阅读说明：本技术 一种多波束相控阵天线 (Multi-beam phased array antenna ) 是由 李波 吴昕颖 金星 张剑 王杨 李树 陈雅珍 闫宁 韩笑宇 彭媛媛 谢涛 于 2021-08-16 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明实施例公开了一种多波束相控阵天线,包括：多波束馈电网络、至少一个射频模块和天线阵面；多波束馈电网络用于将射频信号传输给至少一个射频模块；至少一个射频模块通过设定射频连接器与多波束馈电网络相连,用于发射和接收多路射频信号,每个射频模块包括至少一个射频通道；天线阵面包括发射阵面和接收阵面,每个阵面包括至少一个天线单元,通过设定射频连接器与射频模块相连,用于形成波束。本发明实施例提供的多波束相控阵天线,可以实现共阵面多波束,提高天线利用率和集成度,减小天线功耗。(The embodiment of the invention discloses a multi-beam phased array antenna, which comprises: the antenna comprises a multi-beam feed network, at least one radio frequency module and an antenna array plane; the multi-beam feed network is used for transmitting the radio frequency signals to at least one radio frequency module; the multi-beam radio frequency module is connected with the multi-beam feed network through a set radio frequency connector and used for transmitting and receiving multi-path radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency module comprises at least one radio frequency channel; the antenna array comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprises at least one antenna unit, and the antenna unit is connected with the radio frequency module through the set radio frequency connector and used for forming beams. The multi-beam phased array antenna provided by the embodiment of the invention can realize co-array surface multi-beam, improve the utilization rate and the integration level of the antenna and reduce the power consumption of the antenna.)

1. A multi-beam phased array antenna, comprising: the antenna comprises a multi-beam feed network, at least one radio frequency module and an antenna array plane;

the multi-beam feed network is used for transmitting radio frequency signals to the at least one radio frequency module;

the at least one radio frequency module is connected with the multi-beam feed network through a set radio frequency connector and is used for transmitting and receiving multi-path radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency module comprises at least one radio frequency channel;

the antenna array comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprises at least one antenna unit, and the antenna unit is connected with the radio frequency module through a set radio frequency connector and used for forming beams.

2. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein the at least one radio frequency module is connected to the multi-beam feed network through a vertical transition of a microwave multi-layer board and miniaturized radio frequency connectors;

the antenna array surface is connected with the radio frequency module through vertical transition connection of the microwave multilayer board and a miniaturized radio frequency connector.

3. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein for a transmit direction, the final stage of the radio frequency channels is a set high efficiency power amplifier; the phased array antenna is connected with a signal generator and sends the generated radio frequency signals to the multi-beam feed network.

4. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein the pre-stage of the radio frequency channels is a set low noise amplifier for receive direction.

5. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, further comprising a power module to provide the required voltages to the modules of the phased array antenna.

6. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, further comprising a beam steering module, coupled to the radio frequency module via a control signal, comprising a wave steering motherboard and at least one wave steering daughter board, for steering the beams produced by the multi-beam phased array antenna.

7. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 6, wherein each radio frequency module corresponds to at least one wave control panel, each wave control panel corresponds to at least one radio frequency channel, and each radio frequency channel corresponds to an antenna element.

8. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 6, wherein the number of antenna elements on each of the antenna fronts is equal to the product of the number of radio frequency modules and the number of radio frequency channels each radio frequency module contains.

9. The multi-beam phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein the wave control motherboard comprises a field programmable gate array chip thereon, and the at least one wave control daughter board comprises a vector modulator chip thereon, and the wave control motherboard controls the vector modulator chip to adjust the amplitude and phase of the corresponding radio frequency channel through the field programmable gate array chip, thereby realizing control of beam pointing.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of satellite communication, in particular to a multi-beam phased array antenna.

Background

With the incorporation of satellite internet into new infrastructure, countries have accelerated the deployment of low earth orbit satellite internet. Compared with the conventional geostationary orbit satellite, the low-orbit satellite internet has the characteristics of short propagation delay, low path loss, miniaturization of user terminal equipment and the like. The satellite-borne antenna is an important part of satellite load and is related to the performance of the whole communication system. The multi-beam antenna has natural advantages under the condition of expanding the access number of users in a frequency multiplexing mode. Compared with the conventional antenna, the phased array antenna has the advantages of being simple and convenient in multi-beam realization mode, capable of rapidly switching beams and the like, and is applied to a plurality of satellite communication systems.

