CN106299711B

CN106299711B - Microwave antenna switching device and microwave antenna

Info

Publication number: CN106299711B
Application number: CN201510294167.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 蓝培
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 2015-06-01
Filing date: 2015-06-01
Publication date: 2020-07-07
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-01
Also published as: CN106299711A

Abstract

The invention provides a microwave antenna switching device, comprising: a coupling assembly comprising one or more coupling devices for near field coupling of radio frequency signals; a first antenna assembly comprising one or more antenna elements; and a feeding/matching network, which is connected with the coupling component and the first antenna component and is used for feeding the radio frequency signal coupled by the coupling component to the first antenna component and carrying out impedance matching. The invention also provides a microwave antenna comprising the conversion device. By coupling the conversion device with a standard microwave antenna, the antenna can be easily customized based on a commercially available active antenna, and since the conversion device does not include an active device, the customization difficulty and cost are reduced, and the conversion device is particularly suitable for wireless application in a 60GHz frequency band.

Description

Microwave antenna switching device and microwave antenna

Technical Field

The present invention relates to antenna technologies, and in particular, to a microwave antenna switching device and a microwave antenna.

Background

Currently, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and cellular mobile communication network devices operate in the sub-6 GHz frequency band, where radio frequency signals can be transmitted from a transceiver to an antenna through a coaxial cable.

However, with the development of wireless technology, wireless systems (e.g., wireless systems based on the ieee802.11ad standard) operating in the 60GHz band will gain more attention in the industrial and consumer electronics fields. In the 60GHz band, the cost of the transmission line for the rf signal is greatly increased, and the installation of the transmission line may become more complicated. Therefore, the external antenna connected to the transceiver will be more active at this frequency band. Active antennas usually include active devices such as if/rf converters, so that the signal transmission line between the transceiver and the antenna can operate in the if band and use coaxial cable for signal transmission. The coaxial cable is low in cost, so that the cost of the wireless system cannot be greatly increased, and the coaxial cable is simple and convenient to install.

Antenna products operating in the 60GHz band typically use antenna arrays that include multiple antenna elements that may be beam steered/shaped. Active antennas operating at 60GHz band are more complex to design and manufacture than antenna products operating below 6GHz band. Furthermore, the types of antennas that can be supported by 60GHz wireless products are also typically limited.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to enable the customization of microwave antennas, in particular antennas operating in the 60GHz band, in a relatively simple and cost-effective manner.

In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention provides a microwave antenna switching apparatus, including:

a coupling assembly comprising one or more coupling devices for near field coupling of radio frequency signals;

a first antenna assembly comprising one or more antenna elements; and

and the feeding/matching network is connected with the coupling component and the first antenna component and is used for feeding the radio-frequency signal coupled by the coupling component to the first antenna component and carrying out impedance matching.

In order to achieve the above object, another embodiment of the present invention provides a microwave antenna, including:

a conversion device as described above; and

a second antenna assembly comprising one or more antenna elements near-field coupled to the coupling assembly for transmitting the radio frequency signal to the coupling assembly.

By providing the microwave antenna switching device, the customization of the antenna can be simply realized based on the standard microwave antenna sold in the market, and the customization difficulty and the cost are reduced because the switching device does not comprise an active device.

The microwave antenna conversion device is coupled with a standard active antenna, so that a directional diagram of the active antenna is converted, the antenna can be conveniently customized according to specific application requirements, and the existing wireless product is not required to be changed, so that the microwave antenna conversion device is particularly suitable for wireless application of a 60GHz frequency band.

Drawings

Objects, features and effects of the present invention will be described in detail by specific embodiments according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. These descriptions are only used as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Wherein:

fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a microwave antenna switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2a is a schematic structural diagram of a microwave antenna switching device according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2b is a schematic diagram of an isolation device;

FIG. 2c is a schematic diagram of a commercially available 60GHz active antenna;

fig. 2d is a schematic cross-sectional view of the parts shown in fig. 2 a-2 c after mounting.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of a microwave antenna switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, the switching device 10 includes a coupling component 11, a feeding/matching network 12 and a first antenna component 13. Wherein the coupling component 11 comprises one or more coupling devices for near-field coupling of radio frequency signals; the feeding/matching network 12 is connected to the coupling component 11 and the first antenna component 13, and is configured to feed the radio frequency signal coupled by the coupling component 11 to the first antenna component 13 and perform impedance matching; the first antenna assembly includes one or more antenna elements for producing a desired pattern depending on the particular application.

Since commercially available 60GHz antenna products typically use antenna arrays and include active devices, customization is often more difficult and the types of antennas that can be supported by 60GHz wireless products are often more limited. By providing the microwave antenna switching device, the antenna can be conveniently customized based on a standard microwave antenna sold in the market, and the difficulty and the cost of customization are reduced because the switching device does not comprise an active device.

Fig. 2a to 2d show another embodiment according to the invention. Fig. 2a is a schematic structural diagram of a microwave antenna switching device provided in this embodiment; fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of an isolation device, which is also a component of the microwave antenna switching apparatus shown in fig. 2 a; FIG. 2c is a schematic diagram of a commercially available 60GHz active antenna; fig. 2d is a schematic cross-sectional view of the parts shown in fig. 2 a-2 c after mounting.

