阅读说明：本技术 功率合成方法及系统 (Power synthesis method and system ) 是由 何磊 李俊宏 邱银娟 王超 于 2019-09-20 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请提供一种功率合成方法及系统,其中,功率合成方法应用于功率合成系统,该功率合成系统包括：多条功率合成支路,多条功率合成支路中的任一支路包括：同步信号源。在一个实施例中,功率合成方法包括：以多条功率合成支路中的第一支路输出的信号作为参考信号,分别对多条功率合成支路中除第一支路以外的每条支路对应的同步信号源依次进行功率调节、相位调节,以使多条功率合成支路合成的总功率最大。以此能够改善现有技术中的功率合成效率低的问题。(The application provides a power synthesis method and a system, wherein the power synthesis method is applied to a power synthesis system, and the power synthesis system comprises: a plurality of power combining branches, any one of the plurality of power combining branches comprising: and a synchronous signal source. In one embodiment, a power combining method includes: and taking the signal output by the first branch of the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and respectively and sequentially carrying out power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the power synthesis branches. Therefore, the problem of low power synthesis efficiency in the prior art can be solved.)

1. A power combining method applied to a power combining system, the system comprising: a plurality of power combining branches, any of the plurality of power combining branches comprising: a synchronization signal source, the method comprising:

and taking the signal output by the first branch of the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and sequentially performing power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches respectively so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the power synthesis branches.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said using the signal output from the first branch of the plurality of power combining branches as a reference signal, and performing power adjustment and phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch of the plurality of power combining branches except the first branch in sequence, respectively, so as to maximize the total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches, comprises:

taking a signal output by a first branch of the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal;

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and adjusting the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process, wherein the phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the power adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal, so as to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch, and taking the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the performing phase adjustment on the synchronization signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch includes:

and carrying out phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch by using a preset step value to obtain a corresponding phase when the maximum total power appears in the phase adjustment process, wherein the corresponding phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the signal output from a first branch of the plurality of power combining branches is used as a reference signal, and the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch of the plurality of power combining branches is respectively and sequentially power-adjusted and phase-adjusted to maximize the total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches, the method further comprises:

and obtaining the power of the reference signal through the detection unit corresponding to the first branch, wherein the power of the reference signal is used as the reference power when the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches is adjusted.

5. A power combining method applied to a power combining system, the system comprising: a plurality of power combining branches, any of the plurality of power combining branches comprising: a synchronization signal source, the method comprising:

taking a signal output by a first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and performing power regulation on all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to enable the power output by each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

and sequentially carrying out phase adjustment on each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches so as to enable the total power synthesized by the plurality of power synthesis branches to be maximum.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the sequentially phase adjusting each of the plurality of power combining branches other than the first branch to maximize a total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches comprises:

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the step of performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

7. A power combining system, the system comprising:

the power combining circuit comprises a control unit, a synthesizer, a first detection unit and a plurality of power combining branches connected between the control unit and the synthesizer; any branch of the plurality of power combining branches comprises: the synchronous signal source, the amplifying unit and the second detecting unit;

in the power synthesis branches, all synchronous signal sources are connected to synchronize clocks of the synchronous signal sources on all the branches;

in any of the plurality of power combining branches:

the input end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the control unit, the output end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the input end of the amplifying unit, the output end of the amplifying unit is connected with the synthesizer, the output end of the amplifying unit is further connected with the input end of the second detection unit, and the output end of the second detection unit is connected with the control unit;

the output end of the synthesizer is connected with the input end of the first detection unit, and the output end of the first detection unit is connected with the control unit;

the second detection unit is used for detecting the branch power output by the corresponding branch and feeding back the branch power to the control unit;

the first detection unit is used for detecting the total power output by the synthesizer and feeding back the total power to the control unit;

the control unit is configured to perform the power combining method according to claim 1 or 5.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the input channels of the combiner are isolated from each other.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the control unit is configured to:

and the phase adjusting unit is further configured to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of each of the plurality of power combining branches according to the total power of the combiner, so that the total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches is maximum.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the control unit is configured to:

taking a signal output by a first branch of the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal;

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and adjusting the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process, wherein the phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the power adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal, so as to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch, and taking the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of power synthesis, and in particular, to a power synthesis method and system.

