Beamforming Research Articles

Innovations in Microwave Phased Array Antenna Beamforming for High Power Transmissions

Innovations in Microwave Phased Array Antenna Beamforming for High Power Transmissions

A projection‐based quaternion discretization of the geometrically exact beam model

AbstractIn the present work the geometrically exact beam model is formulated in terms of unit quaternions. A projection‐based discretization approach is proposed which is based on a normalization of the quaternion approximation. The discretization relies on NURBS shape functions and, alternatively, on Lagrangian interpolation. The redundancy of the quaternions is resolved by applying the method of Lagrange multipliers. In a second step the Lagrange multipliers are eliminated circumventing the need to solve saddle point systems. The resulting finite elements retain the objectivity of the underlying beam formulation. Optimal rates of convergence are observed in representative numerical examples.

Efficient equilibrium-based stress recovery for isogeometric laminated Euler–Bernoulli curved beams

Laminated curved composite parts, used, e.g., in the spar and ribs in aircraft and wind turbine blades, are typically subjected to high interlaminar stresses. This work focuses on a two-step procedure to study laminated Euler–Bernoulli curved beams discretized via Isogeometric Analysis (IGA). First, we solve a (planar) Euler–Bernoulli curved beam formulation in primal form to obtain the tangential and transverse displacements. This formulation features high-order PDEs, which we can straightforwardly approximate using either an IGA-Galerkin or an IGA-collocation approach. Starting from the obtained displacement solution, which accounts for bending-stretching coupling, we can directly compute the normal stress only, while we do not have information concerning the transverse shear stress state, typically responsible for delamination. However, by imposing equilibrium in strong form in a curvilinear framework which eases the post-processing, eliminating the need for coordinate changes, we can easily recover interlaminar transverse shear stresses at locations of interest. Such a posteriori step requires calculating the high-order displacement derivatives in the equilibrium equations and, therefore, demands once again higher-order regularity that can be easily fulfilled by exploiting the high-continuity properties of IGA. Extensive numerical tests prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which is also aided by the IGA’s superior geometric approximation.

Performance Analysis and Design Considerations of the Near-Field-Focused Rotman Lens Antennas

This study investigates the application of Rotman lens antennas in the near field. The design equations of these antennas have been derived in the near field and demonstrated to be highly effective. By considering specific examples, the shapes of the inner surfaces of these lens antennas have been analyzed and discussed, revealing how practically realizable lens surfaces can be designed. As these Rotman lenses are perfect at only three points in the near field, they exhibit phase errors at other points along a line connecting the three near-field focal points, resulting in deterioration of the near-field patterns. It has been shown that by selecting the lens parameters appropriately, these phase errors can be kept to a minimum, causing only minimal beam deterioration. Compared to far-field-focused Rotman lens antennas, near-field-focused Rotman lens antennas achieve significantly higher power levels, having 3.8 to 6.3 dB improvement for different beams of a 17-element array. The study has demonstrated the potential of Rotman lenses as multiple beamforming antennas for near-field applications.

EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF FLOOR PANELS DEFORMABILITY OF A LARGE-PANEL SYSTEM BUILDING AFTER RENOVATION

This paper deals with a field tests of prefabricated reinforced concrete floor panels of a multistory building by the method of hydrostatic loading. Object of study is presented by 3 damaged floor slabs of a 9-storey residential building which was hit during the russian invasion. After renovation of panels using the constructive solution which consists of a reinforced build-up layer in the compressed zone (upper part) and additional external reinforcement in the stretched zone (lower part) connected to each other with the help of anchor connections, a series of tests with water loading were set. For creation of loading an inventory pool was used, which was gradually filled with water at a step of 1kN/m2. Maximum created loading level was 5kN/m2 which corresponds to the operational load. After reaching the maximum load, the panels were left under load for 15 hours and then fully unloaded in steps of 1kN/m2. For each panel two type of tests were established: first when panel had both upper and lower part of reinforcement, and second – when lower reinforcement within steel beams was removed. The idea of dismantling of steel beams connected with previously performed numerical analysis which gave to little difference in deflections of panels for these two cases. Deflection measurements at critical locations along with thorough visual inspection were conducted during the loading and unloading cycles. No damage was observed during the in-situ loading and unloading cycles. Maximum vertical deflection for panel before dismantling of beams lies in the diapason of 1.95-2.1mm and 2.31-2.4mm after they were removed. These results meet the requirements of regulatory restrictions on the maximum deflection equal to 20 mm for this structure. Difference in deflection for two cases doesn’t exceed 20% which allows to abandon the use of lower reinforcement in the form of steel beams in the future. As the size of the pool doesn’t cover the whole panel area, the equivalent uniformly distributed load was also calculated using Lira software. Keywords. Large panel system house, reinforcement, floor panel, method of hydrostatic loading, deflection.

