JP2008091996A - Modulation method, modulation unit, and modulation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform phase modulation etc. without using a variable phase shifter or a mixer. <P>SOLUTION: A synthesizer 9 synthesizes a variable attenuator 7 for changing the amplitude of sinusoidal wave power oscillated from an oscillator 5 and a variable attenuator 8 for changing the amplitude of cosine wave power obtained by changing the phase of the sinusoidal wave power by π/2 by a fixed phase shifter 6. The amplitude of at least one of the sinusoidal wave power and the cosine wave power is changed to thereby cause a change in a phase. The change in the phase is used to perform primary modulation of the sinusoidal wave power. A difference in a passing phase occurs between in a linear region and a saturation region when an amplifier 10 amplifies resultant power. The difference in the passing phase is used to perform secondary modulation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a modulation method, a modulation unit, and a modulation device used for modulating signal components in a radar, a communication device, and the like, and more particularly, performs phase modulation or quadrature amplitude modulation without using a variable phase shifter or a mixer having a complicated configuration. It relates to a simple mechanism that makes it possible.

  Conventionally, a variable phase shifter is generally used for a modulation device that can change the phase of alternating power such as a carrier wave. A quadrature amplitude modulation method combining phase change and amplitude change is also known, but in the conventional quadrature amplitude modulation method, a method using an I / Q mixer that mixes sine wave power and cosine wave power is generally used. This point is described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example. Even in the coded pulse radar, it is necessary to provide a variable phase shifter. In this regard, for example, the description of Non-Patent Document 1 can be referred to.

  On the other hand, the output of the amplifier saturates when the input power exceeds a certain amplitude. This point is publicly known as described in Non-Patent Document 2, for example. For this reason, it is necessary to use the amplifier in a saturation region or to correct power distortion when using the amplifier. In this regard, for example, the description in Patent Document 3 can be referred to.

JP 07-303122 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-237033 JP 2005-117315 A Revised radar technology The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (ISBN4-88552-139-4) pp. 278-280 Techniques for reducing distortion and efficiency of power amplifiers Masatoshi Nakayama, Nao Takagi Microwave Workshops and Exhibition 2004

  As described above, it is indispensable to use a variable phase shifter in an apparatus that performs phase modulation. Even in the quadrature amplitude modulation system, it is necessary to use a known I / Q mixer that mixes sine wave power and cosine wave power. In particular, cellular phones and various radar devices used in recent years have high operating frequencies, and variable phase shifters that can be used at such frequencies have a complicated structure and cannot be used as general-purpose products.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a method, a modulation unit, and a modulation device that enable phase modulation and the like easily without using a variable phase shifter or a mixer having a complicated configuration.

The present invention changes the phase of the alternating power of interest by changing the phase of the alternating power based on the characteristics of the electronic circuit that allows the alternating power to pass, or by synthesis with other alternating power, without using a variable phase shifter. A modulation method for performing modulation with change is provided.
The electronic circuit is, for example, an amplifier that can amplify in a linear region where the ratio of output power to an increase in input power linearly changes and a saturation region where the ratio becomes nonlinear. Utilizing the characteristics of this amplifier, that is, the points where the amplification characteristics differ between the linear region and the saturation region, the phase change of the alternating power is calculated based on the difference in the passing phase of the alternating power generated by amplification in each region. Perform the accompanying modulation.

  More specifically, the other alternating power has the same frequency that is different from the target alternating power in at least one of amplitude and phase, and the alternating power and the other alternating power are combined by the combining means. At the same time, the amplitude of at least one of these alternating powers is changed, and the target alternating power is modulated by a change in phase caused thereby.

  An embodiment of the modulation method of the present invention includes a step of changing at least one amplitude of the alternating power synthesized by the synthesizing means, and performing primary modulation of the target alternating power by a change in phase caused thereby. And performing a secondary modulation of the alternating power by changing the phase of the alternating power which has been primarily modulated based on the characteristics of the electronic circuit.

