Patent ID: 11894615
Assignee: SATIXFY UK LIMITED
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 16:
17. A method for controlling operation of a phased-array antenna including an array of N antenna elements comprising H and V polarization terminals, the method comprising:
for each antenna element, applying analogue signal processing for carrying out the following: in the antenna element operation in a receiving configuration, processing H and V polarization components of an operational signal being received by the respective antenna element as an analog circular polarization signal component being either left or right circular polarization signal, and in the antenna element operation in a transmission configuration processing an analog circular polarization signal component of an operation signal of the respective antenna element as the H and V linear polarization components being transmitted, said analogue signal processing thereby operating with N analog circular polarization signal components each being either left or right circular polarization signal;
applying digital signal processing comprising:
converting between the N analog circular polarization signals and N respective digital circular polarization signals, such that the N antenna elements are associated with N respective convertors;
applying polarization controlled beamforming to each of the digital circular polarization signals by at least two beam forming channels corresponding to at least two, first and second, respective beams of different beam directions and/or different polarizations being received by the antenna element, each of said at least two beam forming channels being configured and operable to apply phase shifting to the respective digital circular polarization signal based on data indicative of a beaming direction (α) of a respective beam to be received thereby and the left or right polarization of circular polarization signal, and a relative phase (ϕ) associated with the beaming direction and a location of the respective antenna element in the array, to thereby form at least two phase shifted signals corresponding to said at least two, first and second, respective beams; and
providing connection of at least two convertors of said N convertors to a respective one of a plurality of signal splitters and/or combiners for separately combining the phase shifted signals corresponding to respectively the at least first and second beams, wherein each of said digital splitters and/or combiners operates for converting between the digital circular polarization signals of opposite left and right circular polarizations of the at least two convertors and V and H linear polarization components and splitting and/or combining the opposite left and right circular polarization signals of the at least two convertors.