Patent Grant
10205213
The present invention relates generally to antennae and more particularly to antenna arrays.
State of the art antenna technology includes that described in the following patent documents: US 20130120205; US 20130321229; U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,915; U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,663; U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,357; U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,160; U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,647; U.S. Pat. No. 6,563,398; U.S. Pat. No. 6,897,824; U.S. Pat. No. 7,564,421; U.S. Pat. No. 8,558,746; WO2013089456A1; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,915 to Rammos (Philips).
The disclosures of all publications and patent documents mentioned in the specification, and of the publications and patent documents cited therein directly or indirectly, are hereby incorporated by reference. Materiality of such publications and patent documents to patentability is not conceded.
Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to provide an antenna array configuration with h-plane splitters between ends of a feeding network and radiating elements e.g. horns, thereby to reduce the distance between the centers of the horns to less than one wavelength which results in a better side lobe level.
Certain embodiments of the present invention seek to manufacture upper and lower plates together constituting an antenna, typically each plate in a single operation, by dividing the feeding network's waveguides at the centre where there are no cross currents so as not to disturb propagation in the feeding network. An advantage of certain embodiments is that propagation in the feeding network remains undisturbed even if the two halves of the waveguides are not touching each other and instead are bonded to one another, generating a non-zero gap there between. For example, the two plates of the antenna may be attached to one another only by screws, rather than soldering the plates together.
According to certain embodiments of the present invention the radiating elements, h-plane splitters and upper half of the feeding network are fabricated in one plate without undercuts hence simplifying manufacture of the plate which may for example be formed using a simple molding machine or a 3 axis-CNC machine. Parts with undercuts require an extra part for the mold and increase the cost of the molded part.
The following terms may be construed either in accordance with any definition thereof appearing in the prior art literature or in accordance with the specification, or as follows:
Waveguide—metallic hollow pipe which may have a rectangular or elliptical or oval profile (cross-section) used for conveying electromagnetic waves from one opening of the pipe to another.
Cutoff frequency: The frequency corresponding to a wavelength of 2a, given a rectangular waveguide with dimensions a×b, where a>b, e.g. as shown in
where “a” is the larger cross-sectional dimension.
Two plate waveguide—The waveguide may be manufactured from two plates in any suitable manner e.g. by cutting channels in the two conductive plates and then attaching the plates e.g. as shown in
E-plane orientation waveguide—a waveguide made from two conductive pieces in which the narrow wall of the waveguide “b” is parallel to the conductive plates. Such a configuration allows the waveguide to be divided between the plates such the division line does not cross electric current lines as explained herein and/or as known in the art.
E-orientation waveguide feeding network: A planar feeding network including E-plane splitters interconnected by waveguide sections. The waveguide orientation is such that the short dimension of the waveguide's cross-section “b” is parallel to the plane of the feeding network.
E-plane splitter—A waveguide power divider in which the input branch connects to the long wall “a” of the waveguide e.g. as shown in
H-plane splitter—A waveguide power divider in which the input branch connects to the short wall “b” of the waveguide e.g. as shown in
Radiating element: A component with one input and one output in which the input is connected to a previous component and the output opens to free space hence radiates power into space. Radiating element may for example comprise: small horn antennas, rectangular waveguides with one end open to the space, circular or hexagonal waveguides with one end open to the space, and so forth.
Feeding network: Components of an antenna array which, in a transmitting antenna, feed radio waves arriving from the antenna input to the array of radiating elements (which are functioning as transmitting elements), or, in a receiving antenna, collect the incoming radio waves from the various radiating elements in the array (which are functioning as receiving elements), and sum radiation from all such elements into the antenna “input” (which in receiving antenna functions as output).
Undercut: A feature that cannot be molded using only a single pull mold.
The present invention thus typically includes at least the following embodiments:
Antenna apparatus for transmitting/receiving electromagnetic radiation defining a wavelength, the apparatus comprising:
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the radiating element layer, H-plane splitter layer and E-orientation feeding network layer are formed from only two machined plates.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the radiating element layer, H-plane splitter layer and E-orientation feeding network layer are formed by injection molding two machined plates.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the radiating element layer, H-plane splitter layer and E-orientation feeding network layer are formed by injection molding only two machined plates.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the E-plane splitters are arranged to form a parallel feeding network defining a binary tree comprising layers of splitters, each splitter in a layer n splitting an output of a splitter in layer (n−1) of the tree.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the at least one upper machined plate comprises a middle plate and a top-most plate, and wherein:
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein there is no undercut in the lower plate.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein at least one of the E-plane splitters has first and second outputs and is designed to split power unequally between the first and second outputs.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein paths from the feeding network input to each of the outputs are equal in length so phases at all of the multiple feeding network outputs are identical.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the network layer comprises a full binary tree.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the plates may be screwed, rather than being soldered, to one another.
