Patent Publication Number: US-2023133302-A1

Title: Beam steering and direction finding for a differentially segmented aperture antenna

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/273,344, filed Oct. 29, 2021, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/273,352, filed Oct. 29, 2021, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/273,434, filed Oct. 29, 2021, the entire teachings of which applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to beam steering and direction finding for a differential segmented array (DSA) antenna. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Beamforming is the application of multiple radiating elements transmitting the same signal at the same wavelength and phase, which effectively creates a single antenna with a longer, more targeted stream. Beam steering takes the concept of beam forming a stage further, by changing the phase of the input signal on all radiating elements. This allows the signal to be targeted at a specific receiver. An antenna can employ radiating elements with a common frequency to steer a single beam in a specific direction, or different frequency beams can be steered in different directions to serve different users. Beam steering is playing significant role in 5G communication because of range limitations combined with high usage of the 5G network. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Reference should be made to the following detailed description which should be read in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like numerals represent like parts. 
         FIGS.  1 A,  1 B, and  1 C  illustrate various views of a differential segmented array (DSA) antenna according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    illustrates beam steering circuitry according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIGS.  3 A,  3 B, and  3 C  illustrate beam patterns for the DSA antenna of  FIGS.  1 A,  1 B , and  1 C according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    illustrates beam steering circuitry according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5    illustrates phase shift and time delay determination circuitry according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  6    illustrates time delay circuitry according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  7    illustrates a signal chain example according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  8    illustrates beam steering circuitry according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  9    illustrates a beam steering demonstration system for a DSA antenna according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The examples described herein may be capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Also, it may be appreciated that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting as such may be understood by one of skill in the art. Throughout the present description, like reference characters may indicate like structure throughout the several views, and such structure need not be separately discussed. Furthermore, any particular feature(s) of a particular exemplary embodiment may be equally applied to any other exemplary embodiment(s) of this specification as suitable. In other words, features between the various exemplary embodiments described herein are interchangeable, and not exclusive. 
     Disclosed herein are a beam steering system and a demonstration beam steering system based on a DSA. 
       FIGS.  1 A,  1 B and  1 C  illustrate various views of a DSA antenna  100  according to several embodiments of the present disclosure.  FIG.  1 A  illustrates a top-down view of an example DSA antenna  100 . The antenna  100  includes a plurality of protrusions, which in the examples herein are generally pyramid structures, arranged in an array, and one exemplary pyramid structure is labeled  102 . In the example of  FIG.  1 A , the antenna  100  has 5 rows and 5 columns (5×5) of pyramid structures. At least one face of each pyramid structure faces an adjacent pyramid structure, as illustrated. Opposing faces of two adjacent pyramid structures form an antenna element  104 ,  106 . Element  104  is designated as a horizontal element, and element  106  is designated as a vertical element. Given that there are 5 rows and 5 columns (5×5) of pyramid structures in this example, there are 5 rows of horizontal elements  104 , and each row includes 4 columns of horizontal elements  104 . Thus, the horizontal elements  104  form a (5×4) array, totaling 20 horizontal elements. Also given that there are 5 rows and 5 columns (5×5) of pyramid structures in this example, there are 5 columns of vertical elements  106 , and each column includes 4 rows of vertical elements  106 . Thus, the vertical elements  106  form a (4×5) array, totaling 20 vertical elements. Thus, vertical and horizontal elements  104 ,  106  are arranged in an (m×n) array, having m number of rows and n number of columns of elements. In the example of  FIG.  1 A , the vertical elements  106  are formed in columns along the X-axis, and the horizontal elements  104  are formed in rows along the Y-axis. In some embodiments, the pyramid structures are generally identical to one another, and are also generally equidistant from each other, for example, each element is 1″ apart from the adjacent element. The electromagnetic position of an element  104 ,  106  is the phase center for that element. Each phase center represents a transmission (Tx) and reception (Rx) point for signals transmitted by, or received by, an element. 
