1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to antennas.
2. Description of the Related Art
The high cost of professional outdoor antenna installations for broadband wireless access (transmission of voice, data and video) has created a demand for lowermost, user-installable indoor antennas. To meet this demand, optically-transparent conductive films (e.g., silver or indium tin oxide) have been proposed. Although the transparency of such films may be on the order of 70% to 80%, their surface resistance is typically on the order of 4 to 8 ohms per square or higher. This conductivity level generally produces microwave antennas whose efficiency (e.g., on the order of 10%) is less than desirable.
The present invention is directed to inexpensive microwave antenna structures that have high-efficiency and are substantially-transparent. These structures are especially suited for use as indoor antennas (e.g., as installed by subscribers of wireless systems).
Transparent antenna embodiments of the present invention are generally formed with a substantially-transparent substrate made from any transparent dielectric material. Exemplary dielectric materials (and their relative dielectric constants) include glass (5.5), polystyrene (2.6), polycarbonate (3.0), air (1), polyester (3.1) and acrylic (2.8). Although all of these materials can be obtained in optical quality grades and are highly transparent, acrylic is especially attractive because of its low cost, inherent ultra violet (UV) stability and manufacturability.
Substrates can also be formed as combinations of dielectric materials (e.g., a frame of acrylic with air between frame elements. Substrates of the invention can be formed by various conventional methods (e.g., injection molding or extrusion) and then machined to shape. A typical substrate thickness ranges from 0.02 to 0.1 wavelengths in the dielectric material.
Upper and lower surfaces of substrates of the invention are partially or completely covered with a conductive mesh which is substantially transparent at optical wavelengths but substantially opaque at greater transmitting or receiving wavelengths (e.g., microwave wavelengths). For one microstrip patch antenna embodiment, the lower (back) surface of the substrate is preferably completely covered and the upper (front) surface is covered with a pattern of patches and feed lines. Exemplary conductor materials for the mesh are highly conductive metals such as aluminum, copper, gold, silver, tin and nickel and these can be used in solid or plated forms. Aluminum and tin-plated copper are especially attractive for their low cost, high conductivity and silver color.
Conductor thickness is selected in accordance with antenna operational frequency. In antenna embodiments that operate in the 2.4-2.7 GHz range, a copper thickness in the range of 0.5-1 ounce is generally sufficient. Higher-frequency embodiments may use thinner layers and lower-frequency ranges may use thicker layers. Metal conductors can be deposited directly on to the transparent substrate or deposited (e.g., by plating or rolling) onto a thin film of plastic (e.g., polyester). A polyester embodiment makes use of the large volumes of metal-on-polyester films currently available at low cost.
The metal conductor can then be formed (e.g., etched) into a mesh having dimensions which produce a substantially transparent film, e.g., between 70% and 90% transparency. The mesh has a total area, is formed of conductive members which define open spaces between said conductive members that sum to a open-spaces area, and has a transparency of at least 70% wherein transparency is defamed as a ratio of open-spaces area to total area. In effect, this yields an average transparency of the material. The color (e.g., silver) of the remaining metal can be selected to further reduce its visibility.
In one embodiment, the mesh forms a grid pattern in which mesh members are orthogonally arranged. In an exemplary fabrication method, the metal conductor is etched to produce transparent squares 0.114 inches on a side with metal lines 0.014 inches wide surrounding the transparent squares. This computes to a transparency of 79% using the above definition. An alternative embodiment can form the metal conductors with a mesh of thin round wires.
The metal conductor can be attached to the substrate in various manners, e.g., with an adhesive that is preferably optically clear. For example, one embodiment uses an acrylic-based pressure-sensitive adhesive (e.g., from 3M Corporation of St. Paul, Minn.).
