JP2002158528A - Element-thinning method for active phased array antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thinning method for active phased array antenna, capable of arbitrarily increasing/decreasing the number of transmission/reception modules, without changing the configuration of a power feeding circuit. SOLUTION: In the thinning method for active phased array antenna, composed of plural element antennas 1-1 to 1-n, transmitting/receiving modules 2-1 to 2-n connected to the respective element antennas and a power-feeding circuit 3 for feeding power to the transmission/reception modules, a first thinning arrangement is determined from all element antenna coordinates, along with desired opening distribution and on the basis of the determined first thinning arrangement, a second thinning arrangement is determined by executing second thinning.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for thinning out antenna elements of an active phased array antenna used in, for example, a radar mounted on a ship.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a large-scale active phased array antenna used in a ship-mounted radar or the like is very expensive, so it has been studied from the point of reducing the number of modules to reduce the cost. It has been.
However, when the number of modules is reduced, a decrease in antenna gain occurs and radar performance decreases,
In the initial stage, it was necessary to arrange antennas with a small number of modules, and thereafter increase the number of modules sequentially to approach desired antenna performance.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a conventional active phased array antenna, wherein 1 is n element antennas, and 2 is n element antennas connected to each of the element antennas 1.
The three transmitting / receiving modules 3 are power supply circuits. In FIG. 17, in the case of transmission, a signal input to the antenna is distributed by the power supply circuit 3 and input to the transmission / reception module 2. In the transmitting / receiving module 2, the signal is radiated to the space from the element antenna 1 after desired phase control and power amplification. In the case of reception, a signal received by the element antenna 1 is amplified and phase-controlled by the transmission / reception module 2, combined by the power supply circuit 3, and output.

In designing a conventional active phased array antenna, a method of arranging the array density of the transmitting and receiving modules 2 by thinning out the elements is adopted. This element thinning method is described in, for example, Tadashi Numazaki, Kiyoshi Mano, Takashi Katagi, "Deterministic element thinning method for planar array antenna", IEICE Tech.
4-121. Published by IEICE, January 18, 1985
Day. Is shown in

FIG. 18 shows an example of the arrangement of transmission / reception modules when thinning is performed by the above-described element thinning method. In the thinned antenna device as shown in FIG. 18, signals radiated from each element antenna 1 are combined as a low sidelobe array pattern by a density taper determined by an array density of the transmitting and receiving modules 2. FIG. 19 shows an example of a radiation pattern obtained by a conventional element thinning method.

Here, the number and arrangement of transmission / reception modules obtained by the conventional element thinning method differ depending on a set aperture distribution such as a Taylor distribution when the antenna diameter is the same. A method is adopted in which the set side lobe is set low and the taper is tight. FIG. 20 shows a transmission / reception module arrangement example when the aperture distribution is changed so as to reduce the number of transmission / reception modules. FIG. 21 shows the radiation pattern.

In both the thinned-out arrangement of FIG. 18 and the thinned-out arrangement of FIG.
The terminals have a one-to-one correspondence, and when the thinning arrangement is changed, the power supply circuit must also be changed in accordance with the arrangement.

[0008]

In the conventional method of thinning out the elements of an active phased array antenna, the thinning-out arrangement corresponds to the feeder circuit on a one-to-one basis. There was a problem that the number of modules could not be reduced or increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and has been made without changing the power supply circuit.
This is for realizing the kind of thinning out and obtaining the degree of freedom of increase / decrease of the transmission / reception module.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for thinning out elements of an active phased array antenna, comprising a plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter connected to each of the plurality of element antennas, an amplifier, and a low noise amplifier. In an element design method of an active phased array antenna including a transmission / reception module including a switch and a control circuit and a power supply circuit for supplying power to the transmission / reception module, a desired aperture distribution is formed from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas. A first thinning arrangement is determined, and a second thinning arrangement is performed based on the determined first thinning arrangement to determine a second thinning arrangement.

[0011] In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for thinning out elements of an active phased array antenna, comprising a plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, and a first amplifier having a high transmission output. , A first low noise amplifier having a high reception gain, a switch and a control circuit,
A transmission / reception module, a second phase shifter also connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a second amplifier having a low transmission output, a second low noise amplifier having a low reception gain, a switch and a control circuit. Transmitting and receiving module, and the first
In the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna including the power supply circuit for feeding power to the transmission / reception module and the second transmission / reception module, the first arrangement is performed so as to follow a desired aperture distribution from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas.
The thinning arrangement is determined, and the second thinning is performed to determine the second thinning arrangement based on the determined first thinning arrangement.