  The target alternating power or the other alternating power can be generated, for example, by passing a part of a plurality of alternating powers of the same frequency output from a common output source through a fixed phase shifter. .

  The modulation unit according to the present invention includes a first power output means for outputting the first alternating power, and a second alternating power by fixedly displacing the phase of the first alternating power output from the power output device by a predetermined amount. The second power output means for outputting, the amplitude adjusting means for adjusting the amplitude of at least one of the first alternating power and the second alternating power, and the first alternating power and the second alternating power adjusted in amplitude are combined. Power synthesizing means for performing modulation with phase change of the first alternating power without using a variable phase shifter.

  In one embodiment, the combined alternating power obtained by combining by the power combining unit further includes a linear region in which a ratio of output power to an increase in input power linearly changes, and saturation in which the ratio is nonlinear. The modulation unit is configured by further including an amplifier that can amplify the region. Alternatively, the modulation unit includes a filter that filters the alternating power amplified by the amplifier at a predetermined frequency, and second amplitude adjusting means that adjusts the amplitude of the filtered alternating power. When the first alternating power is sinusoidal power, the second alternating power is cosine wave power.

  The modulation device according to the present invention includes a plurality of the above-described modulation units, and also includes power integration means for integrating alternating powers output from these phase modulation units.

  Another modulation apparatus according to the present invention includes a power output unit that outputs a plurality of alternating powers each having a variable phase and amplitude, a first power combining unit that combines the plurality of alternating powers, and a combined alternating power. Is amplified in a linear region where the ratio of output power to an increase in input power linearly changes and a saturation region where the ratio is nonlinear, and the alternating power amplified by this amplifier and filtered to a predetermined frequency Amplitude adjusting means for adjusting the amplitude of the power, displacement alternating power output means for outputting displacement alternating power by displacing the phase of the alternating power adjusted in amplitude by a predetermined amount, the alternating power adjusted in amplitude and the Second power combining means for combining the displacement alternating power is provided, and the modulation accompanying the phase change of the alternating power is performed without using a variable phase shifter.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize the same modulation as in the case of using a variable phase shifter or a mixer by combining with the characteristics of an electronic circuit or other alternating power without using a complicated variable phase shifter or a mixer. A unique effect is possible.

First, the principle of the present invention will be described.
(1) Use the pass phase characteristic of an amplifier as an example of an electronic circuit.
The amplifier has an AM / AM characteristic that saturates when the amplitude of the input power exceeds a predetermined value, and an AM / PM characteristic in which the passing phase changes (AM is amplitude modulation, PM is an abbreviation of phase modulation, and AM / AM is Amplitude vs. amplitude, AM / PM is amplitude vs. phase, and so on). FIG. 1 is a diagram showing examples of these characteristics. One of the modulation methods of the present invention is characterized in that a modulated wave is obtained by using a change in the passing phase of an amplifier for transmitting wave amplification. That is, paying attention to the phase difference caused by operating the amplifier in the linear region and the saturation region, this difference is used for modulation. The values of the power in the linear region and the saturation region are determined in advance for each amplifier (such as a characteristic table attached to the product instruction manual).
Since the AM / PM characteristics of the amplifier are saturated in the saturation region, higher-order frequencies f2 and f3 are also output with respect to the fundamental frequency f as shown in FIG. Since a wave other than the wave having the fundamental frequency f is unnecessary, it is attenuated by a filter so that only a necessary waveform is output.

(2) Use phase change by power combining.
Another modulation method of the present invention uses power combining means having a variable gain control function in the previous stage, for example, an adder connected in the subsequent stage of the variable attenuator. The variable attenuator is configured to be able to control the gain based on a control circuit, for example. The variable attenuator controls a plurality of alternating power gains of the same frequency with different phases, and the modulation is realized by using the phase change obtained by adding them with an adder.
Generally, when two alternating powers having the same frequency and different phases are added, the power after the addition, that is, the phase of the combined power is different from any of the alternating powers before the addition. For example, let θ be the phase difference between the power after addition and the power before addition in the case where sine wave power and cosine wave power differing in phase by 90 degrees are added. Further, assuming that the angular frequency is ω, the amplitude of the sine wave power is A, and the amplitude of the cosine wave power is B, the phase difference θ is expressed by Expression (1).
Asin (ωt) + Bcos (ωt) = (A ² + B ² ) ^1/2 sin (ωt + θ) (1)
However, θ = tan ^-1 (B / A)