       FIG.  1 B  illustrates a cross-sectional view of the array  100 , illustrating the pyramid-shaped structures  102  formed on a base dielectric layer  108 .  FIG.  1 B  also illustrates the DSA antenna array  100  in a position for communication (RX and/or TX) with a target  110 . The target  100  is positioned at an angle of elevation (“El.Ang.”) and an angle of azimuth (“Az.Ang.”) with respect to the X-Y plane of the array  100 . In this example, the Az.Ang. is the angle of the target  110  with respect to an axis  112  normal to the front face of the array in the X direction.  FIG.  1 C  also illustrates a cross-sectional view of the array  100  in a position for communication (RX and/or TX) with the target  110 . In this example, the El.Ang. is the angle of the target  110  with respect to an axis  114  normal to the front face of the array in the Y direction. As will be described in greater detail below, the elements  104 ,  106  of the array  100  may be controlled to impart a phase shift for Rx and/or Tx communication with the target  110  to optimize signal gain between the array  100  and the target  110 . 
       FIG.  2    illustrates beam steering circuitry  200  according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. As a general matter, and with continued reference to  FIGS.  1 A,  1 B and  1 C , the azimuth and/or elevation angle of the target  110  relative to the orientation of the array  100  generally operates to affect the gain of the signal in both Rx and Tx operations in the direction of the target  110 . For example, the peak gain of the array generally exists where the beam pattern of the array  100 , specifically a main lobe of the beam pattern, is pointed at the target  110 . Accordingly, the beam steering circuitry  200  is generally configured to impart a phase angle on each of the elements ( 104 ,  106 ) so that, in effect, the array is pointing directly at the target  110  (and without physical movement of the array  110 ) to maximize communication gain between the array  100  and target  110 . 
     The beam steering circuitry  200  includes phase gradient determination circuitry  202  generally configured to determine a phase gradient across the array (in both X and Y dimensions) to maximize signal strength between the array and the target. The phase gradient is based on the azimuth and elevation angle of the target with respect to the array, a frequency of operation (f) and the orientation of the DSA array with respect to the target. The phase gradient in the X direction across the array (PGx) may be determined using Formula (1). 
         PGx =cos(Az.Ang.)*−cos(El.Ang.)*(360/(wavelength ( f )))  (1)
 
     In Formula (1), wavelength(f) may be determined as c/f, expressed in distance units (e.g., inch, mm, etc.), and c is the speed of light, as may be modified by a given medium. Thus, the units of PGx are expressed as (degrees/distance). PGx is applied to each row of horizontal elements illustrated in  FIG.  1 A , as described below. 
     Similarly, the phase gradient in the Y direction across the array (PGy) may be determined using Formula (2). 
         PGy =sin(Az.Ang.)*−cos(El.Ang.)*(360/(wavelength ( f )))  (2)
 
     In Formula (2), wavelength(f) may be determined as c/f, expressed in distance units (e.g., inch, mm, etc.), and c is the speed of light, as may be modified by a given medium. Thus, the units of PGy are expressed as (degrees/distance). PGy is applied to each column of vertical elements illustrated in  FIG.  1 A , as described below. 
     Phase shift determination circuitry  204  is configured to determine a phase shift to apply to each respective element  104 ,  106  in the array  100 , based on the phase gradients PGx and PGy, and also based on a position of the element relative to a common origin of the elements of the array. The common origin may be any position with respect to the array  100  that is common to all of the elements, i.e., each element (m, n) has a defined distance from the common origin. For example, the common origin may be selected as the center of the array  100 , the lower left corner of the array  100 , etc. For each horizontal element, the phase shift determination circuitry  204  is configured to determine a phase shift for a given phase center by multiplying the PGx phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, thus resulting in a value θ(m, n)x expressed in terms of degrees. Similarly, for each vertical element, the phase shift determination circuitry  204  is configured to determine a phase shift for a given element by multiplying the PGy phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, thus resulting in a value θ(m, n)y expressed in terms of degrees. The phase shift determination circuitry  204  is also configured to, for each element, combine (sum) the corresponding x and y phase shift values (θ(m, n)x+θ(m, n)y), thus forming a matrix of resultant phase shift values for each element, i.e., θ(m, n). 
