Design and development of a low cost digital beamforming demonstrator

Abstract

In this final year project (FYP) report, the author proposes a novel low-cost array digital beamforming (DBF) prototype by using a single microwave digital receiver and chirp signals. The proposed system uses a microwave signal switch to select echo signals from an N-element phased array so that the number of required microwave digital receivers is reduced from N to one, leading to substantial expense reduction. Typical low-cost DBF systems have severe constraints on the switching speed of diode signal switch and the computation power of the signal processor. Taking these constraints into consideration, the author has developed two signal selection schemes that optimize the beamforming resolution. Simulation results suggest that the range resolution and angle resolution of the proposed system under designated application scenarios are comparable to more expensive conventional DBF systems. The noise-reduction capability and possible applications of the new system are also explored.