TW202044788A - Beamforming device, calibration method and calibration system for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A beamforming device, a calibration method and a calibration system for the same are provided. The beamforming device includes a processor, a memory unit, a base band circuit, and a plurality of antenna modules. Each of the plurality of antenna modules includes a plurality of antenna units, and a plurality of phase shifters and a plurality of amplifiers respectively corresponding to the plurality of antenna units. The memory unit stores a reference codebook, a plurality of calibration codebooks, and instruction data. Each of the plurality of calibration codebooks includes a plurality of calibration control data divided by a plurality of target patterns, and the plurality of calibration codebooks differ from the reference codebook with a plurality of predetermined phase differences different from each other. The instruction data is used to instruct the baseband circuit to use one codebook of the reference codebook and the plurality of calibration codebooks when transmitting and receiving signals in a plurality of predetermined target fields.

Description

Beamforming device, correction method and correction system used therefor

Related applications

The present invention is to claim the priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/851,111 (filing date: May 22, 2019), the complete content of which is incorporated into this invention patent specification for reference.

The present invention relates to a beamforming device, a correction method and a correction system used for the same, and more particularly to a beamforming device capable of correcting the phase difference between antenna modules, a correction method and a correction system used for the beamforming device.

In the field of millimeter wave communications, the path loss associated with the antenna module of the beamforming device is far greater than similar devices with lower operating frequencies. Beamforming technology is usually used to increase the communication range. The most common architecture is that one baseband module controls multiple antenna modules. In high-frequency applications, due to the small wavelength, it is difficult to meet device requirements during manufacturing. For example, at an operating frequency of 60 GHz, its wavelength is only about 5 mm. This means that whenever a path change of 0.1mm occurs, a phase difference of 36 degrees will be caused between the antenna modules.

When there is a phase difference between the antenna modules, the phase difference will result in a lower equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) during beamforming, and even lead to a bad side lobe level (Side- lobe Level, SLL), which in turn causes a deviation between the actual beamforming field pattern and the ideal beamforming field pattern.

Therefore, correcting the phase difference between the antenna modules of the beamforming device by means of correction to overcome the above-mentioned defects has become one of the important issues to be solved by this business.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a beamforming device capable of correcting the phase difference between antenna modules, a correction method and a correction system for the beamforming device, which can correct the phase difference between the antenna modules, in view of the disadvantages of the prior art.

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, one of the technical solutions adopted by the present invention is to provide a calibration method for a beamforming device, which is used for a device including a processor, a memory unit, a baseband circuit and multiple antenna modules. A beamforming device, the correction method includes: storing a reference codebook (codebook) in the memory unit, wherein the reference codebook includes multiple reference control data, divided by multiple target field types, and multiple records The reference control data is used to set multiple antenna units of each antenna module and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units; according to the reference codebook and multiple predetermined phases The difference generates a plurality of correction codebooks and is stored in the memory unit, wherein the plurality of predetermined phase differences are different from each other, and each of the plurality of correction codebooks includes a plurality of pens divided by a plurality of the target field types Correction control data; select a predetermined target field type, and configure the baseband circuit according to the predetermined target field type to use a plurality of the correction control codes corresponding to the predetermined target field type in the correction codebook The data respectively control a plurality of the antenna modules to generate a plurality of test signals; configure a receiver to receive a plurality of the test signals; configure the computing device to process a plurality of the test signals to calculate a plurality of the test signals respectively Test the equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the test signal in the predetermined target area, and generate multiple test results; and configure the computing device to have the largest equivalent based on the multiple test results The corrected codebook of omnidirectional radiation power is set as a predetermined codebook used by the beamforming device when transmitting and receiving signals in the predetermined target field pattern.