     The phase shift values θ(m, n) may be applied to each corresponding element during Tx and/or Rx operations, which may impart a phase shift/time delay for each phase center of each element. Although not shown in the drawings, it is understood that each element is associated with corresponding Tx and Rx circuitry to enable communication between the array  100  and the target  110 . For transmit operations, the beam steering circuitry  200  may also include phase shift application circuitry  206 , associated with each element, generally configured to apply a determined phase shift value to the transmit signal operating at frequency (f). The phase shifted signal, for each element, may be expressed as: ((real, imaginary) e −jθ(m, n) ). It should be noted that, although each element may be transmitting a signal with a phase shift, all of the transmitted signals will combine in far-field free space. For receive operations, the Rx circuitry of each element may apply a corresponding phase shift value. As the phase shifted signals are received from each antenna element, the beam steering circuitry may also include phase alignment circuitry  208  generally configured to remove any phase shift imparted on the Rx circuitry of each element, i.e., so that each signal received at each element is placed in phase with each other. The beam steering circuitry  200  may also include signal combining circuitry  210  generally configured to combine (sum) the collection of in-phase signals from each element, thus forming a resultant signal having a gain increase based on the number of summed in-phase signals. 
     The DSA array  100  illustrated in  FIGS.  1 A,  1 B and  1 C  is generally a two-dimensional array. In other embodiments, the DSA array may be implemented as a 3-dimensional array, for example, by arranging the pyramid structures  102  on the surface of 3-dimensional shape (e.g., sphere, cone, cube, etc.). In such embodiments, the teachings of the present disclosure for determining phase gradients and phase shifts may be extended into the  3 rd dimension (z-dimension). Thus, for example, the phase gradient determination circuitry  202  may also be configured to determine a z-direction phase gradient as a function of a z-direction offset angle and may be expressed as PGz=−sin(Zangle)X(360/(wavelength (f))). In addition, the resultant phase shift values may be expressed as θ(m, n, z); where z represent the number of z-direction elements. 
     The DSA array  100  may be used for terrestrial applications such as mounting of the DSA array  100  on a truck, fixed structure, etc. The DSA array  100  may also be used for satellite-to-ground communications in which the array  100  may be generally pointed upward, and/or satellite-to-satellite communications, etc. In some applications, the DSA antenna  100  and/or the target  110  may be moving such that the elevation angle and/or azimuth angle change over time. Accordingly, in some embodiments the phase gradient determination circuitry  202  and/or phase shift determination circuitry  204  are configured to determine the phase gradients and/or phase shifts based on a change in angle of the DSA array  100  relative to the target  110 . 
     The beam steering circuitry  200 , described above, may also be used for direction finding to “steer” the array to determine an elevation angle and/or azimuth angle of a known signal of interest. Accordingly, the phase gradient determination circuitry  202  may also be configured to increment/decrement a frequency over a selected frequency band, and also increment/decrement the phase gradients (and thus increment/decrement the phase shift of each element) to “scan” for a selected signal of interest and determine the phase shifts that generate the largest gain for the selected frequency. Since the phase gradients are defined in terms of an angle with respect to the array, a location in space of the target may thus be obtained. 