For a digital multi-beam phased array antenna, because a large number of ADC and DAC devices are used, the power consumption is large, and the heat consumption is also large. The conventional analog multi-beam phased array antenna has large power consumption and large heat consumption, the number of realized beams in a single antenna array surface is small, the requirement of realizing more beams in the single antenna array surface cannot be met, and the integration level is low when a plurality of beams are realized, so that the size is large, and the problem of large heat consumption when the plurality of beams work simultaneously is also accompanied.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a multi-beam phased array antenna, which can realize co-array surface multi-beam, improve the utilization rate and the integration level of the antenna and reduce the power consumption of the antenna.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-beam phased array antenna, including: the antenna comprises a multi-beam feed network, at least one radio frequency module and an antenna array plane;

the multi-beam feed network is used for transmitting radio frequency signals to the at least one radio frequency module;

the at least one radio frequency module is connected with the multi-beam feed network through a set radio frequency connector and is used for transmitting and receiving multi-path radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency module comprises at least one radio frequency channel;

the antenna array comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprises at least one antenna unit, and the antenna unit is connected with the radio frequency module through a set radio frequency connector and used for forming beams.

In this embodiment, the at least one rf module is connected to the multi-beam feed network through a vertical transition connection of a microwave multi-layer board and a miniaturized rf connector; the antenna array surface is connected with the radio frequency module through vertical transition connection of the microwave multilayer board and a miniaturized radio frequency connector.

In this embodiment, for the transmission direction, the final stage of the rf channel is a set high efficiency power amplifier; the phased array antenna is connected with the signal generator and sends the radio frequency signals generated by the signal generator to the multi-beam feed network.

In this embodiment, for the receiving direction, the front stage of the rf channel is set to be a low noise amplifier.

In this embodiment, the phased array antenna further includes a power module for providing required voltages to the modules of the phased array antenna.

In this embodiment, the phased array antenna further includes a beam control module, connected to the radio frequency module through a control signal, including a wave control motherboard and at least one wave control daughter board, for controlling the direction of the beam generated by the multi-beam phased array antenna.

In this embodiment, each rf module corresponds to at least one wave control board, each wave control board corresponds to at least one rf channel, and each rf channel corresponds to one antenna unit.

In this embodiment, the number of the antenna units on each array plane is equal to the product of the number of the rf modules and the number of rf channels included in each rf module.

In this embodiment, the wave control motherboard includes a field programmable gate array chip, the at least one wave control daughter board includes a vector modulator chip, and the wave control motherboard controls the vector modulator chip to adjust the amplitude and phase of the corresponding radio frequency channel through the field programmable gate array chip, thereby implementing control of beam pointing.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a multi-beam phased array antenna, which comprises: the antenna comprises a multi-beam feed network, at least one radio frequency module and an antenna array plane; the multi-beam feed network is used for transmitting the radio frequency signals to at least one radio frequency module; the multi-beam radio frequency module is connected with the multi-beam feed network through a set radio frequency connector and used for transmitting and receiving multi-path radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency module comprises at least one radio frequency channel; the antenna array comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprises at least one antenna unit, and the antenna unit is connected with the radio frequency module through the set radio frequency connector and used for forming beams. The multi-beam phased array antenna provided by the embodiment of the invention can realize the co-array surface multi-beam, thereby improving the utilization rate of the antenna, adopting high-efficiency power amplification in the signal transmitting process, reducing the power consumption of the antenna, adopting a high-integration radio frequency connection mode, reducing the size of the phased array antenna and improving the integration level of the antenna.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a multi-beam phased array antenna according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a diagram of a multi-beam phased array antenna architecture in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a diagram of a front layout corresponding to a single rf module according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a transmission principle of a multi-beam phased array antenna according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a receiving principle of a multi-beam phased array antenna in a first embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not limiting of the invention. It should be further noted that, for the convenience of description, only some of the structures related to the present invention are shown in the drawings, not all of the structures.

Example one

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-beam phased array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, specifically including: a multi-beam feed network 110, at least one radio frequency module 120, an antenna array 130.

Optionally, the whole phased-array antenna may adopt a brick-type architecture, and the transmitting and receiving channels all adopt a modular design mode, so that high integration of the antenna is realized, and the scale of the antenna is easy to expand. In particular, the entire phased array antenna may include, but is not limited to, portions of the multi-beam feed network 110, the at least one radio frequency module 120, and the antenna front 130. Wherein:

the multi-beam feed network 110 is configured to transmit radio frequency signals to at least one radio frequency module 120.

Specifically, the multi-beam feeding network 110 is called feeding the signal generated by the signal generator to the rf module 120 or the signal received by the antenna array 130 to the signal receiver. The Radio Frequency (RF) Frequency range is 300 kHz-300 GHz, which is a short name for high-Frequency alternating current variable electromagnetic wave. Optionally, the multi-beam feeding network 110 is connected to the radio frequency module 120 through radio frequency, and the multi-beam feeding network 110 may transmit the radio frequency signal to the radio frequency module 120.

At least one rf module 120 is coupled to the multi-beam feed network 110 via a set rf connector for transmitting and receiving multiple rf signals, each rf module 120 including at least one rf channel.