In order to solve the above technical problems, another technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide a correction system for a beamforming device, which includes a computing device, a beamforming device and a receiver. The beamforming device is connected to the computing device. The beamforming device includes a processor, a memory unit, a baseband circuit, and multiple antenna modules. Each of the multiple antenna modules includes multiple antenna units and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units. Wherein, the computing device is configured to store a reference codebook (codebook) in the memory unit, the reference codebook includes a plurality of reference control data, divided by a plurality of target field types, and a plurality of the reference control The data is used to set multiple antenna units of each antenna module and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units. Wherein, the computing device generates a plurality of correction codebooks according to the reference codebook and a plurality of predetermined phase differences, and stores them in the memory unit, wherein the plurality of predetermined phase differences are different from each other, and a plurality of the correction codebooks Each includes a plurality of correction control data divided by a plurality of the target field types. Wherein, the baseband circuit is configured to control a plurality of the antenna modules with a plurality of the correction control data corresponding to the predetermined target area in a plurality of the correction codebooks according to the selected predetermined target area, To generate multiple test signals. Wherein, the receiver is configured to receive a plurality of the test signals. Wherein, the computing device is configured to process a plurality of the test signals to respectively calculate the Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the plurality of test signals in the predetermined target area, and generate a plurality of Test Results. Wherein, the computing device is configured to set the corrected codebook having the maximum equivalent isotropic radiation power as the beamforming device used when the predetermined target field pattern is used for transmitting and receiving signals according to a plurality of the test results The predetermined codebook.

In order to solve the above technical problems, another technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide a beamforming device, which includes a processor, a memory unit, a baseband circuit, and a plurality of antenna modules. Each of the multiple antenna modules includes multiple antenna units, and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units. The memory unit stores a reference codebook, multiple correction codebooks, and instruction data, each of the multiple correction codebooks includes multiple correction control data divided by multiple target field types, and multiple correction codebooks and reference codes The phases are different from each other by a plurality of predetermined phase differences. The instruction data is used for instructing a plurality of predetermined codebooks of a plurality of correction codebooks respectively used by the baseband circuit when transmitting and receiving signals in a plurality of predetermined target field types.

One of the beneficial effects of the present invention is that the beamforming device, the correction method and the correction system used in the present invention can generate multiple antenna modules corresponding to multiple antenna modules based on multiple predetermined phase differences and reference codebooks. A codebook is corrected, and the predetermined codebook used by the beamforming device for signal transmission and reception is set through the test results. When the actual beamforming field pattern generated by the operation and the ideal beamforming field pattern are due to the difference between the antenna module When the deviation is caused by the error between the two, the radiation field can be re-oriented to the required direction through correction, so that the overall performance matches the original design specifications.

In order to further understand the features and technical content of the present invention, please refer to the following detailed description and drawings about the present invention. However, the provided drawings are only for reference and description, and are not used to limit the present invention.

The following is a specific embodiment to illustrate the implementation of the "beamforming device, correction method and correction system" disclosed in the present invention. Those skilled in the art can understand the advantages of the present invention from the content disclosed in this specification. And effect. The present invention can be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and various details in this specification can also be based on different viewpoints and applications, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention. In addition, the drawings of the present invention are merely schematic illustrations, and are not drawn according to actual dimensions, and are stated in advance. The following embodiments will further describe the related technical content of the present invention in detail, but the disclosed content is not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention. In addition, the term "or" used in this document may include any one or a combination of more of the associated listed items depending on the actual situation.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a correction system for a beamforming device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the first embodiment of the present invention provides a correction system 1 for a beamforming device, which includes a beamforming device 10, a computing device 12 and a receiver 14.

The beamforming device 10 may include a processor 100, a memory unit 102, a baseband circuit 104, and a plurality of antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M. Further reference may be made to FIG. 2, which is a schematic structural diagram of a beamforming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M each include a plurality of antenna units and a plurality of phase shifters and a plurality of amplifiers respectively corresponding to the plurality of antenna units. For example, the antenna module 106-1 may include antenna units AT11, AT12...AT1N, and phase shifters PS11, PS12...PS1N and amplifier circuits AP11, AP12...AP1N respectively corresponding to the antenna units AT11, AT12...AT1N. The phase shifters PS11, PS12...PS1N can set different mobile phases for individual antenna units AT11, AT12...AT1N, and the amplifier circuits AP11, AP12...AP1N can each include multiple amplifiers to amplify the phase shifters PS11, PS12...PS1N The phase-shifted signal is not limited to the number shown in Figure 2 to achieve the desired beamforming.