     As described above, the beam steering circuitry  200  enables increased gain in signal communications between the array and the target. In some embodiments, there may be a far-field target that is interfering with communications, such as a radio jammer, etc. Accordingly, the beam steering circuitry  200  may also be used to steer an unwanted target into a null position of the antenna array, thus decreasing the gain of the source signal.  FIGS.  3 A,  3 B, and  3 C  illustrate beam patters for the DSA antenna of  FIGS.  1 A,  1 B, and  1 C  according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.  FIG.  3 A  illustrates a 3-dimensional graph of a beam pattern of the DSA antenna for a given frequency. As illustrated, the beam pattern includes a main lobe  302 , which is directly in front of the DSA antenna, and several side lobes, one of which is labeled  304 . The gain characteristics are maximized for Tx and Rx occurring within the main lobe  302  (e.g., when the DSA antenna is steered (described above) so that the main lobe  302  faces the target), and reduced gain when Tx and Rx occur within a side lobe  304 . Between the main lobe  302  and side lobes  304  is a null position  306 . The null position  306  corresponds to an azimuth angle and an elevation angle (referred to herein as “Null-Az.Ang” and “Null-El.Ang). The gain characteristics are minimized for Tx and Rx occurring within the main lobe (e.g., when the DSA antenna is steered (described above) so that null position  306  faces the target). The power scale  308  illustrates the color-coded relative gain characteristics of the main lobe  302 , side lobes  304 , and null positions  306 , where light denotes increased gain characteristics (power gain in dB) and dark denotes null gain characteristics (e.g., gain reduced by greater than −30 dB). As illustrated, there are typically a plurality of side lobes  304  and a plurality of null positions  306 . As stated, the beam pattern is generally based on a design of the DSA antenna (e.g., the number of elements (m×n)) and the operating frequency. The beam pattern illustrated in  FIG.  3 A  assumes a beam pattern for a DSA antenna with 4×4 elements and operating at 8.000 GHz.  FIG.  3 B  illustrates an azimuthal beam pattern  310 , and shows the azimuth angles at which a null location can occur, for example, between 60 and 90 degrees.  FIG.  3 C  illustrates an elevational beam pattern  312  and shows the elevation angles at which a null can occur, for example, a null  306  occurs at approximately 45 degrees, between the main lobe  302  and a side lobe  304 . 
     Referring again to  FIG.  2   , with continued reference to  FIGS.  1 A,  1 B, and  1 C , in addition to  FIGS.  3 A,  3 B,  3 C , and assuming that the target  110  is identified as a source of a jamming signal, the beam steering circuitry  200  is configured to steer the beam pattern  300  so that a null position  306  is directed toward the target, thus enabling attenuation (nulling) of the jamming signal. Accordingly, the phase shift determination circuitry  204  may also be configured to determine a first null phase shift, for each of the elements, based on the horizontal phase gradient, the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, and an azimuthal null angle (Null-Az.Ang.). In particular, the first null phase shift may be determined by multiplying the first phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array and subtracting or adding the first null angle. Subtracting or adding the first null angle may be based on, for example, the position of the first null angle relative to the main lobe of the beam pattern. The phase shift determination circuitry  204  may also be configured to determine a second null phase shift, for each of the phase centers, based on the second phase gradient, the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, and an elevational null angle (Null-ELAng.). In particular, the second null phase shift may be determined by multiplying the second phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array and subtracting or adding the first null angle. Subtracting or adding the second null angle may be based on, for example, the position of the second null angle relative to the main lobe of the beam pattern. 
     The phase shift determination circuitry  204  may also be configured to determine a resultant null phase shift, for each element, by summing the respective first and second null phase shifts. The resultant null phase shifts cause the DSA antenna to orient the null position toward the target, thus decreasing a signal strength of a signal received from the target. The null angles for a given operating frequency are illustrated in  FIGS.  3 A,  3 B and  3 C . 
       FIG.  4    illustrates beam steering circuitry  400  according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The beam steering circuitry  400  of this embodiment includes phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402  generally configured to determine phase shift values θ(m, n) for each respective element of the array, as described above with reference to  FIG.  2   . The phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402  is also configured to generate a time delay value, td(m, n), for each respective phase shift values θ(m, n). The phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402  is also configured to modulate each respective time delay value using a fixed modulation signal, for example, a 1 MHz modulation signal (referred to herein as a “fixed frequency phase shifted signal”). 