Background

With the application of high-power microwave technology in the fields of high-energy particle accelerators, plasma heating, high-power radars and the like, people have an increasing demand for high-power sources. However, a general power device cannot achieve high power output, and when the power is limited by the single-tube output power of the solid-state power device, it is usually necessary to combine the power of a plurality of modules to obtain a larger power.

The traditional high power synthesis scheme is: preparing an initial signal source, distributing a primary power signal output by the initial signal source to a plurality of branches through a power distributor connected with the initial signal source, amplifying the signal on the corresponding branch by an amplifier on each branch, and sending the amplified signal on each branch to an input port of a synthesizer for power synthesis.

However, in practical applications, the branches between the initial signal source and the synthesizer are different inevitably, for example, the length of the connecting line, the thickness of the lead, the device parameters and the performance difference may cause the difference in power and phase of the branch signals sent to the input side of the synthesizer, which results in the need of modifying and debugging the branch signals in the actual power synthesizing process.

Therefore, the conventional power combining scheme has low combining efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention provides a power combining method and system, so as to solve the problem of low combining efficiency of the conventional power combining scheme.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a power combining method, which is applied to a power combining system, where the system includes: a plurality of power combining branches, any of the plurality of power combining branches comprising: a synchronization signal source, the method comprising:

and taking the signal output by the first branch of the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and sequentially performing power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches respectively so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the power synthesis branches.

Compared with the method of performing power distribution on an initial signal source through a power distributor in the prior art, in the method provided by the embodiment of the application, because the first branch of the multiple branches is used as a reference signal, and the power and the phase of the synchronous signal source of each branch except the first branch of the multiple branches are adjusted to maximize the obtained total power, in this processing mode, the power and the phase of each branch are controllable, even if the branches at the front end of the synthesizer have line differences, the influence caused by the line differences among the branches can be weakened through adjusting the power and the phase of the synchronous signal source, so that the synthesized total power is larger. The power regulation is performed first, and then the phase regulation is performed, so that the total power obtained in each phase regulation process is the maximum power under the current phase, a large amount of modification and debugging on the regulated branches are not needed, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible design, the taking a signal output by a first branch of the multiple power combining branches as a reference signal, and performing power adjustment and phase adjustment on a synchronization signal source corresponding to each branch of the multiple power combining branches except the first branch in sequence, so as to maximize a total power combined by the multiple power combining branches includes:

taking a signal output by a first branch of the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal;

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and adjusting the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process, wherein the phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the power adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal, so as to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch, and taking the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

In the adjusting process, for the current branch, before performing phase adjustment, the power of the current branch is already fixed as the power of the reference signal, and in this case, performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of the current branch can quickly determine the upper limit of the total power that can be adjusted by the current branch, so as to determine the phase corresponding to the current branch when the maximum total power occurs in the adjusting process. By updating the current branch and repeatedly performing the power and phase adjustment of the current branch, the maximum total power can be quickly synthesized within a limited number of adjustment times.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible design, the performing phase adjustment on the synchronization signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in a phase adjustment process as a fixed phase of the current branch includes:

and carrying out phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch by using a preset step value to obtain a corresponding phase when the maximum total power appears in the phase adjustment process, wherein the corresponding phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch.

Through the implementation mode, the phase switching is carried out by the preset step value in the phase adjusting process, so that the maximum total power can be determined more quickly compared with a mode of randomly adjusting the phase by artificial action.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible design, before the taking a signal output by a first branch of the multiple power combining branches as a reference signal and respectively performing power adjustment and phase adjustment on a synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch of the multiple power combining branches except the first branch in sequence to maximize a total power combined by the multiple power combining branches, the method further includes:

and obtaining the power of the reference signal through the detection unit corresponding to the first branch, wherein the power of the reference signal is used as the reference power when the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches is adjusted.

