Claims
- 1. An antenna system comprising:
a beamformer having a feed port and an arrangement of output ports; radiating antenna elements coupled with output ports of the beamformer; and an antenna control unit coupled with the beamformer to steer a beam of the antenna system.
- 2. The antenna system of claim 1 wherein the arrangement of output ports comprises a two-dimensional arrangement.
- 3. The antenna system of claim 2 wherein the beamformer includes a control port configured to receive two or more control signals and wherein the antenna control unit is configured to provide the two or more control signals to steer the beam of the antenna system.
- 4. The antenna system of claim 3 further comprising:
built in test equipment (BITE) coupled with the beamformer and configured to determine a phase estimate for the beamformer.
- 5. The antenna system of claim 4 wherein the antenna control unit is coupled with the BITE and further configured to receive the phase estimate and to generate an error correction in response to the phase estimate.
- 6. The antenna system of claim 5 wherein the antenna control unit is configured to update the two or more control signals in response to the phase estimate.
- 7. An antenna system comprising:
a fractal corporate power divider beamformer having a feed port and output ports; radiating antenna elements coupled with output ports of the beamformer; and an antenna control unit coupled with the beamformer to steer a beam of the antenna system.
- 8. The antenna system of claim 7 wherein the beamformer comprises:
a fractal array of delayers, each delayer having a variable delay controllable by a control signal.
- 9. The antenna system of claim 8 wherein the antenna control unit comprises:
a first calculating circuit configured to determine delays for delayers of the beamformer in response to a selected scan angle; and a signal generating circuit configured to produce control signals for the fractal array of delayers in response to the determined delays.
- 10 The antenna system of claim 9 further comprising:
built in test equipment (BITE) coupled with the beamformer and the antenna control unit and configured to determine phase information for two or more delayers of the beamformer and provide the phase information to the antenna control unit.
- 11. The antenna system of claim 10 where the antenna control unit is configured to determine an error correction based on the phase information, the signal generating circuit producing corrected control signals for the fractal array in response to the error correction.
- 12. A radio comprising:
a transmit circuit; a receive circuit; a diplexer coupled with the transmit circuit and the receive circuit; two or more radiating antenna elements; a fractal corporate power divider beamformer having a feed port coupled with the diplexer and two or more output ports coupled with the two or more radiating antenna elements; and an antenna control unit configured to provide control signals to the beamformer to steer an antenna beam.
- 13. The radio of claim 12 further comprising:
an oscillator configured to generate one or more oscillating signals at a transmit frequency and a receive frequency; and a controller coupled with the oscillator and the antenna control unit.
- 14. The radio of claim 12 further comprising:
a built in test circuit coupled with the fractal corporate power divider beamformer and configured to measure phase at a plurality of radiating antenna elements and provide a phase indication to the antenna control unit.
- 15. The radio of claim 13 wherein the antenna control unit is configured to determine an error correction based on the phase indication and provide corrected control signals based on the error correction.
- 16. The radio of claim 14 wherein the antenna control unit is configured to produce modulated control signals and identify an error correction based on the modulated control signals, the antenna control unit further configured to provide corrected control signals based on the error correction.
- 17 A method for directing a beam of an antenna, the method comprising:
receiving information associated with a desired scan angle; calculating delays between delayers of a fractal corporate power divider beamformer; generating control signals based on the calculated delays; and communicating the control signals to the beamformer.
- 18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:
receiving phase information for predetermined delayers of the beamformer; calculating error correction based on the phase information; updating the control signals based on the error correction; and communicating the updated control signals to the beamformer.
- 19. A self-installing radio operable in a radio system, the self-installing radio comprising:
radio equipment for radio communication with a remote radio of the radio system; an antenna system coupled with the radio equipment and including:
a planar, fractal beamformer having a plurality of controllable variable time delay elements responsive to control signals for delaying radio frequency (RF) signals between a feed port and a plurality of output ports, and an array of radiating elements coupled with the plurality of output ports; and a control circuit coupled with the beamformer to provide the control signals in response to an estimation of a pointing angle to the remote radio.
- 20. The self-installing radio of claim 19 wherein the control circuit is configured to vary the control signals to vary the pointing angle until a signal quality parameter is optimized.
- 21. The self-installing radio of claim 20 wherein the control circuit is configured to determine a new pointing angle, calculate delays for the plurality of controllable variable time delay elements of the beamformer and generate the control signals to establish the calculated delays at the beamformer.
- 22. The self-installing radio of claim 19 wherein the control circuit is configured to detect a variation in a signal quality parameter and, in response, vary the control signals to vary the pointing angle until a signal quality is optimized.
- 23. An antenna system for user equipment (UE) of a satellite radio communication system including a plurality of earth-orbiting satellites, the antenna system comprising:
a planar, fractal beamformer having a plurality of controllable variable time delay elements responsive to control signals for delaying radio frequency (RF) signals between a feed port and a plurality of output ports, and an array of radiating elements coupled with the plurality of output ports; and a control circuit coupled with the beamformer to provide the control signals in response to an estimation of a pointing angle to a satellite of the satellite radio communication system.