  FIG. 3 shows a characteristic example of the phase difference θ of the combined power when the amplitude of the cosine wave power is changed while the amplitude of the sine wave power is constant. As is clear from FIG. 3 and equation (1), if both powers are synthesized by changing the amplitudes of the sine wave power and cosine wave power, the phase of the combined power changes from −π / 2 to π / 2. Can be made.

(3) Both the change in the passing phase and the phase change due to addition are used.
Another modulation method of the present invention uses both the change of the passing phase due to the AM / PM characteristic by the amplifier and the change of the phase obtained by adding two signals having the same frequency but different phases. As is apparent from the above equation (1), when two alternating powers having the same frequency and different amplitudes are added to change the phase θ, the amplitude of the combined power also changes accordingly. Therefore, separately from the filter, by making the amplitude of the desired power out of the output power constant, phase modulation can be realized while keeping the amplitude constant. As a means for keeping the amplitude constant in this way, use of ALC (Auto Level Controller) or the like can be mentioned. Not only ALC but also ALC and a filter may be used together to keep the amplitude constant.

  For example, the phase can be changed from −π / 2 to π / 2 (rad) by changing the amplitude of the alternating power after the phase modulation based on the control from the control circuit, for example. As is apparent from the description, even if a passing phase change component known from the AM / PM characteristic is added to this phase change, it is not easy to set the phase fluctuation to 2π (rad) in total. Thus, for example, by providing a fixed phase shifter that makes a phase transition of π (rad) based on control from the control circuit, it is possible to realize not only phase modulation but also quadrature amplitude modulation. The fixed phase shifter simply changes, for example, a Sin wave to a Cos wave, and thus has a simple structure and a low price unlike a variable phase shifter. When the phase of the combined power is shifted by π (rad) with this fixed phase shifter, the content of the following expression (2) is obtained from the expression (1).

(A ² + B ² ) ^1/2 sin (ωt + θ + π) = (A ² + B ² ) ^1/2 sin {-(ωt + θ)} (2)
From Formula (2), it is possible to make the total phase variation 2π (rad) by selecting whether or not to shift the phase of the combined power described above by π (rad). By combining such configurations, phase modulation and amplitude modulation can be realized simultaneously. As a result, a modulation device with a simple configuration can be obtained without using a mixer of a variable phase shifter.

Next, an embodiment of a modulation unit and a modulation apparatus to which the principle of the present invention is applied will be described. These modulation units and modulation devices are provided before the power amplification stage of a transmitter such as a mobile phone or a high-frequency communication device.
<First Embodiment>
FIG. 4A is a schematic configuration diagram of the modulation unit according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4B and FIG. 4C are diagrams showing a waveform diagram (upper stage) and a phase characteristic diagram (lower stage) of input / output power of the modulation unit with respect to inputs having different amplitudes. Here, for convenience, an example in the case of performing transmission modulation by binary PSK will be described.

  The modulation unit according to this embodiment includes an amplifier 1 and a filter 2 connected to the output side of the amplifier 1. The amplifier 1 is composed of, for example, an MMIC (Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit) amplifier or FET (Field Effect Transistor). The gain of the amplifier 1 is “G”. The filter 2 is a low-pass filter configured by, for example, an LC circuit or a microstrip line.

  The amplifier 1 can change the amplitude (Pin) of the input sine wave power from the amplitude P1 in the linear region of FIG. 1 to the amplitude P2 in the vicinity of the saturation region by a control circuit (not shown). In the linear region, the amplifier 1 linearly multiplies the amplitude of the sine wave power having the amplitude P1 and outputs it as shown in the input / output waveform diagram in the upper part of FIG. As a result, at the point A on the output side of the amplifier 1, a sine wave power having an amplitude of G × P1 is obtained. The phase characteristics at this time are as shown in the lower part of FIG. That is, the sine wave power output from the amplifier 1 has a phase shifted by φ1 with respect to the input sine wave power.

