CN118826809B

CN118826809B - Beam control chip capable of rapid wave control, synaesthesia integrated device and wave control method

Info

Publication number: CN118826809B
Application number: CN202411304328.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李南; 袁毅
Original assignee: Shanghai Archiwave Electronic Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Archiwave Electronic Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2024-09-18
Filing date: 2024-09-18
Publication date: 2024-11-26
Anticipated expiration: 2044-09-18
Also published as: CN118826809A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a beam control chip capable of rapid beam control, a synaesthesia integrated device and a beam control method. The beam control chip of the present invention comprises: a plurality of beam channels, including at least one amplitude-phase unit, the amplitude-phase unit comprising at least one first switch, the first switch is turned on or off based on a beam control code, and is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of a corresponding service signal; a control interface, which is used to receive a beam control code and a beam switching signal from outside the beam control chip; a memory, which is connected to the first switch and is configured to store the beam control code, and based on the beam switching signal, the beam control code is transmitted to the corresponding first switch to control the opening or closing of the first switch; at least one first resistor, the wave control code is transmitted to the first switch via the first resistor; and at least one second switch, the second switch is connected in parallel with the first resistor, and the second switch is turned on or off based on the beam switching signal. The present invention can speed up the beam switching speed and shorten the beam switching time.

Description

Beam control chip capable of realizing rapid wave control, general sense integrated equipment and wave control method

Technical Field

The invention relates to a beam control chip capable of being rapidly controlled by waves, a sense-of-general integrated device and a wave control method.

Background

Communication and sensing integrated (INTEGRATED SENSING AND Communication, ISAC) can be designed to uniformly realize Communication and sensing functions, wherein Communication service is used for transmitting data, such as voice data, with users, and sensing service is used for radar positioning, so that high-quality Communication interaction is performed by a wireless network, and meanwhile, high-precision and fine sensing functions are realized, and the overall performance and service capability of the network are improved.

Multiple antennas are required to transmit and/or receive signals, whether for awareness traffic or communication traffic, wherein the signals on the multiple antennas may be coherently combined so that the multiple antennas may transmit directional electromagnetic wave energy or receive directional electromagnetic wave energy. The method of combining signals from a plurality of antennas may be referred to as beamforming, which forms a reinforced signal in a desired direction by adjusting the amplitude and/or phase of the plurality of antennas, while suppressing signals in other directions. The directional electromagnetic wave energy transmitted or received by the multiple antennas may be referred to as a beam.

In some techniques, the communication signal and the sense signal are transmitted (including transmitted and/or received) in a time-sharing manner, and when the communication signal and the sense signal are switched, beam switching is required because the beam directions and/or beam shapes of the two are different. If the beam switching time is too long, the time domain resource of the next signal to be transmitted may be occupied, which may cause the next signal to be transmitted to be not correctly transmitted.

Therefore, a means is needed to increase the speed of beam switching and shorten the time of beam switching, so as to avoid wasting signal resources.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a beam control chip, a sense-of-general integrated device and a wave control method capable of fast wave control, which can accelerate the speed of beam switching and shorten the time of beam switching, thereby avoiding wasting signal resources.

The invention discloses a beam control chip which comprises a plurality of beam channels, a control interface, a memory, a first resistor and a second switch. The plurality of beam channels are used for carrying out beam forming on the service signals; the beam path comprises at least one amplitude phase unit comprising a phase shifter and/or an amplitude adjuster; the amplitude-phase unit comprises at least one first switch which is opened or closed based on the wave control code and is used for adjusting the phase and/or the amplitude of the corresponding service signal; a control interface for receiving the wave control code and the wave beam switching signal from the outside of the wave beam control chip; a memory connected to the first switch and configured to store the externally received wave control code and transmit the wave control code to the corresponding first switch based on the externally received beam switching signal, so as to control the first switch to be turned on or off; at least one first resistor, the wave control code being transmitted to the first switch via the first resistor; the second switch comprises a first end, a second end and a control end, the first end and the second end of the second switch are connected in parallel with the two ends of the first resistor, and the control end of the second switch is used for conducting the first end and the second end of the second switch based on the beam switching signal.

The invention discloses a fast wave control method, which is used for the wave beam control chip side as described above, and comprises the following steps:

After the beam control chip receives a first beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned on in response to the first beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned off after a first time passes, and in a second time, the memory is enabled to transmit a pre-stored first wave control code to the corresponding first switch, and the second time is longer than the first time;

During the period that the beam control chip receives a first service signal, the first switch is turned on or turned off based on the first wave control code;

Storing the second wave control code in the memory after the wave control chip receives the second wave control code during the period that the wave control chip receives the first service signal;

After the beam control chip receives a second beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned on in response to the second beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned off after the first time passes, and the memory is enabled to transmit the pre-stored second wave control code to the corresponding first switch in the second time;

and during the period that the beam control chip receives a second service signal, the first switch is opened or closed based on the second wave control code.

The invention discloses a fast wave control method, which is used for a baseband side and comprises the following steps:

Transmitting a first beam switching signal to the beam control chip;

after the first beam switching signal is sent, a first service signal is sent to the beam control chip;

transmitting a second wave control code to the beam control chip during the period of transmitting the first service signal to the beam control chip, wherein the second wave control code is used for adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of a second service signal;

when the first service signal is switched to the second service signal, a second beam switching signal is sent to the beam control chip;

And after the second beam switching signal is sent, sending the second service signal to the beam control chip.

The invention discloses communication perception integrated equipment which comprises a beam control chip and a baseband. The baseband is configured to transmit the wave control code, the corresponding traffic signal, and the beam switching signal to the beam control chip.

In this scheme, beam control chip includes a plurality of beam channels, control interface, memory, first resistance and second switch, and wherein beam channel includes at least one amplitude and phase unit, and the amplitude and phase unit includes at least one first switch, and first switch carries out beam forming to the service signal based on the wave accuse code. The memory can store the wave control code, the wave control code corresponding to the next service signal is not needed to be downloaded in the wave beam switching period, and the wave control code stored in the memory can be directly provided for the first switch, so that the time resource occupation caused by the carrier wave control code downloading in the wave beam switching period is avoided, the wave beam switching speed is accelerated, and the time domain resource is saved. Meanwhile, when the beam is switched, the second switch is utilized to bypass the first resistor, the first switch and the first resistor do not form an RC circuit, and the wave control code can be transmitted to the first switch more quickly through the second switch, so that the bias voltage establishment time of the first switch is accelerated, the beam forming speed is accelerated, the beam forming time during beam switching is shortened, and time domain resources are further saved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 shows a hardware architecture block diagram of a communication awareness integration system according to an embodiment of the application;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure for time-sharing transmission of communication signals and sensing signals;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication perception integration device capable of fast wave control according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a memory according to an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of a part of the structure of a beam steering chip according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a monostable flip-flop according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A-7C are schematic structural views of a phase shifter according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a variable gain amplifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the purpose and technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by a person skilled in the art without creative efforts, based on the described embodiments of the present invention fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The use scenario of the present invention will be described first.

The ISAC can uniformly design communication and perception functions, wherein the communication service is used for transmitting data, such as voice data, with the user, and the perception service is used for radar positioning, so that the wireless network can realize high-precision and fine perception functions while performing high-quality communication interaction, and the overall performance and business capability of the network are improved.