A method for manufacturing an antenna for transmitting/receiving electromagnetic radiation defining a wavelength and comprising:
A method according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the forming is performed by a molding machine.
A method according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the forming is performed by a 3-axis CNC machine.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein there is no undercut in the upper plate.
Antenna apparatus according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the upper machined plate is bonded to the lower machined plate.
A method according to any of the preceding embodiments wherein the upper machined plate is bonded to the lower machined plate.
It is appreciated that the waveguide sections need not be uniform in length; for example, the lengths of the waveguide sections may be set to generate beam tilt as is known in the art.
The embodiments referred to above, and other embodiments, are described in detail in the next section.
Any trademark occurring in the text or drawings is the property of its owner and occurs herein merely to explain or illustrate one example of how an embodiment of the invention may be implemented.
Elements separately listed herein need not be distinct components and alternatively may be the same structure. A statement that an element or feature may exist is intended to include (a) embodiments in which the element or feature exists; (b) embodiments in which the element or feature does not exist; and (c) embodiments in which the element or feature exist selectably e.g. a user may configure or select whether the element or feature does or does not exist.
Certain embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in the following drawings:
In the drawings, black lines may denote transition between conductive substrates and empty spaces.
As shown in
Typically, each feeding network output (100) connects to only two radiating elements and generally, the above three elements (30, 40, and 120), in the upper plate, are designed so as not to contain undercuts to facilitate manufacturing in a single plate using a simple molding machine or a 3-axis CNC machine.
Typically, there is no undercut in the lower plate.
In the completed antenna, the two machined plates are typically suitably bonded.
According to certain embodiments, exactly half of a waveguide is formed from one plate and the other half is formed from another plate. According to certain embodiments, the division into halves is obtained by bisecting the longer waveguide dimension “a”.
A particular advantage of manufacturing exactly half of the waveguide from one plate and the other half from another plate, where the division into halves is obtained by bisecting the longer waveguide dimension, is that the division-line 130 does not cross any currents as is apparent e.g. from
According to certain embodiments, an antenna array for transmitting/receiving electromagnetic radiation defining a wavelength is provided, the array comprising:
An E-orientation feeding network layer 60 may comprise:
According to some embodiments, e.g. as shown in
Components of the antenna, according to various embodiments, are now described in detail:
The Feeding network, e.g. as shown in
The orientation of the waveguides of the feeding network 60 typically comprises an “E-plane orientation” in which the short cross sectional dimension of the rectangular waveguide 70 parallel to the feeding network plane.
Use of E-plane orientation for the waveguides of the feeding network 60 may yield one or more of the following advantages:
a. The ability to divide the waveguide 70 into two plates 10, 20 without crossing the electric current runs on the waveguide walls. When we split the waveguide 70 equally between the two plates as shown in
b. According to certain embodiments, the feeding network is constructed to yield an L1 of less than one wavelength and L2 of less than two wavelengths in order to achieve a distance of less than one wavelength between adjacent radiating elements. If the waveguide is too wide (b is too large) then the conductive wall between the waveguide channels may be so narrow as to be extremely costly to produce. Therefore an advantage of the E-plane feeding network is that the waveguide width which is present at the feeding network plane is “b”. In contrast the width which is present at an H-plane network is “a”. Hence, the waveguide width in an E-plane network is half that in an H-plane network. Moreover the b dimension of the waveguide does not affect the cutoff frequency of the waveguide such that b can be less than a/2 e.g. for example any value from 0.1a to 0.5a. By reducing the width of the waveguides of the feeding network 60 the feeding network 60 may drive any pair of radiating elements 30 and still have a conductive wall of reasonable thickness between the waveguides channels. The ability to drive the feeding network to any pair of radiating elements affords an option of using a 1 to 2 splitter between the feeding network and the radiating elements. By contrast with an H-plane feeding network the feeding network cannot drive any pair of radiating elements because the waveguide channels intersect each other. Therefore in the case of an H-plane network the feeding network drives any four radiating elements and then 1 to 4 splitters must be employed between the feeding network and the radiating elements.