     The beam steering circuitry  400  of this embodiment also include phase lock loop (PLL) circuitry  404  generally configured to boost (increase) the frequency of the fixed frequency phase shifted signal to generate a boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal. The PLL circuitry  404  includes frequency synthesizer circuitry  406  to generate an intermediary boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal, bandwidth filter circuitry  408  to provide filtering of the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal (e.g., notch filtering, low pass filtering, etc.), and voltage controlled oscillator circuitry  410  to generate a target boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal as an output from the PLL circuitry  404  and as a reference boosted fixed frequency signal. The reference boosted fixed frequency signal is used as feedback for the frequency synthesizer circuitry  406  to compare to the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal to ensure that the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal remains at a target boosted frequency. 
     The beam steering circuitry  400  also includes software-defined radio (SDR) circuitry  412  generally configured to generate a radio signal that includes data. As a general matter, the operating frequency of the SDR circuitry may be in the range of 900 MHz-3.0 GHz. The beam steering circuitry  400  also includes mixer circuitry  414  generally configured to combine the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal (generated by PLL circuitry) with the radio signal (generated by the SDR circuitry  412 ) to generate a resultant time delayed signal  416 . The resultant time delayed signal  416  may be applied to a phase center to enable beam steering. The resultant time delayed signal  416  has a frequency value equal to the frequency of the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal plus the frequency of the radio signal and includes the data and phase information. For example, assume that the target operating frequency of the DSA antenna is 2.4 GHz. To achieve that value, the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal may have a frequency of 1500 MHz and the radio signal may have a frequency of 900 MHz. As illustrated, the PLL circuitry  404  and mixer circuitry  414  may be repeated for each phase/time delay value to independently drive each respective element (pixel) of the antenna array. 
       FIG.  5    illustrates phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402 ′ according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402 ′ of this embodiment includes processor circuitry  502  (e.g., digital signal processor circuitry, microprocessor circuitry, etc.) to determine phase shift values θ(m, n) for each respective element of the array, as described above with reference to  FIG.  2   . The phase shift and time delay determination circuitry  402 ′ also includes phase control circuitry  504  generally configured to determine a time delay value, td(m, n), for each respective phase shift value θ(m, n). The phase control circuitry  504  includes phase shift sequencer circuitry  506  configured to sequence the phase shift value θ(m, n) based on a clock value. Since a phase value in the frequency domain corresponds to a time delay value in the time domain, the phase control circuitry  504  also includes time delay circuitry  508  that generates a time delay value based on the phase shift value. The time delay value is an input to the PLL circuitry  404 ′ (described above) to control a corresponding element and apply a time delay. As illustrated, the phase control circuitry  504  may be repeated for each phase/time delay value to independently control each respective element of the antenna array. 
       FIG.  6    illustrates time delay circuitry  508 ′ according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The time delay circuitry  508 ′ of this embodiment includes a plurality of cascaded flip flop circuits  602 . The example illustrated in  FIG.  6    depicts a 3-bit resolution time delay that includes a single flip-flop circuit, two flip-flop circuits, and four flip flop circuits which may be combined (turned ON) to generate a selected delay time, the selected delay time corresponds to the phase delay value. Of course, the time delay circuitry  508 ′ of  FIG.  6    may be extended to provide greater resolution of time delay values. 
       FIG.  7    illustrates a signal chain example according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the transmit portion  702  is comprised of analog components, thus eliminating digital-to-analog circuitry on the transmit side. Providing an analog solution on the transmit signal chain, as described herein, may enable frequency-independent operations, and may also increase the bandwidth performance of the DSA antenna. 
       FIG.  8    illustrates beam steering circuitry  800  according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The beam steering circuitry  800  of  FIG.  8    illustrates an extension of the concepts described above with reference to  FIGS.  4 - 7   , in which multiple instances of the beam steering circuitry  400  may be utilized to enable simultaneous beam steering using unique operating frequencies. 
