This application relate to antenna systems and more specifically to antenna systems of the type which may include an energy diversity antenna.
Antennas have been devised for use with mobile or portable communications devices, including cellular telephones. Various antenna types are used, including monopole, dipole, loop and patch antennas. Each antenna has particular advantages and drawbacks which are considered by designers when choosing an antenna for a specific application.
When used for receiving purposes, antennas may operate in the presence of multi-path signals, and with signal wave-fronts of arbitrary polarization with respect to a characteristic polarization of an antenna element. The received signal amplitude for each antenna element is thus often characterized by a time-dependent property associated with a changing multi-path environment or with the motion of the receiver, which may lead to reception difficulties if the received signal becomes too weak.
Generally, the received signals may be characterized as having a spatially and temporally varying field strength comprised of an E-field (electrical field) and an H-field (magnetic field). Various antenna configurations may be considered to optimize the received signal strength, including diversity configurations, such as space diversity, polarization diversity and pattern diversity.
In many applications, the size of the antennas is small and each of the antennas may not be optimized for the frequency being used, leading to further losses in received signal strength. This may also reduce the power which may be effectively transmitted.
Exemplary embodiments may be better understood with reference to the drawings, but these embodiments are not intended to be of a limiting nature. Like numbered elements in the same or different drawings perform equivalent functions.
An antenna assembly is described, including a conductive circuit formed in the approximate shape of a loop and disposed in proximity to a counterpoise. A first feed point and a second feed point at each end of the conductive circuit each connect to an output of a hybrid coupler having a sum input and a difference input. The antenna is tuned in a sum frequency mode by a first impedance inserted in series with the loop at each of the first and second feed points, and the antenna is tuned in a difference frequency mode by an impedance inserted in series with the loop at a location substantially equidistant from the first and the second feed points. The first impedance may also serve to match the impedance of the antenna with respect to the sum and difference inputs of the hybrid. A third impedance may be connected between the first and second feed points to match the impedance of the antenna with respect to the difference input of the hybrid.
The antenna may be used in a diversity communications system, where each of the sum and difference inputs of the antenna is connected to a receiver channel and the demodulator output of the received channel corresponding to the maximum received signal strength is selected or combined.
The conductors 101, 201 may be electrically connected so as to cooperate with an electrical image created by a conductive counterpoise 103, or a replica of the conductors substantially symmetrically disposed so as to create a physical image antenna. In the example shown in
The type of the antenna 100 may variously be described as a monopole or a loop, depending on the method of feeding the antenna elements (for example, sum or difference feed modes). These terms of description of antenna types, when used to describe the shape of the antenna conductors, are meant to be interpreted broadly with respect to physical form and may comprise polygonal, rectangular, circular or elliptical outlines or other approximations thereto, as is known in the antenna art. The “inverted-U” 101, 201 may have the appearance of a loop with feed point 110 proximal to the counterpoise 103. It will be recognized by persons skilled in the art that, as described herein, the antenna shape may be described broadly as a loop or loop antenna, although the radiation pattern of the antenna may be either approximately described as that corresponding to a monopole or a loop, depending on the current distribution in the conductors. The context in which the term is utilized will determine the meaning thereof.
Each of the transmission lines 105, 205, in at least some embodiments will be of approximate equal lengths and connect to the output ports of a 3-dB 180-degree hybrid coupler 107. A hybrid coupler is a means of feeding an antenna in either a sum mode or a difference mode corresponding to a configuration of the input ports of the coupler. The impedance of the transmission line 105, 205 may be 50 Ohms, and the transmission line 105, 205 may be of an unbalanced configuration, such as a coaxial cable or microstrip transmission line. The hybrid coupler 107 is configured so as to have two input ports: a sum port 108 and a difference port 109, and two output ports 116 and 117.
Antenna characteristics may be considered from either a transmitting or a receiving perspective by application of the principle of electromagnetic reciprocity, as is known in the art, and the perspective used may depend on achieving simplicity of description, with the understanding that an equivalent showing may be made by invoking the principle of reciprocity.