A particular advantage of certain embodiments is use of 1 to 2 splitters between the feeding network 60 and the radiating elements 30 instead of 1 to 4 splitters e.g. as in US prior art patent applications US20130120205 and US20130321229. The advantage of using 1 to 2 splitters is that 1 to 2 splitters with the radiating elements and the upper side of the feeding network does not contain undercuts so it can easily be manufactured in one plate, e.g. as shown in
A particular advantage of certain embodiments is offsetting the connection point between the last-level E-plane splitters 95 to the feeding network output 100, referenced ‘s’ in
According to certain embodiments, the feeding network 60 of
Any suitable feeding network dimensions may be employed and
A particular advantage of the above embodiment is that the distance between adjacent elements is of less than one wavelength.
Optionally, some or even all of the e-plane splitters may split the power unequally such that one output gets more than half of the power in the splitter input, and the second output get less than half of the input power. Alternatively, some or even all of the e-plane splitters may split the power equally such that one output gets exactly half of the power.
The H-plane splitters e.g. as shown in
Any suitable conventional H-plane splitter configuration may be employed. Typically, an H-plane splitter 40 is connected to each output 100 of the feeding network 60. The outputs 50 of the H-plane splitter 40 connect to a pair of radiating elements 30.
Typically, a radiating element 30 (e.g. horn e.g. as shown in
Typically, each radiating element 30 has one input and one output. The input of each radiating element is connected to the output of an H-plane splitter. The output of the radiating element 30 radiates the wave into space.
The distances D1 and D2 (
The radiating elements 30 may have any suitable configuration: horn (tapered), box horn, rectangular and may have the same dimension as the h-plane splitter output 50 such that the surfaces of the H-plane splitter 40 and radiating elements are continuous.
Particular features which are provided according to certain embodiments are now described in detail:
As shown in
In
In
Typically, the spacing L2 between horizontally adjacent elements 30 in
In
As shown in
As shown in
Typically, the antenna is symmetric such that the length of the path that the wave travels from the feeding network input 80 to any one of the outputs 100 is always identical, hence the phases of the wave on each of the outputs are identical, although this is not intended to be limiting. For example the waveguide section lengths may be changed to yield beam tilt, as is known in the art.
Typically, the E-plane splitters are arranged to form a parallel feeding network having a binary tree form. For example, in the example of
It is appreciated that terminology such as “mandatory”, “required”, “need” and “must” refer to implementation choices made within the context of a particular implementation or application described herein for clarity and are not intended to be limiting since in an alternative configuration, the same elements might be defined as not mandatory and not required or might even be eliminated altogether.
The scope of the present invention is not limited to structures and functions specifically described herein and is also intended to include devices which have the capacity to yield a structure, or perform a function, described herein, such that even though users of the device may not use the capacity, they are if they so desire able to modify the device to obtain the structure or function.
Features of the present invention, including method steps, which are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. For example, a system embodiment is intended to include a corresponding process embodiment. Features may also be combined with features known in the art and particularly although not limited to those described in the Background section or in publications mentioned therein.
Conversely, features of the invention, including method steps, which are described for brevity in the context of a single embodiment or in a certain order may be provided separately or in any suitable minor configuration, including with features known in the art (particularly although not limited to those described in the Background section or in publications mentioned therein) or in a different order. “e.g.” is used herein in the sense of a specific example which is not intended to be limiting. Each method may comprise some or all of the steps illustrated or described, suitably ordered e.g. as illustrated or described herein.
It is appreciated that in the description and drawings shown and described herein, functionalities described or illustrated as systems and sub-units thereof can also be provided as methods and steps therein, and functionalities described or illustrated as methods and steps therein can also be provided as systems and sub-units thereof. The scale used to illustrate various elements in the drawings is merely exemplary and/or appropriate for clarity of presentation and is not intended to be limiting.
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| 236739 | Jan 2015 | IL | national |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180131067 A1 | May 2018 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14995568 | Jan 2016 | US |
| Child | 15861872 | US |