       FIG.  9    illustrate a beam steering demonstration system  900  for a DSA antenna according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. The beam steering demonstration system  900  includes a DSA antenna array  902  (illustrated in cross section). The array  902  generally includes a plurality of pyramid structures arranged in an array. At least one face of each pyramid structure faces an adjacent pyramid structure, as illustrated. Opposing faces of two adjacent pyramid structures forms an antenna element. In some embodiments, the pyramid structures are generally identical to one another, and are also generally equidistant from each other, for example, each element is 1″ apart from the nearest element. The electromagnetic position of an element is the phase center for that element. Each phase center represents a transmission (Tx) and reception (Rx) point for signals transmitted by, or received by, an element. 
     The system  900  also includes phase shifting circuitry  904  to control a phase of one or more elements of the array  902 , to perform beam steering operations in at least one direction. In one embodiment, the array  902  may be mounted to enable physical movement in an elevation direction, and the phase shifting circuitry  904  may control a phase shift in the azimuth direction. A plurality of phase shifting circuits may be used, for example, to control each element and/or a grouping of elements. The system  900  may also include combiner circuitry  906  to receive phase and data information at a selected operating frequency (from a programmable source like a computer system, etc.) and control each phase shifting circuitry  904  with the same phase and data information at a selected operating frequency. 
     The system  900  may also include spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  to receive the phase and data information at a selected operating frequency and generate spectrum and/or audio data. The spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may include a USB-based spectrum analyzer which displays the spectral content of the received signal. For example, in receive (Rx) mode, the spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may provide a user with visual amplitude and frequency content of the target signal. When the array  902  is beam steered via the phase shifting circuitry  904 , the spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may provide a user with visual change in the direction-dependent amplitude of the target signal, thus providing a visual way of demonstrating the beam steering ability of the DSA array  902 . The spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may also enable demodulation of radio signals so that, for example audio content may be demodulated out of the radio wave and the audio played just like a standard radio. Thus, the spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may provide a user an audible information of demonstrating beam steering in the receive mode. For example, the spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  may enable increasing and decreasing audible information as the beam is steered to and away from the target. 
     The system  900  may also include a programmable source  910  (e.g., laptop computer) to generate the phase and data information to be used for beam steering operations of the array  902 . In some embodiments, bus interface circuitry  912  (e.g., universal serial bus interface circuitry) to exchange commands and data between the array  902 , phase shifting circuitry  904  and/or spectrum analyzer circuitry  908  and the programmable source  910 . The system  900  may also include power supply circuitry  914  to provide power to any or all of the components described above. 
     According to one aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a beam steering system, the system including a differential segmented array (DSA) antenna comprising a plurality of pyramid structures arranged in an array and a plurality of elements formed in an array comprising a set of first direction elements and a set of second direction elements, wherein each element is defined between opposing faces of two adjacent pyramid structures, and further wherein a position of each element is located at a distance from a common origin of the elements of the array; phase gradient determination circuitry to determine a first phase gradient for the set of first direction elements and to determine a second phase gradient for the set of second direction elements, wherein the first phase gradient and second phase gradient are based on a first angle of a target with respect to the DSA antenna, a second angle of the target with respect to the DSA antenna, and an operating frequency of the DSA antenna; and phase shift determination circuitry to determine a first phase shift, for each of the elements, by multiplying the first phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, and to determine a second phase shift, for each of the elements, by multiplying the second phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, and to determine a resultant phase shift, for each element, by summing the respective first and second phase shift. 