As shown in fig. 2a, the microwave antenna switching device 20 includes a coupling element 21, a feeding/matching network 22 and a first antenna element 23. The coupling assembly 21 comprises four coupling devices 211 for near field coupling of radio frequency signals. Near-field coupling is a way to wirelessly transmit signals over short distances by electric field coupling, which typically uses electrodes for capacitive coupling, or magnetic field coupling, which typically uses coils for inductive coupling. The structure of the coupling element 21 is closely related to the structure of the rf signal source, and therefore, in this embodiment, the structure of each coupling device of the coupling element 21 can be specifically designed according to the structure of the active antenna 25 shown in fig. 2 c. Shielding and suppression devices (not shown in fig. 2a for simplicity) may be further disposed between the coupling devices of the coupling assembly 21 to eliminate cross-coupling interference. The feed/matching network 22 is configured to feed the radio frequency signal coupled by the coupling component 21 to the first antenna component 23, and perform impedance matching so as to match the impedance of the transmission path of the radio frequency signal from the active antenna 25 to the first antenna component 23. The specific way of impedance matching can be realized by adjusting the length and width of the microstrip line or using lumped elements or other known ways for the transmission path of the radio frequency signal. The feed/matching network 22 may further comprise one or more power splitting/combining devices 221 for splitting and/or combining the rf signals before feeding them to the first antenna assembly 23, so that the number of coupling devices of the coupling assembly 21 may be equal, greater or less than the number of antenna elements of the first antenna assembly 23. The first antenna assembly 23 includes eight antenna elements 231 that can produce a pattern required by a particular application to enable customization of the antenna. In addition, the microwave antenna transforming apparatus 20 may further comprise an isolating device 24, as shown in fig. 2b, disposed on the coupling component 21 for adjusting the coupling distance of the coupling component 21 to the radio frequency signal. The isolation device 24 may be implemented using dielectric materials and/or metal structures, such as a uniform dielectric layer, a dielectric substrate having metal structures thereon, or a porous metal layer.

Fig. 2c shows a schematic structural diagram of the active antenna 25, which is a commercially available active antenna array operating in the 60GHz band, and includes eight antenna units 251 disposed on a substrate 252, and an if/rf converter 253 and an amplifier 254 are disposed on the back side of the substrate 252.

Fig. 2d shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the microwave antenna switching device 20 and the active antenna 25 after mounting. As shown in fig. 2d, the active antenna 25 is disposed on the coupling component 21 and can be fixed by gluing, clamping or bolting, and the antenna unit 251 of the active antenna 25 is opposite to the coupling device 211 of the coupling component 21 to transmit the radio frequency signal to the coupling component 21 by near field coupling, wherein every two antenna units of the active antenna 25 can be coupled with one coupling device of the coupling component 21. An isolation device 24 is further disposed between the active antenna 25 and the coupling assembly 21 for adjusting the coupling distance between the active antenna 25 and the coupling assembly 21 to suit the specific application requirements.

By coupling the microwave antenna switching device 20 with a commercially available active antenna 25 in the manner shown in fig. 2d, the directivity pattern of the active antenna 25 can be switched. The directional pattern of the first antenna assembly 23 can be designed according to specific application requirements, the directional pattern can be completely different from that of the active antenna 25, and the gains of the first antenna assembly 23 and the active antenna 25 can also be different. Thus, the customization of the antenna, which is particularly suitable for wireless applications in the 60GHz band, is easily achieved by the microwave antenna switching device 20. In addition, in the case that the existing wireless product only supports limited standard antenna types such as the commercially available active antenna 25, the customized antenna can be connected to the existing wireless product without changing the existing wireless product, so as to adapt to different specific applications.

Particularly advantageously, the components of the microwave antenna switching Device 20 may be a molded interconnect Device (molded interconnect Device), for example, the coupling component 21, the feed/matching network 22, the first antenna component 23 and the isolation Device 24 may be directly printed out on the inner surface of an antenna housing by means of 3D printing. In this way, different antenna assemblies can be easily customized by arranging a standard antenna assembly inside the antenna housing.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that although the coupling assembly 21 includes four coupling devices 211 and the first antenna assembly 23 and the active antenna 25 each include eight antenna elements in the above embodiments, the number of the above components is only for example and is not limiting. In other embodiments of the present invention, the number of components may be determined according to specific application requirements.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the above embodiments are described with respect to antenna assemblies operating in the 60GHz band, the invention is not so limited. In other embodiments of the present invention, microwave antennas of different frequency bands can be customized according to specific application requirements.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that although in the above-described embodiment, the microwave antenna switching device 20 may further include the isolation device 24 for adjusting the coupling distance of the coupling component 21 to the radio frequency signal, the isolation device 24 is not necessary. In other embodiments of the present invention, the isolation device 24 may be omitted, depending on the particular application requirements.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that while the present description has been described in terms of various embodiments, it is not intended that each embodiment comprises a separate embodiment, and that such descriptions are provided for clarity only and that those skilled in the art will be able to combine the embodiments as a whole to form further embodiments as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The above description is only an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any equivalent alterations, modifications and combinations can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention.

Claims

1. A microwave antenna comprising a microwave antenna conversion device and a second antenna component;

the microwave antenna switching device includes:

a first antenna assembly comprising one or more antenna elements;

a feeding/matching network connected with the coupling component and the first antenna component for feeding the radio frequency signal coupled by the coupling component to the first antenna component and performing impedance matching;

the second antenna assembly comprising one or more antenna elements near-field coupled to the coupling assembly for transmitting the radio frequency signals to the coupling assembly, wherein the first antenna assembly is a custom antenna assembly and the second antenna assembly is a standard antenna assembly.

2. The antenna of claim 1, wherein the first antenna element is a passive antenna element and the second antenna element is an active antenna element.

3. The antenna of claim 1, wherein the coupling element, the first antenna element, and the feed/matching network are a molded interconnect device.

4. An antenna according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the feed/matching network further comprises one or more power splitting/combining devices for power splitting and/or combining the radio frequency signals before feeding them to the first antenna component.

5. The antenna of claim 4, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

an isolation device disposed on the coupling assembly for adjusting a coupling distance of the coupling assembly to the radio frequency signal.

6. The antenna of claim 5, wherein the first antenna component operates at 60 GHz.