Systolic array for 2-D adaptive beamforming

Abstract

A pipelined architecture for implementing a 2-D digital adaptive beamformer is described. The architecture relies heavily on a triangular systolic structure as a means of solving recursive least-squares problems based on the QRD algorithm due to J.G. McWhirter (1983). A manifold of triangular systolic arrays, which in the limit takes the form of a cosmic cube, is used. With the proper time skew format for the data flow, it is shown that the cosmic cube beamformer can concurrently and simultaneously process the data from the rows and columns of array antennas with a speed comparable to the 1-D case. Data memory requirements are modest. It is felt that the beamformer has promise for real-time beamforming with planar array antennas.<>