The invention relates to filter arrangements for RF applications. More specifically, the invention relates to filter arrangements for multi radiator base station antennas.
Filter arrangements for RF applications are known in the art. Such filter arrangements include low pass filters used in base station antennas for mobile communication. Such an antenna may comprise a connector through which not only the RF signal, but also a DC voltage and a communication signal for ancillary devices such as a RET (Remote Electrical Tilt) motor is provided. A low pass filter is used to filter out or block the RF signal to provide the DC voltage and communication signal for the ancillary device. In such a case the communication may be modulated on a carrier as defined in, e.g., 3GPP specification TS 25.461.
U.S. Patent Publication US2003/0001697 discloses a known low pass filter having a circuit (FIG. 1A in US2003/0001697) consisting of a series of inductors alternating with shunt capacitors realized as a coaxial transmission line (
Thus, there is a need for an improved filter arrangement.
An object of the invention is to solve or improve on at least some of the problems mentioned above in the background section.
These and other objects are achieved by the present invention by means of a filter arrangement according to the independent claim.
According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a filter arrangement comprising an inner electric conductor comprising at least one inner conductor segment, an outer electric conductor at least partly surrounding the inner conductor, at least one dielectric element and at least one coil spring. The at least one dielectric element is arranged sandwiched between at least one inner conductor segment and the outer conductor to form a capacitance between the outer conductor and the inner conductor segment. The at least one coil spring is arranged inside said outer conductor to force the inner conductor segment and the at least one dielectric element against the outer conductor. The at least one coil spring is made from an electrically conducting material to form an inductance and is electrically connected with the inner conductor segment.
In other words, the inner electric conductor and the at least one dielectric element are surrounded at least partly by the outer conductor in the sense that the inner electric conductor and the at least one dielectric element are at least partly arranged inside the outer conductor. At least partly should be interpreted in the sense that one or more portions of the inner conductor or dielectric element may protrude outside the outer conductor. The at least one coil spring is also surrounded by the outer conductor. Put differently, the outer conductor forms a compartment in which the inner conductor, the dielectric element(s) and the coil spring(s) are arranged. It is understood that the inner conductor may be either wholly or partly formed by the inner conductor segments. For example, one or more of the coil springs may interconnect inner conductor segments and thus also form part of the inner conductor to form a signal path between an input and an output of the filter. It is furthermore understood that the at least one coil spring is arranged inside said outer conductor to force the inner conductor segment and the at least one dielectric element against an inner surface of the outer conductor. It is furthermore understood that the at least one dielectric element is sandwiched between at least one inner conductor segment and the outer conductor in the sense that it is arranged in abutment with an inner wall portion of the outer conductor and the inner conductor segment. It is furthermore understood that the inner conductor acts as a signal line and the outer conductor as a ground line. It is furthermore understood coil spring in this context refers to a compression spring which may be any type of coil spring for instance a helical coil spring or a coil spring having a non-circular cross section, for instance a substantially square cross section, i.e. a square coil spring. Furthermore, the cross section may be substantially constant along the axial direction of the coil spring, such as in a helical coil spring, or have a non-constant cross-section such as in a volute spring. Furthermore, the wire of the coil spring may have a circular or non-circular cross section.
The invention is based on the insight that a coil can function not only as an inductance both also as a spring, and further that its spring function can be used to force one or more inner conductor segments towards the outer conductor with dielectric element(s) sandwiched therebetween in close abutment with each other and without air gaps due to the spring force. Thereby, accurate capacitances of sufficiently high values can be achieved. Due to the spring action, the tolerances of the outer conductor do not need to be very tight. The filter arrangement is particularly suitable for radio frequency (RF) applications, and in particularly as a low pass filter is used to filter out/block the RF signal to provide a DC voltage and communication signal for an ancillary device. Such a low pass filter may also be referred to as “RF block”.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an antenna feeding network for a multi-radiator antenna, the antenna feeding network comprising at least two elongated outer conductors forming elongated compartments, said at least two elongated outer conductors being formed integrally and in parallel, wherein at least one of the outer conductors is provided with a central inner conductor arranged therein to form at least one substantially air-filled coaxial line. The antenna feeding network comprises a filter arrangement according to the first aspect of the invention or embodiments thereof, wherein the outer electric conductor of the filter arrangement is formed by one of the elongated outer conductors of the antenna feeding network.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a multi-radiator antenna comprising an antenna feeding network according to the second aspect of the invention or embodiments thereof and radiating elements being connected to the antenna feeding network.