Fig. 1 shows a hardware architecture block diagram of a communication awareness integration system according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication awareness integration system includes a signal transmitter 210 and a signal receiver 220.

The signal transmitter 210 includes: the channel encoder 212 is configured to receive a signal stream, and encode the signal to increase anti-interference capability and error correction capability, where the signal stream includes a communication stream and a perceptual reference, and the perceptual reference is used as a reference signal for positioning. A modulator 213 for receiving the signal encoded by the channel encoder 212 and modulating the signal, including amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, etc.; a precoder 214 for receiving the signal modulated by the modulator 213 and precoding the signal before transmitting the signal to optimize transmission quality, efficiency, interference rejection, etc. of the signal; d/a conversion 215 for receiving the digital signal precoded by precoder 214 and converting the digital signal into an analog signal for subsequent processing; a radio frequency front end 216, which receives the analog signal output by the D/a converter 215, and is used for one or more of amplifying, filtering, mixing, combining and splitting, phase shifting, beam forming, etc. the analog signal; an antenna 211 for transmitting communication and sensing signals, i.e. signals processed by the rf front end 216; the transmitting communication signal and the sensing signal may be sent in a time-sharing manner, and in the communication stage, the signal flow sequentially passes through the channel encoder 212, the modulator 213, the precoder 214, the D/a conversion 215, and the radio frequency front end 216, and then the communication signal is transmitted by the antenna 211; in the sensing phase, the sensing reference sequentially passes through a channel encoder 212, a modulator 213, a precoder 214, a D/a converter 215 and a radio frequency front end 216, and then the sensing signal is transmitted by an antenna 211.

The signal receiver 220 includes an antenna 221 for receiving the communication signal and the sensing signal; a radio frequency front end 222, configured to amplify, filter, combine and shunt, phase shift or beam forming the signal received by the antenna 221, where in this embodiment, in the communication stage, the radio frequency front end 222 is configured to amplify, filter, combine and shunt, phase shift or beam form the received communication signal; in the sensing phase, the rf front end 222 is further configured to perform sum and difference calculation on the received sensing signals, so as to locate the device to be detected.

The signal receiver 220 further includes an a/D converter 223 for receiving an analog signal processed by the rf front end 222 and converting the received analog signal into a digital signal, where the analog signal may include an analog communication signal and an analog sensing signal; a clock frequency offset 224 for receiving the digital signal outputted from the a/D converter 223, correcting the frequency offset of the received signal, and ensuring signal synchronization; a channel estimation 225 for receiving the signal corrected by the clock frequency offset 224 in the communication phase and estimating the channel characteristics for signal recovery and decoding; a MIMO equalizer 226 for receiving the signal processed by the channel estimation 225 during a communication phase and equalizing the signal to reduce interference and multipath effects in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system; demodulation 227, which is used to receive the signal processed by MIMO equalizer 226 in the communication stage, and restore the received modulated signal to the original digital signal, and restore the original communication stream, which is identical to the communication information; the matched filter 228 receives the signal corrected by the clock frequency offset 224 in the sensing stage, filters the signal and improves the sensitivity and accuracy of signal detection; a moving object detector 229 that receives the signal filtered by the matched filter 228 during a sensing phase for detecting the presence and location of a moving object from the signal; a CFAR detector 230 for receiving the signal transmitted from the moving object detector 229 in the sensing phase for detecting an object in a noise background; the DoA estimator 231 receives the signal from the CFAR detector 230 in the sensing phase and estimates the direction of arrival of the signal; clustering 232, receiving the signals from the DoA estimator 231 in the sensing stage, for performing cluster analysis on the detected targets to identify and classify different targets; object detection 233, which receives signals from clusters 232 in the sensing stage and is used for detecting and identifying target objects; the target tracking 234 receives the signal from the object detection 233 in the sensing stage, and is used for tracking the motion track of the target.

In the communication perception integrated system, a precoder 214, a modulator 213, a channel encoder 212, a channel estimation 225, a MIMO equalizer 226, and a demodulation 227 are used for a communication function to analyze information such as voice data carried in a communication signal (or a communication stream); the matched filter 228, the moving object detector 229, the CFAR detector 230, the DoA estimator 231, the cluster 232, the object detection 233, the object tracking 234 are used for the sensing function to obtain positioning information or trajectory information of the device to be detected from the sensing signal (or the communication reference). And antenna 211, rf front-end 216, antenna 221, rf front-end 222, and clock frequency offset 224 all perform the same function when the system performs both the sensing function and the communication function, and thus can be multiplexed. For example, the sensing function and the communication function are time-shared (as will be described in more detail below), then the antenna 211, the radio frequency front end 216, the antenna 221, the radio frequency front end 222, and the clock frequency offset 224 are multiplexed in different operating periods. In some embodiments, the antenna of signal transmitter 210 may be time-multiplexed with the antenna of signal receiver 220, and the radio frequency front end of signal transmitter 210 may be time-multiplexed with the radio frequency front end of signal receiver 220.

In some techniques, to achieve multiplexing of the above hardware structures, communication signals and perception signals are transmitted (including transmission and/or reception) in a time-sharing manner. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure for time-sharing transmission of communication signals and perceptual signals. As shown in fig. 2, the horizontal axis is the time domain, the vertical axis is the frequency domain, the communication signal and the sensing signal occupy different symbol resource bits in two dimensions of the time domain and the frequency domain, so as to form an ISAC frame structure, wherein each unit in the time domain may be called an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM) symbol (symbol), each unit in the frequency domain may be called a subcarrier, and Cyclic Prefix (CP) is provided between different symbols, so that interference between symbols can be reduced. Wherein the symbol is used for transmitting a communication signal or a sense signal, and the CP does not transmit the communication signal or the sense signal.

Because the beam directions and/or beam shapes of the communication signal and the sensing signal are different, when switching between the communication signal and the sensing signal, beam switching needs to be performed, and the amplitudes and/or phases of the plurality of antennas are adjusted so as to perform beam forming on the communication signal or the sensing signal. During beam switching, the beam control chip needs to re-download the carrier control code to adjust the amplitude and/or phase. Since the CP does not transmit a communication signal or a sense signal, it is generally desirable to complete the downloading of the wave control code within the CP time. However, the time required for the downlink control code is longer, especially when the beam control chip includes a plurality of beam channels. If the downloading time of the wave control code is too long, the downloading of the wave control code cannot be completed in the CP time, the down-carrier wave control code may occupy the symbol behind the CP, that is, may occupy the time domain resource of the next signal to be transmitted, which may cause that the next signal to be transmitted cannot be correctly transmitted.

In the 5G millimeter wave communication system shown in fig. 2, the subcarrier frequency domain bandwidths of the communication signal and the sense signal are 120khz, the CP time is about 570 ns, and symbol including the CP time is about 8.92 μs; whereas at millimeter wave frequencies (> 24.25 Ghz), the sub-carrier frequency domain bandwidths of the communication and sense signals are 240khz, the CP times are about 290 nanoseconds, and the symbol including the CP times is about 4.46 microseconds. Assuming that the communication awareness integrated device supports a 4 x 4 antenna array, the time required for the down-carrier control code is about 1.4 microseconds. The time of 1.4 microseconds is obviously longer than that of the CP, so that the downloading of the wave control code cannot be completed in the CP, the time for switching the wave beam is too long, and the time domain resource is wasted.