Considered from a transmitting perspective, a signal applied to the sum input port 108 of the hybrid coupler 107 causes the two conductors 101, 201 to be driven at the feed points 110 in an in-phase manner, and thus the currents in each of the vertical portions of the L flow in the same direction, and the currents in the top horizontal portions of the L flow in opposite directions. As a practical matter, the currents opposing each other in the top horizontal portions approximately cancel, and the currents in the vertical portions of the elements, in conjunction with the image created by the counterpoise 103, contribute to a vertical radiated field.
When a signal is applied to the difference port 109 of the hybrid coupler 107, the two conductive elements 101, 201 elements are driven at the feed points 110 in an out-of-phase manner. That is, the current in one of the vertical portions of one conductive element 101 is substantially equal in magnitude and opposite in the phase to the current in a vertical portion of the other conductive element 201, and the current in the top horizontal portions of elements 101, 102 flows in the same direction. In this situation, the currents in the vertical portions of the L approximately cancel, and the currents in the horizontal top portion of the L, in conjunction with the image created by the counterpoise 103, contribute to a horizontal magnetic radiated field.
It will be appreciated that a physical antenna may be utilized in place of the counterpoise with similar effect. A “counterpoise” may also be termed a “ground plane”, although in some antenna arrangements, the counterpoise may not have the characteristics of an ideal ground plane. Such ideal characteristics may be expressed as being of infinite apparent electrical length and conductivity and being orthogonal to, for example, a vertical monopole. The non-ideal operation of a counterpoise may be evaluated by theoretical or numerical analysis depending on the individual circumstances.
In addition to radiation patterns which may be computed for the antenna 100 when fed by the output ports 116, 117 of the hybrid coupler 107, the efficiency of the antenna is related to the impedance matching of the signal source to the antenna.
Impedance matching, used as a general term, represents the desirability of adjusting the electrical properties of the antenna, as seen from the signal source, such that the impedance of the antenna at the signal source terminals is equal to the complex conjugate of the signal source impedance. This optimizes the signal energy transfer between an antenna and a signal generator. In many instances, the signal source impedance is resistive, and is equal to the transmission line impedance. Thus more optimal coupling of energy may occur when the antenna is configured to have a resistance, which is as close to or equal to the transmission line impedance. When the antenna is not resonant at the signal frequency, the antenna impedance is neither purely resistive, nor equal to the transmission line impedance. Impedance matching at a signal frequency may comprise adjusting one or both of the value of the antenna real and imaginary impedance values as measured at the input to the antenna system, to achieve more optimal power transfer. It is recognized that such matching may be more optimal at only one signal frequency, and that imperfect matching may occur as the frequency varies from the signal frequency at which the matching has been achieved.
Impedance matching, or tuning, of an antenna with fixed dimensions is performed with impedance elements such as inductors and capacitors, which may be in lumped constant or distributed form. Generally, the modification of the antenna characteristics by insertion of reactance elements such as inductors and capacitors results in a modification of the current distribution on the antenna elements. That is, the impedance matching of the sum operating mode and the difference feeding modes may interact with each other.
As shown in
As a means for resonating the antenna at a frequency in the difference feed mode, a reactive element 102, having a reactance value Z1, is connected between the top ends of the conductive elements 101, 201. As previously discussed, in the sum feed mode, the net current is approximately zero at this substantially symmetrical point between the two feed points 110, and the reactance element 102 has minimal theoretical effect on the current flow in the antenna in the sum feed mode. In at least some embodiments, the substantially symmetrical point between the two feed points 110 is substantially equidistant. In some of these instances, a point substantially equidistant can result in distances between reactance element 102 and the respective feed points 110, which vary as much as ten percent. Any variation in the distances between reactance element 102 and respective feed points 110 can sometimes be at least partially accommodated by differences in the physical properties and/or characteristics of each of the conductive elements 101, 201.