Improved Convolutional Neural Network for Wideband Space-Time Beamforming

Wideband beamforming technology is an effective solution in millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to compensate for severe path loss through beamforming gain. However, traditional adaptive wideband digital beamforming (AWDBF) algorithms suffer from serious performance degradation when there are insufficient signal snapshots, and the training process of the existing neural network-based wideband beamforming network is slow and unstable. To address the above issues, an AWDBF method based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) structure, the improved wideband beamforming prediction network (IWBPNet), is proposed. The proposed method increases the network’s feature extraction capability for array signals through deep convolutional layers, thus alleviating the problem of insufficient network feature extraction capabilities. In addition, the pooling layers are introduced into the IWBPNet to solve the problem that the fully connected layer of the existing neural network-based wideband beamforming algorithm is too large, resulting in slow network training, and the pooling operation increases the generalization ability of the network. Furthermore, the IWBPNet has good wideband beamforming performance with low signal snapshots, including beam pattern performance and output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) performance. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has superior performance compared with the traditional wideband beamformer with low signal snapshots. Compared with the wideband beamforming algorithm based on the neural network, the training time of IWBPNet is only 10.6% of the original neural network-based wideband beamformer, while the beamforming performance is slightly improved. Simulations and numerical analyses demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed wideband beamformer.

A Novel Multi-Beam SAR Two-Dimensional Ambiguity Suppression Method Based on Azimuth Phase Coding

In order to address the problems of range ambiguity and azimuth ambiguity in the wide-swath imaging of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), this paper proposes a multi-beam SAR two-dimensional ambiguity suppression method based on azimuth phase coding (APC). The scheme employs an elevation simultaneous multi-beam transmission system with azimuth under-sampling, transmitting different APC waveforms to various range-ambiguous sub-regions. After receiving the echoes, the azimuth digital beamforming (DBF) is used to separate the APC waveform echoes with multi-order Doppler ambiguity, achieving azimuth reconstruction and range ambiguity suppression simultaneously. Finally, the elevation nulling DBF is used to further suppress range ambiguity and obtain the SAR wide-swath image. The superiority of this scheme is reflected in the following aspects: the azimuth DBF simultaneously suppresses azimuth and range ambiguity, the influence of height fluctuations on the ability to suppress range ambiguity is weakened, the use of elevation nulling DBF further enhances the level of range ambiguity suppression, and different range sub-regions can adopt different range resolutions and working modes. The feasibility of this scheme is verified through theoretical analysis and simulation.

Exploring Gap Waveguide Solutions: A Review of Millimeter-Wave Beamforming Components and Antennas for Advanced Applications

This review delves into the crucial role of gap waveguide (GW) technology in advancing millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communication systems, specifically focusing on the exploration of beamforming components and antennas for advanced applications. With an emphasis on achieving high-data-rate and low-latency services, GW technology becomes instrumental in the development of cost-effective mm-wave solutions. The paper investigates practical applications, highlighting various components essential for beamforming antenna systems, including mm-wave antennas with diverse polarizations, power combining and dividing components like directional couplers, and beamforming feeding networks. These components collectively contribute to the comprehensive integration of a beamforming antenna system within the mm-wave frequency band. As the mobile communication landscape evolves, GW technology emerges as a key enabler for meeting the growing demands of consumers and technology in advanced applications, as detailed in this comprehensive review of GW solutions.

Feasible model-order reduction approach for analysis of composite rotor blades based on geometrically exact beam formulation

This paper presents a novel and practical reduced-order model (ROM) approach designed specifically for analyzing composite rotor blades, leveraging the geometrically exact beam formulation. The slender nature of rotor blades necessitates aero-structure coupled analysis to precisely predict their response, which involved numerous iterative computations. By capturing large displacements and rotations, this approach enhances the accuracy of blade behavior predictions under operational conditions. To address the computational demands of large-scale analyses, a ROM technique that effectively reduces system dimensionality while preserving critical structural features is introduced. The proposed method is then applied to the aero-structure interaction analysis of a hingeless hovering rotor trim, incorporating geometrical nonlinearity and centrifugal effects. The analysis results demonstrate that the ROM accurately captures the dynamics of these complex aeroelastic systems while significantly reducing computational costs. This approach exhibits significant potential for various aerospace applications, particularly in the design and analysis of structures undergoing geometrical nonlinear behavior and rotation-induced loads.