Based on the above, the invention aims to increase the speed of beam switching and shorten the time of beam switching, thereby avoiding wasting signal resources.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication perception integration device capable of fast wave control according to an embodiment of the present invention, which may be a transceiver integration structure, that is, the communication perception integration device may be used to transmit signals and receive signals. As shown in fig. 3, the communication perception integrated device capable of fast wave control includes a baseband 100 and a beam control chip 200. Among other things, one or more of precoder 214, modulator 213, channel encoder 212, channel estimate 225, MIMO equalizer 226, demodulation 227, matched filter 228, moving object detector 229, CFAR detector 230, doA estimator 231, cluster 232, object detection 233, object tracking 234 in fig. 1 may be included in traffic signal processor 101 of baseband 100. The RF front-end 216 or 222 of fig. 1 may include the beam steering chip 200 and the radio frequency link (RF Chain) of fig. 3. For clarity of illustration, the first switch, the first resistor, and the second switch of the beam steering chip 200 are not shown in fig. 3.

The baseband 100 is configured to transmit the wave control code, the corresponding traffic signal, and the beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200. The wave control code is a control signal for controlling the beam forming and is used for adjusting the beam direction and/or the beam shape of the service signal, and the wave control code can be a digital signal. The wave control code comprises, as an example, a phase shift code, which is a control signal controlling the phase of the traffic signal, and/or an amplitude code, which is a control signal controlling the amplitude of the traffic signal, and the corresponding traffic signal comprises, as an example, a communication signal and a perception signal.

In some embodiments, the baseband 100 includes a traffic signal processor 101 for transmitting corresponding traffic signals to the beam control chip 200. The service signal includes a communication signal and a sense signal, and the baseband 100 controls the communication signal and the sense signal to be transmitted in a time-sharing manner, and controls information data carried by the communication signal, such as voice data, and the like, and also controls the sense signal to have waveform characteristics for detection, and the sense signal does not include the information data. During the sensing phase, a sensing beam emitted by multiple antennas (such as two) is reflected by the object and received by the multiple antennas. Based on the angle between the received (such as two) perceived beams, the baseband 100 can calculate the position of the object. The baseband 100 further includes a control interface 102 for sending a wave control code and a beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200, where the beam switching signal is a control signal for controlling the beam control chip 200 to perform beam switching, and is used for controlling when to adjust the amplitude and/or the phase, and the beam switching signal may be a digital signal.

The beam control chip 200 is configured to beamform the respective traffic signals, and more particularly, the beam control chip 200 is configured to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the respective traffic signals based on the wave control code.

The beam control chip 200 receives corresponding traffic signals from outside the beam control chip 200 via a radio frequency link (RF Chain). The radio frequency links are used for realizing conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals, and each radio frequency link corresponds to one flow and each flow corresponds to one user in a communication stage. The conversion of the baseband signal into the radio frequency signal is achieved when the signal is transmitted and the conversion of the radio frequency signal into the baseband signal is achieved when the signal is received.

In some embodiments, the beam control chip 200 includes a control interface 201 for receiving the wave control code and the beam switching signal from outside the beam control chip 200. In one example, the control interface 102 of the baseband 100 and the control interface 201 of the beam control chip 200 include an SPI bus interface, an I2C bus interface, and the like, and more specifically, a transmission rate between the control interface 102 and the control interface 201 is, for example, 133MHz, so that 6 nanoseconds are required for transmitting 1bit of data from the baseband 100 to the beam control chip 200, and data transmission at a high baud rate can be realized at low cost.

The beam steering chip 200 further comprises a plurality of beam channels 202 for adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of the traffic signal for beamforming. Fig. 3 schematically shows four beam channels 202, one beam channel 202 comprising at least one amplitude and phase unit comprising at least one first switch (for clarity of illustration of the beam control chip 200, the first switch, a first resistor connected to the first switch, a second switch connected to the first resistor are not shown in fig. 1), which is turned on or off based on the wave control code, thereby adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of the corresponding traffic signal. The beamformed signals are transmitted outside the communication awareness integrated device via the antenna array 300 and are directed to different targets.

As an example, the amplitude and phase units are phase shifters 202a and/or amplitude adjusters 202b, the phase shifters 202a being used for adjusting the phases of the respective traffic signals based on the phase shifting codes, the amplitude adjusters 202b being used for adjusting the amplitudes of the respective traffic signals based on the amplitude codes, wherein the amplitude adjusters 202b comprise e.g. attenuators or variable gain amplifiers or the like. In one example, the beam path 202 includes a phase shifter and an amplitude adjuster in series to enable adjustment of both the phase and the amplitude of the corresponding traffic signal.

In order to save the downloading time of the wave control code, in this embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the beam control chip 200 further includes a memory 203, configured to store the wave control code received from the outside in advance, so as to transmit the wave control code to the corresponding amplitude-phase unit. During beam switching, a beam switching signal is transmitted to the beam control chip 200, and the memory 203 transmits the wave control code to the corresponding (first switch in) the amplitude-phase unit based on the externally received beam switching signal, because the memory 203 is located inside the beam control chip 200, during beam switching, the wave control code is directly transmitted to the corresponding first switch by the memory 203 inside the chip without downloading the wave control code from outside, so as to quickly control the on or off of the first switch, quickly adjust the direction and/or shape of the beam, and quickly perform beam switching.

Specifically, during the period when the baseband 100 sends the first service signal to the beam control chip 200 via the radio frequency link, the first waveguide code stored in the memory 203 adjusts the phase and/or amplitude of the first service signal; meanwhile, the baseband 100 further sends a second pilot code to the beam control chip 200 via the control interface 102, where the second pilot code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of a second traffic signal, where the second traffic signal is a traffic signal that is located after the first traffic signal in the time domain, for example, in fig. 2, the first traffic signal may be any symbol in the time domain, or the second traffic signal is any symbol after the symbol, that is, the second traffic signal may be the first, second, and third symbol after the first traffic signal, for example, the first traffic signal may be symbol 1, and the second traffic signal may be symbol 2. It will be appreciated that when the beam of the second traffic signal changes from the beam of the first traffic signal, the phase and/or amplitude of the second traffic signal may need to be adjusted using the second pilot code.

During the transmission of the first traffic signal, after the control interface 201 of the beam control chip 200 receives the second pilot code, the second pilot code is pre-stored in the memory 203. When the service signal is switched to the second service signal, the baseband 100 transmits a beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200 via the control interface 102, and after the control interface 201 of the beam control chip 200 receives the beam switching signal, the memory 203 transfers the second wave control code to the corresponding first switch based on the externally received beam switching signal to control the first switch to be turned on or off. In some embodiments, the beam switching signal may be sent in the CP before the second traffic signal, or when the transmission of the previous traffic signal is completed, to ensure that the wave control code is transferred to the amplitude phase unit before the second traffic signal.

