JPH11266112A - Transmission and reception module for array antenna and array antenna device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transmission and reception module of an array antenna and an array antenna device using the same, which dispenses with transmission and reception of high frequency transmission and reception signal regarding a transmission and reception module, and can simplify a structure up to the transmission and reception module. SOLUTION: This device is equipped with memories 8a to 8n for outputting digital data which become original oscillation of a local signal, data converters 9a to 9n for offsetting the digital data, D/A converters 10a to 10n for converting the digital data into analog signals, frequency converters 11a to 11n for converting into required local signal frequencies, and mixers 7a to 7n for having the local signal converted between a high frequency signal and an intermediate frequency signal. For this device, since this local signal is generated inside a transmission and reception module, supply of the high frequency signal for the local signal becomes unnecessary from the outside, and at the same time, it becomes possible to have the high frequency signal of a transmission and reception signal converted into the intermediate frequency signal by the mixers 7a to 7n and to have the intermediate frequency signal converted into the high frequency signals by the mixers 7a to 7n. Thus, effects can be obtained such that the power feeding of the transmission and reception signal to the transmission and reception module can be performed through an interface by the intermediate frequency signal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transmission / reception module of an array antenna for feeding a transmission / reception signal to each antenna element of an active phased array antenna, and an array antenna device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of array antenna has been described in a radar handbook "RADAR HANDBOOK".
MERRILI. As shown in SCOLNIK (1990), it is composed of a power supply circuit shown in FIG. 7.39 (b) and a transmission / reception module shown in FIG. 7.44, and lowers the frequency when a transmission / reception signal is supplied to the transmission / reception module. Without using high frequency signals.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a feed circuit of a conventional array antenna. Transmission / reception module 1a ~
In feeding the transmission / reception signal to the transmission / reception signal 1n, the distributor / combiner 1
5, a high frequency signal is used. At the time of transmission, a local signal obtained by converting a signal from the signal generator 25 having excellent frequency stability into a required local signal frequency by the frequency converter 24, and a high-frequency signal for transmission by the mixer 22 using an intermediate frequency signal. Is generated. The high-frequency signal is power-amplified by the power amplifier 20 and transmitted to the transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n via the distributor / combiner 15. The high-frequency signals are transmitted from the transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n to the phase shifters 14a to 14n.
14n, the required phase is set, and the power amplifiers 4a to 4n
And is emitted from the radiation elements 2a to 2n.

[0004] At the time of reception, high-frequency signals received from the radiating elements 2a to 2n are transmitted to the high-frequency amplifiers 5a to 5a.
The signal is amplified by 5n and set to a required phase by the phase shifters 14a to 14n. The high-frequency signals received by the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n are amplified by the high-frequency amplifier 22 via the distributor / combiner 15. Then, the frequency converter 2 is mixed by the mixer 23.
4 is converted into an intermediate frequency signal by the local signal.

The control of the transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n includes:
A transmission / reception switching signal, which is digital data, and phase data for beam scanning of the array antenna are used.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The first of the conventional power supply circuits
The problem with this is that it requires an unreliable high-output power amplifier, a high-power withstanding distributor / combiner, and a high-gain high-frequency amplifier. The reason is that, when a transmission signal is distributed to a large number of transmission / reception modules, the transmission line of the distributor / combiner becomes longer, and a high-frequency signal causes a large loss of energy during transmission. Similarly, when combining received signals from the transmission / reception module, a high gain amplifier is required due to large energy loss.