In addition, the processor 100 may be, for example, a microcontroller (microcontroller), a microprocessor (microprocessor), a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), which is used to obtain a codebook (codebook) from the memory unit 102. ) To assign the corresponding phase and amplifier parameters to the antenna units AT11, AT12...AT1N, and the baseband circuit 104 may be, for example, a baseband processor, which controls the antenna module 106 based on the above assigned phase and amplifier parameters -1, 106-2...106-M.

The antenna module 106-1 may also include a radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit includes a digital to analog converter (DAC) to convert the base frequency digital signal from the base frequency circuit 104 into an analog radio frequency signal. Similarly, the antenna module 106-2 may include antenna units AT21, AT22...AT2N, and phase shifters PS21, PS22...PS2N and amplifier circuits AP21, AP22...AP2N corresponding to the antenna units AT21, AT22...AT2N, respectively.

The beamforming device 10 shown in FIG. 2 includes multiple antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M, and the antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M may There are many errors. When the beamforming device 10 has these hardware errors, it is possible that the main transmission direction of the composite beam may be shifted, transmitted in the wrong direction, or the beam energy may be attenuated due to the gain and phase errors of the hardware, which will be difficult to achieve. Correct beamforming. For example, when designing the codebook for the antenna module 106-1, the phase difference θ1 of the baseband circuit 104 plus the antenna module 106-1 itself is preset to be a fixed value, and the structure of the antenna module 106-2 is The antenna module 106-1 is the same. Theoretically, the phase difference θ2 of the baseband circuit 104 plus the antenna module 106-2 itself should be the same as the phase difference θ1. However, in fact, different radio frequency circuits will cause unpredictable The phase deviation, if the same codebook is used for control, may directly affect the angle and SLL of the maximum EIRP of beamforming. Considering the influence caused by hardware errors, it is necessary to adopt the correction system and correction method for the beamforming device of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the computing device 12 may be a microcontroller (microcontroller), a microprocessor (microprocessor), a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). , Digital logic circuits, mobile computing devices, computers and other electronic devices that can provide computing capabilities. In one embodiment, the computing device 12 may be a computer, which is configured to be electrically connected to the receiver 14 to obtain required information from the receiver 14.

The receiver 14 is, for example, a horn antenna, a wireless base station, or a mobile device. The beamforming device 10 and the receiver 14 can communicate through wireless signal transmission. The receiver 14 may include, for example, a power sensor for detecting the strength of the wireless signal from the beamforming device 10. The receiver 20 can measure the signal strength of the beamforming device 10 at different angles.

Please refer to FIG. 3 below, which is a flowchart of a calibration method for a beamforming device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, an embodiment of the present invention provides a calibration method for a beamforming device, which is applicable to the calibration system 1 of the foregoing embodiment, and includes at least the following steps:

Step S100: Configure the computing device to store a reference codebook (codebook) REF in the memory unit. Among them, the reference codebook REF includes multiple reference control data, divided by multiple target field types, and multiple reference control data are used to set multiple antenna elements of each antenna module and multiple antenna elements corresponding to the multiple antenna elements. A phase shifter and multiple amplifiers.

Taking two antenna modules as an example, the reference codebook REF can be as shown in Table 1:

Table 1 Reference codebook Antenna unit 1 Antenna unit 2 ... Antenna unit 2N Field Type 1 Phase 0 degree 90 degrees 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off Field Type 2 Phase 0 degree 90 degrees 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off ... Field Type L Phase 0 degree 90 degrees ... 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off