Therefore, according to the invention, the memory 203 is arranged in the beam control chip 200, the memory 203 can store the wave control code, the wave control code can be directly provided for the first switch without downloading the wave control code in the beam switching period, the time resource occupation caused by downloading the wave control code in the beam switching period is avoided, the beam switching speed is accelerated, and the time domain resource is saved.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 4, in one example, the memory 203 includes a plurality of addressable storage modules 2031 for storing a plurality of sets of wave control codes, each storage module for storing a wave control code for a corresponding traffic signal; each group of the wave control codes corresponds to one service signal and is used for adjusting the phase or the amplitude of the service signal in the period of one service signal. For example, during the first service signal, a set of wave control codes of the storage module 1 is used to control the first switch of each amplitude phase unit in the beam control chip 200 so as to perform beam forming on the first service signal; during the second traffic signal, a set of wave control codes of the memory module 2 is used to control the first switches of the amplitude and phase units in the beam control chip 200 to beam-shape the second traffic signal, and so on.

Wherein one memory module 2031 comprises a plurality of addressable memory locations (not shown for clarity in fig. 4), and a set of waveguide codes comprises a plurality of waveguide codes, each memory location for storing the waveguide code of a corresponding beam channel for controlling the amplitude and phase units of different channels within the beam control chip 200 during one traffic signal. For example, during a traffic signal, a first memory location stores the pilot codes for all of the amplitude and phase elements in a first beam path, a second memory location stores the pilot codes for all of the amplitude and phase elements in a second beam path, and so on; or during a service signal, the first memory unit stores the wave control code of the first amplitude phase unit in the first beam channel, the second memory unit stores the wave control code of the second amplitude phase unit in the first beam channel, the third memory unit stores the wave control code of the first amplitude phase unit in the second beam channel, the fourth memory unit stores the wave control code of the second amplitude phase unit in the second beam channel, and so on.

In some embodiments, the plurality of storage modules 2031 may sequentially store the wave control codes during different traffic signals, for example, during a current traffic signal, the current storage module (e.g., storage module 1) sends the wave control codes to the plurality of amplitude phase units of the beam control chip 200, at which time the next storage module (e.g., storage module 2) pre-downloads the wave control codes during the next traffic signal from the baseband; during the next traffic signal, the next memory module (e.g., memory module 2) transmits a wave control code to the first switches of the plurality of amplitude phase units of the beam control chip 200 in response to the beam switching signal. The current service signal period may be a first service signal period, and the next service signal period may be a second service signal period. The memory 203 may include two storage modules 2031, and the storage modules 2031 may alternately transmit the wave control codes to a plurality of amplitude and phase units of the beam control chip 200. The memory 203 may further include three or more storage modules 2031, and the storage modules 2031 may sequentially transmit the wave control codes to a plurality of amplitude and phase units of the beam control chip 200. Therefore, when the current service signal is switched to the next service signal, the next storage module (for example, the storage module 2) directly sends the wave control code to a plurality of amplitude-phase units of the beam control chip 200 without external carrier control code, and the wave control code is transferred to the corresponding first switch, so as to quickly control the first switch to be turned on or turned off, quickly adjust the direction and/or shape of the beam, and realize quick beam switching.

In one example, the memory includes a first set of memory modules and a second set of memory modules, each of which may include one or more memory modules. The first group of memory modules is connected with the control interface 201, and the first group of memory modules corresponds to communication signals and is used for receiving the wave control codes from the control interface 201 before the next communication signal; the second memory stores a fixed wave control code. In the sensing stage, the sensing beam generally scans the space according to a specific scanning mode, so the wave control codes of the sensing signals are generally fixed wave control codes, and therefore a second set of storage modules can be arranged in the memory 203, and the second set of storage modules corresponds to the sensing signals, so that the wave control codes of the sensing signals can be fixed in the second set of storage modules, and the downloading from the baseband 100 is not required each time. When switching from communication signals to sensing signals, the wave control codes of the second group of memory modules are used for transmission to a plurality of amplitude and phase units of the beam control chip 200. For example, during the current service signal period (e.g., T1 in fig. 2), where the service signal is a communication signal, in response to the beam switching signal, the current memory module (e.g., memory module 1, belonging to the first group of memory modules) transmits the wave control code to the plurality of amplitude phase units of the beam control chip 200, and at this time, the next memory module (e.g., memory module 2, belonging to the first group of memory modules) downloads the wave control code during the next service signal period from the baseband in advance; during the next service signal period (e.g., T2 in fig. 2), when the service signal is a communication signal, the next memory module (e.g., memory module 2, belonging to the first group of memory modules) sends the wave control codes to the plurality of amplitude-phase units of the beam control chip 200 in response to the beam switching signal; during a second traffic signal period (e.g., T3 in fig. 2) after the current traffic signal period, where the traffic signal is a sense signal, in response to the beam switch signal, the wave control codes are sent from the second set of memory modules to the plurality of amplitude-phase units of the beam control chip 200, because the wave control codes of the sense signal may be fixed in the second set of memory modules, there is no need to download the wave control codes of the sense signal during T2.

As further shown in fig. 4, in some examples, the beam control chip 200 further includes a control unit 2032, where the control unit 2032 is connected to the storage module 2031, and the control unit 2032 transfers the wave control code of the next service signal to the corresponding first switch in response to the beam switching signal. The control unit 2032 may include a switch group, which may turn on the corresponding storage module and the amplitude phase unit based on the beam switching signal to control the transmission of the wave control codes of the plurality of storage modules 2031 to the corresponding amplitude phase unit.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a part of the structure of a beam steering chip according to an embodiment of the present invention. For ease of illustration, fig. 5 shows one beam path in the beam steering chip 200 of fig. 3 that includes three phase shifters 204-1, 204-2, 204-3 in series, wherein the phase shifter 202a of fig. 3 may be the phase shifter 204-2 of fig. 5. The SPI trigger command and the SPI address command of fig. 5 may be input by the control interface 201 in fig. 2. The phase shifters 204-1, 204-2, 204-3 shown in fig. 5 are one example of amplitude phase elements, and it is understood that the beam steering chip 200 may include a plurality of beam channels, each beam channel including at least one amplitude phase element including one or more of a phase shifter and an amplitude adjuster, and that these phase shifters and/or amplitude adjusters may be connected according to the actual needs of the beamforming.

The phase shifter 204-2 may include a matching circuit 401 and a matching circuit 402, the matching circuit 401 being connected to the last phase shifter 204-1 for impedance matching with the phase shifter 204-1; the matching circuit 402 is used to connect with the next phase shifter 204-3 for impedance matching with the phase shifter 204-3. The traffic signal passes through phase shifters 204-1, 204-2, 204-3 in sequence, the phases of which are adjusted.

The phase shifter 204-2 also includes one or more of inductance and capacitance between the input match 401 and the output match 402. For ease of illustration, fig. 5 shows two inductors L1, L2 and two capacitors C1, C2, the inductor L1 being disposed between the input match 401 and the output match 402, the capacitors C1, C2 being connected in series with each other and disposed between the input match 401 and the output match 402, one end of the inductor L2 being connected between the capacitors C1, C2, the other end of the inductor L2 being grounded. It will be appreciated that the number of inductances and capacitances and the connection relationship may be set according to the actual requirements of beamforming.