On the other hand, in the saturation region, as shown in the input / output waveform diagram in the upper part of FIG. 4C, the amplifier 1 nonlinearly amplifies the sine wave power having the amplitude P2. As a result, the sine wave power clipped as shown in the upper part of FIG. 4C is output to the point A on the output side of the amplifier 1. The phase characteristics at this time are as shown in the lower part of FIG. That is, the sine wave power output from the amplifier 1 has a phase transition of φ2 with respect to the input sine wave power.
Eventually, the sine wave power having the amplitude P2 input to the amplifier 1 becomes an output whose phase is shifted by φ (= φ2−φ1) as compared with the case where the sine wave power having the amplitude P1 is input. Since the clipped sine wave power includes, for example, the high-order spurious signal shown in FIG. 2, the filter 2 extracts a component having the same frequency as the input sine wave power (amplitude P2). Therefore, only the sine wave power of the necessary frequency component can be obtained.

In this way, by amplifying the power in the linear region and the power in the saturation region of the amplifier 1 by the amplifier 1, it becomes possible to obtain phase modulation of the phase φ without using a variable phase shifter.
In the present embodiment, the binary PSK realized by inputting two types of sine wave power of the amplitude P1 in the linear region shown in FIG. 1 and the amplitude P2 in the vicinity of the saturation region to the amplifier 1 has been described. Multi-level PSK may be realized by increasing the types of signals.

<Second Embodiment>
FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a modulation unit according to the second embodiment.
The modulation unit according to the second embodiment includes an oscillator 5, a π / 2 phase locker 6, a sine side variable attenuator 7, a cosine side variable attenuator 8, a synthesizer 9, a gain G amplifier 10, The filter 11, the final stage variable attenuator 12 and the control device 50 are provided.

  The π / 2 fixed phase shifter 6 is provided between the oscillator 5 and the cosine side attenuator 8 in order to phase-convert the sine wave power oscillated from the oscillator 5 into the cosine wave power, and is output from the oscillator 5. The phase of the sine wave power is delayed by π / 2. The π / 2 fixed phase shifter 6 includes, for example, a branch line coupler, a hybrid coupler, and a λ / 4 delay line.

  The sine side variable attenuator 7 attenuates the sine wave power oscillated from the oscillator 5 as necessary. The attenuation rate can be arbitrarily set. The cosine-side variable attenuator 8 attenuates the power oscillated from the oscillator 5 and shifted in phase by π / 2 (rad) by the π / 2 phase fixer 6, that is, the cosine wave power as necessary. . The attenuation rate can be set arbitrarily.

  The sine wave variable attenuator 7 and the cosine wave variable attenuator 8 can be realized, for example, by using a synthesizer as a distributor. When an electromagnetic wave is input as alternating power, it can be composed of known active elements such as FETs or bipolar transistors. When light is input as alternating power, it can be constituted by a reflection attenuator using a metal thin film deposition filter.

  The combiner 9 combines the sine wave power and the cosine wave power output from the sine wave variable attenuator 7 and the cosine wave variable attenuator 8, respectively. When the power carrier to be handled is a high-frequency electromagnetic wave, the synthesizer 9 can be a rat race circuit, a Wilkinson synthesizer, a T-branch circuit, or the like. When handling light, a prism or a translucent mirror can be used. The amplifier 10 and the filter 11 have the same configuration as the amplifier 1 and the filter 2 in the first embodiment.

The final stage variable attenuator 12 is an attenuator that attenuates the output of the filter 11. The attenuation rate can be arbitrarily set.
The control device 50 appropriately controls the attenuation rates of the sine wave variable attenuator 7, the cosine wave variable attenuator 8, and the final stage variable attenuator 12.

