The present invention relates to a transition arrangement comprising a first surface-mountable waveguide part, a second surface-mountable waveguide part and a dielectric carrier material with a metalization provided on a first main side, the first surface-mountable waveguide part comprising a first wall, a second wall and a third wall, which second and third walls are arranged to contact a part of the metalization, all the walls together essentially forming a U-shape, the second surface-mountable waveguide part comprising a first wall, a second wall and a third wall, which second and third walls are arranged to contact a part of the metalization, all the walls together essentially forming a U-shape, where the first and second surface-mountable waveguide parts are arranged to be mounted on the parts of the metalization in such a way that the first and second surface-mountable waveguide parts comprise ends which are positioned to face each other.
When designing microwave circuits, transmission lines and waveguides are commonly used. A transmission line is normally formed on a dielectric carrier material. Due to losses in the dielectric carrier material, it is sometimes not possible to use any transmission lines. When there for example is a diplexer in the layout, the diplexer may have to be realized in waveguide technology. Waveguides are normally filled with air or other low-loss materials.
Waveguide diplexers used today are large mechanical components screwed into a mechanical cabinet and connected to different parts such as for example an antenna via some type of waveguide flange. It is desirable to mount such a diplexer structure on a dielectric carrier material, such that the diplexer structure forms a surface-mounted waveguide structure.
Such a surface-mounted waveguide is normally made having three walls and one open side. Metalization is then provided on the side of the dielectric carrier material facing the waveguide, where the metalization serves as the remaining wall of the waveguide, thus closing the waveguide structure when the waveguide is fitted to the dielectric carrier material.
An example of surface-mountable waveguides is disclosed in the paper “Surface-mountable metalized plastic waveguide filter suitable for high volume production” by Thomas J Müller, Wilfried Grabherr, and Bernd Adelseck, 33rd European Microwave Conference, Munich 2003. Here, a surface-mountable waveguide is arranged to be mounted on a so-called footprint on a circuit board. A microstrip conductor to waveguide transition is disclosed, where the end of the microstrip conductor acts as a probe for feeding the waveguide's opening.
But in order to achieve surface mounting, larger mechanical components such as a triplexer may result in problems with mechanical stress problems due to different coefficients of thermal expansion (“CTE”) of the materials involved. Furthermore, such a large surface-mounted structure as a triplexer is too large to handle in an automated production line.
One way to solve this problem is to split up the diplexer into a number of smaller parts. These parts have to be sufficiently connected to each other in order to present a proper electrical function. This problem is apparent for all large surface-mounted waveguide structures.
An example of a solution according to prior art is disclosed in prior art
This solution is, however, quite complicated and requires that a special waveguide part, having two 90° bends, is mounted on the other side of the dielectric carrier material, and that all waveguide parts are aligned with the openings such that there is no interruption in the transmission of the signals.
The object of the present invention is to provide a waveguide transition arrangement between different surface-mounted waveguide structure parts which are to be sufficiently electrically connected to each other in order to present a proper electrical function.
This problem is solved by means of a waveguide arrangement as mentioned initially. The arrangement further comprises an electrically conducting sealing frame (also referred to as a “sealing frame”) that is arranged to be mounted over and covering the ends, where the sealing frame has a first wall, a second wall and a third wall, where the second and third walls are arranged to contact a part of the metalization, all the walls together essentially forming a U-shape.
According to a preferred embodiment, there is a junction slot between the ends, where the sealing frame is arranged to seal the junction slot, such that the transition properties for a signal that is transferred between the surface-mounted waveguide parts (also referred to as “waveguide parts”) are enhanced. In other words, the properties of the signal are enhanced as the signal transitions between the surface-mounted waveguide parts due to the sealing frame.
According to another preferred embodiment, the waveguide parts each have a respective longitudinally extending flange part comprised in each of the second walls and third walls, and that the sealing frame has a respective longitudinally extending flange part, each having a length, the flange parts being comprised in each of the second wall and third wall, all the flange parts being arranged to be the parts of the walls which contact the corresponding parts of the metalization when the waveguide parts and the sealing frame are mounted.
According to another preferred embodiment, the flange parts of the waveguide parts do not extend to the ends of the waveguide parts, such that a first distance between the ends of opposing flange parts of the second walls of the waveguide parts and a second distance between the ends of opposing flange parts of the third walls of the waveguide parts both exceed the length of each one of the flange parts of the sealing frame, such that the flange parts of the sealing frame may be fitted between the respective flange parts of the waveguide parts.
According to another preferred embodiment, the sealing frame is made in several layers of material including an outer layer being made of a polymer, a middle layer constituting a metalization layer, thereby making the sealing frame electrically conductive, and an inner layer comprising an electrically conducting attachment means in the form of a soft solder alloy or electrically conducting glue.
According to another preferred embodiment, in a part of the first surface-mountable waveguide part (also referred to as the “first waveguide part”) which is arranged to be covered by the sealing frame, a first recess is formed, running perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the first waveguide part, all the way along the three walls, where a corresponding second recess is formed on the second surface-mountable waveguide part (also referred to as the “second wavequide part”), and where, corresponding to the recesses, lines of an electrically conducting attachment means are dispensed on the sides of the walls of the sealing frame that are intended to face the first and second waveguide parts, such that the lines of electrically conducting attachment means are fitted into the recesses when the sealing frame is mounted.
According to another preferred embodiment, the first surface-mountable waveguide part, the second surface-mountable waveguide part and the sealing frame comprise at least one waveguide filter iris and at least one waveguide filter protruding part arranged for matching of a filter cavity, such that these parts constitute a waveguide filter when mounted together.