In this embodiment, the phase shifter 204-2 further includes two switches M1, M2, and each of the switches M1, M2 includes a first terminal, a second terminal, and a control terminal. The first terminal of the switch M1 is connected to the input match 401 and the second terminal of the switch M1 is connected to the output match 402. The first terminal and the second terminal of the switch M2 are connected in parallel to the two terminals of the inductor L2. The control ends of the switches M1 and M2 are respectively used for conducting the first ends and the second ends of the switches M1 and M2 based on the phase-shifting code, the switch M1 is used for shorting the inductor L1 according to the phase-shifting code so as to adjust the phase shifting of the service signal by the phase shifter, and the switch M1 is used for shorting the inductor L2 according to the phase-shifting code so as to adjust the phase shifting of the service signal by the phase shifter. The switches M1, M2 are one example of a first switch, the phase-shift code is one example of a wave-control code, and the switches M1, M2 are turned on or off based on the phase-shift code, thereby changing the phase-shift parameters of the phase shifter 204-2 for adjusting the phase of the corresponding traffic signal.

The beam steering chip 200 includes resistors R1, R2, and the resistors R1, R2 each include a first end and a second end. The first ends of the resistors R1 and R2 are respectively used for receiving the phase-shifting codes, and the second ends of the resistors R1 and R2 are respectively connected with the control ends of the switches M1 and M2. The resistors R1, R2 are an example of a first resistor, and the phase-shift code is transferred to the switches M1, M2 via the resistors R1, R2, respectively.

The resistors R1, R2 are bias resistors of the switches M1, M2, typically tens of kiloohms, for preventing leakage of the rf signal when the phase shifter 204-2 is in operation. Since the control terminals of the switches M1, M2 can be equivalently capacitance, they can be equivalently RC circuits with the resistors R1, R2, and the time constant is large, and the response to the phase shift code is slow.

In order to accelerate the voltage bias setup time of the control terminals of the switches M1, M2 and rapidly complete the phase switching, the beam control chip 200 of the present invention further includes switches N1, N2, where the switches N1, N2 each include a first terminal, a second terminal and a control terminal. The first ends and the second ends of the switches N1 and N2 are respectively connected in parallel with the two ends of the resistors R1 and R2, and the control ends of the switches N1 and N2 are respectively connected with the first ends and the second ends of the switches N1 and N2 based on the beam switching signals. The switches N1, N2 are an example of the second switch, and the switches N1, N2 are turned on based on the beam switching signal, so that the shunt resistors R1, R2, the phase-shift code can be rapidly transferred to the switches M1, M2, the speed of beam switching is increased, and the time of beam switching is shortened. As an example, the switches N1, N2 may be single transistors or may be a plurality of transistors in cascade.

As further shown in fig. 5, the SPI address command is used to indicate a memory address, and the phase shift code may be written in advance into a corresponding memory cell in the memory based on the SPI address command. Based on the beam switching signal, the memory may transfer a pre-stored phase-shift code to the switches M1, M2. As an example, the memory may output the phase-shift code to the switches M1, M2 based on the beam switching signal, or the switches M1, M2 may read the phase-shift code from the memory based on the beam switching signal. In the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the on and off states of the switches M1, M2 are opposite, so that the phase-shift codes received by the switches M1, M2 are opposite, and in some cases, the phase-shift codes pre-stored in the memory may be transferred to the switch M2 after being inverted.

In one example, the phase-shifting code stored in the memory is a digital signal, and the switches M1, M2 need to be turned on or off based on a level signal of a certain voltage value in order for the phase-shifting code to control the switches M1, M2. Level conversion circuits may be respectively disposed between the memory and the control terminals of the switches M1, M2, and the phase shift codes of the memory are converted into corresponding level signals via the level conversion circuits to be transferred to the control terminals of the switches M1, M2. The level shifting circuit is not shown in fig. 5 for clarity.

Continuing with fig. 5, in this scenario, because the beam switch signal is communicated via the control interface 201 in fig. 3, the beam switch signal may be an SPI trigger command that is less than the phase or amplitude code in length and typically 4bits, requiring about 24 nanoseconds for transmission, a pilot code download time of much less than 1.4 microseconds, and a CP time of less than 290 nanoseconds. The beam switching signal can be transmitted in the CP time, which is beneficial to the rapid switching of the beam.

The beam control chip 200 further comprises a trigger circuit 403, connected to the control terminals of the switches N1, N2, respectively, configured to generate a trigger signal (such as a pulse square wave) active for a first time, for example 100 ns to 200 ns, and more particularly 150 ns, based on the beam switching signal (in this embodiment the SPI trigger command), for turning on the first and second terminals of the switches N1, N2, the first time being much smaller than the time of one symbol. The trigger signal may ensure that at the moment of beam switching (e.g., the moment of a change in the switching state of the switches M1, M2), the switches N1, N2 remain on for a first time, and the resistors R1, R2 are shorted, so that the wave control code may be transmitted to the switches M1, M2 more quickly, thereby rapidly switching the states of the switches M1, M2.

In one example, the trigger circuit 403 is a monostable trigger that can conveniently be based on a trigger signal (such as a pulse square wave) that is active for a first time of the beam switching signal, ensuring that the switches N1, N2 remain on for the first time without interfering with the phase shifter. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a monostable flip-flop according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 6, the monostable flip-flop includes nor gate G1, nor gate G2, resistors R3, R4, and capacitors C3, C4. The first end of the capacitor C3 is connected with the input end of the monostable trigger, the second end of the capacitor C3 is connected with the first end of the resistor R3, and the second end of the resistor R3 is grounded. The second end of the capacitor C3 is also connected with the first input end of the NOR gate G1, the second input end of the NOR gate G1 is connected with the output end of the NOR gate G2, the output end of the NOR gate G2 is connected with the output end of the monostable trigger, the output end of the NOR gate G1 is connected with the first end of the capacitor C4, and the second end of the capacitor C4 is connected with the input end of the NOR gate G2. The second end of the capacitor C4 is also connected to the first end of the resistor R4, and the second end of the resistor R4 is connected to the power supply voltage V _DD.

The monostable trigger is in a stable state when not triggered, after the input end of the monostable trigger receives positive pulse to trigger, the output end of the monostable trigger is turned from a stable state to a temporary stable state, and the output end automatically returns to the stable state after the temporary stable state is maintained for a period of time due to RC delay of the resistor R4 and the capacitor C4, so that pulse square waves are generated. The delay is determined by the RC value, such as may be set to 150 nanoseconds. It will be appreciated that the trigger circuit 403 may be other types of triggers as well.

In one example, the beam switching signal may be a pulse square wave that is active for a first time, acting directly on the control terminals of the switches N1, N2 as an externally generated voltage signal, thereby turning on the first and second terminals of the switches N1, N2 without the need for the trigger circuit 403.

In one example, the memory delivers the phase-shift code to the respective switch M1, M2 for at least a second time, which is, as an example, a symbol (symbol) time, based on the externally received beam-switching signal, the second time being greater than the first time, i.e. during a traffic signal, the memory continues to deliver the wave-control code to the respective first switch to ensure that the phase and/or amplitude of the traffic signal stabilizes during the traffic signal until the next beam-switching.

