Six-port based high-resolution smart antenna alignment sensor

For several wireless data transmission systems the relevance of the information is dependent on the position of the information source. Therefore, Direction Of Arrival (DOA) detection of an incoming radio frequency signal is for several applications an important task. Typical applications for which DOA detection is relevant are for instance high-accuracy indoor navigation systems and dedicated high-speed wireless data links. For accurate DOA analysis a six-port receiver front-end is proposed. Benefits of the six-port architecture are high bandwidth and low circuit complexity. A solution for simultaneous data reception and DOA detection with the enhanced six-port receiver concept is also presented.