US 11,791,876 B2
Phased array system and method
Doron Rainish, Ramat Gan (IL)
Assigned to SATIXFY UK LIMITED, Farnborough (GB)
Appl. No. 17/624,405
Filed by SATIXFY UK LIMITED, Farnborough (GB)
PCT Filed Jun. 22, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IL2020/050693
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 3, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/261261, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 267705 (IL), filed on Jun. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0360303 A1, Nov. 10, 2022
Int. Cl. H04B 7/06 (2006.01); H01Q 3/38 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 7/0617 (2013.01) [H01Q 3/38 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A beamforming circuit, comprising:
an antenna input/output (I/O) module comprising a plurality of antenna ports for connecting directly or indirectly to a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna system;
a data bus connection for connecting to a data bus for communication of one or more beams' signals indicative of data streams of one or more beams to be produced by the beamforming circuit;
a beamforming module comprising a plurality of beamforming channels connectable in between said data bus connection and said plurality of antenna ports of said antenna I/O module and adapted to process signals communicated between the data bus and the plurality of antenna ports for introducing controllable shifts being at least one of time delay and phase shift to the processed signals so as to beamform said processed signals received or transmitted by respective antenna elements to form at least one beam;
wherein the beamforming circuit comprises a cascade input/output (I/O) module comprising a plurality of cascade ports connected to said plurality of antenna ports respectively via a plurality of corresponding bypass channels, such that each antenna port is connectable, in parallel, to at least one respective bypass channel and to one or more of said beamforming channels via a signal splitter/combiner configured and operable for at least one of:
combining signals of the respective bypass channel and the one or more beamforming channels associated with the respective antenna port to form a combined signal at said respective antenna port; and
splitting the signal of the respective antenna port to form duplicates thereof at said respective bypass channel and the one or more beamforming channels associated with the respective antenna port;
said cascade I/O module thereby enabling connection to said beamforming circuit, of one or more additional beamforming circuits, each one or more additional beamforming circuit comprising a beamforming module, which connection is in a “vertical” cascade, for forming, by one or more beamforming modules of said one or more additional beamforming circuits, one or more additional beams, in addition to said at least one beam.