Antenna
AssigneeAstrium GmbH
InventorSimon John Stirland
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A phased array antenna for providing a radiation pattern having at least one communication beam, includes a plurality of antenna elements, each with an antenna element signal having a phase relationship and an amplitude relationship to the other element signals; a digital signal processing arrangement providing a digital beamforming network; and an analog beamforming network arranged to reduce exposure of the digital signal processing arrangement to an interfering signal. Analog beamforming weights are selected to generate a null in the radiation pattern in a direction corresponding to the interfering signal.
Claims15
A phased array antenna for providing a radiation pattern having at least one communication beam, the antenna comprising:
- a plurality of antenna elements, wherein each antenna element will have an antenna element signal having a phase relationship and an amplitude relationship to the other element signals;
- a digital signal processing arrangement for providing a digital beamforming network;
- and
- an analogue beamforming network arranged for reducing exposure of the digital signal processing arrangement to an interfering signal, the analogue beamforming network being configured to apply analogue beamforming weights selected to generate a null in a radiation pattern in a direction corresponding to the interfering signal to signals received from said antenna elements, and the digital beamforming network being configured for applying digital beamforming weights for each of said at least one communication beam to signals received from said analogue beamforming network such that a composite radiation pattern of the antenna will provide said at least one communication beam.
A method of operating a phased array antenna for providing at least one communication beam, said phased array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements, each antenna element having an antenna element signal having a phase relationship and an amplitude relationship to the other element signals, a digital signal processing arrangement providing a digital beamforming network, and an analogue beamforming network arranged to reduce exposure of the digital signal processing arrangement to an interfering signal, the method comprising:
- allocating, in the analogue beamforming network, analogue beamforming weights to signals received from said antenna elements to generate a null in a direction corresponding to the interfering signal;
- providing output signals from said analogue beamforming network to the digital beamforming network;
- and
- allocating digital beamforming weights, in the digital beamforming network, for each of said at least one communication beams to said output signals of said analogue beamforming network such that a composite radiation pattern of the antenna provides said at least one communication beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.