Patent Application
20200381808
The present application claims priority from and the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201910465819.8, filed May 31, 2019, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to the field of radio communications, and more particularly to an end cover assembly for a base station antenna, a base station antenna comprising the end cover assembly, as well as an assembling method and a disassembling method of the end cover assembly.
A mobile communication network comprises a large number of base stations, which include respective base station antennas for receiving and transmitting communication signals. Conventionally, a base station antenna has a radome having an open end that may be enclosed by an end cover. Antenna elements are received within the radome. The antenna elements may be, for example, a reflector plate, a feeder plate, an array of radiating elements extending outwardly from the reflector plate, and the like. Electrical connectors may be mounted on the end cover. The electrical connectors may be, for example, coaxial connectors such as 4.3-10 connectors, AISG connectors, or other connectors.
Conventionally, an end cover may be made of metal. However, particularly in the era of 5G communications, the antenna elements may be very sensitive. The metal end plate having a large area may have a negative impact on the performance of the base station antenna, for example in aspects of passive intermodulation (PIM), return loss, and isolation performance. Thus, in some embodiments of the prior art, the end cover may also be partially or completely made of plastic.
Conventionally, an electrical connector may have a circumferential flange, and the bottom plate of the end cover may have circular through holes for receiving electrical connectors. In some embodiments, the electrical connectors may be secured with their flanges on the outer side of the bottom plate of the end cover. In other embodiments, the electrical connectors may be secured with their flange on the inside of the bottom plate of the end cover.
In the operation of the base station antenna, the base station antenna may be affected by the external environment. When a flange of an electrical connector is secured to the outside of the bottom plate of the end cover, especially when the end cover is made of a plastic material, fastening elements for fastening the flange might be released under the effect of a long-term load, and thus it is possible that the electrical connector is released from the bottom plate of the end cover, which is unacceptable.
In the production of base station antennas, a small number of assembled base station antennas might require rework. The base station antennas might require maintenance or repair during operation. Rework, maintenance or repair associated with a single electrical connector is very costly when the flange of the electrical connector is secured to the inside of the bottom plate of the end cover. In some cases, the electrical connector may be reached by removing the radome. In some cases, even if the radome is removed, the electrical connector can only be reached with difficulty, or even still cannot be reached.
For the related prior art, refer to for example the publication documents CN208622940U, US2016/0308286A1 and WO2017/030939A1.
Before the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an end cover assembly for a base station antenna, a base station antenna comprising the end cover assembly, as well as an assembling method and a disassembling method for the end cover assembly, wherein the risk of an electrical connector falling off of a bottom plate of the end cover is reduced, and the electrical connector can be removed from the assembled base station antenna more easily.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an end cover assembly for a base station antenna, the end cover assembly comprising:
In the case of the end cover assembly according to the present invention, the electrical connector may rest with its flange on the inner side of the bottom plate of the end cover, and fastening elements for fastening the electrical connector on the bottom plate may be less affected by the external environment and may be less loaded, so that the risk of the electrical connector falling off is reduced. In addition, the mounting of the electrical connector on the end cover and dismounting of the electrical connector from the end cover may be performed in an assembled state of the base station antenna without disassembling the end cover of the base station antenna from the radome.
In some embodiments, the flange may include a plurality of flange sections spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction.
In some embodiments, the through hole may have an inner contour complementary to an outer contour of the flange, wherein the through hole includes a plurality of recesses corresponding to the flange sections that are spaced from each other in the circumferential direction, and projections between the recesses.
In some embodiments, the flange may include three or four flange sections that are evenly spaced apart from each other in the circumferential direction.
In some embodiments, the flange may have a plurality of first receiving holes, and the bottom plate may have a plurality of second receiving holes on an edge of the through hole, wherein at a predetermined position of the flange relative to the through hole, each of the first receiving holes is aligned with one of the second receiving holes, and the first and second receiving holes are configured to receive a plurality of fastening elements.
In some embodiments, the flange may have one first receiving hole in each flange section, and the bottom plate may have one second receiving hole in an area of each projection of the through hole, wherein at a predetermined position of the flange relative to the through hole, each of the first receiving holes is aligned with one of the second receiving holes, and the first and second receiving holes are configured to receive a plurality of fastening elements.
In some embodiments, the fastening elements may be screws, push rivets or expansion plugs.
In some embodiments, the fastening elements may be screws, and the first receiving holes may be threaded holes.
In some embodiments, the bottom plate may have at least one stop element in the circumferential direction on the inner edge of the through hole.
In some embodiments, the bottom plate may have two stop elements on both sides of each of the second receiving holes on the inner edge of the through hole, and one of the flange sections is retainable between the two stop elements at the predetermined position of the flange relative to the through hole.