In embodiments, the at least one coil spring is arranged in electrically abutting contact with the at least one inner conductor segment. Thus, a galvanic electric contact is achieved therebetween.
In embodiments, the at least one coil spring is arranged in electrical contact with the at least one inner conductor segment by means of a solder joint.
In alternative embodiments, the at least one coil spring is arranged in electrical contact with the at least one inner conductor segment via at least one electrically conducting connection element. The connection element may for instance be provided a holding portion such as a protrusion extending into the axial centre of the corresponding coil spring.
In embodiments comprising first and second inner conductor segments, a coil spring of the at least one coil spring is arranged to force the first and second inner conductor segments in opposite directions against respective opposite inner wall portions of the outer conductor with a respective dielectric element arranged sandwiched therebetween, wherein the coil spring is electrically connected with the first and second inner conductor segments. The first and second inner conductor segments are thus electrically interconnected by the coil spring and thus together form a C-L-C circuit. One of the first and second inner conductor segments may form, or be connected to an input connector, and the other of the first and second inner conductor segments may form or be connected to an output connector. The filter arrangement thus forms a low pass filter having a C-L-C circuit.
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the first and second inner conductor segments may each be provided with a plate-shaped portion, wherein the plate-shaped portions of the first and second inner conductor segments are arranged facing each other at a distance from each other to form a capacitance therebetween. The plate-shaped portions facing each other are advantageously arranged in parallel with each other to form a well-defined capacitance. The plate-shaped portions are disposed at an angle, preferably at right angle, relative the rest of the respective inner conductor segment. The plate-shaped portions are thus directed inwardly towards the inner wall portions against which the opposite inner conductor segment is forced. The plate-shaped portions may be arranged protruding substantially perpendicularly relative a lengthwise direction of the outer conductor. A dielectric element may be arranged between the plate-shaped portions. The capacitance formed by the plate-shaped portions of the first and second inner conductor segments is electrically in parallel with the inductance formed by the coil spring. By adapting the dimensions of the plate-shaped portions (and optionally the dimensions of the dielectric element therebetween) and the geometric properties (wire thickness, number of turns for example) to each other the capacitance and the inductance may form a resonant circuit providing a transmission zero in the transfer function. This may be advantageous to provide a steeper roll off characteristic of the low pass filter.
In embodiments, the inner electric conductor comprises two consecutively arranged inner conductor segments, each being provided with a plate-shaped portion, wherein the plate-shaped portions are arranged facing each other at a distance from each other to form a capacitance therebetween. In other words, two inner conductor segments are arranged after one another arranged forced (by means of respective coil springs) against the same inner wall portion of the outer conductor with a common, or respective, dielectric element(s) sandwiched therebetween. The plate-shaped portions facing each other are advantageously arranged in parallel with each other to form a well-defined capacitance. The plate-shaped portions are disposed at an angle, preferably at right angle, relative the rest of the respective inner conductor segment. The plate-shaped portions may be arranged protruding substantially perpendicularly relative a lengthwise direction of the outer conductor. A dielectric element may be arranged between the plate-shaped portions. The capacitance formed by the plate-shaped portions interconnect the consecutively arranged inner conductor segments, thus forming a serially arranged capacitance, which may form part of a high-pass or band-pass filter.
