CN109639330B

CN109639330B - Component control system and method for phased array antenna communication

Info

Publication number: CN109639330B
Application number: CN201811492902.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄一; 王豪; 张风源; 雷鸣; 闵康磊
Original assignee: Shanghai Aerospace Electronic Communication Equipment Research Institute
Current assignee: Shanghai Aerospace Electronic Communication Equipment Research Institute
Priority date: 2018-12-06
Filing date: 2018-12-06
Publication date: 2021-08-10
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-06
Also published as: CN109639330A

Abstract

The invention provides a phased array antenna communication assembly control system and a phased array antenna communication method, wherein the system comprises the following steps: the device comprises a wave control machine, an exciter board main control chip, a data receiving chip, a data sending chip, a radio frequency feed network, a power supply module and at least two TR components; the wave control machine is used for sending wave control data to the exciter board main control chip and receiving working state information of the TR component acquired by the exciter board main control chip; the exciter board main control chip is used for analyzing and processing the wave control data to generate a control signal corresponding to the TR component; and the TR component is used for controlling the radio-frequency signals transmitted by the radio-frequency feed network according to the control signals of the main control chip of the exciter board and executing wave speed scanning. The invention adopts the strategy of carrying out sequence control on different TR components, solves the problem of communication interruption caused by switching phase shift codes of the TR components, thereby realizing accurate control on wave speed and ensuring the strict continuity of high-speed data transmission.

Description

Component control system and method for phased array antenna communication

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of phased array antenna data transmission communication, in particular to a system and a method for controlling components of phased array antenna communication.

Background

With the continuous development of communication technology and demand, the requirements on the performance of a communication system, such as data rate, EIRP, time resource allocation, and the like, are higher and higher, and the application of a phased array antenna in a digital communication scene becomes a potential development direction.

The phased array antenna system is widely applied to the technical fields of radar, navigation, electronic countermeasure and other engineering. The basic principle of a phased array antenna system is to control the amplitude and phase of the transmitted and received signals at the individual elements of the phased array antenna array such that the spatially combined beam is directed in a particular direction, or nulls are formed in certain particular directions. The method has the advantages of flexible beam pointing, comprehensiveness of directional diagrams and the like. Phased array antennas have been widely used in the past mainly in the radar field, and have relatively few applications in the communications field. The existing mature large-scale application mainly focuses on the fields of satellite-borne communication loads of European and American countries and the like, including an X-waveband active phased array on a United states broadband global communication satellite system WGS, an S-waveband active phased array on a European data relay satellite DRS and the like.

However, the phased array antenna system has a large influence on communication quality, and a phenomenon in which communication is interrupted at the switching moment of the phase shifter due to distortion of a transmission signal caused by power synthesis of a large number of TR channels may occur.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a component control system and a component control method for phased array antenna communication, which solve the problem of communication interruption caused by switching phase shift codes by a TR component, realize accurate control on wave speed and ensure strict continuity of high-speed data transmission.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a component control system for phased array antenna communication, comprising: the device comprises a wave control machine, an exciter board main control chip, a data receiving chip, a data sending chip, a radio frequency feed network, a power supply module and at least two TR components; wherein:

the wave control machine is in communication connection with the data receiving chip and the data sending chip and is used for sending wave control data to the exciter board main control chip and receiving working state information of the TR component acquired by the exciter board main control chip;

the exciter board main control chip is in communication connection with the TR assemblies and is used for analyzing and processing the wave control data, generating control signals corresponding to the TR assemblies and sending the control signals to the corresponding TR assemblies;

the TR component is connected with the radio frequency feed network through an SMP cable head and is used for controlling a radio frequency signal transmitted by the radio frequency feed network according to a control signal of the main control chip of the exciter board and executing wave velocity scanning;

and the power supply module is used for providing electric energy for the wave control machine, the exciter board main control chip, the data receiving chip, the data sending chip and the radio frequency feed network.

Optionally, the wave control data includes: the device comprises a component chip selection signal, phase shift code data, a latch signal and a serial input clock signal.