In order to adjust the phase of the combined power, it is necessary to control the amplitude of the combined sine wave power and cosine wave power. For this reason, the attenuation rate in the sine wave variable attenuator 7 and the cosine wave variable attenuator 8 is adjusted by the control device 50.
In the present embodiment, since the polarities of the sine wave electric power and the cosine wave electric power are the same and the phase difference between the two electric powers is π / 2 (rad), the phase transition of the combined power is 0 to + π / 2 (rad ).

Here, at the point B on the output side of the combiner 9 shown in FIG. 5, the amplitude of the combined power is the geometric mean of the amplitude of the sine wave power and the amplitude of the cosine wave power, and therefore the phase transition is 0 to + π / When used as a multi-level PSK transmitter in the range of 2 (rad), it changes greatly. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the amplitude of the combined power is amplified to a predetermined amplitude level by the amplifier 10 and then attenuated to a desired amplitude by the final stage variable attenuator 12 controlled by the control device 50.
When the amplifier 10 is operated in the vicinity of the saturation region from the linear region in the input / output characteristics of the amplifier 10, the phase at point C in FIG. 5 transitions according to the AM / PM characteristics of the amplifier 10 as in the first embodiment. .

With the configuration as described above, the combined power is set to a predetermined amplitude by the final stage variable attenuator 12 whose attenuation rate can be controlled by the control device 50, and as shown in FIG. Multi-level PSK that can take any value from 0 to + π / 2 (rad) with the first quadrant as a symbol can be realized.
Further, by controlling the composite power to a predetermined amplitude by the final stage variable attenuator 12 whose control unit 50 can control the attenuation rate, as shown in FIG. It is possible to realize multilevel QAM as a symbol.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a modulation device using the modulation unit of the second embodiment.
This modulation apparatus includes four modulation units including a first modulation unit 21 to a fourth modulation unit 24. The configuration of the first modulation unit 21 at the top in the drawing is the same as that of the modulation unit shown in FIG.
The configuration of the second modulation unit 22 to the fourth modulation unit 24 includes fixed phase shifters 25, 26 and 27 for making the phase of the sine wave power transition by π / 2 (rad) instead of the oscillator 5 of the first modulation unit 21. Except for each, it is basically the same as the first modulation unit 21. The fixed phase shifter 25 of the second modulation unit 22 receives the sine wave power form oscillated by the oscillator 5 of the first modulation unit 21, and the fixed phase shifter 22 receives the output of the fixed phase shifter 21. Further, the output of the fixed phase shifter 22 is input to the fixed phase shifter 23. Thus, the fixed phase shifters 21, 22, and 23 are connected in cascade.
A synthesizer 45 is connected to the output side of the final stage variable attenuators 12a to 12d of each modulation unit.

With such a configuration, the phase of the input signal of each modulation unit is shifted by π / 2 (rad). Therefore, the combined power is obtained by the final stage variable attenuators 12a to 12d capable of controlling the attenuation rate by the control devices 50a to 50d. An arbitrary value from 0 to 2π (rad) is set in all quadrants of the first quadrant, the second quadrant, the third quadrant, and the fourth quadrant by setting the predetermined amplitude and synthesizing by the synthesizer 45. It is possible to realize multilevel PSK and multilevel QAM with symbols in all possible quadrants.
In this case, the final stage variable attenuators 12a to 12d are controlled by the control devices 50a to 50d so that the output in the quadrants other than the specific quadrant is set to the maximum attenuation so that only the symbols in the specific quadrant are valid. Control is sufficient.

<Third Embodiment>
FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a modulation unit according to the third embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 7, the modulation unit of this embodiment includes D / A (Digital Analog Converter) converters 61 and 62, filters 63 and 64, a combiner 67, a gain G amplifier 68, a filter 69, and a variable attenuator. 70, a switch 71, a fixed phase shifter 72, a combiner 73, and a control device 74.