An active phased array antenna according to a third aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a first amplifier having a high transmission output, and a second amplifier having a high reception gain. A first transmission / reception module including a low-noise amplifier, a switch and a control circuit, a phase shifter also connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a second amplifier having a low transmission output, and a second amplifier having a low reception gain. A second transmitting / receiving module including two low-noise amplifiers, a switch and a control circuit, and a feeder circuit for feeding power to the first and second transmitting / receiving modules. The first thinning arrangement is determined from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas so as to follow a desired aperture distribution. Any element from the first decimation arrangement is obtained so as to determine a second decimating disposed in vent Sarukoto randomly extracted.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an active phased array antenna designed by the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the first embodiment of the present invention, where 1 is n element antennas, and 2 is n element antennas. , 3 is a power supply circuit, and 4 is a terminator.
The operation of the active phased array antenna for emitting a signal or receiving a signal is the same as that of the conventional example.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 5 is a procedure for determining a first thinning arrangement, and 6 is a procedure for determining a second thinning arrangement. Hereinafter, the flow will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an element arrangement before thinning is performed. In the procedure 5 for determining the first thinning arrangement from the element arrangement shown in FIG. 3, antenna element thinning is performed based on a desired aperture distribution to determine the first thinning arrangement. At this time, the method of determining the thinning arrangement is the same as the thinning method in the conventional active phased array antenna. FIG. 4 is an example of a first thinning arrangement.

Next, in a second thinning arrangement determining procedure 6, a constraint condition based only on the transmitting / receiving module arrangement location in the first thinning arrangement obtained in the first thinning arrangement determining procedure 5 is defined. In addition, the second antenna element thinning is performed to determine the second thinning arrangement. At this time, the method of determining the thinning arrangement is the same as the thinning method in the conventional active phased array antenna, except that the aperture distribution set at the time of determining the first antenna element arrangement is different from that at the time of determining the second antenna element arrangement. The aperture distribution to be set is tightly tapered, for example, to lower the set side lobe of the Taylor distribution. FIG.
It is an example of a thinning arrangement.

Since the second thinning-out arrangement determined in this way is thinned out based on the first thinning-out arrangement, the transmission / reception module arrangement in the second thinning-out arrangement is always a part of the first thinning-out arrangement. Become.

The power supply circuit 3 in FIG. 1 is configured in accordance with the first thinning-out arrangement, and is terminated by the second thinning-out arrangement in the terminator 4 except for the position where the transmitting / receiving module is arranged.

FIG. 6 shows a radiation pattern by the first thinning arrangement, and FIG. 7 shows a radiation pattern by the second thinning arrangement.

By deciding the element thinning of the active phased array antenna as described above, when operating the antenna, the arrangement in which the number of transmitting and receiving modules is the largest in operation is the first thinning arrangement, and the number of transmitting and receiving modules is the least. By setting the arrangement as the second thinning arrangement, a relatively arbitrary number of modules can be set by changing the set aperture distribution from the number of transmitting and receiving modules by the second thinning arrangement to the number of transmitting and receiving modules by the first thinning arrangement. Becomes Further, it is possible to improve the antenna gain or the like only by adding a transmission / reception module later from the state of the second thinned-out arrangement.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 8 shows an active phased array antenna designed by the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the second embodiment of the present invention, where 1 is n element antennas, 2a
Is a first transmission / reception module including a first amplifier having a high transmission output and a first low noise amplifier having a high reception gain connected to a part of the n element antennas 1; First transmitting / receiving module 2a among antennas
A second transmission / reception module including a second amplifier having a low transmission output and a second low-noise amplifier having a low reception gain connected to the element antenna 1 not connected to the power supply circuit;
4 is a terminator. The operation of the active phased array antenna for radiating a signal or receiving a signal is the same as that of the conventional example. However, in the active phased array antenna according to the second embodiment, since the transmitting / receiving module 2 has two types of the first transmitting / receiving module 2a and the second transmitting / receiving module 2b, a smoother aperture distribution is realized. It becomes possible.

In the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the second embodiment, thinning is performed from all element coordinates to determine a first thinning arrangement, and a second thinning is performed from the first thinning arrangement to perform a second thinning. The method of determining the thinning arrangement is the same as in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows the first thinning arrangement determined by the first thinning, and FIG. 10 shows the second thinning arrangement determined by the second thinning. As shown in the figure, the second thinning-out arrangement is thinned out based on the first thinning-out arrangement, so that the transmitting / receiving module arrangement in the second thinning-out arrangement is always a part of the first thinning-out arrangement. It can be seen that the second transmission / reception module 2b exists at the coordinates where the first transmission / reception module 2a was present in the thinning of one. FIG. 11 shows a radiation pattern by the first thinning arrangement, and FIG. 12 shows a radiation pattern by the second thinning arrangement. FIG. 13 shows an example of a thinned-out arrangement of a conventional active phased array antenna corresponding to the second embodiment, and FIG. 14 shows a radiation pattern thereof.

As described above, in the second embodiment, when determining the second thinning arrangement based on the first thinning arrangement,
It is possible to arbitrarily select the type of the transmission / reception module to be arranged, so that the degree of freedom can be increased when the second thinning is performed.