In the reference codebook REF, each of the multiple reference control data includes multiple phase shifter reference parameters and multiple amplifier reference parameters for setting each antenna module, and multiple phase shifter reference parameters correspond to multiple reference phases. And the multiple amplifier reference parameters correspond to multiple switch state codes used to indicate the switch states of the multiple amplifiers (for example, turn on is represented by 1 and turn off is represented by 0). As shown in Table 1, the reference codebook REF can include multiple reference control data for field type 1 to field type L, and field type 1 to field type L are radiation field types pointing at different angles. For example, take two antenna modules 106-1 and 106-2 as an example, including antenna unit AT11, antenna unit AT12 to antenna unit AT2N (as shown in Figure 2), and each control data includes corresponding antenna unit AT11, The phase of the phase shifter from the antenna unit AT12 to the antenna unit AT2N and the parameters for turning on or off the amplifier. Wherein, the phase shifter may be, for example, a 2-bit phase shifter, and the switchable phases are 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees respectively, which can be used as the above-mentioned reference phases, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Among them, two antenna modules 106-1 and 106-2 are taken as an example, and each antenna module has four antenna elements. For example, the antenna module 106-1 includes antenna elements AT11, AT12, AT13, and AT14, and the antenna Module 106-2 includes AT21, AT22, AT23 and AT24. The manner of generating the reference codebook REF can refer to FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C. FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic diagrams of multiple phases used to generate the reference codebook according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, for example, by setting the field type 1, such as the electric field information measured at an angle of 0 degrees, the antenna unit AT11 of the antenna module 106-1 shown in FIG. 4A can be measured. The initial phases of, AT12, AT13, and AT14 are 90, 95, -180, and 30 degrees respectively. Among them, the signal gain generated by the antenna unit AT14 is the strongest. Therefore, the antenna unit AT14 is used as the reference, and the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13 and The initial phases of 90, 95, -180, and 30 degrees of AT14 are respectively shifted by -30 degrees, so that the phases of antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13 and AT14 become 60, 65, -210, and 0 degrees, as shown in FIG. 4B. In the reference codebook REF, the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24 follow the shifted phases, which are 60, 65, -210, and 0 degrees, respectively.

Next, by adjusting the phase shifters corresponding to the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13, and AT14, the phases of the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13, and AT14 are minimized based on a phase reference value, such as 0 degrees. It should be noted that because the RF circuit of the antenna module has a built-in phase shifter PS11~PS2N with a precision of 2 bits, it can perform 360/2 ² degrees (ie 90 degrees) minimized phase matching, that is, Adjust the phases of the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13, and AT14 with the phase shifter parameters of 270 degrees, 270 degrees, 180 degrees, and 0 degrees to obtain -30 degrees, -25 degrees, -30 degrees, and 0 degrees. At this time, the reference codebook REF is obtained in field type 1, which is a field type of 0 degrees, and the phase shifter parameters used to control the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13 and AT14 of the antenna module 106-1 are 270 degrees respectively , 270 degrees, 180 degrees and 0 degrees. In addition, after the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24 are shifted by -30 degrees in the same way and 0 degrees are minimized, the phases of -30 degrees, -25 degrees, -30 degrees and 0 degrees are also obtained, and corresponding The phase shifter parameters are also 270 degrees, 270 degrees, 180 degrees and 0 degrees.

Then, for other angles, that is, field type 2 to field type L, the rotating beamforming device 10 or the receiver 14 can be used to generate the phase shifter parameters in other field types in the same manner, thereby obtaining the reference codebook REF.

Returning to the calibration method of the present invention, proceed to step S101: the configuration computing device generates a plurality of calibration codebooks CAL according to the reference codebook REF and a plurality of predetermined phase differences, and stores them in the memory unit. Wherein, the plurality of predetermined phase differences are different from each other, and each of the plurality of correction codebooks CAL includes a plurality of correction control data divided by a plurality of the target field types.

Taking two antenna modules as an example, the calibration codebook CAL can be shown in Table 2 below, including multiple calibration control data. Each of the calibration control data includes a plurality of phase shifter calibration parameters and a plurality of amplifier calibration parameters for setting each antenna module.

Table 2: Correction codebook 1 Antenna unit 1 Antenna unit 2 ... Antenna unit 2N Field Type 1 Phase 0 degree 90 degrees 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off Field Type 2 Phase 0 degree 90 degrees 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off ... Field Type L Phase 0 degree 90 degrees ... 180 degree Amplifier open open turn off

For example, for the antenna modules 106-1 and 106-2, multiple calibration codebooks CAL are used to eliminate the phase error between the antenna modules 106-1 and 106-2. Further reference may be made to FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C. FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are schematic diagrams of multiple phases used to generate one of the correction codebooks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, two antenna modules 106-1 and 106-2 are also taken as an example for description, and each antenna module still has four antenna elements. In the process of generating the reference codebook REF, the initial phase differences of the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13 and AT14 have been shifted by 90, 95, -180, and 30 degrees respectively by -30 degrees, so that the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13 and The phase of AT14 becomes 60, 65, -210, 0 degrees. When generating the correction codebook CAL for the antenna module 106-2, as shown in Figure 5A, the antenna units AT11, AT12, AT13, and AT14 can directly use the result of minimizing 0 degrees in Figure 4C, namely -30 degree, -25 degree, -30 degree and 0 degree phase.

