Beam-forming network for an array antenna and array antenna comprising the same

摘要

A beam-forming network for an emitting array antenna having at least NB input ports connected to respective beam ports of the beam-forming network and at least NOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports; a set of at least NOSA lossless single-mode networks, each having an input port connected to a respective output port of multi-beam network and at least NNOSAOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each output port a signal obtained by weighting an input signal from the input port; and a set of at least NNOSA≧NNOSAOSA lossless multi-mode networks, each having at least NNOSAOSA NOSANOSA input ports, each one connected to an output port of a respective single-mode network, and at least NENOSA>1 output ports connected to respective antenna ports of the beam-forming network, for associating to each output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports.

主权项

1. A beam-forming network (BFN) for an emitting array antenna, having NB≧1 beam ports (BP), each corresponding to an antenna beam, and NE>1 antenna ports (AP), each corresponding to an antenna element, the network comprising:
a multi-beam network (MBN) having at least NB input ports connected to respective beam ports of the beam-forming network and at least NOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each said output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports; a set of at least NOSA lossless single-mode networks (SMN), each single-mode network having an input port (OSA-IP) connected to a respective output port of said multi-beam network and at least NNOSAOSA>1 output ports, for associating to each said output port a signal obtained by weighting an input signal from said input port; and a set of at least NNOSA≧NNOSAOSA lossless multi-mode networks (MMN), each lossless multi-mode network having at least NNOSAOSA input ports (NOSA-IP), each one connected to an output port of a respective single-mode network, and at least NENOSA>1 output ports connected to respective antenna ports of the beam-forming network, for associating to each said output port a linear combination of input signals from respective input ports.