Alternatively, the rf connector may be a device for transmitting electromagnetic waves, the rf channels may be rf signal transceiving channels, the phased array antenna includes one or more rf modules 120, and each rf module 120 includes at least one rf channel for transmitting and receiving rf signals, and may amplify the rf signals to form multiple rf signals to be transmitted to the antenna array 130.

The antenna array 130 comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprising at least one antenna element, connected to the rf module 120 by means of a set rf connector for forming a beam.

Alternatively, the individual elements of the antenna array 130 are referred to as elements or antenna elements. The phased array antenna may be designed as a combination of transmit and receive antennas, with the antenna array 130 comprising a transmit array and a receive array for transmitting and receiving signals, respectively, and forming a beam on the antenna array 130.

In this embodiment, at least one rf module 120 is connected to the multi-beam feed network 110 through the vertical transition of the microwave multi-layer board and miniaturized rf connectors; the antenna array 130 is connected to the rf module 120 through the vertical transition of the microwave multi-layer board and the miniaturized rf connector.

Optionally, the multi-beam feeding network 110 and the radio frequency module 120 and the antenna array 130 may be connected by radio frequency connectors, and the radio frequency connectors may be optimized in order to improve the integration level of the phased array antenna and reduce the size of the whole phased array antenna. The specific optimization method can replace part of functions of the radio frequency connector by vertical transition connection of the microwave multilayer board or adopt a miniaturized radio frequency connector.

In this embodiment, for the transmit direction, the final stage of the rf channel is set to a high efficiency power amplifier; the phased array antenna is connected to a signal generator that sends the generated radio frequency signals to the multi-beam feed network 110. For the receive direction, the front stage of the rf channel is configured as a low noise amplifier.

Specifically, a power amplifier (power amplifier), referred to as "power amplifier" for short, refers to an amplifier that can generate maximum power output to drive a certain load under a given condition. Optionally, in the phased array antenna, for the transmission direction, the final stage of the radio frequency channel is a high efficiency power amplifier, such as a Doherty power amplifier. The Doherty technology is an active load modulation technology invented in 1936 by W.H.Doherty, and a Doherty power amplifier can keep high efficiency in a large range, so that the problem of low chip efficiency under the condition of keeping linearity is solved, and the problem of overlarge power consumption of a phased array antenna is solved. For the receiving direction, the front stage of the radio frequency channel is set to be a low noise amplifier, wherein the low noise amplifier is an amplifier with a very low noise coefficient, and the signal-to-noise ratio of signal output can be improved.

Optionally, the heat conduction of the antenna mainly adopts a heat conduction mode, the Doherty power amplifier is directly connected with the metal cavity, a heat conduction pipe is embedded in the cavity, the generated heat is conveyed outwards through the heat conduction pipe, the heat conduction pipe is connected with the satellite body, and the whole satellite is used for completing the heat control of the phased array antenna single machine.

Further, for the transmit direction, the phased array antenna also includes a signal generator for generating radio frequency signals and transmitting to the multi-beam feed network 110, and correspondingly, for the receive direction, the phased array antenna also includes a signal receiver for receiving radio frequency signals.

In this embodiment, the phased array antenna further comprises a power supply module for supplying required voltages to the modules of the phased array antenna. Preferably, the external power supply voltage of the antenna may be 42V.

Optionally, the phased array antenna is powered by external uniform voltage through the power module, so as to provide required voltage for each device, and power supply to each module is realized.

In this embodiment, the phased array antenna further includes a beam control module, connected to the rf module 120 through a control signal, including a wave control motherboard and at least one wave control daughter board, for controlling the direction of the beam generated by the multi-beam phased array antenna.

Optionally, the beam control module is a module for controlling beam pointing by a user, and the beam control module includes a wave control motherboard and at least one wave control daughter board, where the wave control motherboard is connected to each wave control daughter board. Fig. 2 is a multi-beam phased array antenna architecture diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the figure, an antenna array 130 is divided into a transmitting array and a receiving array, the two arrays respectively correspond to a radio frequency module 120, a multi-beam feeding network 110 and a beam control module, the multi-beam feeding network is connected to the radio frequency module and the radio frequency module is connected to the antenna array through radio frequency, and a power supply module is used for supplying power to each module.

In this embodiment, the wave control motherboard includes a field programmable gate array chip, at least one of the wave control daughter boards includes a vector modulator chip, and the wave control motherboard controls the vector modulator chip to adjust the amplitude and phase of the corresponding radio frequency channel through the field programmable gate array chip, thereby implementing control of beam pointing.