In summary, the beam control chip 200 consumes about 24 nanoseconds to receive the beam switching signal when the traffic signal is switched (e.g., in the CP); then, the trigger circuit 403 generates a pulse square wave for about 5 nanoseconds, turns on the switches N1, N2 and the shunt resistors R1, R2, and provides a fast path for the conduction of the switches M1, M2; meanwhile, the wave control code is transmitted to the corresponding switches M1 and M2 by the memory based on the wave beam switching signal, and the wave control code can be rapidly transmitted to the switches M1 and M2 because the switches N1 and N2 are conducted, so that the phase can be rapidly adjusted; then, the switches M1, M2 are turned on and stable in about 150 ns, the service signal stably generates a predetermined phase shift of capacitance and inductance in 179 ns (24 ns+5 ns+150 ns), and the switching time is not only smaller than the CP time at Sub-6GHz but also smaller than the CP time at millimeter waves, so that the fast switching of the beam can be realized. In a symbol immediately following the CP, the memory continues to pass the phase-shift code to the corresponding switch M1, M2, so that in this symbol (symbol) the traffic signal can be kept in a predetermined phase until the next beam switch. Then, after a symbol time, the above steps are repeated.

Therefore, the invention can accelerate the voltage bias establishment time of the control ends of the switches M1 and M2 by arranging the switches N1 and N2 in the beam control chip 200, thereby accelerating the speed of beam switching, shortening the time of beam switching and completing the switching in the CP time of service signals, so as to avoid wasting signal resources.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 5, a phase shifter and a corresponding beam control chip are shown, it should be understood that the phase shifter is not limited to the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and may be, for example, the structures of fig. 7A-7C, and fig. 7A-7C are schematic structural diagrams of the phase shifter according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 7A, the phase shifter includes a mutual inductance L3, a mutual inductance L4, capacitances C5-C7, and switches M3, M4.

The first end of the mutual inductor L3 is connected with the input end In of the phase shifter, and the first end of the mutual inductor L4 is connected with the output end Out of the phase shifter. It will be appreciated that when the phase shifter is present with the physical input In and output Out, the first end of the mutual inductor L3 and the first end of the mutual inductor L4 are connected to the physical terminals, respectively, whereas when the phase shifter is absent with the physical input In and output Out, the first end of the mutual inductor L3 and the first end of the mutual inductor L4 may be regarded as functional terminals of the phase shifter for inputting and outputting signals.

The second end of the mutual inductor L3 and the second end of the mutual inductor L4 are connected to the first end and the second end of the capacitor C5, respectively. The first end of the capacitor C6 is connected to the first end of the switch M3, the first end of the capacitor C7 is connected to the second end of the switch M3, and the second end of the capacitor C6 is connected to the second end of the capacitor C7 and to the first end of the switch M4. The second terminal of the switch M4 is grounded.

By controlling the states of the switches M3, M4 to switch the phase states, a specific switching scenario is shown in fig. 7B and 7C, where the phase shifter is equivalent to a low-pass filter when both switches M3, M4 are on, and equivalent to a band-pass filter when both switches M3, M4 are off. The switching of the low-pass filter unit and the band-pass filter unit is performed by controlling the states of the two switches, thereby realizing specific phase shifting by the front-back phase difference.

The switches M3 and M4 may be the first switches, the gates of the switches M3 and M4 are used for receiving the wave control codes, and the switches M3 and M4 may be turned on or turned off based on the wave control codes stored in the memory in advance. A first resistor may be provided at the gate of the switch M3, M4, and a second switch for shorting the first resistor, and a corresponding trigger circuit, may be provided to further accelerate the switching of the phase state.

In other embodiments, the amplitude phase unit may also be an amplitude adjuster for controlling the signal amplitude, for example the amplitude adjuster may be a variable gain amplifier or attenuator to vary the amplitude of the traffic signal. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a variable gain amplifier according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 8, the variable gain amplifier includes N first transistor units 310, where the N first transistor units 310 operate in parallel; the variable gain amplifier implements phase weight control via one or more first transistor units 310 of the plurality of first transistor units 310; n is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

The first gain control signal includes N first control signals Va0-VaN-1 (only Va0 is shown in fig. 8 for clarity), each of which controls one first transistor cell. For example, the first control signal Va0 controls the first transistor cell, and the first control signal VaN-1 controls the Nth first transistor cell. Here, the first control signal may specifically be a voltage signal.

The first gain control signal includes N first control signals, and the variable gain amplifier implements phase weight control via one or more of the plurality of first transistor cells, such that the variable gain amplifier can implement 2N different gain states.

It should be noted that, fig. 8 illustrates a first transistor unit of the N first transistor units as an example, and the first transistor unit 310 includes a pair of first main transistors M5 and M8 and a pair of first cross-coupled transistors M6 and M7; the first main transistors M5 and M8 are connected to the first control signal Va0, and the first cross-coupled transistors M6 and M7 are connected to the inverted signal of the first control signal Va 0. Signals accessed by the first main transistors M5 and M8 and the first cross-coupled transistors M6 and M7 are inverted by the inverter INV1 and the inverter INV2, respectively. Wherein each of the N first transistor cells has the same structure.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the transistors in the first transistor unit 310 may be connected in a common source manner, so that the gain may be improved and the parasitic phase shift may be reduced. Further, the first transistor unit 310 further includes a pair of first cross-coupled transistors M6, M7, which can greatly reduce parasitic phase shift.

The gates of the first main transistor M5 and the first cross-coupled transistor M6 are connected to the i+ signal terminal, the gates of the first main transistor M8 and the first cross-coupled transistor M7 are connected to the I-signal terminal, the sources of the first main transistors M5, M8 and the first cross-coupled transistors M6, M7 are grounded, the drains of the first main transistor M5 and the first cross-coupled transistor M7 serve as the i+ output terminal of the variable gain amplifier, and the drains of the first main transistor M8 and the first cross-coupled transistor M6 serve as the I-output terminal of the variable gain amplifier.

The first transistor unit 310 further includes capacitors C8-C11 and resistors R5-R8, wherein the capacitors C8-C11 are filter capacitors, and the resistors R5-R8 are filter resistors. The capacitances C8-C11 and the resistances R5-R8 form a filter network of the first transistor unit 310.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the transistors M5-M8 may be the first switches hereinabove, the resistors R5-R8 may be the first resistors hereinabove, and the first control signal Va0 may be a wave-controlled code. The gates of the transistors M5-M8 are used to receive the control codes, and the transistors M5-M8 may be turned on or off based on the control codes pre-stored in the memory. A second switch for shorting resistors R5-R8, and a corresponding trigger circuit, may be provided.

The present invention also provides a fast wave-control method, which is described below in connection with fig. 2 to 5.

In step S1, when the previous service signal is switched to the first service signal, referring to fig. 3, the baseband 100 transmits the first beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200, thereby controlling the beam control chip 200 to perform beam switching. Wherein the previous traffic signal is a previous traffic signal of the first traffic signal, and the traffic of the previous traffic signal and the first traffic signal may be different, for example, the previous traffic signal is a sensing signal, and the first traffic signal is a communication signal; or the previous traffic signal is a communication signal and the first traffic signal is a perception signal. In some embodiments, the first beam switching signal is transmitted in the CP, for example, referring to fig. 2, when switching from the communication signal of T2 to the sensing signal of T3, the first beam switching signal is transmitted in the CP before symbol 1 to control the beam control chip 200 to switch the beam to the sensing beam.

Step S2, referring to fig. 3 to 5, after the beam control chip 200 receives the first beam switching signal:

According to the first beam switching signal, the switches N1, N2 (the second switch) are controlled to be turned on, so that the bias resistors R1, R2 (the first resistors) of the switches M1, M2 (the first switches) are bypassed, a fast channel is provided for the conduction of the switches M1, M2, so that the first wave control code pre-stored in the memory is fast transferred to the switches M1, M2 (the first switches), and the beam control chip 200 can fast switch the beam into the sensing beam.

