JPH11298226A - Receiver with beam steering function - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To enable a receiver such as a television to optimally set the directivity of an antenna for each reception channel. SOLUTION: An array antenna composed of antenna elements 11 to 1n capable of electrically changing its directivity is used, and every time a reception channel is changed, the directivity of the antenna is scanned in all directions. Is measured, and the directivity of the antenna is set to the direction at which the maximum received power level is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a receiver having a beam steering function which can set an appropriate directivity to an antenna with respect to an arrival direction of a radio wave.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A case of a television broadcast receiver will be described as a conventional receiver which is required to set an appropriate directivity with respect to the arrival direction of a radio wave. TV broadcast receiver
Radio waves are received by a highly directional single beam antenna such as a Yagi antenna, and a received signal is output according to an instruction from a channel switch. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional television receiver modeled on a television broadcast receiver. The television signal is received by the single beam antenna 31 and the receiving unit 3
The second receiving channel is set by the channel switch 33 and the received image is output to the monitor 34.

[0003]

However, this receiver configuration does not have the function of electrically changing the directivity of the antenna, and the receiver does not have the function of evaluating the quality of the reception beam inside the receiver. The quality depends on the installation environment of the antenna. Therefore, the user of the television receiver,
It is necessary to switch the channels and monitor the output quality while adjusting the mechanical orientation of the antenna so that all channels are as good as possible. In this case, since the receiving antenna is fixed, one of the channels is good, but not all the channels are good, so that it is not possible to individually cope with the difference in the receiving state of each channel. As described above, the conventional antenna has a problem that it is difficult to adjust the mechanical orientation of the antenna, and it is not possible to obtain an optimum reception condition corresponding to a channel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem, and it is not necessary to adjust the mechanical orientation of the antenna, and it is possible to set optimum receiving conditions in any of the set channels. It is an object to provide a receiver with a beam steering function.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a receiver having a beam steering function for switching a plurality of reception channels to receive signals, the array having a directional controllable variable. An antenna, automatic scanning means for scanning the directivity of the array antenna in a predetermined range at the time of channel switching or power-on, and a receiving channel of the array antenna when scanned by the means; Maximum azimuth detecting means for detecting the azimuth in which the received power level of the received signal has become maximum as the receiving azimuth, and azimuth setting means for setting the directional azimuth of the array antenna to the receiving azimuth detected by the means. And a receiver provided with a beam steering function.

Further, the present invention provides a manual scanning means for manually setting the direction of the array antenna to set the receiving direction, and a manual setting mode for setting the receiving direction using the means or the automatic setting mode. A receiver with a beam steering function, characterized by adding a direction setting mode switching means for selecting an automatic setting mode for setting a reception direction using a scanning means and the maximum direction detection means.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a previous setting value storing means for storing a receiving direction set by the manual scanning means as a previous receiving direction corresponding to a receiving channel, and a manual setting mode by the direction setting mode switching means. The reception direction corresponding to the reception channel stored in the previous setting value storage means when selected is set as the reception direction, and when the reception direction is set by the manual scanning means thereafter, the set direction is used as the reception direction. 3. A receiver with a beam steering function according to claim 2, further comprising a storage means for updating the contents of said set value storage means as a corresponding previous reception direction.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a receiver with a beam steering function according to the present invention. In the figure, outputs from n antenna elements 11, 12,..., 1n are connected to n weighting circuits 21, 22,. The weighting circuits 21, 22,..., 2n are connected to the antenna element 11,
12,... The directivity is controlled by changing the amplitude and phase of the incoming radio wave of 1n. That is, the direction of the receiving antenna beam is controlled. This is called beam steering. The outputs of the weighting circuits are combined by the combiner 3 and input to the receiving unit 4. The control unit 5 sets the set channel from the channel changeover switch 7 in the receiving unit 4 and measures the reception power level of the receiving unit 4. Further, when the user gives an instruction from the manual adjustment unit 8, the control unit 5 adjusts the directivity of the overall antenna according to the instruction. There are two methods for changing the directivity of the antenna: an automatic method and a user's manual method. The automatic / manual setting switch 9 determines whether the mode should be set automatically or manually. Decides. The memory 6 stores a directional data area in which directional data to be set in a weighting circuit for determining the directivity of an antenna is stored in all directions, a value of a maximum reception power level, and a direction of the directivity of the antenna. There is a maximum value data area to be stored, and a reception channel data area for storing manually adjusted directivity data corresponding to the reception channel.