A second problem is that, in the case of a transmission / reception module having a plug-in structure, strict dimensional accuracy is required for a connector at an input / output end, and an expensive connector is required. The reason is that the interface of the transmission / reception module targets high-frequency signals.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a transmission / reception module for an active phased array antenna, in which a transmission / reception signal can be supplied using an intermediate frequency signal having a small energy loss at the time of transmission. It is an object of the present invention to provide an array antenna transmission / reception module that does not require an amplifier and a high withstand power distributor / combiner, and an array antenna device using the same.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a transmitting / receiving module of an array antenna which does not require an expensive connector with strict dimensional accuracy in an input / output connector of the transmitting / receiving module by using an intermediate frequency signal, and an array antenna apparatus using the same. Is to provide.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a transmitting / receiving module comprising: a memory for outputting digital data serving as a source signal (base data) of a local signal in synchronization with an external clock and a trigger; A data converter for offsetting by the phase data of the above, a D / A converter for converting digital data to an analog signal, a frequency converter for converting to a local signal in a required frequency band, a high frequency signal and an intermediate frequency signal by the local signal And a mixer for performing the conversion of

In the present invention, since the local signal is generated inside the transmitting / receiving module, it is not necessary to supply a high frequency signal for the local signal from the outside, and the high frequency signal as the transmitting / receiving signal is converted into an intermediate frequency signal by the mixer. And the intermediate frequency signal can be converted to a high frequency signal by the mixer. Therefore, there is an effect that the transmission and reception signals can be supplied to the transmission and reception module through the interface using the intermediate frequency signal.

[0012]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n include radiating elements 2a to 2n for transmitting and receiving radio waves, power amplifiers 4a to 4n for amplifying transmission signals, high frequency amplifiers 5a to 5n for amplifying reception signals, and transmission / reception switching. Switch 3a-
3n, 6a to 6n, generate a high-frequency signal as a transmission signal from an intermediate frequency signal (transmission intermediate frequency signal) and a local signal during transmission, and generate an intermediate frequency signal (reception intermediate frequency signal) from the received high-frequency signal and the local signal during reception Mixer 7 that produces
a to 7n, memories 8a to 8n each having a signal serving as an original signal of a local signal as digital data, data converters 9a to 9n for offsetting digital data, and D / A converters 10a to 10 for converting digital data into analog signals.
0n, frequency converters 11a to 11h for converting the signals into required local signals.
11n. A distributor / combiner 15 is used to supply transmission / reception signals to the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n. The signal transmitted to the distributor / combiner 15 during transmission is an intermediate frequency signal amplified by the power amplifier 17, and the signal transmitted from the distributor / combiner 15 during reception is a high-frequency amplifier as an intermediate frequency signal. Amplified at 18.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. At the time of transmission, the intermediate frequency signal amplified by the power amplifier 17 is transmitted to the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n via the transmission / reception switch 16 and the distributor / combiner 15. Transmission / reception module 1
In a to 1n, the transmitted intermediate frequency signal and local signal are converted into high frequency signals by mixers 7a to 7n, and are transmitted and received by switching transmission / reception switches 6a to 6n.
Amplified by power amplifiers 4a to 4n via 6n, and radiated from radiating elements 2a to 2n via transmission / reception switches 3a to 3n. The local signals are stored in memories 8a to 8n such as ROMs.
Digital data, which is a source signal of the local signal, is output as parallel data, and the digital data is offset by D / A converters 10a to 10n after being offset by digital converters 9a to 9n composed of shift registers and the like. It is generated by converting data into an analog signal and converting it into a required local signal frequency by frequency converters 11a to 11n composed of frequency multipliers and the like. The memories 8a to 8n, which are the original signals of the local signals of the respective transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n, synchronize the operating frequencies of the memories themselves with a clock, and synchronize the data output with a trigger, thereby obtaining the local signals of the respective local signals. The source is synchronized.

When scanning the beam of the array antenna,
In the data converters 9a to 9n, the memories 8a to 8n
By adding phase data to the digital data and offsetting it, the phase of the original signal is offset and the phase of the local signal is changed. In this manner, the mixers 7a to 7n change the phase of the high-frequency signal. The phase offset amount depends on the phase data sent to the transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n.