After a first time, the switches N1, N2 are controlled to be turned off, and the first time is shorter, typically 100 ns-200 ns. That is, at the moment when the previous service signal is switched to the first service signal, the switches N1, N2 are turned on to rapidly switch the states of the switches M1, M2; the first wave control code can then be transferred to the switches M1, M2 via the bias resistors R1, R2 without bypassing the bias resistors R1, R2.

In the second time, the memory 203 is caused to transmit the pre-stored first wave control code to the corresponding switch M1, M2, where the first wave control code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the first service signal, so as to form a beam of the first service signal. The starting time of the second time and the first time may be the same, and the second time is greater than the first time. In some embodiments, when the second time is greater than or equal to one symbol, for example, referring to fig. 2, when the communication signal from T2 is switched to the sensing signal of T3, the first beam switching signal is sent in the CP before symbol 1, and immediately after the beam control chip 200 receives the first beam switching signal, the switches N1 and N2 are turned on based on the first beam switching signal, and meanwhile, the pre-stored first wave control code is transferred to the corresponding switches M1 and M2, so that the beam control chip 200 can quickly switch the beam to the sensing beam. The pre-stored first pilot code continues to be transferred to the corresponding switch M1, M2 during the whole symbol 1 after the CP is ended, so as to beamform the first service signal during the symbol 1.

It will be appreciated that the first pilot code may be received by the beam control chip 200 and pre-stored in the memory 203 in steps not previously described, as shown in fig. 4. Since the first wave control code is pre-stored in the memory 203, the wave control chip 200 does not need to download the first wave control code during the wave beam switching, and can directly provide the first wave control code to the switches M1 and M2, so that the time resource occupation caused by the carrier wave control code downloading during the wave beam switching is avoided, the wave beam switching speed is increased, and the time domain resource is saved. In addition, since the bias resistors of the switches M1 and M2 are bypassed, the first wave control code can be rapidly transferred to the switches M1 and M2, so that the speed of beam switching is also increased, and the time of beam switching is shortened.

In step S3, referring to fig. 2 and 3, after transmitting the first beam switching signal, the baseband 100 transmits a first traffic signal to the beam control chip 200 during symbol 1.

In step S4, after the beam control chip 200 receives the first traffic signal, the switches M1, M2 may be turned on or off continuously based on the first waveguide code, so as to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the first traffic signal, so as to beam-shape the first traffic signal during the symbol 1.

In step S5, during the period of transmitting the first traffic signal to the beam control chip 200, the baseband 100 transmits a second wave control code to the beam control chip 200, where the second wave control code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second traffic signal. Specifically, referring to fig. 2, during symbol 1, the baseband 100 transmits a second pilot code that is used to make phase and/or amplitude adjustments during symbol 2.

In step S6, during the period when the beam control chip 200 receives the first traffic signal, the beam control chip 200 receives the second waveguide code, and then stores the second waveguide code in the memory 203. In this way, the beam control chip 200 does not need to download the second pilot code during subsequent beam switching, for example, during CP preceding symbol 2 in fig. 2.

In step S7, when the first traffic signal is switched to the second traffic signal, for example, in the CP period before symbol 2 in fig. 2, the baseband 100 transmits the second beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200, thereby controlling the beam control chip 200 to perform beam switching. The second traffic signal may be the same traffic signal as the first traffic signal or a different traffic signal. In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the second traffic signal in symbol 2 is a communication signal.

Step S8, after the beam control chip 200 receives the second beam switching signal:

In response to the second beam switching signal, the switches N1 and N2 are controlled to be turned on, so that the bias resistors of the switches M1 and M2 are bypassed, a fast channel is provided for the conduction of the switches M1 and M2, so that the second wave control code pre-stored in the memory is fast transferred to the switches M1 and M2 (the first switch), and the beam control chip 200 can fast switch the beam into the communication beam.

After a first time, the switches N1, N2 are controlled to be turned off, that is, at the moment when the first service signal is switched to the second service signal, the switches N1, N2 are turned on to rapidly switch the states of the switches M1, M2; the second wave control code can then be transferred to the switches M1, M2 via the bias resistors R1, R2 without bypassing the bias resistors R1, R2.

In a second time, the memory 203 is caused to transmit a pre-stored second wave control code to the corresponding switch M1, M2, where the second wave control code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second service signal, so as to form a beam of the second service signal. For example, referring to fig. 2, when switching from the sensing signal of symbol 1 to the communication signal of symbol 2, a second beam switching signal is transmitted in the CP before symbol 2, and immediately after the beam control chip 200 receives the second beam switching signal, the switches N1, N2 are turned on based on the second beam switching signal, and simultaneously, a pre-stored second wave control code is transferred to the corresponding switches M1, M2, so that the beam control chip 200 can rapidly switch the beam to the communication beam. The pre-stored second pilot code continues to be transferred to the corresponding switch M1, M2 during the whole symbol 2 after the end of the CP, so as to beamform the first traffic signal during the symbol 2.

In step S9, after transmitting the second beam switching signal, the baseband 100 transmits a second traffic signal to the beam control chip 200 during symbol 2.

In step S10, after the beam control chip 200 receives the second service signal, the switches M1 and M2 may be turned on or off continuously based on the second waveguide code, so as to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second service signal.

In step S11, during the period of sending the second service signal to the beam control chip 200, the baseband 100 sends the next wave control code to the beam control chip 200, where the next wave control code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the next service signal. Specifically, the baseband 100 transmits the second beam switching signal within the CP of the symbol where the second service signal is located, and the baseband 100 transmits the next wave control code after the CP of the symbol where the second service signal is located.

Then, when the second service signal is switched to the next service signal, the above steps are repeated.

The present invention also provides a fast wave control method for the beam steering chip 200 side as described above, which is described below with reference to fig. 3 to 5.

After the beam control chip 200 receives the first beam switching signal, the switches N1 and N2 are controlled to be turned on in response to the first beam switching signal, so that the bias resistors of the switches M1 and M2 are bypassed, a fast channel is provided for the conduction of the switches M1 and M2, the switches N1 and N2 are controlled to be turned off after a first time elapses, and the memory 203 is caused to transmit a pre-stored first wave control code to the corresponding switches M1 and M2 in a second time, wherein the first wave control code is used for adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of the first service signal, the second time is identical to the starting time of the first time, and the second time is longer than the first time. Specifically, the trigger circuit 403 may generate a trigger signal that is effective in a first time based on the first beam switching signal, so as to turn on the switches N1, N2, or the first beam switching signal may be a pulse square wave that is effective in the first time, and acts as an externally generated voltage signal directly on the control terminals of the switches N1, N2, so as to turn on the switches N1, N2. As an example, the second time is a symbol time, that is, during the first traffic signal, the memory 203 continuously passes the first waveguide code to the corresponding switch M1, M2 to ensure that the phase and/or amplitude of the first traffic signal is stable during the first traffic signal until the next beam switch.

After the beam control chip 200 receives the first service signal, the switches M1, M2 are turned on or off based on the first waveguide code, so as to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the first service signal.