The D / A converters 61 and 62 are generation sources of sine wave power and cosine wave power, respectively, and make the phase and amplitude variable. However, the device is not limited to the D / A converter as long as the device can variably control the phase and amplitude of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power.
The switch 71 is a switch for selecting whether or not to perform phase transition by the fixed phase shifter 72 with respect to the output of the variable attenuator 70.

The fixed phase shifter 72 performs phase transition of the input sine wave power by π (rad).
The control device 74 performs amplitude control of power oscillated from the D / A converters 61 and 62, attenuation rate control in the variable attenuator 70, and switching control of the switch 71. Other components are basically the same as those included in the modulation unit device of the first embodiment or the second embodiment, and the description thereof is omitted.

In the above formula (1) and FIG. 3, it is shown that the phase of the combined power of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power can be varied between + π / 2 to −π / 2 (rad). In order to change the phase of the combined power, it is necessary to control the amplitudes of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power from the outside.
In this embodiment, the control device 74 controls the D / A converters 61 and 62 to change the amplitudes of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power to arbitrary magnitudes. Then, by adjusting the amplitudes of the D / A converters 61 and 62 from the control device 74, the phase of the combined power can be arbitrarily adjusted. The synthesizer 67 is the same as that used in the second embodiment.

  The difference between the modulation unit of the third embodiment and the modulation unit of the second embodiment is that the phases of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power can be arbitrarily changed by using the D / A converters 61 and 62. This is a possible point. By changing (shifting) the phases of the sine wave power and the cosine wave power in this way, all of the first quadrant and the fourth quadrant of the orthogonal coordinate system shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B are obtained. It is possible to realize multilevel PSK and multilevel QAM as symbols.

Further, by switching the switch 71, if the phase of the combined power is changed by π (rad) by the fixed phase shifter 72, the second quadrant and the second quadrant of the orthogonal coordinate system shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B are used. Multi-level PSK and multi-level QAM with symbols in all three quadrants can be realized. This is clear from the above-described equation (2).
From the above, an arbitrary value from 0 to 2π (rad) can be taken in all the quadrants of the first quadrant, the second quadrant, the third quadrant, and the fourth quadrant shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. Multi-level PSK and multi-level QAM with symbols in all quadrants can be realized.

  Further, in the case of binary PSK using + π / 2 (rad) and −π / 2 (rad) as symbols, the amplitude is also kept substantially constant, so that the amplifier 68 is not used in the saturation region, and the linear region is used. The binary PSK can be realized without the filter 69 and the variable attenuator 70. Similarly, the phase change of π as a whole makes it possible to easily realize the modulation unit or the modulation device for the encoded pulse radar transmitter exemplified in Non-Patent Document 1. Although this coded pulse radar transmitter performs modulation with a phase change of π, in principle, it can be realized with a smaller amount of phase change as with the phase change of multilevel PSK.

  As described above, according to the present invention, phase modulation and quadrature amplitude modulation can be realized with a simple configuration. The modulation unit or modulation device of the present invention can be widely applied to communication devices, coded pulse radar transmission devices, and the like.

The figure which shows the output characteristic of a general amplifier. The figure which shows the relationship between the frequency and amplitude of an output signal in a general amplifier. The figure which shows the example of a characteristic of phase difference (theta) of synthetic | combination electric power when the amplitude of sine wave electric power is fixed and the amplitude of cosine wave electric power is changed. (A) is a schematic block diagram of the modulation unit of the first embodiment, and (b) and (c) are diagrams showing a waveform diagram and a phase characteristic diagram of input / output power of the modulation unit with respect to inputs having different amplitudes. The schematic block diagram of the modulation unit of 2nd Embodiment. The block diagram of the modulation apparatus using the modulation unit of 2nd Embodiment. The schematic block diagram of the modulation unit of 3rd Embodiment. (A) is a characteristic diagram of multilevel PSK by the modulation unit of the second embodiment, and (b) is a characteristic diagram of multilevel QAM. (A) is a characteristic diagram of multilevel PSK by the modulation unit of the third embodiment, and (b) is a characteristic diagram of multilevel QAM.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Amplifier, 2 ... Filter, 5 ... Oscillator, 6 ... (pi) / 2 phase locker, 7 ... Sine side variable attenuator, 8 ... Cosine side variable attenuator, 9 ... Synthesizer, 10 ... Amplifier, 11 ... Filter, 12, 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d ... last stage variable attenuator, 21-24 ... modulation unit, 26, 27 ... fixed phase shifter, 45 ... synthesizer, 50, 50a, 50b, 50c, 50d ... control device, 61 , 62 ... D / A converter, 63, 64 ... filter, 67 ... synthesizer, 68 ... amplifier, 69 ... filter, 70 ... variable attenuator, 71 ... switch, 72 ... fixed phase shifter, 73 ... synthesizer, 74 …Control device.

