Interpolation based wideband beamforming architecture

Abstract

A new wideband beam steering architecture for a receiver and transmitter is proposed. In this new interpolation based beam steering architecture (IBA), the number of true time delays can be dramatically reduced to 3 for a 2-dimensionaI array and 2 for a linear array independent of the number of array elements. While in conventional phased arrays, the number of phase shifters or time delays equals the number of antenna elements. This is achieved by representing individual antenna signals through a weighted sum of base vectors. In this paper, the system level implementation of the interpolation based beam steering architecture for the transmitter and receiver is presented. Also, trade-offs between number of time delays, array factor and the bandwidth of an N-element antenna array are discussed. The new architecture is expected to be relevant for the large beam steering arrays in 5G and beyond 5G wideband communication systems By using this method, the area, loss and complexity of a beam steering system can be reduced.