According to the present invention, an automatic setting mode for automatically determining the directivity of the antenna so that the reception power of each channel becomes the maximum value, and the user can display an image without ghost even if the reception power is not maximum. There is a manual setting mode in which the directivity of the antenna is determined by visual confirmation. First, an operation outline of the automatic setting mode will be described based on the automatic setting operation flow in FIG. When the power is turned on in the receiver of FIG. 1 or when the channel changeover switch 7 is switched while the power is turned on (YES in STEP 41), the control unit 5 sets the antenna element 11
12,... 1n, the amplitude and phase of the weighting circuits 21, 22,..., 2n corresponding to the n antenna elements are changed, and the directivity of the antenna is changed from azimuth 0 ° to 360 ° in all directions. Is scanned (STEP 42). Then, the direction of the level of the maximum received power is searched (STEP 43), and control is performed to maintain the directivity (STEP 44). Once the antenna is set in the direction of the maximum received power level (ST
(EP44), returning to STEP41, and seeing whether a new channel switching will occur next (STEP41). If there is no new switching (NO in STEP41), the process waits for channel switching (NO loop in STEP41). ). When a new channel switching occurs (YES in STEP 41), the directivity of the antenna is scanned in all directions in the receiving channel (STEP 4).
2) Search for the direction of the directivity of the maximum received power level (ST
EP43), keeping the directivity of the antenna in that direction (ST
EP44).

To change the directivity of the array antenna and scan in all directions, the weighting circuits 21 to 2n use:
This is performed by controlling the amplitude and phase of the radio wave received by the antenna element and combining the outputs of the respective weighting circuits by the combining circuit 3. FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of an eight-element circular array antenna. Since n is 8, eight antenna elements 11 to 18 are arranged at equal intervals with an element interval of λ / 2 (λ = wavelength). FIG. 4 shows an example of the directivity pattern received by the antenna having the configuration shown in FIG. This figure shows a case where the weighting circuit of each antenna element controls the amplitude and phase of the received radio wave so that the received power in the direction where the angle of arrival of the received radio wave is 0 ° is maximized. In FIG. 4, the magnitude of the rope is the strength of the combined received power level, and it can be seen that the rope in the direction of 0 ° is the largest. There are various methods for scanning in all directions. An example in which data set in the weighting circuit as shown in FIG. 7 is stored in the directivity data area of the memory 6 will be described. In the figure, A (i, j), P
(i, j) indicates the magnitude of the amplitude amplification and the phase delay set in the weighting circuit of each antenna element. To maximize the received power in the direction where the angle of arrival of the radio wave is 0 °, the weighting circuit 21 corresponding to the antenna element 11
A (1,0), the phase delay P (1,0), and the amplitude amplification of the weighting circuit 22 corresponding to the antenna element 12 is A (2,0).
0), the phase delay is P (2,0), the amplitude amplification of the weighting circuit 2n corresponding to the antenna element 1n is A (n, 0), and the phase delay is P (n, 0).
0). To maximize the received power in the direction where the angle of arrival is 1 °, the amplitude amplification of the weighting circuit 21 corresponding to the antenna element 11 is A (1,1), and the phase delay is P
(1, 1), weighting circuit 22 corresponding to antenna element 12
Is A (2,1), the phase delay is P (2,1), and the amplitude amplification of the weighting circuit 2n corresponding to the antenna element 1n is A (n,
1) Set the phase delay to P (n, 1). Thus, in order to store the azimuth data for maximizing the received power from 0 ° to 359 ° and to set the directional direction of the antenna,
The control unit 5 reads out the data from 0 ° to 359 ° in FIG.
By setting the data to 1 to 2n, it becomes possible to scan every 1 °. In FIG. 7, the data is stored in 1 ° steps, but this may be determined appropriately based on the requirement of the azimuth setting accuracy.

Next, the control in the manual setting mode for manually controlling the directivity of the antenna will be described. FIG. 6 shows a control flow. When the receiver is turned on or when the channel is switched while the power is turned on (STEP 5).
1) The control unit 5 reads the directivity setting data of the antenna recorded corresponding to the set channel from the reception channel data area of the memory 6, and sets the weighting circuit 21 to 2n (STEP 52). Next, it is checked whether the user has turned on the manual adjustment unit 8 (STEP 5).
3). If it is not turned on (NO in STEP 53), it is checked whether there is a new channel switch (STEP 51). If not (NO in STEP 51), the operation returns to whether the manual adjustment unit 8 is turned on (STEP 53). If there is channel switching (STEP5
(YES in 1), the directivity setting data of the antenna stored corresponding to the set channel is read from the reception channel data area of the memory 6, and is set to 2n from the weighting circuit 21 (STEP 52). FIG. 9 shows an example stored in the reception channel data area. In FIG. 9, the arrival angle of the radio wave at which the maximum received power of the antenna is obtained is stored for each channel. In the figure, channel 1 is at 2 °. When the control unit 5 reads that the setting of the two channels is 2 °, the control unit 5 determines from the directional data area of the memory 6 shown in FIG.
° directional data, A (1,2), P (1,2), A (2,2),
P (2,2),..., A (n, 2), P (n, 2) are read, and the amplitude amplification and phase delay of the weighting circuits 21, 22,..., 2n are set (STEP 52). If the manual adjustment unit 8 is turned on (YES in STEP 53), the directivity is changed to the value designated by the manual adjustment unit (STEP 54), and the value is stored in the reception channel data area of the memory 6. (STEP 45), return to the beginning. If the user changes the directivity again with the manual adjustment unit 8 (YES in STEP 53), the directivity is changed to that value (S
TEP54), and store the value (STEP55).