Optionally, the wave controller is further configured to:

generating a component chip selection signal, phase shift code data and a latch signal according to a scanning angle value injected by an upper computer; and sending the component chip selection signal, the phase shift code data and the latch signal to the master control chip of the exciter board.

Optionally, the exciter board main control chip is specifically configured to:

receiving component chip selection signals, phase shift code data and latch signals sent by the wave control machine;

according to the time sequence of the component chip selection signal, sending the phase shift code data to a TR component corresponding to the component chip selection signal;

and generating a switching control signal of the phase shift code data of the corresponding TR component according to the time sequence of the latch signal.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a component control method for phased array antenna communication, which is applied to the component control system for phased array antenna communication described in any one of the first aspect; the method comprises the following steps:

the wave control machine receives the scanning angle value injected by the upper computer, generates wave control data and sends the wave control data to the exciter board main control chip;

the exciter board main control chip analyzes and processes the wave control data, generates a control signal corresponding to the TR component and sends the control signal to the corresponding TR component;

and the TR component controls the radio-frequency signal transmitted by the radio-frequency feed network according to the control signal and executes wave speed scanning.

Optionally, the analyzing and processing the wave control data by the exciter board main control chip to generate a control signal corresponding to the TR component includes:

receiving wave control data sent by the wave control machine, and extracting component chip selection signals, phase shift code data and latch signals;

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the working state information of the TR component is acquired by the master control chip of the exciter board;

and the exciter board main control chip sends the working state information to a wave control machine.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

the invention changes the mode that one synchronous signal is used to control all TR components to latch data and simultaneously inject the data into the phase shifter when the general phased array wave beam is switched, and adopts the strategy of sequentially controlling the latched data in different TR components in the phased array antenna, thereby solving the problem of communication interruption caused by the switching of phase shift codes by the TR components, realizing the accurate control of the wave speed and ensuring the strict continuity of high-speed data transmission.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon reading of the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments with reference to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 is a control timing diagram of a method for controlling components of a phased array antenna communication provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a phased array antenna communication assembly control system according to the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the effect of the component control method for phased array antenna communication provided by the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific examples. The following examples will assist those skilled in the art in further understanding the invention, but are not intended to limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. All falling within the scope of the present invention.

The invention provides a component control system and a method for phased array antenna communication, which avoid communication interruption caused by switching of phase shift codes of TR components and realize strict continuity of high-speed data transmission, change the mode that one synchronous signal commonly used in common phased array beam switching controls all TR components to latch data and simultaneously inject the data into a phase shifter, and adopt a strategy of sequentially controlling the latch data in different TR components in the phased array antenna.

In the communication of the phased antenna, if the distance between code elements is short, and the time is comparable to the switching time of the phase-shifting code of the phased array component, the phased array antenna adopting the traditional wave beam switching mode can instantly turn off the power of all components at the nanosecond level of the switching of the phase-shifting code of the component, thereby causing the generation of error codes. Therefore, the system and the method provided by the invention can avoid the power interruption, complete the zero error code transmission of high-speed large-capacity data and have great value in a phased array high-speed communication scene.

Fig. 1 is a schematic control timing diagram of a component control method for phased array antenna communication according to the present invention, and as shown in fig. 1, a component is controlled by a wave control exciter board based on an FPGA or DSP chip. CLK is clock frequency, the chip selection signal SEL of the assembly decides to which TR channel the phase shift code data transmitted in LDATA (wave control data) are sent, the distribution is carried out according to the time sequence, after the phase shift code data in LDATA are sent to the register of the appointed TR channel, a pulse is given in LOAD (latch signal), the data in the register are given to the phase shifter, the switching of new and old phase shift codes is completed, namely nanosecond power shutoff occurs at the moment. At this moment, only the power of the designated TR channel is turned off, and other TR channels work normally, so that the normal communication can be ensured. When the beam direction is changed once, the phase shift codes of the TR channels need to be switched in sequence.