Deep Learning based Channel Estimation and Hybrid Beamforming for 5G Massive MIMO Wireless Communications

Hybrid beamforming (BF), which divides beamforming operation into radio frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) domains, will play a critical role in MIMO communication at millimeter-wave(mmWave) frequencies. This paper also introduce offline training and prediction schemes for channel estimation and hybrid beamforming. The aim of this paper is that to increase spectral efficiency over more data streams by leveraging the deep learning based LSTM network. The LSTM network is used to train the numeric values from sequence data and predict on new sequence data. The performance is evaluated under different parameters including number of data streams (1, 2, 3 and 4) with different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for different carrier frequencies (28GHz, 38GHz, 60GHz and 73GHz) through computer simulation using MATLAB. The simulation results verified that the proposed method can achieve higher spectral efficiency when the number of data streams increases and the value of SNR-Test increases too.

Characteristics of the Alfvénic activity during the current quench in ASDEX Upgrade

ASDEX Upgrade has developed multiple massive gas injection (MGI) scenarios to investigate runaway electron (RE) dynamics. During the current quench of the MGI induced disruptions, Alfvénic activity is observed in the 300–800 kHz range. With the help of a mode tracing algorithm based on Fourier spectrograms, mode behaviour was classified for 180 discharges. The modes have been identified as global Alfvén eigenmodes using linear gyrokinetic MHD simulations. Changes in the Alfvén continuum during the quench are proposed as explanation for the strong frequency sweep observed. A systematic statistical analysis shows no significant connection of the mode characteristics to the dynamics of the subsequent runaway electron beams. In our studies, the appearance and amplitude of the modes does not seem to affect the potential subsequent runaway beam. Beyond the scope of the 180 investigated dedicated RE experiments, the Alfvénic activity is also observed in natural disruptions with no RE beam forming.

The main directions of enhancement of digital antenna arrays

The development of modern radio electronic systems causes an increase in the requirements for the parameters of antenna devices (AU) and causes the transition from previously used mirror antennas and passive phased array antennas (FAA) to active FAA (AFAA), the considerable advantage of which is a significant reduction in energy losses of transmitted and received signals by reducing the distance of the low-noise amplifier input and output of power amplifier to the antenna element. Further development of the AU is the transition from AFAA with analog beamforming to digital antenna arrays (DAR) with digital beamforming, the advantages of which are due to the possibility of forming multibeam receiving and transmitting radiation patterns with independent control of the direction and shape of the beams, as well as the possibility of flexible change of operating modes. The use of a DAR with two-dimensional electronic scanning provides a significant increase in the efficiency of radio-electronic systems. Thus, their use in radar provides a gain in the efficiency of using the time, energy, frequency and spatial resources of radar with CAR up to 13 times compared with radar with passive FAA and AFAA with one-dimensional scanning. The disadvantages of the DAR are the high cost and increased energy consumption due to the installation of active elements in each transceiver channel, as well as the long time required to create new products, associated with a large amount of software and a complex structure for building a CAR. To overcome these disadvantages, manufacturers of antenna arrays and developers of the radio-electronic element base are creating new technical solutions. The main directions of development of technologies for the production of DAR functional devices that reduce the cost and reduce the time needed to create new products are shown: the development of common modules that allow you to create scalable DAR, increasing the integration of microwave monolithic integrated circuits with the placement of the maximum number of transceiver channels on one chip, increasing the integration of ASIC, including ADCs, DACs and digital signal processing devices, increasing the clock frequencies of digital functional nodes, as well as the development of circuit solutions for building nodes with low energy consumption.

Electromechanically Reconfigurable Terahertz Stereo Metasurfaces.

