This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 103140845, filed on Nov. 25, 2014, which is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of Disclosure
The invention relates to a microstrip antenna structure and a microwave imaging system using the same, and more particularly, to microstrip antenna structure that can improve performance when operated in a high-frequency environment and a microwave imaging system using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Microstrip antennas have the advantages such as light weight, small size and easy to manufacture and therefore, has been widely applied to radio communication devices such as mobile phones, navigators that demand of lightening and thinning. For the microstrip antennas, the generated radiation pattern, gain and polarity mainly depend on the structure and shape of the microstrip antenna. However, the known microstrip antenna is easily affected by conductor loss and dielectric loss of the substrate, such that excessive return losses may be encountered at a high-frequency operating environment, resulting in performance degradation of the radio communication device.
On the other hand, for microwave imaging systems of medical application, health conditions of inner organs of a human body can be detected through radio microwave signal transceived by a microwave coupling antenna. By the microwave image recovery technology applied to the microwave imaging system, non-invasive health diagnoses can be realized. Detection accuracy of diseased cells or tissues is in relation to the resolution and quality of scan images. However, because the microwave imaging system is usually operated in a high-frequency environment, if the known microstrip antenna is applied in the microwave imaging system, the resolution and quality of scan images may be degraded due to excessive return loss of the known microstrip antenna at high frequency, leading to lower the detection accuracy.
The objective of the invention is to provide a microstrip antenna structure. In this microstrip antenna structure, a short coupling gap structure is applied to the ring microstrip line thereof, coupling effect can be activated and the electrical length of the ring microstrip line can be improved in an operating environment with the frequency higher than 5 GHz, and the electromagnetic strength coupled by the ring microstrip line can be improved, thereby generating the characteristic of multiple resonances and forming lower return loss. The invention also provides a microwave imaging system with the abovementioned microstrip antenna structure, which can improve the image resolution and quality of an object.
One aspect of the invention is to provide a microstrip antenna structure. The microstrip antenna structure includes a substrate, a ring microstrip line and a signal transmission port. The substrate has opposite first and second surfaces. The ring microstrip line is disposed on the first surface of the substrate. The ring microstrip line has a short coupling gap ranged between 0.004λg and 0.06λg for forming a radiation bandwidth with high selectivity, where λg represents a guided wavelength of an electromagnetic wave in the ring microstrip line corresponding to a center frequency of the radiation bandwidth. The signal transmission port is disposed on the second surface of the substrate. The signal transmission port penetrates through the substrate and is electrically connected to the ring microstrip line.
In one or more embodiments, the ring microstrip line has a width ranged between 0.01λg, and 0.13λg.
In one or more embodiments, the ring microstrip line is a rectangular-shaped ring coaxial line, a rectangular-shaped ring coplanar waveguide line, a rectangular-shaped ring slotline or a rectangular-shaped ring stripline.
In one or more embodiments, the ring microstrip line includes titanium (Ti), cobaltum (Co), wolfram (W), hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), molybdanium (Mo), chromium (Cr), agtentum (Ag), cuprum (Cu) or aluminium (Al).
In one or more embodiments, the substrate is a FR4 substrate, a RT/Duroid series substrate, an aluminum oxide substrate, a RO series substrate, a high temperature cofired ceramic (HTCC) substrate, a low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) substrate, a transparent conductive substrate or a semiconductor substrate. The RO series substrate includes magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, strontium oxide or barium oxide.
In one or more embodiments, the signal transmission port includes titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum or aluminium.
In one or more embodiments, the microstrip antenna structure further includes a ground conductor. The ground conductor is disposed on the second surface of the substrate and is electrically insulated from the signal transmission port.
In one or more embodiments, the ground conductor defines an inner space, and the signal transmission port is located in the inner space.
In one or more embodiments, the ground conductor includes titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum or aluminium.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide a microstrip antenna structure. The microstrip antenna structure includes a substrate, ring microstrip lines and signal transmission ports. The substrate has opposite first and second surfaces. The ring microstrip lines are disposed on the first surface of the substrate. Each of the ring microstrip lines has a short coupling gap ranged between 0.004λg and 0.06λg for forming a radiation bandwidth with high selectivity, where λg represents a guided wavelength of an electromagnetic wave in the ring microstrip line corresponding to a center frequency of the radiation bandwidth. The signal transmission ports are disposed on the second surface of the substrate. The signal transmission ports penetrate through the substrate and are respectively electrically connected to the ring microstrip lines.
In one or more embodiments, each two adjacent ones of the ring microstrip lines have a distance of 0.3λg and 0.5λg therebetween.
In one or more embodiments, each of the ring microstrip lines has a width ranged between 0.01λg, and 0.13λg.
In one or more embodiments, each of the ring microstrip lines is a rectangular-shaped ring coaxial line, a rectangular-shaped ring coplanar waveguide line, a rectangular-shaped ring slotline or a rectangular-shaped ring stripline.
In one or more embodiments, each of the ring microstrip lines includes titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum or aluminium.
In one or more embodiments, the substrate is a FR4 substrate, a RT/Duroid series substrate, an aluminum oxide substrate, a RO series substrate, a HTCC substrate, a low temperature cofired ceramic LTCC substrate, a transparent conductive substrate or a semiconductor substrate. The RO series substrate includes magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, strontium oxide or barium oxide.
In one or more embodiments, each of the signal transmission ports includes titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum or aluminium.
In one or more embodiments, the microstrip antenna structure further includes ground conductors. The ground conductors are disposed on the second surface of the substrate and are respectively electrically insulated from the signal transmission ports.
In one or more embodiments, each of the ground conductors defines an inner space, and the signal transmission ports are respectively located in the inner spaces.