However, a net current flow through the reactance element 102 when the antenna is fed in the difference mode by the hybrid coupler 107, and the reactance value Z1 of the reactance element 102 may be selected to tune the antenna to resonance at a signal frequency as a loop. As the impedance 102 has minimal effect on the tuning of the monopole (sum) mode, the signal frequencies at resonance of the loop and the monopole may be made different. For simplicity in discussion, but without loss of generality, the monopole resonance frequency and the loop resonance frequency are made the same in this example.
The reactance value Z1 of the reactance element 102 used to tune the antenna 100 in the loop feed mode depends on the dimensions of the antenna structure, and the value Z2 of the reactance elements 104 used to tune the monopole mode of operation to achieve impedance matching in the corresponding sum feed mode. Depending on a required value Z1 of the reactance element 102, the reactive element 102 may be largely either inductive or capacitive. Although the antenna may be tuned to resonance in the loop feed mode by the reactance element 102, the impedance of the antenna in the difference (loop) mode may not be equal to that of the feeding transmission lines 105, 205. A reactive element 106, having a reactance value Z3, may be connected between the center conductors of the transmission lines 105, 205 for purposes of impedance matching the difference mode with respect to the different feed points. Reactive element 106 generally does not affect the current flowing in the sum (monopole) mode as the magnitude and phase of the current flowing in each of the antenna conductive elements 101, 201 and the transmission line 105, 205 is substantially equal at corresponding and/or generally symmetrical points with respect to the feed points 110, and there is therefore minimal, if any, theoretical voltage difference between the terminals of the reactance element 106 in the sum feed mode. However, the currents in the difference (loop) feed mode are out of phase at the location of the reactance element 106, and the reactance element 106 may be used to match the impedance of the antenna elements 101, 201 to the transmission line 105, 205 in the difference mode of operation. The actual value Z3 of the reactance element 106 is dependent on the input impedance of the conductive elements 101, 201 at the feed point 110 at resonance in the difference mode of operation, the lengths of the transmission lines 105, 205 between the feed points 110 and the value Z1 of the reactance element 102, and on the signal frequency. Depending on the reactance value Z3 required, the reactive element 106 may be largely either an inductor or a capacitor, and the elements thereof may be either lumped constants or distributed.
In another aspect, the 3-dB 180 degree hybrid coupler 107 shown in
The radiation patterns of the monopole and the loop antennas formed using the sum and difference input ports 108, 109 of the hybrid coupler are approximately given by the theoretical radiation patterns of a monopole and a loop over a ground plane, respectively. In an actual design, the radiation patterns will differ from the ideal situation, and the expected radiation patterns may be computed by numerical analysis methods.
The AOP (Antenna Optimizer Professional) program from Brian Beezley, (3532 Linda Vista, San Marcos, Calif. 92069) was used to model the configuration shown in
The wire model of
When approximate symmetry of the components is maintained, the values of the reactive elements 102, 104 and 106 do not have a significant effect on the radiation pattern shape, but they may affect the amplitude response due to impedance mismatch.
Comparison of the azimuth plane patterns of the sum mode and the difference mode (
An antenna as in
In a further example shown in
In another aspect, the antennas may be used for transmitting, either as two simultaneous transmitting antennas, or one of the antennas may be used. The azimuth radiation pattern of the difference antenna may be oriented so as to direct a larger percentage of the electromagnetic energy in a more preferred direction.
In another example, two antennas as shown in
In yet another aspect, the counterpoise may be omitted and loop or inverted-U shaped elements disposed such that it is substantially symmetrical with respect to the first antenna. The antennas are disposed such that the feed points are adjoining. In this manner, the second antenna can be used to enhance the symmetry of the configuration similar to a ground plane. The two orthogonal antennas may not have the same dimensions. The antennas may be joined at the feed points and the reactance Z2 may be disposed in each of the antennas, or a reactance Z2 may be disposed between the joined antennas and the feed point. Reactance Z1, Z2 and Z3 are determined according to the methods previously discussed, for each of the antennas.
Although the present invention has been explained byway of the examples described above, it should be understood to the ordinary skilled person in the art that the invention is not limited to the examples, but rather that various changes or modifications thereof are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention shall be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20070024514 A1 | Feb 2007 | US |