Dynamic terahertz devices are vital for the next generation of wireless communication, sensing, and non-destructive imaging technologies. Metasurfaces have emerged as a paradigm-shifting platform, offering varied functionalities, miniaturization, and simplified fabrication compared to their 3D counterparts. However, the presence of in-plane mirror symmetry and reduced degree of freedom impose fundamental limitations on achieving advanced chiral response, beamforming, and reconfiguration capabilities. In this work, a platform composed of electrically actuated resonators that can be colossally reconfigured between planar and 3D geometries is demonstrated. To illustrate the platform, metadevices with 3D Split Ring Resonators are fabricated, wherein two counteracting driving forces are combined: i) folding induced by stress mismatch, which enables non-volatile state design and ii) unfolding triggered by the strain associated with insulator-to-metal transition in VO2, which facilitates volatile structural reconfiguration. This large structural reconfiguration space allows for resonance mode switching, widely tunable magnetic and electric polarizabilities, and increased frequency agility. Moreover, the unique properties of VO2, such as the hysteretic nature of its phase transition is harnessed to demonstrate a multi-state memory. Therefore, these VO2 integrated metadevices are highly attractive for the realization of 6G communication devices such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, holographic beam formers, and spatial light modulators.

Method for measuring radiation patterns of digital antenna arrays

Formulation of the problem. The Digital Beamforming Antenna Arrays (DBAA) are widely used as the directional antennas in radio systems today. However, such arrays typically do not have a radiofrequency output. Consequently, the standard methods for measuring the Radiation Patterns (RP), based on the transmitting of a monochromatic probing signals, reception of the signals in the far field, as well as measuring the output power of the antenna array, cannot be used to measure the RP of the DBAA. The method considered in this work involves the transmitting a probing signal modulated by a pseudonoise sequence and processing the DBAA output signal at the zero intermediate frequency (base-band) using a matched filter or a correlator. Target. A method for measuring the radiation pattern of the DBAA is considered, based on the correlation processing of its output signal. Results. The paper presents a description of the setup for measuring the DBAA RP, as well as a mathematical explanation of the measurement procedure. It is shown that the accuracy of the RP measurement depends on the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) at the outputs of the receivers of the DBAA channels, and the number of array channels and the number of symbols of the pseudonoise sequence used for the modulation of the radiated signal. The error in the RP measurement decreases by 3 dB each time as the number of the DBAA channels or the number of symbols of the pseudonoise sequence used in the measurements is doubled. This result is confirmed by simulation the measurement of RP of the eight- and sixteen-channel linear DBAA using pseudo-noise sequences of maximum length (M-sequences) with a number of symbols equal to 1023 and 2047. Practical significance. The proposed method does not require the usage of the up-converter to convert the base-band DBAA output signal from the base-band to a carrier frequency, and it also does not require the usage of a power meter for measurement the analog signal at the output of this converter.

Shape-retaining beam-like morphing structures via localized snap through

In this study, we present a concept of morphing structure – featuring an arch mounted on a compliant base – that can be reconfigured via snap-through buckling and leverages bistability to retain its morphed shape. We show that one-dimensional arrays of such units yield beam-like structures that, upon localized snapping, can attain multiple, morphologically distinct stable shapes. Units are modeled using discrete elastic rods, a reduced-order formulation for beams and beam structures, and the results are validated via experiments. We leverage our model to understand the influence of the geometrical design parameters on the response and final shape of a unit. We then show that the morphed shapes of arrays of units can be predicted by concatenating results of simulations on single units, and leverage this idea to inverse-design structures that can be snapped into target stable shapes. Ultimately, our work suggests an up-scalable way to create shape-retaining morphing structures with target stable shapes.

A 3-D-printed wideband beamforming antenna with isoflux characteristics for Earth observation

This paper introduces a compact dielectrically loaded antenna with an isoflux beam. Fabricated from a lattice of alternating dielectric and air layers, this antenna is excited via a waveguide feed. By varying the thickness ratio of the dielectric layer to the overall unit cell, the effective permittivity of the antenna can be dynamically adjusted. Experimental results reveal that the antenna achieves an isoflux beam pattern in the E plane while projecting a pencil beam in the H plane. The maximum gain, about 12.2 dBi, manifests at a 30-degree offset from the boresight within the 22 GHz to 35 GHz frequency range. The height of the dielectric component measures roughly twice the wavelength at the central operational frequency. Design methodology has been validated through both fabrication and measurement, confirming performance of this proposed antenna, which boasts a simple structure and cost-effective production.