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a phased array antenna communication component control system provided in the present invention, and as shown in fig. 2, the system mainly includes a wave controller 1, an exciter board main control chip 2, a data receiving chip 3, a data transmitting chip 4, a radio frequency feed network 5, a TR component 6, and a power module 7. The wave control machine 1 of the system generates information such as addresses and phase-shifting codes according to the scanning angle value injected by the upper computer. The exciter board main control chip 2 receives the address and the phase-shift code data sent by the wave control machine 1 through the data receiving chip 3, converts the format and forwards the data to the corresponding TR component 6 according to the previous time sequence. At the same time, the corresponding dc voltage provided by the power supply module 7 is also forwarded to the TR module 6. On the other hand, the exciter board main control chip 2 also uploads the working state information of the component to the wave control machine 1 through the data sending chip 4. The TR component 6 receives the control signal and power supply of the exciter main control chip 2 on one hand, and receives the radio frequency signal transmitted by the radio frequency feed network 5 on the other hand, and controls the radio frequency signal according to the address, the phase shift code and other information in the control signal to complete the beam scanning function.

The exciter main control chip 2 can be an FPGA chip or a DSP chip. In the present embodiment, a DSP chip is used, and the specific chip is selected according to the interface level and the number of pins required. Receiving wave control data sent from a wave controller 1, converting the wave control data into corresponding formats, including chip selection signals and phase shift code data, and sending the chip selection signals and the phase shift code data to corresponding TR assemblies 6 to realize the switch control of transmitting channels of the TR assemblies 6 and the phase shift control of radio frequency signals; receiving a latch signal sent from the wave controller 1, and controlling the switching of the component phase-shift codes according to the method; various direct current voltages of the power supply module 7 are received and forwarded to corresponding devices to realize power supply control; the exciter main control chip 2 is also responsible for collecting BIT information of the T component 6 and uploading the wave control machine 1 after framing so as to monitor the working state of the TR component.

The exciter main control chip 2 receives the control data of the wave control machine 1 through the data receiving chip 3, and uploads the component information to the wave control machine 8 through the data sending chip 4. All the main signals connected to the wave controller 1 are: and emitting a chip selection signal, a serial input clock, serial input data, a latch signal and a data return signal. In order to improve the reliability of data transmission, the data receiving chip 3 and the data sending chip 4 may be chips with a differential function, such as an RS422 interface and an LVDS signal.

The TR component 6 is connected with the radio frequency feed network 5 through an SMP cable head, and is connected with the exciter main control chip 2 through a rectangular connector, and the main signal interfaces comprise radio frequency signals, radio frequency ground, a power supply, ground, data signals, clock signals, latching signals and chip selection signals.

In this embodiment, the method is integrated with a communication scene and a phased array antenna, and the change of an antenna pattern in the switching process is evaluated. In the present application example, beam scanning is completed by using 36 antenna units, 2 seconds is taken as one beam pointing period, and the maximum scanning angle difference before and after the wave bit period is 1 degree. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the effect of the component control method for phased array antenna communication according to the present invention, as shown in fig. 3, in the worst case, that is, when half of the antenna elements point to the azimuth angle of the previous wave position of 7.6 degrees and half of the antenna elements point to the azimuth angle of the next wave position of 8.6 degrees. It can be seen that the beam changes little, changes in the pointing direction and subtleties, and does not affect the communication proceeding as usual. In this scenario, the scanning speed is slow with a 2 second time change of at most 1 degree, and the method can be easily used. In a scene with a fast scanning speed, the method can be designed integrally, and the phased array antenna scanning method can be adjusted, for example, a long period is divided into a plurality of short periods, so that the scanning angle change of each short period is not large, and the short period is ensured to be larger than the product of the channel switching time and the number of channels.