In some embodiments, the end cover assembly may comprise a cover plate configured to be placed onto the electrical connector and shield the through hole outside the bottom plate.
In some embodiments, the cover plate may have a plurality of third receiving holes configured to receive the fastening elements.
In some embodiments, the bottom plate may include a plurality of the through holes, in which the respective electrical connectors are received.
In some embodiments, the bottom plate may be made of a plastic material such as fiberglass reinforced plastic or another engineering plastic.
In some embodiments, the electrical connector may have a base body, wherein the flange is an integral component of the base body.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a base station antenna comprising a radome and antenna elements received in the radome, the radome having an open bottom end, characterized in that the base station antenna comprises an end cover assembly for a base station antenna according to a first aspect of the present invention, wherein an end cover of the end cover assembly encloses the open bottom end of the radome.
In some embodiments, the base station antenna may be a small cell antenna. In other embodiments, the base station antenna may be a cuboid base station antenna.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for assembling an end cover assembly for a base station antenna, the method comprising the steps of:
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for disassembling an end cover assembly for a base station antenna assembled, the method comprising the steps of:
It is to be noted here that, the technical features as mentioned above and the technical features which will be mentioned below may be arbitrarily combined with each other as long as they are not contradictory to one another. All the technically feasible feature combinations pertain to technical content specifically recited in the present application.
Next, the present invention will be described in more detail by way of specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The schematic drawings are briefly described as follows:
In the embodiment shown, the outer contour of the flange 10 of the electrical connector 4 is constructed complementarily to the inner contour of the through opening of the bottom plate of the end cover 3. However, it is also conceivable that they are not constructed complementarily. In general, the geometry of the through hole 7 and the geometry of the flange 10 are configured such that the flange 10 can be inserted from an exterior of the end cover 3 and through the through hole 7, and the flange 10 is capable of abutting against an inner edge of the through hole inside the end cover 3. The detachment of the electrical connector 4 from the end cover 3 may be done in an opposite process, wherein the electrical connector 4 can be removed from the through hole 7 at a predetermined state.
As shown in
The end plate assembly 2 according to the embodiment of
The end cover assembly 2 that has been assembled may be reversely disassembled, wherein, first, the fastening elements 6 are loosened; then, the electrical connector 4 is moved inwards along an axial direction until each of the flange sections 12 is disengaged from the stop elements 16; next, the electrical connector 4 is rotated relative to the bottom plate of the end cover 3 until the outer contour of the flange 10 is aligned with the inner contour of the through hole 7; finally, the electrical connector 4 is moved relative to the bottom plate of the end cover 3 in the axial direction until the flange 10 is removed out from the through hole 7. Thus, it is possible to operate by passing through the through hole 7 when maintenance or repair is required, or when the electrical connector 4 needs to be replaced.
In some embodiments not shown, a flange 10 of an electrical connector 4 may have an elliptical outer contour, and a through hole 7 of a bottom plate of an end cover 3 may have an elliptical inner contour complementary thereto. The flange 10 may be inserted from an exterior of the end cover 3 and through the through hole 7 in the case where the outer contour is aligned with the inner contour, then may be rotated with 90°, and next abutted against an inner edge of the through hole 7, and finally may be secured to the bottom plate of the end cover 3 by fastening elements. The disassembling process may be carried out reversely.
In some embodiments not shown, the flange sections 11 of the electrical connector 10 may be constructed as movable members, such as spring-loaded movable members, wherein in an initial state, the flange may have an initial radial dimension, and in a changed state, the flange may have a reduced radial dimension. Therefore, when the flange 10 needs to pass through the through hole 7, the flange 10 may be changed to the changed state.
It will be understood that, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular aspects only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise” and “include” (and variants thereof), when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Like reference numbers signify like elements throughout the description of the figures.
The thicknesses of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for the sake of clarity. Further, it will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on,” “coupled to” or “connected to” another element, the element may be formed directly on, coupled to or connected to the other element, or there may be one or more intervening elements therebetween. In contrast, terms such as “directly on,” “directly coupled to” and “directly connected to,” when used herein, indicate that no intervening elements are present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (i.e., “between” versus “directly between”, “attached” versus “directly attached,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent”, etc.).
Terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “upper,” “lower,” “above,” “below,” and the like are used herein to describe the relationship of one element, layer or region to another element, layer or region as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that these terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.
It will be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the inventive concept.
It will also be appreciated that all example embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in any way.
Finally, it is to be noted that, the above-described embodiments are merely for understanding the present invention but not constitute a limit on the protection scope of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, modifications may be made on the basis of the above-described embodiments, and these modifications do not depart from the protection scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201910465819.8 | May 2019 | CN | national |