At the time of reception, the transmission / reception module 1a
The high-frequency signals received by the radiating elements 2a to 2n
The signals are amplified by the high frequency amplifiers 5a to 5n via the transmission / reception switches 3a to 3n, and are mixed via the transmission / reception switches 6a to 6n.
7n. The mixers 7a to 7n convert the high-frequency signal into an intermediate-frequency signal by a local signal. The intermediate frequency signals from the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n are distributed / combined by 1
5. The signal is amplified by the high frequency amplifier 18 via the transmission / reception switch 16. As in the case of transmission, when beam scanning of the array antenna is performed, the data converters 10a to 10n offset digital data in the memories 8a to 8n.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the embodiment.

In the figure, transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n
Are radiating elements 2a to 2n for transmitting and receiving radio waves, power amplifiers 4a to 4n for amplifying transmission signals, high-frequency amplifiers 5a to 5n for amplifying reception signals, transmission / reception switches 3a to 3n and 6a to 6n for switching transmission and reception, and transmission. Frequency converters 12a to 12n for converting an intermediate frequency signal to a high frequency signal at the time of reception, mixers 7a to 7n for generating an intermediate frequency signal from the received high frequency signal and the local signal at the time of reception, and a signal serving as a source signal of the local signal as digital data. Memories 8a to 8n, delay circuits 13a to 13n for offsetting the output timing of digital data, D / A converters 10a to 10n for converting digital data into analog signals, and frequency converters 11a to 11 for converting required digital signals into local signals. 11n. An intermediate frequency signal is used via the distributor / combiner 15 to supply the transmission / reception signals to the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. At the time of transmission, the intermediate frequency signal is transmitted to the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n via the distributor / combiner 15. In the transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n, the transmitted intermediate frequency signals are converted into required frequencies by frequency converters 12a to 12n including frequency multipliers via transmission / reception switches 6a to 6n, and the power amplifiers 4a to 4n. And emits radio waves from the radiating elements 2a to 2n via the transmission / reception switches 3a to 3n. At the time of reception, radiating elements 2a-2 of transmitting / receiving modules 1a-1n
n are transmitted to the transmission / reception switches 3a to 3n.
Are amplified by the high-frequency amplifiers 5a to 5n, and passed to the mixers 7a to 7n via the transmission / reception switches 6a to 6n. The mixers 7a to 7n convert the high-frequency signal into an intermediate frequency signal by the local signal, and transmit the intermediate frequency signal to the distributor / combiner 15. The local signal is obtained by converting digital data, which is a source signal of the local signal from the memories 8a to 8n, into D / A converters 10a to 10n.
Is converted from digital data into an analog signal, and is converted into a required local signal frequency by the frequency converters 11a to 11n to be generated.

The memories 8a to 8n, which are the original signals of the local signals of the respective transmission / reception modules 1a to 1n, synchronize the operating frequencies of the memories themselves with clocks, and
Digital data is output from the memory by a trigger whose timing has been adjusted by .about.13n. When performing beam scanning of the array antenna at the time of reception, the delay circuits 13a to 13n
By offsetting the output timing of the digital data from the memories 8a to 8n, the phase of the original signal is offset, and the phase of the local signal is changed to change the phase of the high-frequency signal by the mixers 7a to 7n. Do. The phase offset amount depends on the phase data sent to the transmitting / receiving modules 1a to 1n.

As described above, according to the present invention, the transmission / reception module is provided with the local signal generating means including the memory storing the data as the original data (base data), the frequency mixer, and the phase control means. Signals can be supplied by an interface using an intermediate frequency signal instead of a high frequency signal.

[0022]

A first effect of the present invention is that a high-reliability power amplifier with low reliability, a distributor / combiner with high withstand power, and a high-gain high-frequency amplifier are not required. The reason is,
When distributing transmission signals to many transceiver modules,
Also, when combining the reception signals from the transmission / reception module, the transmission path becomes long, but the energy loss during transmission is small due to the intermediate frequency signal.