Through the implementation mode, reference basis can be provided for the subsequent adjusting process.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a power combining method, which is applied to a power combining system, where the system includes: a plurality of power combining branches, any of the plurality of power combining branches comprising: a synchronization signal source, the method comprising:

taking a signal output by a first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and performing power regulation on all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to enable the power output by each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

and sequentially carrying out phase adjustment on each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches so as to enable the total power synthesized by the plurality of power synthesis branches to be maximum.

In the implementation method, the power of the synchronous signal sources of the plurality of branches is adjusted first, so that all the branches before phase adjustment are consistent in power. Under the condition that each branch except the first branch in the multiple branches keeps consistent with the reference signal in power, phase adjustment is carried out on each branch except the first branch in sequence, the upper limit of the total power in the current phase can be determined quickly, and the adjustment times are few. The implementation method can bring a compensation effect to the influence of the line difference among the lines on the total power, and a plurality of branches do not need to be debugged repeatedly even if the line difference exists among the lines, so that the power synthesis efficiency is improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible design, the sequentially phase-adjusting each of the plurality of power combining branches except for the first branch to maximize the total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches includes:

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the step of performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

Through the implementation mode, for the current branch, because the power of the current branch is already fixed as the power of the reference signal before the phase adjustment is performed, the upper limit of the total power which can be adjusted by the current branch can be quickly determined by performing the phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of the current branch under the condition, so that the fixed phase of the current branch can be quickly determined. By updating the current branch and repeatedly performing the phase adjustment of the current branch, the adjustment times required by the whole power synthesis process are less, and the power synthesis can be quickly completed to obtain the maximum total power.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a power combining system, where the system includes:

the power combining circuit comprises a control unit, a synthesizer, a first detection unit and a plurality of power combining branches connected between the control unit and the synthesizer;

any branch of the plurality of power combining branches comprises: the synchronous signal source, the amplifying unit and the second detecting unit;

in the power synthesis branches, all synchronous signal sources are connected to synchronize clocks of the synchronous signal sources on all the branches;

in any of the plurality of power combining branches:

the input end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the control unit, the output end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the input end of the amplifying unit, the output end of the amplifying unit is connected with the synthesizer, the output end of the amplifying unit is further connected with the input end of the second detection unit, and the output end of the second detection unit is connected with the control unit;

the output end of the synthesizer is connected with the input end of the first detection unit, and the output end of the first detection unit is connected with the control unit;

the second detection unit is used for detecting the branch power output by the corresponding branch and feeding back the branch power to the control unit;

the first detection unit is used for detecting the total power output by the synthesizer and feeding back the total power to the control unit;

the control unit is configured to execute the power combining method according to the first aspect or the second aspect.

Through the power synthesis system, two detection units are introduced into the system to perform branch power feedback and total power feedback, and the control unit performs closed-loop regulation on the power and phase regulation of the synchronous signal source. The maximum total power can be quickly adjusted through the control unit, a large amount of debugging and correction on a plurality of branches are not needed manually, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved. Because each branch of the system is provided with a synchronous signal source, and clocks of the synchronous signal sources are synchronous, the control unit can use the first branch as a reference branch and other branches except the first branch as slave branches to respectively carry out closed-loop parameter adjustment on each synchronous signal source. The system can bring compensation effect to the influence on the total power caused by the line difference among the lines, and a plurality of branches do not need to be debugged and modified repeatedly even if the line difference exists among the lines, thereby improving the power synthesis efficiency.

In one possible design in combination with the third aspect, the respective input channels of the combiner are isolated from each other. Therefore, the mutual interference between the amplifying units of each branch can be avoided.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible design, the control unit is configured to:

and the phase adjusting unit is further configured to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of each of the plurality of power combining branches according to the total power of the combiner, so that the total power combined by the plurality of power combining branches is maximum.

