Beam steering unit real time angular monitor

摘要

Proper operation of a beam steering unit for a phase array antenna, is verified by simulating the pattern of wave energy which would be radiated to an observation point in space when the beam steering unit is connected to phase shifters associated with elements of the antenna. The simulated pattern thus obtained may be compared with a preset pattern for the observation point during a scanning operation of the beam steering unit, and an alarm or other indication is obtained when the difference between the simulated and the preset pattern exceeds a certain limit. The simulated pattern is obtained by storing phase angle data from the beam steering unit in a memory at areas corresponding to phase shifters associated with elements of the phased array antenna. Observation angle data corresponding to the angle of the point in space relative to the antenna array is generated, the observation angle data being a function of observation angle, antenna element spacing and radiation wavelength.