During the reception of the first traffic signal by the beam control chip 200, the second waveguide code is stored in the memory 203 after the reception of the second waveguide code by the beam control chip 200.

After the beam control chip 200 receives the second beam switching signal, the switches N1 and N2 are controlled to be turned on in response to the second beam switching signal, so that the bias resistors of the switches M1 and M2 are bypassed, a fast path is provided for the conduction of the switches M1 and M2, the switches N1 and N2 are controlled to be turned off after the first time passes, and the memory 203 is caused to transmit the pre-stored second wave control code to the corresponding switches M1 and M2 in a second time, wherein the second time is the same as the starting time of the first time, and the second time is longer than the first time.

After the beam control chip 200 receives the second service signal, the switches M1, M2 are turned on or off based on the second waveguide code, so as to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second service signal.

And then, when the second service signal needs to be switched to the next service signal, repeating the steps.

The present invention also provides a fast wave control method for the baseband 100 side as described above, which is described below with reference to fig. 3 to 5.

The baseband 100 transmits a first beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200, thereby controlling the beam control chip 200 to perform beam switching.

After transmitting the first beam switching signal, the baseband 100 transmits a first traffic signal, which is a communication signal or a sensing signal, to the beam control chip 200.

During the transmission of the first traffic signal to the beam control chip 200, the baseband 100 transmits a second waveguide code to the beam control chip 200, the second waveguide code being used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second traffic signal. Specifically, the baseband 100 transmits the first beam switching signal within the CP of symble where the first traffic signal is located, and the baseband 100 transmits the second wave control code after the CP of symble where the first traffic signal is located.

When the first traffic signal is switched to the second traffic signal, the baseband 100 transmits a second beam switching signal to the beam control chip 200, thereby controlling the beam control chip 200 to perform beam switching.

After transmitting the second beam switching signal, the baseband 100 transmits a second traffic signal to the beam control chip 200, which is a sensing signal in case that the first traffic signal is a communication signal or a communication signal in case that the first traffic signal is a sensing signal.

During the transmission of the second traffic signal to the beam control chip 200, the baseband 100 transmits a next wave control code to the beam control chip 200, the next wave control code being used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the next traffic signal. Specifically, the baseband 100 transmits the second beam switching signal within the CP of symble where the second traffic signal is located, and the baseband 100 transmits the next wave control code after the CP of symble where the second traffic signal is located.

It should be noted that in the claims and the description of this patent, relational terms such as first and second, and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A beam control chip capable of rapid beam control, comprising:

A plurality of beam channels, used for beamforming a service signal; the beam channel comprises at least one amplitude-phase unit, the amplitude-phase unit comprises a phase shifter and/or an amplitude regulator; wherein the amplitude-phase unit comprises at least one first switch, the first switch is turned on or off based on a wave control code, and is used for adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of the corresponding service signal;

A control interface, used for receiving the beam control code and beam switching signal from outside the beam control chip;

a memory connected to the first switch and configured to store the beam control code received externally, and transmit the beam control code to the corresponding first switch based on the beam switching signal received externally, so as to control the opening or closing of the first switch;

at least one first resistor, the wave control code is transmitted to the first switch via the first resistor; and

At least one second switch, the second switch includes a first end, a second end and a control end, the first end and the second end of the second switch are connected in parallel to the two ends of the first resistor, and the control end of the second switch turns on the first end and the second end of the second switch based on the beam switching signal.

2. The beam control chip according to claim 1, further comprising:

A trigger circuit is connected to the control end of the second switch and receives the beam switching signal from the control interface; the trigger circuit is configured to generate a trigger signal that is valid within a first time based on the beam switching signal, and the trigger signal is used to turn on the first end and the second end of the second switch.

3. The beam control chip as described in claim 2 is characterized in that the first time is 100 nanoseconds to 200 nanoseconds.

4 . The beam control chip as described in claim 2 , wherein the trigger circuit is a monostable trigger.

5. The beam control chip according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the memory transmits the beam control code to the corresponding first switch within a second time based on the beam switching signal received externally.

6 . The beam control chip as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the second time is a time of one symbol.

7. The beam control chip according to claim 1, characterized in that the memory comprises a plurality of addressable storage modules for storing a plurality of groups of the beam control codes, and each of the storage modules is used to pre-store the beam control code corresponding to the service signal;

The storage module includes a plurality of addressable storage units, each of which is used to store the beam control code corresponding to the beam channel;

The memory transmits a set of the beam control codes to the corresponding first switches based on the beam switching signal.

8. The beam control chip according to claim 7, characterized in that the memory comprises a first group of storage modules and a second group of storage modules, the first group of storage modules and the second group of storage modules each comprise one or more of the storage modules; the service signal comprises a communication signal and a perception signal;

The first group of storage modules corresponds to the communication signal and is used to receive the corresponding wave control code from the control interface before the next communication signal;

The second group of storage modules corresponds to the perception signal, and the wave control code corresponding to the perception signal is fixed in the second group of storage modules.

9. The beam control chip as described in claim 7 is characterized in that the memory also includes a control unit, and the control unit is connected to the storage module; the control unit responds to the beam switching signal and transmits the beam control code of the next service signal to the first switch.

10. The beam control chip according to claim 1, characterized in that the service signal is a communication signal or a perception signal, and the communication signal and the perception signal share the beam channel.

11. A fast beam control method applied to the beam control chip according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it comprises:

After the beam control chip receives the first beam switching signal:

According to the first beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned on, and after a first time has passed, the second switch is controlled to be turned off, and within a second time, the memory transmits the pre-stored first beam control code to the corresponding first switch, and the second time is greater than the first time;

During the period when the beam control chip receives the first service signal, the first switch is turned on or off based on the first beam control code;

During the period when the beam control chip receives the first service signal, after the beam control chip receives a second beam control code, storing the second beam control code in the memory;

After the beam control chip receives the second beam switching signal:

According to the second beam switching signal, the second switch is controlled to be turned on, and after the first time has passed, the second switch is controlled to be turned off, and within the second time, the memory transmits the pre-stored second beam control code to the corresponding first switch;

During the period when the beam control chip receives a second service signal, the first switch is turned on or off based on the second beam control code.

12. A fast beam control method for a beam control chip according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it comprises:

Sending a first beam switching signal to the beam control chip;

After sending the first beam switching signal, sending a first service signal to the beam control chip;

During the period of sending the first service signal to the beam control chip, sending a second beam control code to the beam control chip, where the second beam control code is used to adjust the phase and/or amplitude of the second service signal;

When the first service signal is switched to the second service signal, sending a second beam switching signal to the beam control chip;

After sending the second beam switching signal, sending the second service signal to the beam control chip.

13. The fast wave control method as described in claim 12 is characterized in that the first service signal is a communication signal, and the second service signal is a perception signal; or, the first service signal is a perception signal, and the second service signal is a communication signal.

14. The fast wave control method as described in claim 12 is characterized in that the second wave control code is sent after the cyclic prefix of the symbol where the first service signal is located.

15. The fast beam control method as described in claim 12 is characterized in that the second beam switching signal is sent within the cyclic prefix of the symbol where the second service signal is located.

16. A communication and perception integrated device, comprising:

The beam control chip according to any one of claims 1 to 10;

A baseband configured to execute the fast wave control method according to any one of claims 12 to 15.