The control unit can fully utilize the branch power and the total power which are fed back to carry out closed-loop regulation on the power and the phase of each branch.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible design, the control unit is configured to:

taking a signal output by a first branch of the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal;

taking the next branch of the first branch as a current branch to be adjusted, and adjusting the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal;

performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process, wherein the phase is used as a fixed phase of the current branch;

and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the power adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal, so as to perform phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch, and taking the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

The control unit can quickly complete the phase adjustment of a plurality of branches and ensure that the total power obtained after the phase adjustment is finished is the maximum.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are required to be used in the embodiments of the present application will be briefly described below, it should be understood that the following drawings only illustrate some embodiments of the present application and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope, and that those skilled in the art can also obtain other related drawings based on the drawings without inventive efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a power combining system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a power combining method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a power combining method in an example provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of another power combining method provided in the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a power combining method in another example provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

The inventor has found that, in the existing power combining scheme, it is difficult to make the line configurations of the branches completely consistent, which makes it difficult to actually ensure that the signals sent to the branches on the input side of the combiner are optimally matched depending on the way the power divider distributes power to an initial signal source.

For example, the following may occur in multiple lines between the power splitter and combiner: the selected cable interfaces have abrasion, lead length difference, welding points have slight difference, amplifiers connected behind the power divider have different production batches, equivalent resistances of all branches have difference and the like. These conditions are difficult to avoid in practical application scenarios, and these unavoidable conditions become factors that affect the output result of each branch, and the kinds and influence of these influencing factors are uncontrollable.

The inventor has continued research and found that if a plurality of branches are configured by using only one controller to set values, for example, a plurality of branches are configured by using a series of numbers to perform fixed parameter configuration, it is not possible to ensure that a plurality of signals received at a plurality of input ports of a synthesizer can really reach the configuration required by a user. Even if a plurality of branches are configured with fixed parameters by a series of arrays or other setting values, the output signal of each branch is uncontrollable due to the actual line difference of each branch, so that the total power obtained actually is not optimal.

Under the two schemes, if a user wants to further obtain a larger total power, a great amount of modification and debugging of each branch are necessarily required to obtain a better power result as far as possible. In the process of modifying and debugging a large number of branches, each branch is still influenced by a plurality of unknown factors, so that the debugging workload of a user is uncontrollable, and the power synthesis efficiency is low.

Based on this, the inventor proposes a new system architecture and method to improve the power combining efficiency.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a power combining system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the power combining system includes: the power combining circuit comprises a control unit, a combiner, a first detection unit and a plurality of power combining branches connected between the control unit and the combiner. In fig. 1, "C" denotes a control unit, "∑" denotes a synthesizer, and "PD" denotes a first detection unit.

Any of the plurality of power combining branches includes, but is not limited to: the synchronous signal source, the amplifying unit and the second detecting unit.

In the power synthesis branches, the synchronous signal sources are connected to synchronize the clocks of the synchronous signal sources on all branches.

For any of a plurality of power combining branches: the input end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the control unit, the output end of the synchronous signal source is connected with the input end of the amplifying unit, the output end of the amplifying unit is connected with the synthesizer, the output end of the amplifying unit is further connected with the input end of the second detection unit, and the output end of the second detection unit is connected with the control unit.

The second detection unit in each branch is used for detecting the branch power output by the corresponding branch and feeding back the branch power to the control unit, and the control unit is used for adjusting the synchronous signal source in each branch according to the feedback result of the branch power so that the output end of each branch can finally output the same power. The control unit can communicate with the synchronous signal sources in each branch through the bus so as to adjust the parameters of each synchronous signal source.

The output end of the synthesizer is connected with the input end of the first detection unit, and the output end of the first detection unit is connected with the control unit. The first detection unit is used for detecting the total power output by the synthesizer and feeding back the total power to the control unit.

And the control unit is used for carrying out power regulation on the synchronous signal source of the corresponding branch according to the branch power of each branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches so as to enable the output power of each branch to be equal, and is also used for carrying out phase regulation on the synchronous signal source of each branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches according to the total power of the synthesizer so as to enable the total power synthesized by the plurality of power synthesis branches to be maximum.

In the embodiment of the present application, the power of the synchronization signal source on the current branch may be adjusted according to the reference signal and the branch power fed back from the current branch, and the phase of the synchronization signal source on the current branch may be adjusted according to the total power change condition fed back.