     According to another aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a beam steering system, the system including: a differential segmented array (DSA) antenna comprising a plurality of pyramid structures arranged in an array and a plurality of elements formed in an array comprising a set of first direction elements and a set of second direction elements, wherein each element is defined between opposing faces of two adjacent pyramid structures, and further wherein a position of each element is located at a distance from a common origin of the elements of the array; one or more computer processors; one or more computer readable storage media; and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more computer processors. The stored program instructions including instructions to: determine a first phase gradient for the set of first direction elements and to determine a second phase gradient for the set of second direction elements, the first and second phase gradients being based on a first angle of a target with respect to the DSA antenna, a second angle of the target with respect to the DSA antenna, and an operating frequency of the DSA antenna; and determine a first phase shift, for each of the elements, by multiplying the first phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array, and to determine a second phase shift, for each of the elements, by multiplying the second phase gradient by the position of the element relative to the common origin of the elements of the array; and to determine a resultant phase shift, for each element, by summing the respective first and second phase shift. 
     According to yet another aspect of the disclosure there is thus provided a beam steering system, the system including: a differential segmented array (DSA) antenna comprising a plurality of pyramid structures arranged in an array and a plurality of elements formed in an array comprising a set of first direction elements and a set of second direction elements, wherein each element is defined between opposing faces of two adjacent pyramid structures, and further wherein a position of each element is located at a distance from a common origin of the elements of the array; phase shift and time delay determination circuitry to determine a phase shift value for each element, the phase shift and time delay determination circuitry also to determine a time delay value based on the phase shift value, the phase shift and time delay determination circuitry also to generate a fixed frequency phase shifted signal by modulating the time delay value using a fixed modulation signal; processor circuitry; phase lock loop (PLL) circuitry to increase a frequency of the fixed frequency phase shifted signal to generate a boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal; software-defined radio (SDR) circuitry to generate a radio signal; and mixer circuitry to combine the boosted fixed frequency phase shifted signal with the radio signal to generate a resultant time delayed signal, the resultant time delayed signal to control the element to apply a phase shift to a phase center. 
     As used in this application and in the claims, a list of items joined by the term “and/or” can mean any combination of the listed items. For example, the phrase “A, B and/or C” can mean A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B and C. As used in this application and in the claims, a list of items joined by the term “at least one of” can mean any combination of the listed terms. For example, the phrases “at least one of A, B or C” can mean A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B and C. 
     “Circuitry”, as used in any embodiment herein, may comprise, for example, singly or in any combination, hardwired circuitry, programmable circuitry such as one or more computer processors comprising one or more individual instruction processing cores, state machine circuitry, and/or firmware that stores instructions executed by programmable circuitry and/or future computing circuitry including, for example, massive parallelism, analog or quantum computing, hardware embodiments of accelerators such as neural net processors and non-silicon implementations of the above. The circuitry may, collectively or individually, be embodied as circuitry that forms part of a larger system, for example, an integrated circuit (IC), system on-chip (SoC), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, etc. 
     Any of the operations described herein may be implemented in a system that includes one or more non-transitory storage devices, including one or more computer readable storage media, having stored therein, individually or in combination, instructions that when executed by circuitry to perform the operations. The storage device includes any type of tangible medium, for example, any type of disk including hard disks, floppy disks, optical disks, compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk rewritables (CD-RWs), and magneto-optical disks, semiconductor devices such as read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) such as dynamic and static RAMs, erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, Solid State Disks (SSDs), embedded multimedia cards (eMMCs), secure digital input/output (SDIO) cards, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions. The instructions may be of the form of firmware executable code, software executable code, embedded instruction sets, application software, etc. Other embodiments may be implemented as software executed by a programmable control device. Also, it is intended that operations described herein may be distributed across a plurality of physical devices, such as processing structures at more than one different physical location. 
     The terms and expressions which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described (or portions thereof), and it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims. Accordingly, the claims are intended to cover all such equivalents. Various features, aspects, and embodiments have been described herein. The features, aspects, and embodiments are susceptible to combination with one another as well as to variation and modification, as will be understood by those having skill in the art. The present disclosure should, therefore, be considered to encompass such combinations, variations, and modifications. 
     Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.