US-12620724-B2 - Phased-array antenna system

Abstract

A phased-array antenna system includes a substrate and a plurality of sub-arrays. Each sub-array comprises an array of patch antennas arranged on a first major surface of the substrate; a plurality of beamformer devices coupled to the array of patch antennas; a multi-channel up-down converter (UDC) and a combiner-splitter coupled to the multi-channel UDC. The combiner-splitter is configured to split a signal provided by the UDC and provide the signal to each of the plurality of beamformers and/or to combine signal provided by the plurality of beamformers and to provide the combined signal to the UDC. Each sub-array also includes an integrated device comprising the multi-channel UDC and the combiner-splitter. The integrated device and the plurality of beamformer devices is arranged on a second major surface of the substrate opposite the first major surface. The integrated device is arranged between at least two beamformer devices.

Inventors

• Mustafa Acar
• Lucas Maria Florentinus De Maaijer
• Paul Mattheijssen

Assignees

• NXP B.V.

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20230130

Priority Date

20220223

Claims (17)

1. 1 . A phased-array antenna system comprising: a substrate having a first major surface, a second major surface opposite the first major surface, and a plurality of metal layers; and a plurality of sub-arrays coupled to the substrate, wherein a first sub-array of the plurality of sub-arrays comprises: an array of patch antennas arranged on the first major surface of the substrate, a plurality of beamformer devices mounted on the second major surface of the substrate, wherein the plurality of beamformer devices includes at least four beamformer devices arranged in two rows of beamformer devices and two columns of beamformer devices, a first plurality of substrate connections formed from one or more of the plurality of metal layers and electrically coupled between the array of patch antennas and the plurality of beamformer devices, and an integrated device mounted on the second major surface of the substrate, wherein the integrated device is a packaged surface mount device that includes a multi-channel up-down converter, UDC, and a combiner-splitter coupled to the multi-channel UDC through at least one device connection within the integrated device, the combiner-splitter being configured to receive one or more first signals from the UDC through the at least one device connection, to split the one or more first signals provided by the UDC into a plurality of second signals, and to provide a different one of the plurality of second signals to each of the plurality of beamformers, and to receive third signals from the plurality of beamformers, to combine the third signals provided by the plurality of beamformers into a combined signal, and to provide the combined signal to the UDC through the at least one device connection, wherein the integrated device is positioned between the two rows of beamformer devices and between the two columns of beamformer devices, and the integrated device is electrically coupled to the plurality of beamformer devices in the first sub-array but not to beamformer devices in other sub-arrays of the plurality of sub-arrays.
2. 2 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 wherein the combiner-splitter comprises a wilkinson network.
3. 3 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 wherein: the array includes an array of sixteen patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective patch antenna; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows, each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between a first row and a second row of the four beamformer devices.
4. 4 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 wherein: the array includes an array of thirty two patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective pair of patch antennas; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between a first row of the two rows and a second row of the two rows.
5. 5 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of digital front-ends, DFEs, each digital front-end configured to provide a signal for each channel of the multi-channel UDC.
6. 6 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 , wherein each sub-array further comprises: a second plurality of substrate connections between the multi-channel UDC and the plurality of beamformers, the second plurality of connections comprising a first metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers, and wherein the first plurality of substrate connections between the plurality of beamformers and the array of patch antennas comprise at least a second metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers.
7. 7 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 5 wherein each sub-array further comprises: a second plurality of substrate connections between the multi-channel UDC and the plurality of beamformers, the second plurality of connections comprising a first metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers, wherein the first plurality of substrate connections between the plurality of beamformers and the array of patch antennas comprise at least a second metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers; and a third plurality of connections between the multi-channel UDC and the plurality of DFEs, the third plurality of connections comprising the first metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers.
8. 8 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 1 configured as a millimeter wave antenna system.
9. 9 . A multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, antenna system for a mobile communication system comprising the phased-array antenna system of claim 1 .
10. 10 . A radar system comprising the phased-array antenna system of claim 1 .
11. 11 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 2 wherein: the array includes an array of sixteen patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective patch antenna; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between a first row and a second row of the four beamformer devices.
12. 12 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 2 wherein: the array includes an array of thirty two patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective pair of patch antennas; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between a first row of the two rows and a second row of the two rows.
13. 13 . The phased-array antenna system of claim 3 further comprising a plurality of digital front-ends, DFEs, each digital front-end configured to provide a signal for each channel of the multi-channel UDC.