The control unit is further configured to: and taking the signal output by the first branch of the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and sequentially performing power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches respectively so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the power synthesis branches.

Or, the control unit is further configured to: taking a signal output by a first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and performing power regulation on all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to enable the power output by each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches to be equal to the power of the reference signal; and sequentially carrying out phase adjustment on each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches so as to enable the total power synthesized by the plurality of power synthesis branches to be maximum.

In fig. 1, "S1" denotes a synchronization signal source of a first branch of the plurality of power combining branches. "S2" indicates a synchronization signal source of a second branch of the plurality of power combining branches, "S3" indicates a synchronization signal source of a third branch of the plurality of power combining branches, "Sn" indicates a synchronization signal source of an nth branch of the plurality of power combining branches. For each power combining branch, "PA 1" represents an amplifying unit in the first branch, "PA 2" represents an amplifying unit in the second branch, "PA 3" represents an amplifying unit in the third branch, and "PAn" represents an amplifying unit in the nth branch. "PD 1" represents the second detector element in the first branch, "PD 2" represents the second detector element in the second branch, "PD 3" represents the second detector element in the third branch, and "PDn" represents the second detector element in the nth branch.

Taking the structure shown in fig. 1 as an example, the second detection unit PD1 of the first branch can be used to detect the output power P1 of the first branch. The second detection unit PD2 of the second branch may be used to detect the output power P2 of the second branch. By analogy, the second detector unit PDn of the nth branch may be configured to detect the output power Pn of the nth branch.

The control unit C may respectively perform power adjustment on the synchronous signal source such as Sn in the nth branch of S1 in the first branch, S2 in the second branch, and S3 … … in the third branch, and in the process of performing power adjustment on the synchronous signal source such as S1, S2, and S3 … … Sn, the control unit C may respectively obtain branch powers such as the output power P1 of the first branch, the output power P2 of the second branch, and the output power P3 … … of the nth branch through the second detection units such as PD1, PD2, and PD3 … … PDn. The control unit C can also obtain the total power P output by the synthesizer through the first detection unit PD.

In general, the total power output by the combiner varies according to the difference in power and phase of the output signal of each branch in the plurality of power combining branches, and if the final combined total power is to be maximized, it is desirable that the signals of the branches at the input side of the combiner are consistent in power and phase. However, it can be known from the foregoing analysis that it is difficult for each branch in an actual application scenario to implement power uniformity and phase uniformity of each branch by way of line improvement, device replacement, uniform configuration of each branch with a fixed value, and the like. However, according to the power combining system provided by the embodiment of the present application, since the synchronization signal source is arranged in each of the plurality of power combining branches, the clocks of the synchronization signal sources are synchronized, and the corresponding second detector is arranged at the end of each branch, each branch can implement power feedback, and an implementation basis can be provided for closed-loop adjustment. And because the output end of the synthesizer is provided with the first detection unit for feeding back the total power, the control unit can monitor the power change of the total power when the parameter of any synchronous signal source is regulated. Through the matching connection relationship of the control unit, the synchronous signal source, the second detection unit and the first detection unit in the system, closed-loop power regulation can be realized, and a structural basis which is easy to regulate is provided for obtaining the maximum total power.

Because two detection units are introduced into the system for branch power feedback and total power feedback, the control unit can adjust the power and the phase of the synchronous signal source more reasonably, the maximum total power can be quickly adjusted through the control unit, a large amount of manual debugging and modification on a plurality of branches are not needed, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved. Because each branch of the system is provided with a synchronous signal source, the control unit can respectively carry out parameter adjustment on each synchronous signal source, and because the synchronous signal sources are synchronous in clock, the control unit can carry out one-master multi-slave adjustment on the synchronous signal sources on all the branches. The control unit carries out power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source of each branch according to the branch power feedback condition and the total power feedback condition of each branch, the system can effectively compensate the influence on the total power caused by the line difference among the lines, even if the line difference exists among the lines, a plurality of branches do not need to be debugged and modified repeatedly, the power synthesis efficiency can be improved, and the finally synthesized total power is guaranteed to be the maximum.