In this embodiment, the low frequency signal interface of the transmitting component is shown in table 1, and includes a digital signal and a power supply. The emitting assembly is a four-in-one assembly, one assembly comprises four emitting channels, and four channels can be independently selected for control by combining two chip selection signals SEL1 and SEL 2. CLK is a clock signal with a clock frequency of 10 MHz. LDATA is a data port and is responsible for the transmission of serial phase shift code data, and the data enters the latch of the phase shifter through LDATA. The LOAD is a latch trigger port, pulse signals enter the assembly through the LOAD port according to time sequence to trigger latching, and phase shift code data stored in the latching are sent to the phase shifter to complete a phase shift control function. The four-path emission detection is responsible for transmitting the working states of the four emission channels to an upper computer and is completed through four independent couplers and detectors.

TABLE 1 Low frequency Signal interface for Transmission Assembly

Serial number

Definition of

Remarks for note

Serial number

Definition of

Remarks for note

1

CLOCK

TTL

12

DATA

TTL

2

Latching LOAD

TTL

13

Transmitting T

TTL

3

Way selection SEL1

TTL

14

Way selection SEL2

TTL

4

CH1 emission detection

TTL

15

CH2 emission detection

TTL

5

CH3 emission detection

TTL

16

CH4 emission detection

TTL

6

GND

17

GND

7

GND

18

GND

8

-5V

19

-5V

9

+5V

20

+5V

10

+7V

21

+7V

11

+7V

In the phase of phased array antenna design, the phased array scale, link gain allowance, communication application scene, time resource and the like are fully considered, and a specific switching strategy is formulated after comprehensive balance. For example, if the number of components switched per LOAD pulse period is too large, the EIRP at the switching instant may be reduced too much, which affects the quality of transmission, and if the number of components switched per LOAD pulse period is too small, the time for completing a beam pointing change is too long, which may not meet the requirements of some communication scenarios. In terms of communication application scenarios, the state of beam pointing change needs to be evaluated. According to the method provided by the invention, the beam pointing direction of different components is different when the antenna beam is switched from the beam pointing direction of the previous wave position to the beam pointing direction of this wave position, wherein a worst intermediate state exists, i.e. half of the antenna elements are pointing to the previous wave position and the other half of the antenna elements are already pointing to the next wave position. The beam shape is then somewhat affected. In an ideal communication scene, the azimuth of the data transmission target is unlikely to change suddenly relative to the antenna, so the scanning angle change speed is not high, the beam pointing directions of the former wave position and the latter wave position are not greatly different, and the beam shape change is small even in the worst intermediate state through directional diagram simulation evaluation.

The foregoing description of specific embodiments of the present invention has been presented. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and that various changes or modifications may be made by one skilled in the art within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention. The embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other arbitrarily without conflict.

Claims

1. A component control system for phased array antenna communication, comprising: the device comprises a wave control machine, an exciter board main control chip, a data receiving chip, a data sending chip, a radio frequency feed network, a power supply module and at least two TR components; wherein:

the TR component is connected with the radio frequency feed network through an SMP cable head and is used for controlling a radio frequency signal transmitted by the radio frequency feed network according to a control signal of the exciter board main control chip and executing beam scanning;

2. The component control system for phased array antenna communication of claim 1, wherein said wave control data comprises: the device comprises a component chip selection signal, phase shift code data, a latch signal and a serial input clock signal.

3. The phased array antenna communicating component control system of claim 2, wherein the wave controller is further configured to:

4. The phased array antenna communication assembly control system of claim 2, wherein the exciter board master control chip is specifically configured to:

5. A component control method for phased array antenna communication, characterized by being applied to a component control system for phased array antenna communication according to any one of claims 1 to 4; the method comprises the following steps:

and the TR component controls the radio-frequency signal transmitted by the radio-frequency feed network according to the control signal and executes beam scanning.

6. The method for component control of phased array antenna communication according to claim 5, wherein said wave steering data comprises: the device comprises a component chip selection signal, phase shift code data, a latch signal and a serial input clock signal.

7. The method for controlling the phased array antenna communication assembly according to claim 6, wherein the exciter board main control chip analyzes and processes the wave control data to generate the control signal corresponding to the TR assembly, and the method comprises the following steps:

8. The method of component control for phased array antenna communication according to claim 5, further comprising: