Patent Grant
10347980
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-249184, which was filed on Dec. 22, 2015, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
This disclosure mainly relates to a configuration of a radome type antenna device.
Conventionally, antenna devices accommodating a rotatable antenna in a radome are known. JP3123777U discloses this type of antenna device.
The antenna device of JP3123777U is provided with a reflection suppressing plate made of a material having an electrical property similar to that of the radome, inside of the radome at a position on a normal line and separated from the radome by substantially n-fourth (“n” is a positive odd number) of the wavelength of a radio wave. With the structure of JP3123777U, a reflection wave from the radome is canceled by the reflection suppressing plate, and thus an antenna gain reduction and an increase of sidelobes are suppressed.
Although a single antenna transmits and receives radio waves in the antenna device of JP3123777U, antenna devices including a transmission antenna and a reception antenna separated from each other like an FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) radar are also known. In such an antenna device, the transmission and reception of the radio waves are performed simultaneously, and therefore, it becomes important to secure isolation between the transmission and reception antennas.
However, if the radome of JP3123777U is applied to such an antenna device which performs the transmission and reception by the different antennas, the device will have a dual structure having a radome-like structure on the inside of the radome, which causes increases in weight and cost.
Further, it may also be considered to secure the isolation by separating the transmission antenna from the reception antenna in up-and-down directions of the antenna device. However, it will become difficult to reduce in size of the antenna device in the up-and-down directions.
Note that the antenna device of JP3123777U has a slightly inclined side wall of the radome. With an antenna device in which transmission and reception antennas are arranged in the up-and-down directions, by providing the inclination angle to the side wall of the radome as above, it is considered to be capable to improve the isolation characteristic to some extent. However, in order to secure a sufficiently high isolation characteristic, the side wall of the radome needs to be inclined sharply to some extent, which causes an increase in radome diameter.
The purpose of the present disclosure relates to providing an antenna device which includes a radome reduced in size, with an improved isolation characteristic.
According to one aspect of this disclosure, an antenna device with the following configuration is provided. That is, the antenna device includes an antenna part, a motor and a case. The antenna part has a transmission antenna configured to transmit a radio wave and a reception antenna disposed on one of an upper side and a lower side of the transmission antenna and configured to receive a radio wave. The motor rotates the antenna part. The case covers the antenna part. The case has a side wall. The side wall has two inclined portions inclined at different inclination angles with respect to a rotational axis of the antenna part. A boundary between the two inclined portions is located higher than half of a height of the case.
Thus, compared to a conventional case where only one inclined portion is provided, isolation characteristics of the transmission antenna and the reception antenna are improved. Further, since the radius of a lower part of the radome is smaller than the case where the only one inclined portion is provided, the isolation is improved without increasing the size of the case. Moreover, since the highest boundary is located higher than half of the overall height, the radius of the lower part of the case is reduced even more.
Each of the transmission and reception antennas may have a horn. The boundary may be located higher than a lower end of the horn located lower than the other horn.
Thus, the radius of the lower part of the case is reduced further more while keeping the improvement of the isolation.
The inclination angle may be larger for a first inclined portion disposed at a higher position among the two inclined portions than for a second inclined portion disposed at a lower position thereamong.
Thus, compared to a case where the second inclined portion disposed at the lower position is inclined larger than the first inclined portion disposed at the higher position, the radius of the lower part of the case is reduced. As a result, a size increase of the antenna device is prevented while keeping the improvement of the isolation.
The inclination angle of the first inclined portion is 20° or above.
Thus, the improvement of the isolation is enhanced.
The inclination angle of the first inclined portion is approximately 25°, and the inclination angle of the second inclined portion is approximately 10°.
Thus, the isolation is improved more effectively.
The boundary may be at a same height over the entire circumference of the case.
Thus, the isolation is improved to substantially the same level over the entire circumference of the case. Further, the shape of the side wall of the case is simplified, thus the manufacturing of the case becomes easy.
The boundary may be located lower than an upper end of the horn located higher than the other horn.