It is understood that those skilled in the art may arrange more functional components for any branch of the plurality of power combining branches based on the above system, for example, an attenuator may be further arranged on the branch, and for example, the amplifying unit arranged on the branch may have multiple stages.

Optionally, the control unit may communicate with each synchronization signal source through a bus, and may further adjust power and phase of the synchronization signal source. For example, the control unit may set a power parameter and a phase parameter of the synchronization signal source of the second branch via the communication bus, so as to adjust the power and the phase of the output of the second branch.

In one example, the communication bus may be an SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) bus.

Alternatively, the output of the combiner may be connected to a coupler, the coupler being connected to a first detector unit, the first detector unit being operable to detect the coupled signal from the coupler to provide an indirect measure of the total power.

Alternatively, in order to avoid mutual interference between the amplifying units in the branches to influence the phase adjustment result, the input channels of the synthesizer can be set as mutually isolated channels.

In one example, each port of the synthesizer is provided with a 50 ohm resistor for channel isolation.

Alternatively, for the synchronous signal source of any branch of the plurality of branches, a synchronous source chip may be used to form the synchronous signal instrument, and the synchronous source chip may be a chip having a synchronization function, a power adjustment function, and a phase adjustment function.

In one example, the synchronous source chip may be a BLP25RFE001 integrated chip.

The power combining branches of a master multi-slave type can be formed by a plurality of synchronous source chips, and output channels among the branches are mutually independent.

Alternatively, the first detection unit and/or any of the second detection units may be an envelope detector.

In one example, any of the detection units in the system may be a detector of model ADL5511, which has the characteristics of fast response speed and high accuracy.

Alternatively, the control unit may be, but is not limited to, a single chip microcomputer, a field programmable gate array, a special processor, or the like, which has an arithmetic capability.

In one example, the control unit is an ARM processor (Advanced RISC Machine, Advanced reduced instruction set Machine, ARM for short).

A power combining method applicable to the system shown in fig. 1 will be provided below.

The power synthesis method may include: and taking the signal output by the first branch of the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and sequentially performing power regulation and phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches respectively so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the power synthesis branches.

The power combining method may be executed by a control unit in the power combining system.

Compared with the method of performing power distribution on an initial signal source through a power distributor in the prior art, in the method provided by the embodiment of the application, because the first branch of the multiple branches is used as a reference signal, and the power and the phase of the synchronous signal source of each branch except the first branch of the multiple branches are adjusted to maximize the obtained total power, in this processing mode, the power and the phase of each branch are controllable, even if the branches at the front end of the synthesizer have line differences, the influence caused by the line differences among the branches can be weakened through adjusting the power and the phase of the synchronous signal source, so that the synthesized total power is larger.

The power regulation is performed first, and then the phase regulation is performed, so that the total power obtained in each phase regulation process is the maximum power under the current phase, a large amount of modification and blind debugging on the regulated branches are not needed, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved.

Fig. 2 is a detailed flowchart of a power combining method applicable to the system shown in fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, the power combining method may include the sub-steps of: S110-S140. Steps S110-S140 may be performed by a control unit in the power combining system.

S110: and taking the signal output by the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches as a reference signal.

S120: and taking the next branch of the first branch as the current branch to be regulated, and regulating the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal.

As an implementation manner, the power value of the current branch may be determined according to the power value of the reference signal, and the power of the synchronization signal source of the current branch may be adjusted according to the power value of the current branch.

S130: and performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process, wherein the phase is used as the fixed phase of the current branch.

Wherein, the S130 is performed on the premise that the power of the current branch is equal to the power of the reference signal.

S140: and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, repeatedly executing the step of performing power regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal, and performing phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch, wherein the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase regulation process is taken as the fixed phase of the current branch until all branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete phase regulation.

When the phase adjustment is completed for all the branches except the first branch in the plurality of power combining branches, the power and phase adjustment for all the branches is realized, and the total power obtained at this time is the maximum.

For example, the power of the signal output by the first branch may be used as the power of the reference signal. The second branch may be used as a next branch of the first branch, the third branch may be used as a next branch of the second branch, and the nth branch of the plurality of power combining branches may be used as a last branch.