In this step, it has been described that the correction codebook CAL is generated based on the predetermined phase difference. In detail, the range of multiple predetermined phase differences can be between 0 degrees and 360 degrees, and the multiple predetermined phase differences are determined by dividing 360 degrees by a test quantity, and the number of correction codebooks CAL corresponds to the test quantity . For example, you can divide 360 degrees by the number of tests with 36 degrees, from 0 degrees to 360 degrees, every 10 degrees is an interval, to obtain multiple predetermined phase differences of 0, 10,..., 350 degrees, respectively. The number of tests depends on the acceptable test time, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Then, a plurality of phase shifter correction parameters can be generated based on a predetermined phase difference, such as 90 degrees, and a reference phase. Taking Figure 5B as an example, when the predetermined phase difference is 90 degrees, the phases 60, 65, -210, and 0 degrees of the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24 are respectively added to the predetermined phase difference of 90 degrees, and the antenna units AT11, The phase difference of AT12, AT13 and AT14 remains unchanged, and the phases of 150, 155, -120, and 90 degrees as shown in FIG. 5B are obtained.

Next, by adjusting the phase shifters corresponding to the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24, the phase difference of the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24 is relative to 0 degrees, and the phase matching is performed to minimize the predetermined phase difference of 90 degrees. . Different from the reference codebook REF, the phase shifter parameters of 180 degrees, 180 degrees, 90 degrees, and 270 degrees need to be used to adjust the phase differences of the antenna units AT21, AT22, AT23, and AT24 to obtain 330 degrees, 335 degrees, -30 degrees and 360 degrees. Among them, since the phase is 360 degrees as a cycle, the phase difference of 330 degrees is -30 degrees, the phase difference of 335 degrees is -25 degrees, and the phase difference of 360 degrees is 0 degrees, which are all minimized results relative to 0 degrees. . At this time, the corrected codebook CAL is obtained in field type 1, that is, the phase shifter parameters of the 0 degree angle are 180 degrees, 180 degrees, 90 degrees and 270 degrees, respectively. Then, for other angles, the rotating beamforming device 10 or the receiver 14 can be used to generate the phase shifter parameters in other field types in the same manner, thereby obtaining one of the correction codebooks CAL.

By analogy, based on multiple predetermined phase differences of 10,..., 350 degrees, 36 correction codebooks CAL corresponding to the predetermined phase differences of 10,..., 350 degrees can be generated, and can be used for all The antenna modules 106-2 to 106-M execute the above process to generate a plurality of calibration codebooks CAL corresponding to the antenna modules 106-2 to 106-M, respectively. Among them, for the predetermined phase difference of 0 degrees, the reference codebook REF can be directly used.

Step S102: Select a predetermined target field type, for example: 0 degree angle, and configure the baseband circuit according to the predetermined target field type to refer to the codebook REF or the multiple correction control corresponding to the predetermined target field type in the multiple correction codebooks CAL The data respectively control multiple antenna modules to generate multiple test signals.

Step S103: Configure the receiver 14 to receive multiple test signals.

Step S104: Configure the computing device 12 to process a plurality of test signals to respectively calculate Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the plurality of test signals in a predetermined target area, and generate a plurality of test results. Among them, refer to FIG. 6, which is a plot of EIRP against multiple predetermined phase differences in the test result of the embodiment of the present invention.

Step S105: The configuration computing device 12 sets the reference codebook REF or the correction codebook CAL with the maximum equivalent isotropic radiation power as the preset used by the beamforming device when transmitting and receiving signals in a predetermined target field based on the multiple test results Codebook. For example, as shown in Figure 6, when the predetermined phase difference is 240 degrees, the adopted correction codebook CAL can obtain the maximum equivalent isotropic radiation power. Therefore, the corrected codebook after the predetermined phase difference 240 degrees can be adjusted CAL is set as the predetermined codebook used by the beamforming device to transmit and receive signals in a predetermined target field; here, it can be illustrated with Figure 2 that the antenna module 106-1 and the antenna module 106-2 may be connected The phase difference is about 240 degrees, that is, the phase difference between θ1 and θ2. Through the correction method of the present invention, a correction codebook CAL can be found to compensate for the 240 degree phase difference. In particular, if the number of correction codebooks CAL is greater, that is, the number of predetermined phase differences is greater, the accuracy of the correction will be higher.

