Beam shaping for reconfigurable holographic antennas

1. A method of shaping an antenna beam pattern of an antenna, the method comprising:

driving a first holographic pattern onto a layer of the antenna while a feed wave excites the layer;

receiving an antenna pattern metric representative of a first antenna pattern generated by the antenna while the first holographic pattern is driven onto the layer;

generating a modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric; and

driving the modified holographic pattern onto the layer of the antenna.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric includes:

selecting coordinates of a sidelobe of the first antenna pattern; and

adding a holographic interference pattern to the first holographic pattern, the holographic interference pattern to cancel at least a portion of the sidelobe.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric further includes one or more of:

adjusting a phase-offset of the holographic interference pattern; and

adjusting an amplitude of the holographic interference pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating the antenna pattern metric based on a measurement of a signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) of a signal received by the antenna.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating the antenna pattern metric based on a measurement of the first antenna pattern.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer is a metamaterial layer that includes an array of slots configurable to form holographic diffraction patterns for steering the feed wave.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein each of the slots in the array of slots comprises:

an iris;

a radiating patch co-located with the iris; and

a tunable dielectric is disposed between the iris and the radiating patch.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein driving the first holographic pattern and modified holographic pattern onto the layer includes tuning a reactance of each of the slots of the metamaterial layer by varying a voltage across liquid crystal disposed within each of the slots.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feed wave is received from a satellite.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feed wave is provided by the antenna.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating the antenna pattern metric based on a measurement of a Carrier-to-Interference (“C/I”) value of a signal received by the antenna.

12. A holographic metamaterial antenna comprising:

a waveguide;

a metamaterial layer coupled to the waveguide;

control logic coupled to drive holographic patterns onto the metamaterial layer; and

a non-transitory machine-readable medium that provides instructions that, when executed by the holographic metamaterial antenna, will cause the holographic metamaterial antenna to perform operations comprising:

driving a first holographic pattern onto a layer of the antenna while a feed wave excites the layer;

receiving an antenna pattern metric representative of a first antenna pattern generated by the antenna while the first holographic pattern is driven onto the layer;

generating a modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric; and

driving the modified holographic pattern onto the layer of the antenna.

13. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 12 , wherein generating the modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric includes:

selecting coordinates of a sidelobe of the first antenna pattern to modify; and

adding a holographic interference pattern to the first holographic pattern, the holographic interference pattern to cancel at least a portion of the sidelobe.

14. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 13 , wherein generating the modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric further includes:

adjusting a phase-offset of the holographic interference pattern; and

adjusting an amplitude of the holographic interference pattern.

15. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 12 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium provides further instructions that will cause the holographic metamaterial antenna to perform further operations comprising:

generating the antenna pattern metric based on a measurement of a signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) of a signal received by the antenna.

16. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 12 , wherein the metamaterial layer includes an array of slots configurable to form holographic diffraction patterns for steering the feed wave.

17. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 16 , wherein each of the slots in the array of slots comprises:

an iris;

a radiating patch co-located with the iris; and

a tunable dielectric is disposed between the iris and the radiating patch.

18. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 16 , wherein driving the first holographic pattern and modified holographic pattern onto the metamaterial layer includes tuning a reactance of each of the slots by varying a voltage across liquid crystal disposed within each of the slots.

19. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 12 , wherein the feed wave is provided by the antenna.

20. The holographic metamaterial antenna of claim 12 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium provides further instructions that will cause the holographic metamaterial antenna to perform further operations comprising:

calculating the first holographic pattern in response to a position of the antenna relative to a satellite.

21. A method of interference mitigation for reconfigurable holographic antennas, the method comprising:

driving a first holographic pattern onto a layer of the antenna while a feed wave excites the layer;

receiving an antenna pattern metric representative of a first antenna pattern generated by the antenna while the first holographic pattern is driven onto the layer;

generating a modified holographic pattern in response to the antenna pattern metric; and

driving the modified holographic pattern onto the layer of the antenna to generate an adjusted antenna pattern.