Claims (11)

  The phase of the alternating power is changed by changing the phase of the target alternating power based on the characteristics of the electronic circuit through which the alternating power passes without using a variable phase shifter or by combining with the other alternating power. Modulation method that performs modulation. The electronic circuit is an amplifier capable of amplifying a linear region where a ratio of output power to an increase of input power linearly changes and a saturation region where the ratio is nonlinear, and the alternating power is linear region of the amplifier. And the saturation region, and the alternating power is modulated based on the difference in the passing phase of the alternating power generated thereby.
The modulation method according to claim 1. The other alternating power is of the same frequency that at least one of amplitude and phase is different from the target alternating power, and the alternating power and the other alternating power are combined by a combining means, and these alternating powers are combined. Changing the amplitude of at least one of the powers, and modulating the target alternating power by a change in the phase caused thereby,
The modulation method according to claim 1. Changing at least one amplitude of the alternating power synthesized by the synthesizing means, and performing primary modulation of the target alternating power by a change in phase caused thereby;
Performing secondary modulation of the alternating power by changing the phase of the primary modulated alternating power based on the characteristics of the electronic circuit;
The modulation method according to claim 3. The target alternating power or the other alternating power is generated by passing a part of a plurality of alternating powers of the same frequency output from a common output source through a fixed phase shifter,
The modulation method according to claim 3 or 4. First power output means for outputting first alternating power;
A second power output means for outputting a second alternating power by fixedly displacing a phase of the first alternating power output from the power output device by a predetermined amount;
An amplitude adjusting means for adjusting an amplitude of at least one of the first alternating power and the second alternating power;
Power combining means for combining the first alternating power and the second alternating power whose amplitude has been adjusted,
A modulation unit that performs modulation with a phase change of the first alternating power without using a variable phase shifter. An amplifier capable of amplifying combined alternating power obtained by combining with the power combining means in a linear region in which a ratio of output power to an increase in input power changes linearly and a saturation region in which the ratio is nonlinear Further equipped,
The modulation unit according to claim 6. A filter that filters the alternating power amplified by the amplifier at a predetermined frequency; and a second amplitude adjusting unit that adjusts the amplitude of the filtered alternating power.
The modulation unit according to claim 7. The first alternating power is sinusoidal power and the second alternating power is cosine power;
The modulation unit according to claim 6, 7 or 8. A plurality of the modulation units according to claim 6 to 9 and a power integration means for integrating the alternating power output from these phase modulation units.
Modulation device. Power output means for outputting a plurality of alternating powers each having a variable phase and amplitude;
First power combining means for combining the plurality of alternating powers;
An amplifier that amplifies the synthesized alternating power in a linear region in which a ratio of output power to an increase in input power changes linearly and a saturation region in which the ratio is nonlinear;
Amplitude adjusting means for adjusting the amplitude of the alternating power amplified by this amplifier and filtered to a predetermined frequency;
Displacement alternating power output means for outputting displacement alternating power by fixedly displacing the phase of the alternating power adjusted in amplitude by a predetermined amount; and
A second power combining means for combining the alternating power adjusted in amplitude and the displacement alternating power;
A modulation device that performs modulation accompanied by a phase change of alternating power without using a variable phase shifter.

Images