Preferably, the configurable computing device 12 generates the instruction data INS based on the above steps and stores it in the memory unit 102. When the beamforming device 10 transmits and receives signals in a plurality of predetermined target field patterns, a plurality of correction codes are used according to the instruction data INS. In this CAL, the correction codebook CAL that can obtain the maximum equivalent isotropic radiated power is used to send and receive signals.

Please further refer to Figures 7A and 7B, which are respectively the performance measurement diagrams before and after the application of the correction method for the beamforming device of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the original design specification is for the predetermined field pattern to have the maximum EIRP at 0 degrees The field type. However, before applying the correction method for a beamforming device of the present invention, the main lobe of the radiation field pattern of the beamforming device deviates from the predetermined field pattern, and does not have the maximum EIRP at 0 degrees. After applying the correction method for the beamforming device of the present invention, it can be redirected to the required direction, so that the overall performance matches the original design specifications.

In other words, after applying the calibration method for a beamforming device of the present invention, a beamforming device 10 as shown in FIG. 1 can be further provided, which includes a processor 100, a memory unit 102, a baseband circuit 104, and multiple antennas. Module 106-1~106-M. The memory unit 102 stores a reference codebook REF, a plurality of correction codebooks CAL, and instruction data INS. The multiple correction codebooks CAL each include multiple correction control data divided by multiple target field types, and multiple correction codebooks The CAL and the reference codebook REF are different from each other by a plurality of predetermined phase differences, respectively. The instruction data INS is used to instruct the baseband circuit to use one of the multiple correction codebooks CAL when transmitting and receiving signals in multiple predetermined target fields.

In alternative embodiments, refer to Figures 8A, 8B and 8C. Figure 8A is a schematic diagram of the hardware architecture of the baseband circuit, adjustable phase shifter and antenna module according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figures 8B and 8C are implementations of the present invention. Schematic diagram of an example of an adjustable phase shifter. As shown in FIG. 8A, the adjustable phase shifters 108-1, 108-2...108-M can be further arranged between the antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M and the baseband circuit 104, respectively. The phase shifters 108-1, 108-2...108-M can be digital phase shifters or mechanical phase shifters, respectively, and will be added to the design for phase adjustment. It should be noted that the resolution of the adjustable phase shifters 108-1, 108-2...108-M depends on the specifications of the adjustable phase shifters.

The adjustable phase shifters 108-1, 108-2...108-M are shown in Figure 8B, and multiple single-port double-cut switches SPDT can be set on multiple phase delay lines (for example, 0, 30, 60, 120 degrees) , Between the input terminal In and the output terminal Out, or as shown in Figure 8C, set up multiple single-port four-way switches SP4T in multiple phase delay lines (for example, 0, 30, 60, 120 degrees), the input terminal In and the output terminal Out Between, and the single-port dual-switch SPDT and the single-port four-switch SP4T can be controlled by the baseband circuit 104. The control principle is similar to the previous embodiment, and the single-port dual-switch SPDT and the single These single-port four-cut switches SP4T are designed to generate multiple predetermined phase differences under multiple predetermined field patterns for the antenna modules 106-1, 106-2...106-M, which are detected by the calculation unit 12 and the receiver 14. In order to find the predetermined phase difference with the largest EIRP, and set this phase difference as the configuration used when the beamforming device 10 performs signal transmission and reception, thereby reducing the phase difference between different antenna modules due to the manufacturing process. In some embodiments, the adjustable resolution will be 360 degrees/n, where n is a positive integer corresponding to the aforementioned number of tests, and the larger the n, the higher the resolution.

Therefore, in addition to using software to implement the beamforming device, the calibration method and the calibration system provided by the present invention, it can also be implemented in hardware, and the present invention is not limited to this.