There are various methods for setting the directivity of the manual adjustment unit 8. One is that the direction of the directivity of the antenna is 0.
When the user rotates the dial to specify the direction of directivity and turns on the switch indicating the completion of setting, the control unit 5 sets the directivity data area shown in FIG. Is a method of extracting data of the amplitude amplification degree and the phase delay corresponding to the designated azimuth from the contents of the above, and setting the data in the weighting circuit. Also, as another method,
The manual adjustment unit 8 has a plus key and a minus key to display the currently set direction. When the user presses the plus key, the direction increases by 1 °, and when the user presses the minus key, the direction increases by one degree.
There is also a method of decreasing the azimuth by °. Also specify 1 °
This is a method of setting an arbitrary increase / decrease with a dial key instead of increasing / decreasing each time. In this manner, the directivity of the antenna is manually changed, and the optimal directivity of the antenna corresponding to the reception channel can be secured.

The above description has been made in each of the automatic setting mode and the manual setting mode.
There is also a method of providing two modes, an automatic setting mode and a manual setting mode, and selecting one of the modes depending on the user from time to time. FIG. 1 shows that the automatic / manual changeover switch 9 can be used to select between two modes. FIG. 10 shows an example of the control flow in that case. In this flow, a method of searching for the arrival angle of the radio wave of the maximum received power in the automatic setting mode, which is not described in detail in the control flow of FIG. 5, is also described in detail. When the power of the receiver is turned on or when the channel is switched by the channel switch 7 while the power is on (YES in STEP 61), the control unit 5 enters the automatic setting mode by the automatic / manual switch 9. It is checked whether the operation is in the manual setting mode (STEP 62). If in the automatic setting mode (YE in STEP62)
S), the channel set by the channel changeover switch 7 is received (STEP 63), and the value of i indicating the value of the angle of arrival of the radio wave is initialized to 0, and the maximum received power is initialized to 0 (ST).
EP64). FIG. 8 shows the configuration of the maximum value data area of the memory 6 for storing the maximum received power in S and the azimuth at that time in m. Next, the control unit 5 sets the directivity of the antenna to the direction of the value of i (STEP 65). This is performed by reading the data of i ° from the data of FIG. 7 in the directivity data area of the memory 6 and setting the amplitude amplification and the phase delay of the weighting circuits 21 to 2n. Initially the value of i is 0
Therefore, the value of 0 ° in FIG. 7 is set, and the value T of the reception power of the reception channel in that direction is measured (STEP 6).
6). Next, the measured value T of the received power is compared with the value of S in FIG. 8 (STEP 67). If the value of the received power T is larger than the value of S (YES in STEP 67), the value of i at that time is changed. m
And the value of T is stored in S (STEP 68). If T
If the value of is not larger than the value of S (NO in STEP 67), m
And the value of S are left as they are. And the value of i is 359 °
Is checked (STEP 69). If not (NO in STEP 69), 1 is added to the value of i, the directivity of the antenna is set with the new value of i (STEP 65), and the received power T is measured. (STEP 66), and compares it with the stored S (STEP 6).
7) If the received power of the new T is large (YE in STEP 67)
S), the value of S and the value of i are updated (STEP 68). In this loop, the value of i is sequentially increased from 0 to 359 to measure the received power. If the value of i exceeds 359 (Step 69
YES), the angle of arrival with the maximum received power level is recorded in m in FIG. Therefore, data corresponding to m ° is read from the directivity data area of the memory 6 shown in FIG. 7 so that the antenna has directivity in the direction of the stored value of m, and amplification is performed by the weighting circuits 21 to 2n. The degree and the phase delay are set (STEP 70), and it is then waited for a new channel to be set (NO in STEP 61).