Thus, the isolation is improved more effectively.
The boundary may be located at substantially three-fourth of the height of the case.
Thus, the isolation is improved more effectively.
The antenna part may transmit and receive an FMCW.
That is, the above configuration with the improved isolation is particularly suitable for a case of transmitting and receiving radio waves simultaneously.
The antenna part maybe a patch antenna.
Thus, the improvement of the isolation in the antenna device of the patch antenna type is enhanced.
The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which the like reference numerals indicate like elements and in which:
One embodiment of this disclosure is described with reference to the appended drawings.
As illustrated in
The radome 20 is formed to be rotatable centering on a rotational axis of the rotational mechanism 40 (hereinafter, may be referred to as the center axis C). In the antenna device 10, the antenna part 30 transmits and receives radio waves while being rotated by the rotational mechanism 40 within the radome 20.
The radome 20 has a split structure in up-and-down directions, which is comprised of an upper cover 20a and a lower cover 20b, and the antenna part 30 and the rotational mechanism 40 may be accommodated in an internal space formed by joining the upper cover 20a with the lower cover 20b. Note that other components, structures, and/or configurations (e.g., an RF unit configured to process a high-frequency signal) may also be accommodated inside the radome 20. The upper cover 20a is removable from the lower cover 20b, and
The rotational mechanism 40 includes a support base 41, a rotational shaft 42, and an attaching part 43 as illustrated in
The rotational mechanism 40 includes a drive source (e.g., electric motor, not illustrated) disposed inside the radome 20. The drive force from this drive source is transmitted to the rotational shaft 42 via a drive force transmission member (e.g., gears and belt(s), not illustrated), thus the antenna part 30 rotates on a horizontal plane centering on the center axis C.
The antenna part 30 transmits and receives FMCWs (Frequency Modulated Continuous Waves) as the radio waves, and includes a transmission antenna 32 and a reception antenna 31. The transmission antenna 32 and the reception antenna 31 are arranged in the up-and-down directions and both of them are fixed to the attaching part 43 (attaching surface 43m). The antenna part 30 is capable of transmitting the radio wave by the transmission antenna 32 and receiving the radio wave by the reception antenna 31 simultaneously.
Each of the transmission antenna 32 and the reception antenna 31 includes a horn 33 and a patch antenna base plate 34.
The horn 33 is structured by a metal plate and opens at one side farther from the center axis C. As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The horn 33 of the reception antenna 31 and the horn 33 of the transmission antenna 32 are disposed to be in contact with each other (note that, a small gap may be formed between the two horns 33). Thus, by disposing the reception antenna 31 and the transmission antenna 32 to be in contact or close to each other, the antenna device 10 is structured compactly particularly in the height (up-and-down) directions.
Next, the structure of the radome 20 is described in detail mainly with reference to
The radome 20 covers the surrounding of the antenna part 30 and the rotational mechanism 40 to protect the antenna part 30 from wind, rain, etc. The radome 20 is made of a material having a property to transmit the radio wave well (e.g., reinforced plastic).
The upper cover 20a is fixed to the lower cover 20b by a fixing member, such as bolts, screws and studs.
The upper cover 20a is formed to be rotatable (e.g., has a shape formed by joining a frustoconical and a circular cylinder with each other). The upper cover 20a is hollow and has an upper wall and a side wall extending downward from an end of the upper wall. The upper wall is disposed to cover the upper side of the antenna part 30 etc., and the side wall is disposed to horizontally cover sides of the antenna part 30 etc. The upper wall is formed substantially into a circle and flat, and the side wall has a circular shape in a cross section taken by being cut with an imaginary horizontal plane.
The side wall of the upper cover 20a has a plurality of (two) inclined portions 21a and 21b having different inclining angles, and a non-inclined portion 22. The two inclined portions 21a and 21b are connected with each other in the up-and-down directions. The inclination angle changes at the boundary between the first (upper side) inclined portion 21a and the second (lower side) inclined portion 21b, and this section may be referred to as “the inclination changing boundary 24” or simply “the boundary 24.”
The two inclined portions 21a and 21b are integrally formed. Further, the first (upper side) inclined portion 21a is integrally formed with the upper wall.
The first and second inclined portions 21a and 21b incline at different angles with respect to the center axis C. A first inclination angle S1 which is an inclination angle of the first inclined portion 21a is larger than a second inclination angle S2 which is an inclination angle of the second inclined portion 21b. Note that each inclination angle mentioned here is an angle of the side wall with respect to a vertical line (i.e., parallel to the center axis C) in a cross section taken by cutting the upper cover 20a with an imaginary plane including the center axis C. Thus, the second inclined portion 21b is oriented closer to the direction of the center axis C compared to the first inclined portion 21a.
The non-inclined portion 22 is formed in parallel to the center axis C. In other words, the non-inclined portion 22 has zero inclination angle. The non-inclined portion 22 is integrally formed with the second inclined portion 21b.
Next, to describe influences which are caused on an isolation characteristic due to the inclination angle of the radome side wall, a conventional antenna device 10p is described with reference to
In the conventional antenna device 10p illustrated in
As described above, inclining the side wall of the radome 20p is an effective scheme of improving the isolation characteristic. On the other hand, although a radius R1p of an upper part of the radome 20p needs to be larger than a radius RT of a locus of rotation of an upper end portion of the antenna part, since the antenna part needs to be wide in order to secure directivity, it is practically almost impossible to reduce the radius R1p. Therefore, there is no way but to increase a radius R2p of a lower part of the radome 20p as the inclination angle Sp of the inclined portion 21p is increased; however, this causes a difficulty in size reduction.
Next, the isolation characteristic obtained based on the shape and configuration of the radome 20 of this embodiment is described with reference to
As described above, the radome 20 of this embodiment includes the first inclined portion 21a and the second inclined portion 21b. The first and second inclined portions 21a and 21b are adjacent to each other in the up-and-down directions over the inclination changing boundary 24. The inclination angle of the first inclined portion 21a (first inclination angle S1) is larger than the inclination angle of the second inclined portion 21b (second inclination angle S2), i.e., S1>S2. Further, the radome 20 is rotatable about the center axis C described above.
As illustrated in
Further, the height of the inclination changing boundary 24 (inclination changing height SH) is substantially three-fourth of the height of the radome 20 (radome height) H1, i.e., the inclination changing height SH is higher than half of the radome height H1 (SH>H1/2). Moreover the inclination changing height SH is higher than a height H3 of a lower end of the antenna part 30 (SH>H3). Furthermore, the inclination changing height SH is lower than a height H2 of the upper end of the antenna part 30 (SH<H2). Note that in the antenna part 30 of this embodiment, since the reception antenna 31 is disposed on the transmission antenna 32, the height H2 of the upper end of the antenna part 30 means the height of an upper end of the horn 33 of the reception antenna 31, and the height H3 of the lower end of the antenna part 30 means the height of a lower end of the horn 33 of the transmission antenna 32.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As described above, in the antenna device 10 of this embodiment, the two inclined portions 21a and 21b with different inclination angles are formed in the radome 20. Further, the inclination changing height SH which is the height of the boundary between the two inclined portions 21a and 21b (the height at which the inclination angle changes) is substantially three-fourth of the radome height H1 which is the overall height of the radome 20, i.e., higher than half of the radome height H1, further higher than the lower end of the horn 33 of the transmission antenna 32, and lower than the upper end of the horn 33 of the reception antenna 31. Thus, the isolation characteristic is effectively improved while preventing the radius R2 of the lower part of the radome 20 from increasing.
Note that the inclination angle S1 of the first inclined portion 21a and the inclination angle S2 of the second inclined portion 21b are not limited to the above-illustratively-described angles, and may variously be changed; however, it becomes easier to achieve the suitable isolation value (e.g., −40 dB) if the first inclination angle S1 is 20° or above. Moreover, it becomes even easier to achieve the suitable isolation value if the first inclination angle S1 is approximately 25° and the second inclination angle S2 is approximately 10°.
Moreover, in this embodiment, the inclination angle S1 of the first (upper side) inclined portion 21a is larger than the inclination angle S2 of the second (lower side) inclined portion 21b (S1>S2). Thus, the shape of the radome 20 is prevented from becoming pointy and a smooth and beautiful appearance is achieved.
Further, since the radome 20 is formed to be rotatable about the rotational axis of the rotational mechanism 40 (center axis C), the inclination changing height SH is the same over the entire circumference of the radome 20. In other words, the inclination changing boundary 24 is horizontal. Thus, it is possible to improve the isolation to substantially the same level in any orientation of the antenna part 30. Moreover, the shape of the radome 20 is simplified, thus the manufacturing becomes easy.
As described above, the antenna device 10 of this embodiment includes the antenna part 30, the rotational mechanism 40, and the radome 20. The antenna part 30 has the transmission antenna 32 and the reception antenna 31. The transmission antenna 32 transmits the radio wave. The reception antenna 31 is disposed on the transmission antenna 32 and receives the radio wave. The rotational mechanism 40 rotates the antenna part 30. The radome 20 covers the antenna part 30 in the rotating direction of the antenna part. The side wall of the radome 20 has the two inclined portions 21a and 21b. The two inclined portions 21a and 21b incline at the different inclination angles S1 and S2 with respect to the rotational axis of the antenna part 30 (center axis C). The inclination changing boundary 24 which is the boundary between the inclined portions 21 is located higher than half of the radome height H1 which is the overall height of the radome 20.
Thus, compared to the conventional case where only the single inclined portion 21p is provided, the isolation characteristics of the transmission antenna 32 and the reception antenna 31 are improved. Further, since the radius R2 of the lower part of the radome 20 is smaller than the case where the single inclined portion 21 is provided, the isolation is improved without increasing the size of the radome 20. Moreover, since the height position of the inclination changing boundary 24 is located higher than half of the radome height H1, the radius R2 of the lower part of the radome 20 is reduced even more.
Next a second embodiment is described.
As illustrated in
The rotational mechanism 40x includes an attaching part 43x having an attaching surface 43m to which the antenna part 30x is fixed. The attaching surface 43m is located closer to the center axis C compared to the first embodiment. Further the antenna part 30x is comprised of a reception antenna 31x and a transmission antenna 32x, each having a horn 33x which does not have a tapered portion like the first embodiment and is formed short in length.
The radome 20x includes an upper cover 20ax and a lower cover 20bx. A side wall of the upper cover 20ax has two inclined portions 21ax and 21bx, and a non-inclined portion 22x. An inclination angle S1x of the upper inclined portion 21ax is different from an inclination angle S2x of the lower inclined portion 21bx. Also in this embodiment, an inclination changing height SHx which is the height of the boundary between the inclined portions 21ax and 21bx (inclination changing boundary 24x) is substantially three-fourth of the overall height of the radome 20x (radome height H1x). That is, the inclination changing height SHx is higher than half of the radome height H1x, further higher than a height H3x of a lower end of the horn 33x of the transmission antenna 32x, and lower than a height H2x of an upper end of the horn 33x of the reception antenna 31x.
The chart of
Also in this embodiment, as long as the conditions described above are satisfied, the height of an inclination changing boundary 24x may suitably be changed. The chart of
Although the suitable embodiments of this disclosure are described as above, the above configuration may be changed as follows, for example.
In the first embodiment, the radome 20 is formed with the two inclined portions 21a and 21b; however, the number of the inclined portions is not limited to two, and may be three or more. In this case, a plurality of inclination changing boundaries 24 will be formed. Here, any on of the inclination changing boundary 24, especially the inclination changing boundary 24 at the highest position among the plurality of inclination changing boundaries 24 is simply required to be higher than half of the height of the radome height H1. The same condition may be applied to the second embodiment.
Further, in the antenna parts 30 and 30x, the transmission antennas 32 and 32x may be disposed on the reception antennas 31 and 31x.