The transparent antenna is preferably connected to a thin coaxial cable (e.g., an RG-316 type coax approximately 16 feet long) with a connector on the end opposite the antenna. The connection to the antenna can be take on various forms, e.g., the cable can be directly soldered to small pads in the upper and lower conductors or capacitively coupled, i.e., not directly soldered. The latter embodiment helps to evenly distribute the currents onto the conductive mesh. This is especially important when the conductor forms a ground plane that is connected, for example, to the outer shield of the coaxial cable.
Capacitive coupling may be realized by soldering a small disk or quarter wavelength stub on to the end of the center conductor of the coaxial cable and spacing it from the conductive mesh of the antenna with pressure-sensitive adhesive and polyester film or with a small amount of substrate material. For the frequency range discussed above, an exemplary dielectric thickness is in the range of 0.001 and 0.010 inches.
Antenna embodiments may comprise single or multiple meshed patches with meshed feed lines in any conventional microstrip geometry (e.g., square, rectangular or circular patches with serial or parallel feed lines). Antenna embodiments can be linear or planar arrays with linear or circular polarizations. For example, one embodiment is a 4 element linear array with a serial feed.
Exemplary antenna installations can be temporary (e.g., attached to a window with clear silicone suction cups) or permanent (e.g., attached with pressure-sensitive adhesive).
A transparent microwave antenna embodiment 20 is shown in FIG. 1. As oriented in the figure, the antenna is a vertically-polarized microstrip patch array with a serial feed and a transparency of ˜79%. In particular, the antenna consists of an optically transparent substrate 21 with a multiplicity of wire mesh patches 22 and associated feed lines 23. Although the feed lines may also be defined by a conductive mesh, transparency is further enhanced by forming them with one or more elongate conductors as shown in the embodiment of
The outer shield of the coaxial cable is attached to the conductive mesh with a small solid conductor region 36 defined in the mesh to help facilitate the even distribution of currents into the mesh (the coupling point in
A directly-coupled feed structure is shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 6A. Also shown are the patch mesh 22 and the ground plane mesh 34 which are both carried on thin plastic (e.g., polyester) films 40 and mounted to the substrate 21 with optically-clear adhesives 42. The cable 24 is arranged within a cavity 43 that is formed (e.g., machined or molded) in the substrate. The cable's shield 44 is attached (e.g., with solder 45) to the solid conductor region 36 and the cable's center conductor 46 similarly attached to the solid conductor region 26.
A capacitively-coupled feed structure is shown in the enlarged view of
The teachings of the invention can be used to form various different substantially-transparent antenna embodiments.
A vertically-polarized test antenna was formed in accordance with the teachings of the invention and tested to determine the elevation and azimuth gain patterns shown in
A sketch in
The elevation plot 71 of
In an exemplary use of antennas of the invention, subscribers to a wireless system can exchange microwave signals with a system base station. In this use, a substantially-transparent antenna is preferably positioned in a subscriber's window (and preferably remote from a modem). The attenuation from the walls enclosing the window will have minimal impact on signals and the high transparency of the invention significantly reduces the obtrusiveness of window-mounted antennas. Embodiments of the invention have been described in which antenna elements are formed with a conductive mesh (i.e., an interlocking or intertwining construction arrangement similar to a grid, net or screen) which is substantially transparent at optical frequencies but substantially opaque at an operational frequency (e.g., microwave frequencies).
Although orthogonally-arranged mesh embodiments are illustrated in
Although patch and dipole antenna embodiments of the invention have been illustrated, its teachings can be used to form various other antenna structures. Although planar antenna embodiments have been illustrated, various nonplanar embodiments may also be realized.
Antennas of the invention can be configured for various microwave frequencies and they include embodiments that replace the interconnect cable (e.g., cable 24 in
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned by anyone skilled in the art to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application, Serial No. 60/352,738 filed Jan. 29, 2002.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5589839 | Lindenmeier et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
5670966 | Dishart et al. | Sep 1997 | A |
5999136 | Winter et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6107964 | Hirabe | Aug 2000 | A |
6480170 | Langley et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20030142018 A1 | Jul 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60352738 | Jan 2002 | US |