A second effect is that an inexpensive and small connector can be used at the input / output end of the transmitting / receiving module. The reason is that since the interface of the transmitting and receiving module is for intermediate frequency signals, strict dimensional accuracy,
This is because the fitting accuracy becomes unnecessary.

A third effect is that an expensive high-frequency band phase shifter is not required for the phase shifter of the transmission / reception module. The reason is that the phase of the transmission / reception module is changed by offsetting digital data, which is the original signal of the local signal in the memory.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a feed circuit of a conventional array antenna.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a-1n Transmission / reception module 2a-2n Radiating element 3a-3n Transmission / reception switch 4a-4n Power amplifier 5a-5n High frequency amplifier 6a-6n Transmission / reception switch 7a-7n Mixer 8a-8n Memory 9a-9n Data converter 10a-10n D / A converters 11a to 11n, 12a to 12n Frequency converters 13a to 13n Delay circuits 14a to 14n Phase shifters 15 Distributors / combiners 16, 19 Transmission / reception switches 17, 20 Power amplifiers 18, 21 High frequency amplifiers 23, 23 Mixer 24 Frequency converter 25C Signal generator

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification symbol FI // G01S 7/02 G01S 7/02 F

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A memory for storing digital data serving as base data of a local signal, phase control means for controlling the phase of digital data read from the memory, and converting the digital data read from the memory into an analog signal A D / A converter, a frequency converter for receiving the output of the D / A converter and converting the output to a required local signal frequency, and a mixer for converting the high frequency signal and the intermediate frequency signal by the local signal. A transmitting / receiving module for an array antenna. 2. The transmitting / receiving module for an array antenna according to claim 1, wherein said phase control means generates digital data stored in a memory in synchronization with an external trigger. 3. The transmission / reception of an array antenna according to claim 1, wherein said phase control means changes the phase of the local signal by supplementing the phase data with digital data from a memory which is base data of the local signal. module. 4. A memory for storing base data of a local signal, phase control means for controlling the phase of the base data read from the memory, and a D / A converter for converting the base data read from the memory into an analog signal. Local signal generating means for receiving the output of the D / A converter and generating the local signal; mixing for mixing an intermediate frequency signal of the signal to be transmitted and the local signal to generate a transmission signal transmitted from the antenna Array antenna transmission / reception module including a device. 5. A transmission high-frequency signal is sent to an antenna element,
Alternatively, the first receiving a high-frequency signal from the antenna element
A transmission / reception switch, a transmission amplifier that amplifies a transmission high-frequency signal and sends it to the transmission / reception switch, a reception amplifier that amplifies a reception high-frequency signal from the transmission / reception switch, and sends a transmission high-frequency signal to the transmission amplifier, or And a second transmission / reception switch coupled to the second transmission / reception switch for generating the transmission high-frequency signal from a local signal and an external transmission intermediate frequency signal, or a local signal and a reception high-frequency signal. A mixer for generating a received intermediate frequency signal from the memory, a memory storing the base data of the local signal, a D / A converter for converting the base data read from the memory into an analog signal, and a D / A converter Transmitting / receiving module for an array antenna, comprising: phase control means for controlling the phase of the base data supplied to the base station; and a local signal generator for generating the local signal from the output of the D / A converter. . 6. A transmission intermediate frequency signal is distributed to a plurality of antenna elements, a transmission / reception module of a plurality of array antennas connected to these antenna elements, and a transmission / reception module of the plurality of array antennas. An array antenna device, comprising: a distributor / synthesizer for combining intermediate signals received from a transmitting / receiving module, wherein the transmitting / receiving module of the plurality of array antennas is the transmitting / receiving module of the array antenna according to claim 5. 7. The transmitting / receiving module for an array antenna according to claim 1, wherein the high frequency signal is a transmitting high frequency signal or a receiving high frequency signal, and the intermediate frequency signal is a transmitting intermediate frequency signal or a receiving intermediate frequency signal. .