- 24. A radio for use with user equipment (UE) of a satellite radio communication system including a plurality of earth-orbiting satellites, the radio comprising:
radio equipment for radio communication with one or more satellite radios of the satellite radio system; an antenna system coupled with the radio equipment and including
a planar, fractal beamformer having a plurality of controllable variable time delay elements responsive to control signals for delaying radio frequency (RF) signals between a feed port and a plurality of output ports, and an array of radiating elements coupled with the plurality of output ports; and a control circuit coupled with the beamformer to provide the control signals in response to an estimation of a pointing angle to the satellite radio.
- 25. The radio of claim 24 wherein the control circuit is configured to calculate an updated pointing angle matching motion of the satellite radio and to update the control signals to point the beam at the satellite radio as the satellite radio moves.
- 26. An open loop steering method for a phased array antenna system, the method comprising:
(a) determining a desired scan angle for a beam of the phased array antenna system; (b) based on the desired scan angle, determining delays for time delay devices of a beamformer of the phased array antenna system; (c) based on the delays, producing a plurality of control signals; (d) providing the control signals to the beamformer; (e) at the beamformer, in response to the control signals, establishing time delays between a feed port and output ports of the beamformer; (f) providing a radio frequency signal to the feed port of the beamformer; and (g) selectively delaying the RF signal according to the established time delays to provide delayed output signals from the output ports to radiating elements of the beamformer.
- 27. The open loop steering method of claim 26 wherein determining the delays based on the desired scan angle comprises looking up delay information in a memory using desired scan angle information.
- 28. The open loop steering method of claim 26 wherein determining the delays based on the desired scan angle comprises calculating delay information according to a predetermined algorithm and the desired scan angle.
- 29. The open loop steering method of claim 26 wherein providing the control signals to the beamformer comprises providing digital data related to the delays.
- 30. The open loop steering method of claim 26 further comprising:
(h) determining phase information; (i) based on the phase information, determining a beam angle error; and (j) based on the beam angle error, determining an error correction.
- 31. The open loop steering method of claim 31 further comprising:
(k) based on the error correction, producing a plurality of corrected control signals; (l) providing the corrected control signals to the beamformer; (m) at the beamformer, in response to the corrected control signals, establishing corrected time delays between the feed port and the output ports of the beamformer; (n) providing a radio frequency signal to the feed port of the beamformer; (o) selectively delaying the RF signal according to the corrected time delays to provide delayed output signals from the output ports to radiating elements of the beamformer.
- 32. The open loop steering method of claim 31 further comprising:
(p) repeating acts (h) through (o) to maintain the desired scan angle of the beam.
- 33. A closed loop steering method for a phased array antenna system, the method comprising:
(a) determining a desired scan angle for a beam of the phased array antenna system; (b) based on the desired scan angle, determining delays for time delay devices of a beamformer of the phased array antenna system; (c) based on the delays, producing a plurality of control signals; (d) modulating the control signals to modulate the scan angle; (e) providing the modulated control signals to the beamformer; (f) at the beamformer, in response to the modulated control signals, establishing time delays between a feed port and output ports of the beamformer; (g) sampling a received signal detected of the phased array antenna system; (h) determining error corrections based on the sampled received signal; (i) producing corrected control signals based on the error corrections; (j) providing the corrected control signals to the beamformer.
- 34. The closed loop steering method of claim 33 further comprising: (g1) filtering modulation from the received signal.
- 35. A method for a radio including a phased array antenna system, the method comprising:
applying control signals to variable time delay elements of a planar fractal beamformer to steer an antenna beam; detecting a signal indication associated with radio communication with a remote radio target; and steering the antenna beam to vary the signal indication.
- 36. The method of claim 35 wherein detecting the signal indication comprises:
transmitting a radio signal; measuring phase information for the transmitted radio signal; and detecting an error correction based on the phase information.
- 37. The method of claim 35 further comprising:
modulating a pointing angle of the antenna beam; receiving radio signals from the remote radio target; and based on the received radio signals, determining an error correction for the pointing angle of the antenna beam.
- 38. The method of claim 35 further comprising:
detecting a subsequent reduction in the signal quality indication; and applying corrected control signals to the time delay elements to steer the antenna beam to improve the signal quality indication.
- 39. A method for a radio including a phased array antenna system, the method comprising:
steering an antenna beam to a remote radio target with a planar fractal beamformer; detecting a signal quality indication associated with radio communication with the remote radio target; and applying corrected control signals to time delay elements of the planar fractal beamformer to steer the antenna beam to improve the signal quality indication.
- 40. A manufacturing method for a radio including a phased array antenna system, the method comprising:
determining a pointing angle for the phased array antenna system; providing beam steering control signals to a planar fractal beamformer of the phased array antenna system; fixing the beam steering control signals to permanently select the pointing angle for the phased array antenna system.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to application Ser. No. 09/839,323 entitled “Variable Time-Delay Microwave Transmission Line,” filed Apr. 20, 2001 in the name of James D. Lilly, and application Ser. No. 09/863,975 entitled “Planar, Fractal, Time-Delay Beamformer,” filed May 23, 2001 in the names of William E. McKinzie, III and James D. Lilly, both of which are commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application and incorporated in their entirety herein by this reference.