Patent ID: 9509385
Filing Date: 2016-11-29
CPC Classification: H03F,H03M,H04B,H04W,Y02D

Claim Text:
1. A power efficient first antenna arrangement configured for digital beam-forming of a transmit signal, the first antenna arrangement comprising; a number N>1 of digital to analog converters (DACs) including a first DAC and a second DAC, each of the N DACs being arranged to receive one respective digital transmit signal component, and to convert and output an analog transmit signal component; and N antenna elements, each of the N antenna elements being coupled to just one of the N DACs such that each of the N antenna elements is configured to receive the analog transmit signal component outputted by the DAC to which the antenna element is coupled, wherein the N antenna elements are further configured to generate a digitally beam-formed transmit signal by having each of the N antenna elements transmit the received analog transmit signal component as part of the digitally beam-formed transmit signal, wherein the first DAC is configured to have a first low resolution such that if the first DAC were used in a second antenna arrangement that utilized only one antenna element to transmit a first analog signal produced by the first DAC, then the first analog signal transmitted by the second antenna arrangement would not fulfill a regulatory radio requirement, the second DAC is configured to have a second low resolution such that if the second DAC were used in a third antenna arrangement that utilized only one antenna element to transmit a second analog signal produced by the second DAC, then the second analog signal transmitted by the third antenna arrangement would not fulfill said regulatory radio requirement, and said digitally beam-formed transmit signal fulfills said regulatory radio requirement.