Design & prototype development of a smart beamforming antenna

智能天线是采用数字控制器实现测向和波束形成两个主要功能的辐射天线单元阵列。智能天线可以增加射频系统的容量，并通过引导多波束跟踪移动站来扩大其网络覆盖范围，同时补偿孔径失真或减少多径衰落和同信道干扰。智能天线系统的应用需要精确控制每个辐射元件的相位和幅度，以便准确地将天线波束引导到预定的角度/方向。不幸的是，Sinclair Technologies既没有技术专长，也没有资源来执行天线阵列中用于定向信号传输或接收（波束成形）的所有必要的信号处理技术。因此，迫切需要馈电网络设计（即功率放大器，移相器），微控制器/现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）和固件来精确控制每个辐射元件的相位和幅度，以便准确地将天线波束引导到预定的角度/方向。

A smart antenna is an array of radiating antenna elements employing a digital controller to achieve two main functions - direction finding and beamforming. Smart antennas can increase the capacity of a RF system and broaden its network coverage by steering multiple beams to track mobile stations, while compensating aperture distortion or reducing multipath fading and co-channel interference. The application of smart antenna systems requires accurately controlling the phase and amplitude of each radiator element in order to accurately steer the antenna beam to predefined angles/directions. Unfortunately, Sinclair Technologies had neither the technical expertise nor the resources to perform all of the required signal processing technique used in antenna arrays for directional signal transmission or reception (beamforming). Consequently, there is an urgent need on the feeding network design (i.e. power amps, phase shifters), microcontroller/ field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and firmware required to accurately control the phase and amplitude of each radiator element in order to accurately steer the antenna beam to predefined angles/directions.