[Beneficial effects of the embodiment]

One of the beneficial effects of the present invention is that the beamforming device, the correction method and the correction system used in the present invention can generate multiple antenna modules corresponding to multiple antenna modules based on multiple predetermined phase differences and reference codebooks. A codebook is corrected, and the predetermined codebook used by the beamforming device for signal transmission and reception is set through the test results. When the actual beamforming field pattern generated by the operation and the ideal beamforming field pattern are due to the difference between the antenna module When the deviation is caused by the error between the two, the radiation field can be re-oriented to the required direction through correction, so that the overall performance matches the original design specifications.

The content disclosed above is only a preferred and feasible embodiment of the present invention, and does not limit the scope of the patent application of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent technical changes made using the description and schematic content of the present invention are included in the application of the present invention. Within the scope of the patent.

1: Correction system of beamforming device 10: Beamforming device 12: Computing device 14: receiver 100: processor 102: memory unit 104: baseband circuit 106-1, 106-2...106-M: Antenna Module AT11, AT12, AT13, AT14...AT1N, AT21, AT22, AT23, AT24...AT2N: antenna unit PS11, PS12...PS1N, PS21, PS22...PS2N: Phase shifter AP11, AP12...AP1N, AP21, AP22...AP2N: amplifier circuit θ2: Phase difference θ1: Phase difference REF: reference codebook CAL: Calibration codebook 108-1, 108-2...108-M: Adjustable phase shifter SPDT: Single port double switch SP4T: Four-way switch In: input INS: Instructions Out: output

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a correction system for a beamforming device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a beamforming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a correction method for a beamforming device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A to 4C are schematic diagrams of multiple phases used to generate a reference codebook according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A to 5C are schematic diagrams of multiple phases used to generate one of the correction codebooks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a plot of EIRP against multiple predetermined phase differences in the test result of the embodiment of the present invention.

7A and 7B are respectively performance measurement diagrams before and after applying the calibration method for beamforming device of the present invention.

8A is a schematic diagram of the hardware architecture of the baseband circuit, the adjustable phase shifter, and the antenna module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8B and 8C are schematic diagrams of an adjustable phase shifter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1: Correction system of beamforming device

10: Beamforming device

12: Computing device

14: receiver

100: processor

102: memory unit

104: baseband circuit

106-1, 106-2...106-M: Antenna Module

REF: reference codebook

CAL: Calibration codebook

INS: Instructions

Claims (11)