In embodiments, the outer conductor has a substantially rectangular or square cross-section in the sense that the cross section it is formed as a parallelogram whose angles are substantially right angles, for example within an interval of 85-95 degrees and/or in the sense that the corners of the rectangle or square are rounded. The at least one inner conductor segment may comprise at least one substantially plate-shaped portion, which each may be arranged in parallel with a plane inner wall portion of the outer conductor. Thereby, a filter arrangement which is easy to manufacture is achieved. The at least one coil spring may be arranged with a lengthwise direction (which may also be referred to as an axial direction) thereof substantially perpendicularly relative a lengthwise direction of the outer conductor. Thereby, a compact filter arrangement is achieved. In embodiments, at least two coil springs are arranged substantially in parallel in said outer conductor.
In embodiments comprising at least two parallel coil springs, a first coil spring and a second coil spring are wound in opposite directions. This may be advantageous since unwanted mutual coupling between the two inductances may be reduced. It is understood that wanted and unwanted mutual coupling between the formed capacitances and inductances can be tuned by altering capacitor and/or coil design.
The features of the embodiments described above are combinable in any practically realizable way to form embodiments having combinations of these features. Further, all features and advantages of embodiments described above with reference to the first aspect of the invention may be applied in corresponding embodiments of the second and third aspects of the invention.
Above discussed and other aspects of the present invention are described in more detail using the appended drawings, which show preferred embodiments of the invention, wherein:
The first and second inner conductor segments 11a, 11b are each provided with a plate-shaped downwardly perpendicularly protruding portion 11a″, 11b″. The third inner conductor segment 11c is provided with plate-shaped upwardly perpendicularly protruding portion 11c′, 11c′ at the opposite lengthwise ends thereof. Plate-shaped portion 11a″ and plate-shaped portion 11c′ are arranged at a distance from each other to form a capacitance therebetween which is electrically in parallel with the inductance formed by the helical coil spring 14a. Plate-shaped portion 11b″ and plate-shaped portion 11c″ are arranged at a distance from each other to form a capacitance therebetween which is electrically in parallel with the inductance formed by the helical coil spring 14b. In other embodiments, dielectric element(s) may be arranged between the plate-shaped portions.
The embodiment in
The first and second inner conductor segments 31a, 31b are each provided with a plate-shaped downwardly perpendicularly protruding portion 31a″, 31b″. Plate-shaped portion 31a″ and plate-shaped portion 31b″ are arranged at a distance from each other (optionally with a dielectric element therebetween) to form a capacitance therebetween. The third inner conductor segment 31c is forced downwardly towards the dielectric element 33b by the spring 34a, and the fourth inner conductor segment 31d forced downwardly towards the dielectric element 33b by the spring 34b. The helical coil springs 14a-b are made from an electrically conducting material to form inductances and are arranged in electrically abutting galvanic contact with the respective inner conductor segments.
Capacitor 36d corresponds to the capacitance formed by the fourth inner conductor segment 31d, dielectric element 33b and the outer conductor 32. Inductor 39 corresponds to the inductance formed by helical coil spring 34b. As can be seen, the resulting topology is a high-pass filter. Transmission zeros are present due to the resonant circuits 36a/37 and 36d/39.
The filter arrangement 46 is a low pass filter of the same type shown in
It is understood that inner conductors 43a, 43b and the inner conductor in the not visible outer conductor to the left of outer conductor 42a are interconnected with corresponding connector devices as outer conductors 42c-e and are connected in a corresponding manner to coaxial connector 45a, but without a filter arrangement as in outer conductor 42e.
The description above and the appended drawings are to be considered as non-limiting examples of the invention. The person skilled in the art realizes that several changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the invention. In particular, it is pointed out that higher or lower order filter arrangements than the above illustrated embodiments may be achieved by adding or removing inner conductor segments and/or helical coil springs and/or by combining features of the illustrated embodiments. Furthermore, the number of coaxial lines may be varied, and the number of radiators/dipoles may be varied.