Regenerative Self-Steering Array Combiners

The authors discuss several designs for self-steering array combiners together with a simple frequency-offset tagging method which permits locking of combiner to one of several cochannel but spatially separate signals. The combiners use the output signal as a reference for extraction of phase information from each individual element-signal, thereby utilizing the full transmitted signal for element phase measurement. Designed for receiving PSK signals, the combiner inherently provides, as part of its design, the CW signal required for coherent demodulation of the combined array output. Laboratory measurements made with a four-branch combiner for two-phase PSK signals demonstrate the salient features of the combiner.