A correction method for a beamforming device, used for a beamforming device including a processor, a memory unit, a baseband circuit, and multiple antenna modules, the correction method includes: A reference codebook (codebook) is stored in the memory unit, wherein the reference codebook includes multiple reference control data, divided by multiple target field types, and multiple reference control data are used to set each antenna Multiple antenna units of the module and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units; A plurality of correction codebooks are generated according to the reference codebook and a plurality of predetermined phase differences, and stored in the memory unit, wherein the plurality of predetermined phase differences are different from each other, and each of the plurality of correction codebooks includes Multiple pieces of correction control data divided into the target field type; A predetermined target field type is selected, and the baseband circuit is configured to use the reference codebook and the plurality of correction codebooks corresponding to the predetermined target field type according to the predetermined target field type. The calibration control data respectively controls a plurality of the antenna modules to generate a plurality of test signals; Configuring a receiver to receive a plurality of said test signals; The calculation device is configured to process a plurality of the test signals to respectively calculate the Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the plurality of test signals in the predetermined target area, and generate a plurality of test results ;as well as The calculation device is configured to set the reference codebook or the corrected codebook with the maximum equivalent isotropic radiation power according to the multiple test results as the beamforming device for transmitting and receiving in the predetermined target field pattern A predetermined codebook used for the signal. The calibration method for a beamforming device according to claim 1, wherein each of the multiple pieces of reference control data includes multiple phase shifter reference parameters and multiple amplifier reference parameters for setting each of the antenna modules, And a plurality of the phase shifter reference parameters correspond to a plurality of reference phases, and a plurality of the amplifier reference parameters correspond to a plurality of switch state codes used to indicate the switch states of a plurality of the amplifiers; Wherein each of the plurality of calibration control data includes a plurality of phase shifter calibration parameters and a plurality of amplifier calibration parameters for setting each of the antenna modules; The step of generating multiple corrected codebooks based on the reference codebook and multiple predetermined phase differences further includes generating multiple correction parameters of the phase shifter based on multiple predetermined phase differences and multiple reference phases. The correction method for a beamforming device according to claim 2, wherein the range of the plurality of predetermined phase differences is between 0 degrees and 360 degrees, and the plurality of predetermined phase differences are divided by 360 degrees A test quantity is determined, and the quantity of the correction codebook corresponds to the test quantity. The correction method for a beamforming device as described in claim 2, further including: After adding the predetermined phase difference to a plurality of the reference phases respectively, minimization is performed based on a phase reference value to generate a plurality of phase shifter correction parameters. The correction method for a beamforming device according to claim 1, wherein the number of the multiple reference control data corresponds to the total number of the multiple antenna units of the multiple antenna modules. A correction system for a beamforming device, which includes: A computing device; A beamforming device connected to the computing device, the beamforming device comprising: A processor A memory unit; A baseband circuit; and A plurality of antenna modules, each including a plurality of antenna units and a plurality of phase shifters and a plurality of amplifiers corresponding to the plurality of antenna units; and A receiver Wherein the computing device is configured to store a reference codebook (codebook) in the memory unit, wherein the reference codebook includes a plurality of reference control data, divided by a plurality of target field types, and a plurality of the The reference control data is used to set multiple antenna units of each antenna module and multiple phase shifters and multiple amplifiers respectively corresponding to the multiple antenna units; The calculation device generates a plurality of correction codebooks according to the reference codebook and a plurality of predetermined phase differences, and stores them in the memory unit, wherein the plurality of predetermined phase differences are different from each other, and a plurality of the correction codes Each book includes multiple correction control data divided by multiple target field types; Wherein the baseband circuit is configured to control a plurality of correction control data corresponding to the predetermined target area in the reference codebook and the plurality of correction codebooks according to a predetermined target area selected A plurality of said antenna modules to generate a plurality of test signals; Wherein the receiver is configured to receive a plurality of the test signals; The computing device is configured to process a plurality of the test signals to respectively calculate Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the plurality of test signals in the predetermined target area, and generate a plurality of Test results; The calculation device is configured to set the reference codebook or the corrected codebook with the largest equivalent isotropic radiation power as the beamforming device in the predetermined target field according to a plurality of the test results A predetermined codebook used when sending and receiving signals. The calibration system for a beamforming device according to claim 6, wherein the multiple pieces of reference control data each include multiple phase shifter reference parameters and multiple amplifier reference parameters for setting each of the antenna modules, And a plurality of the phase shifter reference parameters correspond to a plurality of reference phases, and a plurality of the amplifier reference parameters correspond to a plurality of switch state codes used to indicate the switch states of a plurality of the amplifiers; Wherein each of the plurality of calibration control data includes a plurality of phase shifter calibration parameters and a plurality of amplifier calibration parameters for setting each of the antenna modules; Wherein the computing device is configured to generate a plurality of the phase shifter correction parameters based on a plurality of the predetermined phase differences and a plurality of the reference phases. The correction system for a beamforming device according to claim 7, wherein the range of the plurality of predetermined phase differences is between 0 degrees and 360 degrees, and the plurality of predetermined phase differences are divided by 360 degrees A test quantity is determined, and the quantity of the correction codebook corresponds to the test quantity. The correction system for a beamforming device according to claim 7, wherein the calculation device is configured to add a plurality of the reference phases to the predetermined phase difference, and then to minimize it based on a phase reference value. A plurality of correction parameters of the phase shifter are generated. The correction system for a beamforming device according to claim 6, wherein the number of the multiple reference control data corresponds to the total number of the multiple antenna units of the multiple antenna modules. A beamforming device includes: A processor A memory unit; A baseband circuit; and A plurality of antenna modules, each including a plurality of antenna units and a plurality of phase shifters and a plurality of amplifiers respectively corresponding to the plurality of antenna units; The memory unit stores: A reference codebook and multiple corrected codebooks, each of the multiple corrected codebooks includes multiple pieces of correction control data divided by multiple target field types, and the multiple corrected codebooks and the reference codebooks are respectively A plurality of predetermined phase differences that are different from each other; An instruction data for instructing the beamforming device to use one of the reference codebook and the correction codebook when transmitting and receiving signals in a plurality of predetermined target fields.

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