a first direction, thereby providing the sub-arrays with a variety of directional sensitivities, and defining a sensitivity envelope for the antenna as a whole;
for each sub-array, summing signals received from each element thereof to provide respective sub-array signals;
and
for each sub-array, introducing respective phase offsets into the respective sub-array signal, wherein,
at least two different combinations of sub-array signals are each summed, to provide an antenna response comprising a corresponding at least two response maximum representing a combination of the individual responses of such sums, each of such maxima representing an antenna response corresponding to a combination of the responses of the sub-arrays whose outputs are summed.

2 more elements

A phased array antenna comprising:

a matrix of sub-arrays, each sub-array having a corresponding plurality of antenna elements, each antenna element having an associated phase shifting element applying a phase shift to a signal received by the phase shifting element for transmission by, or in response to reception by, a corresponding antenna element, and sub-array summing unit, providing a respective sub-array signal, having directional transmit or receive sensitivity in a respective first direction for each sub-array;
a respective sub-array phase delay applied to the respective sub-array signal;
and
a further summing unit arranged to sum the phase delayed sub-array signals to produce a received antenna signal having a response equivalent to a combination of the responses of each sub-array;
wherein,
the sub-arrays have different respective phase delays applied to the respective sub-array signals;
and
at least two different combinations of sub-array signals are each summed to provide an antenna response comprising a corresponding at least two response maxima representing a combination of the individual responses of such sums, each of such maxima representing an antenna response corresponding to a combination of the responses of the sub-arrays whose output is summed.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Beam steering in sub-arrayed antennae

Life of this patent

Beam steering in sub-arrayed antennae

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21