Wherein, S140 may specifically include: and judging whether the current branch is the last branch, if the current branch is not the last branch, taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and skipping to the step of performing power regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch in the step S120 so as to enable the power of the current branch to be equal to the power of the reference signal. Therefore, the current branch can be updated, wherein the current branch is taken as the last branch as the cut-off condition of the circulating step, infinite adjustment and blind adjustment can be avoided, the maximum total power can be achieved under the adjustment of limited times, and the power synthesis is efficiently realized.

As an implementation manner, a functional module corresponding to the power combining method may be stored in the memory, and a computer program corresponding to the functional module may be executed by the control unit.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a power combining method in one example. As shown in fig. 3, before performing power adjustment and phase adjustment, an initialization operation may be performed to clear the original power and phase parameters. After initialization, the branch power P1 of the first branch may be calculated. The synchronous signal source S2 in the second branch may be power adjusted according to the branch power P1 of the first branch, and the branch power P2 output by the second branch is calculated. And when the branch power P2 output by the second branch is judged to be equal to the power P1 of the reference signal, adjusting the phase of the synchronous signal source S2 in the second branch, calculating the total power P synthesized at each phase point in the phase adjusting process, and screening out the phase corresponding to the maximum total power P in the phase adjusting process as the fixed phase of the second branch. At this time, the adjustment process of the second branch is finished, the power adjustment and the phase adjustment of the third branch are started, and so on until the power adjustment and the phase adjustment of the nth branch are finished.

As to the adjustment process of each branch except for the first branch and the second branch in the plurality of power combining branches, the adjustment process of the second branch may be referred to, and details are not described herein.

Through the implementation mode, a set of adjusting modes suitable for each branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches is provided. In the adjusting process, for the current branch, before performing phase adjustment, the power of the current branch is already fixed as the power of the reference signal, and in this case, performing phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of the current branch can quickly determine the upper limit of the total power that can be adjusted by the current branch, so as to determine the phase corresponding to the current branch when the maximum total power occurs in the adjusting process. By updating the current branch and repeatedly executing the power and phase adjustment of the current branch, the upper limit of the total power which can be reached by a plurality of branches can be quickly determined, and the maximum total power synthesized after the adjustment is finished is further ensured.

As an implementation manner of S130, a phase of the synchronization signal source corresponding to the current branch may be adjusted by a preset step value, and a phase corresponding to the maximum total power occurring in the phase adjustment process is obtained and is used as the fixed phase of the current branch.

The phase adjustment may be an incremental adjustment or a decremental adjustment. For one round of the phase adjustment process of the current branch, the phase adjustment range may be 360 °. The initial phase of the phase adjustment process may be a set value or an arbitrary value.

In one example, the phase of the synchronization signal source corresponding to the current branch may be adjusted incrementally from 0 ° to 360 ° by a preset step value, and after the incremental adjustment is completed, the phase corresponding to the maximum total power occurring in the phase incremental adjustment process is taken as the fixed phase of the current branch. The preset step value may be 0.5 °, 1 °, 1.4 °, 2 °, 5 °, and the like, and a person skilled in the art may set the step value of the phase according to the requirement of the actual accuracy, or may set the step value according to the adjustment accuracy allowed by the synchronization source chip actually selected, for example, for the synchronization source chip such as BLP25RFE001, the integral multiple phase of 1.4 ° may be set as the step value in the phase adjustment process.

Since the phase switching is performed at the preset step value during the phase adjustment, the maximum total power can be determined more quickly than in a manner of manually randomly adjusting the phase rotation button to switch the phase.

Optionally, before taking a signal output by a first branch of the multiple power combining branches as a reference signal and sequentially performing power adjustment and phase adjustment on the synchronization signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the multiple power combining branches, so as to maximize a total power combined by the multiple power combining branches, the method may further include: and obtaining the power of the reference signal through the detection unit corresponding to the first branch, wherein the power of the reference signal is used as the reference power when the power of the synchronous signal source corresponding to each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches is regulated.