14. 14 . A method of manufacturing a phased-array antenna system, the method comprising: providing a substrate having a first major surface, a second major surface opposite the first major surface, and a plurality of metal layers; and forming a plurality of sub-arrays on the substrate, wherein a first sub-array of the plurality of sub-arrays is formed by: forming an array of patch antennas on the first major surface of the substrate, physically coupling a plurality of beamformer devices to the second major surface of the substrate, while electrically coupling the plurality of beamformer devices to the array of patch antennas through a first plurality of substrate connections formed from one or more of the plurality of metal layers, wherein the plurality of beamformer devices includes at least four beamformer devices arranged in two rows of beamformer devices and two columns of beamformer devices, and physically coupling an integrated device to the second major surface of the substrate, wherein the integrated device is a packaged surface mount device, and the integrated device includes: a multi-channel up-down converter, UDC, and a combiner-splitter coupled to the multi-channel UDC through at least one device connection within the integrated device, the combiner-splitter being configured to receive the one or more first signals from the UDC through the at least one device connection, to split the one or more first signals provided by the UDC into a plurality of second signals, and to provide a different one of the plurality of second signals to each of the plurality of beamformers, and to receive third signals from the plurality of beamformers, to combine the third signals provided by the plurality of beamformers into a combined signal, and to provide the combined signal to the UDC through the at least one device connection, wherein the integrated device is positioned between the two rows of beamformer devices and between the two columns of beamformer devices, and the integrated device is electrically coupled to the plurality of beamformer devices in the first sub-array but not to beamformer devices in other sub-arrays of the plurality of sub-arrays.
15. 15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the combiner-splitter comprises a wilkinson network.
16. 16 . The method of claim 14 wherein: the array includes an array of sixteen patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective patch antenna; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between a first row and a second row.
17. 17 . The method of claim 14 wherein: the array includes an array of thirty two patch antennas; the plurality of beamformer devices includes four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective pair of patch antennas; the four beamformer devices are arranged in the two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and the integrated device is arranged between the first row and the second row.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of European Patent application no. 22158163.0, filed on 23 Feb. 2022, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. FIELD The present disclosure relates to a phased-array antenna system and method of manufacturing a phased-array antenna system. BACKGROUND Mobile communications cellular networks such as networks supporting 4G or 5G mobile communications standards may use base transceiver stations (BTS) or base stations including phased-array antenna systems which support communications using beamforming techniques to improve the network capacity and coverage. These antenna systems include an array of antennas, typically implemented as patch antennas arranged in a regular rectangular grid. The pitch or spacing of the patch antennas is determined by the wavelength of the communications frequency used in transmission or reception. The patch antennas may be dual-polarization antennas which have orthogonal polarization to improve antenna diversity and and/or channel throughput. In operation, beamforming and/or beam-steering is used both in transmit mode to focus the direction of the transmitted radio frequency (RF) signal towards another BTS or a user equipment receiver (UE) for example a mobile phone and in receive mode to improve the sensitivity of a signal transmitted from a user equipment transmitter. Beamforming requires multiple antennas to be operated in a transmit (TX) or receive (RX) mode. In transmit mode the phase and amplitude of the signal is adjusted for each of the relevant antenna to form the desired beam direction. In receive mode, the received signals from multiple antenna patches are combined using signal processing techniques to selectively receive signals from a desired beam direction and suppress unwanted signals. SUMMARY Various aspects of the disclosure are defined in the accompanying claims. In a first aspect there is provided a phased-array antenna system comprising: a substrate; a plurality of sub-arrays, each sub-array comprising: an array of patch antennas arranged on a first major surface of the substrate; a plurality of beamformer devices coupled to the array of patch antennas; a multi-channel up-down converter (UDC); a combiner-splitter coupled to the multi-channel UDC, the combiner-splitter being configured to split a signal provided by the UDC and provide the signal to each of the plurality of beamformers and/or to combine signal provided by the plurality of beamformers and to provide the combined signal to the UDC; an integrated device comprising the multi-channel UDC and the combiner-splitter; wherein the integrated device and the plurality of beamformer devices is arranged on a second major surface of the substrate opposite the first major surface and wherein the integrated device is arranged between at least two beamformer devices. In one or more embodiments, the combiner-splitter may comprise a Wilkinson network. In one or more embodiments, each sub-array may further comprise: an array of 16 patch antennas; 4 beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective patch antenna; wherein the 4 beamformer devices are arranged in two rows each row having 2 beamformer devices; and wherein the integrated device is arranged between a first row and a second row of the 4 beamformer devices. In one or more embodiments, each sub-array may further comprise: an array of 32 patch antennas; four beamformer devices, each beamformer device comprising four channels, each channel coupled to a respective pair of patch antennas; wherein the four beamformer devices are arranged in two rows each row having two beamformer devices; and wherein the integrated device is arranged between a first row of the two rows and a second row of the two rows. The substrate may comprise a plurality of metal layers. In one or more embodiments, the phased-array antenna system may further comprise a plurality of digital front-ends (DFEs) each digital front-end configured to provide a signal for each channel of the multi-channel UDC. In one or more embodiments, each sub-array may further comprise: a first plurality of connections between the multi-channel UDC and the plurality of beamformers, the first plurality of connections comprising a first metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers; and a second plurality of connections between the plurality of beamformers and the array of patch antennas, the second plurality of connections comprising at least a second metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers. In one or more embodiments, each sub-array may further comprise: a first plurality of connections between the multi-channel UDC and the plurality of beamformers, the first plurality of connections comprising a first metal layer of the plurality of the metal layers; and a second plurality of connections between the plurality of beamformers and the a