Patents by Inventor Hamidreza Afzal

Hamidreza Afzal has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11749890
    Abstract: Techniques, systems and architectures for generating desired phase shifts in a phased array to control the directions of radiation in a wide range of angles are disclosed. Particularly, phased array architectures based on novel PLL-coupled phase shifting techniques for implementation in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) operations range are described. In one aspect, a phased array including an array of unit cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, each unit cell in the array of unit cells includes a dual-nested PLL that is configured to effectuate phase locking and frequency locking to a reference signal from an adjacent unit cell. Moreover, each PLL includes control circuitry that can generate a wide range of phase shifts between adjacent unit cells to facilitate phased-array operations. Note that using the dual-nested PLL to generate a desired phase shift between adjacent radiating elements eliminates the use of conventional lossy phase shifters in the phased array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Hamidreza Afzal, Omeed Momeni, Rouzbeh Kananizadeh, Razieh Abedi, Payam Heydari
  • Patent number: 11588240
    Abstract: Techniques, systems and architectures for generating desired phase shifts in a phased array to control the directions of radiation in a wide range of angles are disclosed. Particularly, phased array architectures based on novel PLL-coupled phase shifting techniques for implementation in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) operations range are described. In one aspect, a phased array including an array of unit cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, each unit cell in the array of unit cells includes a dual-nested PLL that is configured to effectuate phase locking and frequency locking to a reference signal from an adjacent unit cell. Moreover, each PLL includes control circuitry that can generate a wide range of phase shifts between adjacent unit cells to facilitate phased-array operations. Note that using the dual-nested PLL to generate a desired phase shift between adjacent radiating elements eliminates the use of conventional lossy phase shifters in the phased array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Hamidreza Afzal, Omeed Momeni, Rouzbeh Kananizadeh, Razieh Abedi, Payam Heydari
  • Publication number: 20220109236
    Abstract: Techniques, systems and architectures for generating desired phase shifts in a phased array to control the directions of radiation in a wide range of angles are disclosed. Particularly, phased array architectures based on novel PLL-coupled phase shifting techniques for implementation in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) operations range are described. In one aspect, a phased array including an array of unit cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, each unit cell in the array of unit cells includes a dual-nested PLL that is configured to effectuate phase locking and frequency locking to a reference signal from an adjacent unit cell. Moreover, each PLL includes control circuitry that can generate a wide range of phase shifts between adjacent unit cells to facilitate phased-array operations. Note that using the dual-nested PLL to generate a desired phase shift between adjacent radiating elements eliminates the use of conventional lossy phase shifters in the phased array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 7, 2021
    Publication date: April 7, 2022
    Applicant: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Hamidreza Afzal, Omeed Momeni, Rouzbeh Kananizadeh, Razieh Abedi, Payam Heydari