By configuring the active phased array antenna in this manner, the set aperture distribution can be reduced by adding, reducing, or replacing the first transceiver module and the second transceiver module without changing the configuration of the feed circuit. It is possible to change the number of transmitting and receiving modules relatively arbitrarily.

Embodiment 3 The configuration of the active phased array antenna designed by the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the third embodiment of the present invention is the same as that of the second embodiment.
The method of decimating from the coordinates of all elements to determine the first decimated arrangement is the same as in the first embodiment.

In the third embodiment, an arbitrary number of elements are randomly extracted from the determined first thinning-out arrangement, and the transmission / reception module is removed from the extracted position.
Is determined.

FIG. 15 shows a second thinning arrangement determined by randomly extracting and removing elements from the first thinning arrangement in the second embodiment shown in FIG. As can be seen from the drawing, since the second thinning-out arrangement is thinned out based on the first thinning-out arrangement, the transmission / reception module arrangement in the second thinning-out arrangement always becomes a part of the first thinning-out arrangement and the first thinning-out arrangement. It can be seen that the same transmission / reception module exists in the overlapping part with the thinning arrangement. FIG.
6 is the radiation pattern.

By configuring the active phased array antenna in this manner, the first transmitting / receiving module and the second transmitting / receiving module can be connected to each other without changing the configuration of the feeder circuit and without replacing the first transmitting / receiving module with the second transmitting / receiving module. By adding or reducing the number of transmission / reception modules, the number of transmission / reception modules can be arbitrarily changed.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the number of transmission / reception modules can be relatively arbitrarily changed without changing the configuration of the power supply circuit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an active phased array antenna obtained by an element thinning method of an active phased array antenna according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of transmission / reception module arrangement in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an element arrangement before thinning according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first thinning-out arrangement according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a second thinning arrangement in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern in the first thinning arrangement according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern in the second thinning-out arrangement of the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an active phased array antenna obtained by the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first thinning-out arrangement according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a second thinning-out arrangement according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern in a first thinning-out arrangement according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern in a second thinning-out arrangement according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a thinned-out arrangement of a conventional active phased array antenna corresponding to the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern obtained by thinning out a conventional active phased array antenna corresponding to the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a second thinning arrangement in Embodiment 3 of the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a radiation pattern in a second thinning-out arrangement according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an active phased array antenna obtained by a conventional active phased array antenna element thinning method.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a thinning arrangement in the element thinning of a conventional active phased array antenna.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern in a thinning arrangement by element thinning of a conventional active phased array antenna.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a thinning arrangement in a case where an aperture distribution in element thinning of a conventional active phased array antenna is changed.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a radiation pattern by a thinning arrangement when the aperture distribution in the element thinning of the conventional active phased array antenna is changed.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 element antenna, 2 transmitting / receiving module, 2a first
Transmission / reception module, 2b second transmission / reception module,
3 a feeder circuit, 4 terminators, 5 a procedure for determining a first thinning arrangement, 6 a procedure for determining a second thinning arrangement.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A transmission / reception module including a plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter, an amplifier, a switch, and a control circuit connected to each of the plurality of element antennas, and a power supply circuit for supplying power to the transmission / reception module. In the element thinning method of the active phased array antenna, a first thinning arrangement is determined from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas so as to follow a desired aperture distribution, and then based on the first thinning arrangement determined. 2. A method for thinning out elements of an active phased array antenna, wherein a second thinning-out is performed to determine a second thinning-out arrangement. 2. A plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a first amplifier having a high transmission output, a first low noise amplifier having a high reception gain, a switch and a control. A first transceiver module including circuitry;
A phase shifter also connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a second amplifier having a low transmission output, and a second amplifier having a low reception gain.
A second transmitting / receiving module including a low-noise amplifier, a switch and a control circuit, and a feeding circuit for feeding power to the first transmitting / receiving module and the second transmitting / receiving module. A first thinning arrangement is determined from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas so as to follow a desired aperture distribution, and a second thinning is performed based on the determined first thinning arrangement. 2. A method for thinning out elements of an active phased array antenna, wherein the thinning-out arrangement is determined. 3. A plurality of element antennas, a phase shifter connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a first amplifier having a high transmission output, a first low noise amplifier having a high reception gain, a switch and a control. A first transceiver module including circuitry;
A phase shifter also connected to a part of the plurality of element antennas, a second amplifier having a low transmission output, and a second amplifier having a low reception gain.
A second transmitting / receiving module including a low-noise amplifier, a switch and a control circuit, and a feeding circuit for feeding power to the first transmitting / receiving module and the second transmitting / receiving module. A first thinning arrangement is determined from all coordinates of the plurality of element antennas so as to follow a desired aperture distribution, and an arbitrary element is randomly extracted and extracted from the determined first thinning arrangement. A method for thinning out elements of an active phased array antenna, comprising determining a second thinning-out arrangement.