Optionally, the wave control motherboard includes a field programmable gate array chip (FPGA chip), and the wave control daughter board includes a digital-to-analog conversion chip (DAC chip) and a vector modulator chip (VM chip). The control mode of the antenna can be as follows: the FPGA chip of the wave control motherboard sends control information to the DAC chip on the wave control daughter board, and the VM chip is controlled by the DAC chip, so that the radio-frequency signal passing through the VM generates corresponding amplitude and phase changes, and the rapid switching of the wave beams is realized.

Specifically, the wave control mother board can receive a switching control instruction sent by the baseband module, the FPGA chip analyzes the switching control instruction, can analyze a beam center frequency point and a beam direction number in the switching control instruction, then calculates a corresponding wave control code table starting address, can search a corresponding target wave control code table from a prestored information table according to the wave control code table starting address, and finally distributes the target wave control code table to the wave control daughter board according to the address through the wave control daughter board interface. The DAC chip can extract the DAC control code from the received wave control code table, establish two paths of orthogonal voltages (I/Q two paths of voltages) according to the DAC control code and send the two paths of orthogonal voltages to the VM chip. The VM chip can determine the amplitude and the phase of the array element corresponding to the wave beam to be cut according to the received I/Q two-path voltage, so that the switching of the wave beam is realized.

Further, the power module may perform voltage conversion (DC-DC voltage conversion) on the wave control motherboard to supply power to each device, the wave control motherboard, and the wave control daughter board, and then perform secondary DC-DC voltage conversion on the wave control daughter board to supply power to the driver amplifier, the Doherty power amplifier, and the DAC chip.

In this embodiment, each rf module 120 corresponds to at least one wave control board, each wave control board corresponds to at least one rf channel, and each rf channel corresponds to one antenna unit.

Optionally, for the transmitting antenna, each rf module 120 includes a plurality of rf channels, and each rf module 120 may correspond to one antenna unit or a sub-array formed by several antenna units. Fig. 3 is a front layout diagram corresponding to a single rf module according to an embodiment of the present invention, where as shown in the figure, the single rf module includes 16 rf channels, each rf module corresponds to at least one wave control daughter board, and the wave control daughter board corresponding to each rf module corresponds to 8 rf channels in total.

Further, the number of antenna elements on each antenna array is equal to the product of the number of rf modules 120 and the number of rf channels included in each rf module 120.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a transmission principle of a multi-beam phased array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the drawing, 576 antenna elements are provided, which corresponds to 36 radio frequency modules, and each module includes 16 radio frequency channels, that is, the number of the antenna elements is 36 × 16 ═ 576. The antenna units are arranged in a triangular grid mode, the output position of a radio frequency channel of each module is connected with one antenna unit, the antenna units are mainly in a microstrip mode and are arranged according to the triangular grid mode, and radio frequency signals are synthesized through the spaces of the antenna units to radiate energy outwards to form directional variable directional diagrams. The antenna unit is connected with a radio frequency channel through a radio frequency connector, the radio frequency channel is connected with a multi-beam feed network, and the feed network comprises a plurality of drive amplifiers 1(DA1) and 2(DA2), so that radio frequency signals corresponding to 8 beams are formed. The radio frequency signal of each wave beam enters a feed network, after being amplified by a driving amplifier 2 and a driving amplifier 1, the radio frequency signal enters a power division network of 1 to 8 to complete power distribution, the distributed radio frequency signal enters the corresponding position of each multi-wave-beam chip, then is input to a final-stage Doherty power amplifier through power synthesis in the chip, and is amplified by the Doherty power amplifier to output a radio frequency signal meeting single-channel indexes.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a receiving principle of a multi-beam phased array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in the drawing, the overall architecture of the receiving antenna is consistent with that of a transmitting antenna, except that a low noise amplifier is used for receiving instead of a power amplifier. Each antenna unit receives signals from the outside, enters the radio frequency module through a front-stage low noise amplifier, is input into the feed network through the VM vector modulator, and receives and amplifies a single beam through power synthesis and a rear-stage low noise amplifier in the feed network.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a multi-beam phased array antenna, which comprises: the antenna comprises a multi-beam feed network, at least one radio frequency module and an antenna array plane; the multi-beam feed network is used for transmitting the radio frequency signals to at least one radio frequency module; the multi-beam radio frequency module is connected with the multi-beam feed network through a set radio frequency connector and used for transmitting and receiving multi-path radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency module comprises at least one radio frequency channel; the antenna array comprises a transmitting array and a receiving array, each array comprises at least one antenna unit, and the antenna unit is connected with the radio frequency module through the set radio frequency connector and used for forming beams. The multi-beam phased array antenna provided by the embodiment of the invention can realize co-array surface multi-beam, improve the utilization rate and the integration level of the antenna and reduce the power consumption of the antenna.

It is to be noted that the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles employed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various obvious changes, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, although the present invention has been described in greater detail by the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may include other equivalent embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is determined by the scope of the appended claims.