Rio Systems offers a wide range of solution for phase arrays ranging for core ICs solutions, modeling, calibration and automatization. In order to meet the stringent side lobe and gain requirements to support simultaneous multi-user operation, enable high antenna gain and mitigate the interference.

Rio Systems offers a full-set of technologies for 5G communication and aerospace & defense phase array applications as illustrated herein. It comprises the core ICs, modeling, calibration, and automatization. The careful design of the complete solution enables its customers to meet the stringent system requirements for simultaneous multi-user operation, high antenna gain, and interference mitigation.

Products

Rio Systems provides a multi-channel core IC to support phase arrays applications for aerospace & defense, 5G and satellite communications at different frequency bands.  User defined specifications and configuration for the core IC are available upon request.

Product name	Frequency range (GHz)	Mode	Channels
RS7308L	0.8 – 3.5	TX/RX	4
RS7308C	3 – 6.2	TX/RX	4
RS7308X	8 – 11	TX/RX	4
RS7308XT	8 – 11	TX	8
RS7308K	10.7 – 15	TX/RX	4
RS7308KU	15 – 17.5	TX/RX	4

 

Applications

• Radar phase arrays
• 5G communication
• Antenna beam forming
• Interference cancellation

Deliverables for phase arrays

• Core ICs
• EVB and control software
• Modeling solutions
• Measurement automatization
• Calibration

Modeling

Modeling the amplitude to phase conversion and the phase to amplitude conversion in active core ICs is fundamental to meet the sid lobe levels when array functions as Dolph–Tschebyscheff arrays are used. Without an adequate model, the practical realization of arrays becomes cumbersome.

Rio Systems provide a set o modeling tools to support the integration of core ICs into actual systems. The modeling solutions are offered in Keysight Technologies EDA tools as ADS and System Vue. This list of modeling solutions is outlined in the Table below

 

Part number	Description	EDA tool	Results
RS7308MDL	Behavioral model of the core IC implemented in the System Vue environment. The model includes the main impairments at the core IC that influences on the phase accuracy and RF system performance	System Vue	Quantify the source of errors and its effect on the system and phase accuracy
RS7308LIN8A	Behavioral model describing the array with 8 elements using the core IC behavioral model. Phase accuracy and RF system impairments are taking into account	System Vue	Predict the 8-element array performance at different scanning angles
RS7308LIN10A	Behavioral model describing the array with 8 elements using the core IC behavioral model. Phase accuracy and RF system impairments are taking into account	System Vue	Predict the 10-element array performance at different scanning angles
RS7308LIN16A	Behavioral model describing the array with 10 elements using the core IC behavioral model. Phase accuracy and RF system impairments are taking into account	System Vue	Predict the 16-element array performance at different scanning angles
RS7308EM	Parametrized physical model for NxM patch antenna elements. Each element is driven by an individual phase shifter and amplitude control units.	ADS	Coupling matrix between elements Array performance at different scanning angle

 

Calibration and automatization

Calibration provides control over the beam width and nulls for interference mitigation to improve the link budget for different scanning angles. Impairments at the IC, board and antenna levels result in non-ideal excitation at the individual array elements. Such deviation from the predicted excitation results in a different beam forming characteristic than initially projected which compromises the link budget and the ability to cope with interference signals. Calibration is therefore required to compensate for these impairments.

Rio Systems offers a comprehensive calibration approach for its core ICs to compensate for the accuracy errors. The derived correction vector applied to the core IC cancels out the influence of impairments present at the core IC and board levels on phase arrays.

The automatization procedure for each core IC channel, should account at least for phase amplitude and temperature variations. For instance, considering the scenario below, the number of data for a single channel at a single frequency is 86400 data points. Such large values demand for complete automatization solution for evaluation and production phases.

	Coverage range	Increment	Number of points
Phase	360 degrees	1 degree	360
Amplitude	30 dB	0.5 dB	60
Temperature	-40 C to 85 C	-40/25/70/85 C	4
Total number of data			86400

 

Rio Systems offers a comprehensive automatization solution based on Python language for automatization of the core IC measurements.