Therefore, the signal output by the first branch can be fed back by the detection unit, and the power of the reference signal obtained by the detection unit can be used as the reference power in the subsequent power regulation process, so that a reference basis is provided for the subsequent regulation process.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides another power combining method applicable to the system shown in fig. 1. The power synthesis method is similar to the power synthesis method, and is different from the power synthesis method in that the power regulation and phase regulation sequence is changed, so that the power synthesis efficiency is higher.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flowchart of another power combining method applicable to the system shown in fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, the power combining method may include the steps of: S210-S220. Steps S210-S220 may be performed by a control unit in the power combining system.

S210: and taking the signal output by the first branch in the power synthesis branches as a reference signal, and performing power regulation on all the branches except the first branch in the power synthesis branches so as to enable the power output by each branch except the first branch in the power synthesis branches to be equal to the power of the reference signal.

S220: and sequentially carrying out phase adjustment on each branch except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches so as to maximize the total power synthesized by the plurality of power synthesis branches.

Wherein, the execution condition of S220 is that the power of all branches is kept consistent.

In the method, the signal power corresponding to the first branch is used as the power of the reference signal, and the power of all the branches except the first branch is adjusted, so that the power of the plurality of branches is adjusted at one time, and all the branches before phase adjustment are ensured to be consistent in power. Then, under the condition that each branch except the first branch in the plurality of branches keeps consistent with the reference signal in power, phase adjustment is sequentially performed on each branch except the first branch, so that the total power upper limit in the current phase can be quickly determined in each phase adjustment process, and the adjustment process is controllable. The implementation method can bring a compensation effect on the influence on the total power caused by the line difference, and even if the line difference exists among all lines, a plurality of branches do not need to be debugged repeatedly in a large quantity, the maximum total power can be quickly adjusted within limited times, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved. The specific number of times is related to the number of legs in a specific system.

Optionally, the S220 may include: S221-S222.

S221: and taking the next branch of the first branch as the current branch to be regulated, and carrying out phase regulation on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain a phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase regulation process as the fixed phase of the current branch.

S222: and taking the next branch of the current branch as a new current branch, and repeatedly executing the step of carrying out phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source corresponding to the current branch to obtain the phase corresponding to the maximum total power in the phase adjustment process as the fixed phase of the current branch until all the branches except the first branch in the plurality of power synthesis branches complete the phase adjustment.

Through the implementation mode, for the current branch, because the power of the current branch is already fixed as the power of the reference signal before the phase adjustment is performed, the upper limit of the total power which can be adjusted by the current branch can be quickly determined by performing the phase adjustment on the synchronous signal source of the current branch under the condition, so that the fixed phase of the current branch can be quickly determined. By updating the current branch and repeatedly executing the phase adjustment of the current branch, the total power upper limit which can be reached by a plurality of branches can be quickly determined, and the total power synthesized after the phase adjustment is finished is maximum.

In one example, a flow diagram of a power combining method in another example is shown in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 5, before performing power adjustment and phase adjustment, initialization may be performed to clear the original power and phase parameters. The branch power P1 for the first branch may then be calculated. All the synchronous signal sources S2 in all the branches except the first branch among the plurality of branches can be adjusted in power according to the branch power P1 of the first branch, and the branch power P2, P3 … … Pn output by each branch is calculated. And when the branch power of all branches is judged to be equal to the power P1 of the reference signal, adjusting the phase of the synchronous signal source S2 in the second branch, calculating the total power P synthesized at each phase point in the phase adjusting process, and screening out the phase corresponding to the maximum total power P obtained in the phase adjusting process at this time as the fixed phase of the second branch. At this time, the phase adjustment process for the second branch is finished, the phase adjustment for the third branch is started, and so on until the phase adjustment for the nth branch is finished. The total power obtained when the phase adjustment process of the nth branch is finished is the maximum. Therefore, the maximum total power can be synthesized under fewer times of adjustment, and the power synthesis efficiency is improved.

For the specific phase adjustment content in this example, reference may be made to the related description in the foregoing power combining method, and details are not repeated here.

Herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.

The above embodiments are merely examples of the present application and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present application shall be included in the protection scope of the present application.