Static response of wind turbine blades: Comparison of low- and high-fidelity numerical models

As wind turbine blades become longer and more flexible, the structural models employed in current aeroelastic simulation tools, usually based on beam formulations, are challenged. Effects previously considered negligible in the response of these beam-like structures might now become significant to obtain accurate predictions of their behaviour. To assess this, a test matrix covering key geometric and material characteristics of wind turbine blades is defined and three test cases are analysed as an initial stage of this study. For each case, the static deflection of the beam model from the aeroelastic tool HAWC2 is compared against higher-fidelity shell/solid finite element models. Three structures are studied: an isotropic box beam, a composite box beam and a 12.6 m wind turbine blade from DTU. A good match is observed for the box beam test cases, which study the effects of out-of-plane and distortion warping and bend-twist coupling. Important aspects of high-fidelity models (such as end effects) are highlighted. The study of the DTU 12.6 m blade shows a significant difference (15%) in the torsion natural frequencies of the beam model, though a good agreement in twist angle under torsional loading. More pronounced differences in twist angle are observed when a load distribution based on the steady state response is applied, likely resulting from challenges in modelling complex structural features and three-dimensional effects.

Hybrid Beamforming for mm-Wave Massive MIMO Systems with Partially Connected RF Architecture

To satisfy the capacity requirements of future mobile systems, under-utilized millimeter wave frequencies can be efficiently exploited by employing massive multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) technology with highly directive beamforming. Hybrid analog-digital beamforming has been recognised as a promising approach for large-scale MIMO implementations with a reduced number of costly and power-hungry radio frequency (RF) chains. In comparison to fully connected architecture, hybrid beamforming (HBF) with partially connected RF architecture is particularly appealing for the practical implementation due to less complex RF power division and combining networks. In this paper, we first formulate single- and multi-user rate maximization problems as weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) and derive solutions for hybrid beamformers using alternating optimization. The algorithms are designed for the full-array- and sub-array-based processing strategies of partially connected HBF architecture. In addition, we propose lower complexity sub-array-based zero-forcing algorithms. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated in two different channel models, a simple geometric model and a realistic statistical model. The performance results of the WMMSE HBF algorithms are meant to reveal the potential of partially connected HBF and serve as upper bounds for lower complexity methods. Numerical results imply that properly designed partially connected HBF has the potential to provide an good compromise between hardware complexity and system performance in comparison to fully digital beamforming.

Sub-System Architecture for millimeter-wave massive MIMO systems

In this paper, we study the hybrid beamforming design for millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems. The designing of hybrid beamforming for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is tasking since its analog beamforming is shared among all subcarriers. We adopt a two-step technique for designing the analog and digital beamforming separately in order to maximize the average achievable energy and spectral efficiency of frequency-selective mmWave mMIMO-OFDM systems. Firstly, the analog beamforming design is based on the viewpoint of sub-systems (SS) and the goal is to optimize the array gain and radio frequency chains. Secondly, the digital beamforming design is carried out by using the regularized channel diagonalization (RCD) and block diagonalization (BD) solutions. On the other hand, the BD solution is modified for single-user. Thus, we propose the use of SS-RCD for multi-user and SS-BD for single-user hybrid beamforming designs. The solutions provide interference suppression but differ in low-SNR performance when communicating to many mobile users via data streams. Simulation results present that our hybrid beamforming design outperforms several other designs.

High‐resolution 3D imaging by microwave photonic time division multiplexing‐multiple‐input‐multiple‐output radar with broadband digital beamforming

AbstractA broadband microwave photonic time division multiplexing (TDM) multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) radar is proposed in which photonic frequency quadrupling is adopted to generate broadband radar signals and photonic frequency mixing is implemented for de‐chirping processing of radar echoes. By utilising two radio frequency switches to control the signal transmission and reception, TDM‐MIMO mechanism is formed using a single microwave photonic radar transceiver. This microwave photonic TDM‐MIMO radar not only achieves high range resolution using broadband processing but also enables high angular resolution and forward‐looking imaging capability with low system complexity. Besides, a broadband digital beamforming (DBF) method is introduced to solve the broadband beam squint and broadening problems and implement near‐field correction. In the experiment, a microwave photonic TDM‐MIMO radar with an 8×8 T‐shape antenna array is established with a bandwidth of 8 GHz (18–26 GHz) in each channel. The range and angular resolutions are estimated to be ∼2 cm and ∼2°, respectively. Applying the broadband DBF method, high‐resolution 3D imaging of small targets is achieved with good focusing of targets and deep suppression of grating lobes and side lobes. Hence, the proposed microwave photonic TDM‐MIMO radar with broadband DBF provides a promising solution for high‐resolution 3D imaging.