If the automatic / manual changeover switch 9 is not in the automatic setting mode (NO in STEP 62), the mode set in the manual setting mode is received, so that the channel set by the channel changeover switch 7 is received (STEP 72) and shown in FIG. The direction of the antenna recorded corresponding to the set channel is read from the reception channel data area of the memory 6, the data corresponding to the direction is read from the directivity data area of the memory 6 shown in FIG. The amplitude amplification degree and the phase delay of 21 to 2n are set (STEP 73). In the case of a television receiver, the user looks at the image being received and confirms whether the received image is good. If no adjustment is necessary, the user does nothing (NO in STEP 74), and receives the set channel of the channel switch 7 (STEP 72).
Return to If the user has switched to a new channel in this loop, the directivity of the antenna is changed to a value stored corresponding to that channel (STEP 73). If adjustment is required, the user turns on the manual adjustment unit 8 to change the directivity data. When the manual adjustment unit 8 is turned on (STEP 7
(YES in 4), the controller 5 changes the value corresponding to the set channel in the reception channel data area of the memory 6 with the value of the manual adjustment data changed by the manual adjuster 8 (STEP 7).
5). For example, in FIG. 9, if the number of setting reception channels is two, the azimuth angle is 4 °, but if the value of the manual adjustment data of the manual adjustment unit 8 is 5 °, the two channels in the data area of FIG. Change the value to 5 ° and store it (STEP 7
5). Next, the control unit 5 sets an automatic / manual switch 9
To see if it has switched to the automatic setting mode (STEP7)
6). If the mode is not the automatic setting mode (NO in STEP76), the process returns to the reception of the setting channel in the manual mode (STEP72), and changes the directivity of the antenna to the newly set direction (STEP73). If in automatic setting mode (YE in STEP76)
S), the control shifts to the control of the automatic setting mode, the set channel is received (STEP 63), and the control for automatically setting the reception power to the maximum value is started.

As described above, according to the control flow shown in FIG. 10, the automatic setting mode and the manual setting mode can be easily changed by switching the automatic / manual changeover switch 9. The flow of the manual setting mode in FIG.
Although the control is slightly different from the flow of the manual setting mode described with reference to FIG. 6, the difference is that in the flow of FIG. 6, unless channel switching is performed (NO in STEP 51), the directivity setting of the antenna again ( STEP52) is skipped,
In FIG. 10, the directivity of the antenna corresponding to the set channel is always controlled without regard to whether or not the channel is switched. The operation is the same in principle in both flows. Of course, it goes without saying that the method described in the control flow of FIG. 6 can be used as the manual setting method by the manual adjustment unit 8 even in the case of FIG.

In the above description, the antenna array scans in all directions of 360 °. However, when the direction of arrival of radio waves is limited to a certain angle range, the antenna array is scanned within that range. What is necessary is just to scan.

[0017]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects by implementing the present invention. (1) By using an array antenna that changes directivity, optimal directivity can be set for each reception channel, and the reception quality can be improved. (2) In the automatic setting mode, the directivity of the antenna is automatically set so that the reception power level of each reception channel is maximized, so that the setting of the directivity is extremely easy. (3) In the case of automatic setting, since only the received power level is used as a criterion, even at the maximum level, the influence of noise may increase. Also, since the impression received from the image varies depending on the user's preference,
The manual setting mode can be used to cope with such a situation, and the usability of the receiver can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional television receiver.

FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of antenna elements of an eight-element array antenna.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of directivity of an eight-element array antenna.

FIG. 5 is a control flow of an automatic setting mode.

FIG. 6 is a control flow in a manual setting mode.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a directivity data area.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a maximum value data area.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a reception channel data area.

FIG. 10 is a control flow in an automatic / manual switching mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 12, 1n Antenna elements 21, 22, 2n Weighting circuit 3 Synthesizer 4 Receiver 5 Controller 6 Memory 7 Channel switch 8 Manual adjuster 9 Automatic / manual switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A receiver with a beam steering function for switching and receiving a plurality of reception channels, comprising: an array antenna whose directivity can be variably controlled; and a directivity of the array antenna when a channel is switched or when power is turned on. Automatic scanning means for scanning in a predetermined range; and detecting, as a reception direction, a direction in which the reception power level of the reception channel of the array antenna at that time when the array antenna is scanned by the means is maximum. A receiver with a beam steering function, comprising: maximum azimuth detecting means; and azimuth setting means for setting the azimuth of the directivity of the array antenna to the receiving azimuth detected by the means. 2. A manual scanning means for manually setting the receiving direction by manually scanning the directivity of the array antenna; and a manual setting mode for setting a receiving direction using the means or the automatic scanning means and 2. The receiver with a beam steering function according to claim 1, further comprising: a direction setting mode switching unit for selecting an automatic setting mode for setting a receiving direction using a maximum direction detection unit. 3. A previous setting value storage unit for storing a reception direction set by the manual scanning unit as a previous reception direction corresponding to a reception channel; and when a manual setting mode is selected by the direction setting mode switching unit. The reception azimuth corresponding to the reception channel stored in the previous setting value storage means is used as the reception azimuth. After that, when the reception azimuth is set by the manual scanning means, the set azimuth is used for the previous reception corresponding to the reception channel. 3. A receiver with a beam steering function according to claim 2, further comprising: storage means for updating the contents of said set value storage means as the direction.