According to another preferred embodiment, the sealing frame comprises at least one protruding part on the side of a first wall, facing the dielectric carrier material when the sealing frame is mounted, and each surface-mountable waveguide part comprises at least one iris, such that a cavity structure is formed and the sealing frame at least partly forms the walls and roof of the cavity structure when the surface-mountable waveguide parts and the sealing frame are mounted.
According to another preferred embodiment, at least one sealing frame and at least two waveguide parts are combined such that a filter comprising at least two cavity structures is formed, the filter thus having at least two poles.
Other preferred embodiments are evident from the disclosure as set forth below.
A number of advantages are provided by the present invention. For example:
The present invention will now be described more in detail with reference to the appended drawings, where:
a is a top view of two surface-mounted waveguide parts;
b is a side view of two surface-mounted waveguide parts;
c is an end view of a surface-mountable waveguide part;
a is a top view of a sealing frame according to the present invention;
b is an end view of a sealing frame according to the present invention;
a is a side view of a sealing frame according to the present invention being mounted to two surface-mounted waveguide parts;
b is a sectional view of a section A-A in
a is a top view of two surface-mounted waveguide filter parts;
b is an end view of a sealing frame arranged for a filter application;
c is a top view of the sealing frame according to
In
With continuing reference to
Regarding the first waveguide part 4, with reference to
The first and second waveguide parts 4, 5 are mounted in a known way, each having a longitudinally extending flange part (also referred to as a “flange”) 13 (see
As indicated above, there is, however, always a junction slot 6 between the first and second waveguide parts 4, 5 when mounted. At the junction slot 6, the currents running between the first and second waveguide parts 4, 5 experience a discontinuity, and there is possibly also undesired leakage at the junction slot 6. It should be noted that like features with the same reference numbers in different Figures often will not be described again in the interest of brevity.
According to the present invention, with reference to
With continuing reference to
The sealing frame 17 has such dimensions to fit the sealing frame 17 over the first and second waveguide parts, i.e. the inner dimensions of the sealing frame 17 are equal to, or greater than, the outer dimensions of the first and second waveguide parts 4, 5. The thickness of the sealing frame 17 is not of importance. However, the sealing frame 17 should preferably be rigid enough to be handled, for example by a human or by a pick-and place machine.
As can be seen in
With reference to
According to a preferred embodiment, with reference to
According to another preferred embodiment, with reference to
Corresponding to the recesses 27, 28, lines of solder compound 29, 30 are dispensed on the sides of the walls 18, 19, 20 of the sealing frame 17 (see also
According to a special embodiment of the present invention, a sealing frame may be used in a surface-mounted waveguide filter.
Surface-mounted waveguide filters are for example used in a diplexer structure, where the diplexer structure needs to support different frequency channels within a certain frequency band. In order to obtain these different frequency channels, each filter in the diplexer structure has to be calibrated by means of screws which are screwed into a filter wall. The screws form matching elements when the screws protrude from the filter wall, entering cavity structures of the filter in a previously known way. By setting each screw at a certain protrusion, a calibrated filter is obtained, but finding the optimal level of protrusion is a time-consuming task.
Furthermore, as mentioned initially, it is necessary to split up the diplexer into a number of smaller parts.
a shows a first surface-mountable waveguide part (also referred to as a “first wavequide part”) 31 comprising a first filter iris 32, and a second surface-mountable waveguide part (also referred to as a “second wavequide part”) 33 comprising a second filter iris 34. The first and second surface-mountable waveguide parts 31, 33 are mounted in the same manner as the previously described waveguide part, such that one opening 36 of the first waveguide part 31 faces an opening 37 of the second waveguide part 33.
There is a certain gap 38 between the first and second waveguide parts 31, 33 and, with reference to
The sealing frame 39 has respective longitudinally extending flange parts (also referred to as a “flange(s)”) 43, 44 comprised in each of the second wall 41 and third wall 42 as shown in
An important difference is that the sealing frame 39 comprises a protruding part 45 (see
With reference to
In this way, a high degree of freedom and versatility is acquired, since it is now possible to choose the correct parts from a number of prefabricated parts and mount the parts in such a way that a desired filter and diplexer is obtained. In other words, a modular building block technique may be used, offering a large number of combinations. The length of each cavity structure may be adjusted to a desired value just by mounting the waveguide parts with a certain gap between each other. If the sealing frame has a sufficient length, the sealing frame will cover the gap, and the desired cavity structure may be obtained.
More than one protruding part may be used for each sealing frame, should it be desired. The protruding parts can have any appropriate form and be made in any appropriate material. If not necessary for a certain cavity, no protruding part is used.
In an alternative embodiment form, with reference to
The gap 38 discussed in the filter embodiments above, corresponds to the junction slot 6 described previously (see
The shape and material of the protruding parts may be of any suitable form. The shape may for example be cylindrical or rectangular, and the material may for example be copper or a ferrite material.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiment examples according to the above, but may vary freely within the scope of the appended claims.
For example, the copper used on the first main side 2 and the second main side 3 (see
The waveguide parts may also be made in a non-conducting material, such as plastic, which is covered by a thin layer of metalization.
The dielectric carrier material may comprise several layers if necessary, the layers comprising different types of circuitry. Such a layer structure may also be necessary for mechanical reasons.
The flanges may be of any suitable form, generally forming flange parts.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0701152 | Dec 2007 | SE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/SE2008/000231 | 3/27/2008 | WO | 00 | 6/22/2010 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2009/082314 | 7/2/2009 | WO | A |
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Entry |
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Mueller, T. et al, SMD-Type 42 GHz Waveguide Filter. 2003 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest. Philadelphia, Pa Jun. 6-13, 2003. |
Mueller, T. et al, Surface-Mountable Metalized Plastic Waveguide Filter Suitable for High Volume Production. 33rd European Microwave Conference, Munich 2003. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20100289602 A1 | Nov 2010 | US |