Energy-Efficient Implementation of Digital Beamforming

Abstract

In communication systems, mm-wave band is used for short-range, high data-rates applications. There are limitations in mm-wave communications, which can be mitigated by array signal processing. Array signal processing have been a particular area of interest in communication systems for a long time due to its applicability in many fields, such as Radar, Sonar, Satellite Communications, Ultrasound/CT/MR imaging, Oil and Gas exploration (seismic profiling), Radio astronomy, Audio systems, Tracking Systems, RFID etc. Beamforming techniques in array signal processing are widely used to receive (or transmit) the desired signal from a particular direction. Multiple antennas allow achieving this directionality, removing unwanted multipath interferences, increasing SNR and reducing the bit-error-rate. There are two types of beamforming algorithms: conventional and adaptive. Conventional beamforming is easier to implement in hardware and is preferred when signal characteristics are known. And the adaptive beamforming makes little or no assumptions on the properties of the signal as it evaluates its characteristics in real time and updates the weights of the different antenna channels accordingly. FPGA's provide appropriate platforms for prototyping adaptive beamforming algorithms and analyzing their performance, overhead and complexity. In 60 GHz wireless communication circuits, the issue of the most appropriate adaptive beamforming architecture is still open. The main goal of this research is to address this issue by prototyping and analyzing adaptive beam forming algorithms not just in terms of their performance but also in terms of their energy efficiency.

Date of Award	May 2014
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Ibrahim Elfadel (Supervisor)