<Terminology>
It is to be understood that not necessarily all objects or advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment described herein. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that certain embodiments may be configured to operate in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other objects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
All of the processes described herein may be embodied in, and fully automated via, software code modules executed by a computing system that includes one or more computers or processors. The code modules may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other computer storage device. Some or all the methods may be embodied in specialized computer hardware.
Many other variations than those described herein will be apparent from this disclosure. For example, depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of any of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a different sequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not all described acts or events are necessary for the practice of the algorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts or events can be performed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on other parallel architectures, rather than sequentially. In addition, different tasks or processes can be performed by different machines and/or computing systems that can function together.
The various illustrative logical blocks and modules described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented or performed by a machine, such as a processor. A processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be a controller, microcontroller, or state machine, combinations of the same, or the like. A processor can include electrical circuitry configured to process computer-executable instructions. In another embodiment, a processor includes an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable device that performs logic operations without processing computer-executable instructions. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a digital signal processor (DSP) and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Although described herein primarily with respect to digital technology, a processor may also include primarily analog components. For example, some or all of the signal processing algorithms described herein may be implemented in analog circuitry or mixed analog and digital circuitry. A computing environment can include any type of computer system, including, but not limited to, a computer system based on a microprocessor, a mainframe computer, a digital signal processor, a portable computing device, a device controller, or a computational engine within an appliance, to name a few.
Conditional language such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, are otherwise understood within the context as used in general to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.
Any process descriptions, elements or blocks in the flow diagrams described herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should be understood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or elements in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of the embodiments described herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executed out of order from that shown, or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved as would be understood by those skilled in the art.
Unless otherwise explicitly stated, articles such as “a” or “an” should generally be interpreted to include one or more described items. Accordingly, phrases such as “a device configured to” are intended to include one or more recited devices. Such one or more recited devices can also be collectively configured to carry out the stated recitations. For example, “a processor configured to carry out recitations A, B and C” can include a first processor configured to carry out recitation A working in conjunction with a second processor configured to carry out recitations B and C. The same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce embodiment recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced embodiment recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations).
It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.).
For expository purposes, the term “horizontal” as used herein is defined as a plane parallel to the plane or surface of the floor of the area in which the system being described is used or the method being described is performed, regardless of its orientation. The term “floor” can be interchanged with the term “ground” or “water surface”. The term “vertical” refers to a direction perpendicular to the horizontal as just defined. Terms such as “above,” “below,” “bottom,” “top,” “side,” “higher,” “lower,” “upper,” “over,” and “under,” are defined with respect to the horizontal plane.
As used herein, the terms “attached,” “connected,” “mated,” and other such relational terms should be construed, unless otherwise noted, to include removable, moveable, fixed, adjustable, and/or releasable connections or attachments. The connections/attachments can include direct connections and/or connections having intermediate structure between the two components discussed.
Numbers preceded by a term such as “approximately”, “about”, and “substantially” as used herein include the recited numbers, and also represent an amount close to the stated amount that still performs a desired function or achieves a desired result. For example, the terms “approximately”, “about”, and “substantially” may refer to an amount that is within less than 10% of the stated amount. Features of embodiments disclosed herein are preceded by a term such as “approximately”, “about”, and “substantially” as used herein represent the feature with some variability that still performs a desired function or achieves a desired result for that feature.
It should be emphasized that many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments, the elements of which are to be understood as being among other acceptable examples. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-249184 | Dec 2015 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5323170 | Lang | Jun 1994 | A |
| 20070057862 | Bailey | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20100117923 | Storz | May 2010 | A1 |
| 20110037671 | Vogler | Feb 2011 | A1 |
| 20140159949 | Mialhe | Jun 2014 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 3123777 | Jul 2006 | JP |
| 2007201868 | Aug 2007 | JP |
| 2015075072 | May 2015 | WO |
| Entry |
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| European Patent Office, Extended European Search Report Issued in Application No. 16205318.5, dated May 11, 2017, Germany, 9 pages. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20170179588 A1 | Jun 2017 | US |