In one or more embodiments, each of the ground conductors includes titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum or aluminium.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide a microwave imaging system. The microwave imaging system includes a microwave scan unit, a microwave signal processing unit and a control and record unit. The microwave scan unit includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is used for generating an uniform electric field and radiating a microwave radio signal to an object, and the receiver is used for receiving the microwave radio signal penetrating through the object. The receiver includes a microstrip antenna structure. The microstrip antenna structure includes a substrate, at least one ring microstrip line and at least one signal transmission port. The at least one ring microstrip line is disposed on the first surface of the substrate. Each of the ring microstrip line has a short coupling gap ranged between 0.004λg and 0.06λg for forming a radiation bandwidth with high selectivity, where λg represents a guided wavelength of an electromagnetic wave in the ring microstrip line corresponding to a center frequency of the radiation bandwidth. The at least one signal transmission port is disposed on the second surface of the substrate. The at least one signal transmission port penetrates through the substrate and is respectively electrically connected to the at least one ring microstrip line. The microwave signal processing unit is electrically connected to the microwave scan unit. The microwave signal processing unit is used for inputting the microwave radio signal from the receiver and performing a dielectric parameter analysis and an image recovery analysis on the microwave radio signal. The control and record unit is electrically connected to the microwave scan unit and the microwave signal processing unit. The control and record unit is used for controlling the microwave scan unit, recording the microwave radio signal processed by the microwave signal processing unit and providing a data reading and writing function for the microwave signal processing unit.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosure as claimed.
The disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
In the following description, the disclosure will be explained with reference to embodiments thereof. However, these embodiments are not intended to limit the disclosure to any specific environment, applications or particular implementations described in these embodiments. Therefore, the description of these embodiments is only for the purpose of illustration rather than to limit the disclosure. In the following embodiments and attached drawings, elements not directly related to the disclosure are omitted from depiction; and the dimensional relationships among individual elements in the attached drawings are illustrated only for ease of understanding, but not to limit the actual scale.
It will be understood that, although the terms “first” and “second” may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another.
Referring to
The ring microstrip line 120 forms a high-selective radiation bandwidth at the first surface 111. In this embodiment, the ring microstrip line 120 is rectangular-shaped and is a ring coaxial line, a ring coplanar waveguide line, a ring slotline or a ring stripline. In addition, the ring microstrip line 120 may include a metal such as titanium (Ti), cobaltum (Co), wolfram (W), hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), molybdanium (Mo), chromium (Cr), agtentum (Ag), cuprum (Cu), aluminium (Al) or a metal alloy including the abovementioned metals, but is not limited thereto.
Referring to
The signal transmission port 130 penetrates through the substrate 110 and is electrically connected to the ring microstrip line 120, which is used for conducting the signal received by the ring microstrip line 120. In some embodiments, the signal transmission port 130 may include a SMA plug for transmitting the signal from the ring microstrip line 120 to another place through an external cable. The signal transmission port 130 may include a metal such as titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum, aluminium or a metal alloy including the abovementioned metals, but is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the signal transmission port 130 includes the same material as the ring microstrip line 120.
The ground conductor 140 is disposed on the second surface 112 of the substrate 110. The ground conductor 140 may include a metal such as titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum, aluminium or a metal alloy including the abovementioned metals, but is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the ground conductor 140 includes the same material as the ring microstrip line 120 and/or the signal transmission port 130.
Referring to
It should be noted that, the signal transmission port 130 may be disposed at any side of the ring microstrip line 120 based on various design demands, but is not limited at the place illustrated in
As can be seen from the above, when the microstrip antenna structure 100 of the invention is operated in a high-frequency environment with the frequency higher than 5 GHz, relatively low return loss can be obtained, so as to improve the performance of signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Therefore, the microstrip antenna structure 100 of the invention is suitable for being applied in the radio communication devices that need to be operated in a high-frequency environment. On the other hand, the microstrip antenna structure 100 of the invention has the advantage of small size, and therefore, the manufacture cost can be reduced, the manufacture process can be simplified, and the difficulty of integrating the microstrip antenna structure 100 into a radio communication device can be reduced.
Referring to
The ring microstrip lines 220 form a high-selective radiation bandwidth together at the first surface 211. In this embodiment, each of the ring microstrip lines 220 is rectangular-shaped, and the ring microstrip lines 220 may be one of a ring coaxial line, a ring coplanar waveguide line, a ring slotline a ring stripline respectively. Each of the ring microstrip lines 220 defines a rectangular space 220A. In some embodiments, the short coupling gap G of the ring microstrip line 220 is ranged between and 0.004λg and 0.06λg for activating coupling effect. In addition, each of the ring microstrip lines 220 may include a metal such as titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum, aluminium or a metal alloy including the abovementioned metals, but is not limited thereto. In the microstrip antenna structure 200, the distance D between two adjacent ring microstrip lines 220 is ranged between 0.3λg and 0.5λg. Preferably, the distance D between two adjacent ring microstrip lines 220 is about 0.45λg. In some embodiments, the width W of each of the ring microstrip lines 220 is ranged between 0.01λg and 0.13λg.
Each of the signal transmission ports 230 penetrates through the substrate 210 and is electrically connected to the ring microstrip line 220 of the same antenna unit, which is used for conducting the signal received by the ring microstrip line 220. Each of the signal transmission ports 230 may include a metal such as titanium, cobaltum, wolfram, hafnium, tantalum, molybdanium, chromium, agtentum, cuprum, aluminium or a metal alloy including the abovementioned metals, but is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the signal transmission ports 230 include the same material as the ring microstrip lines 220.
In each antenna unit, the ground conductor 240 defines a space 240A, and the signal transmission line 230 is located in the space 240A. In the planar direction of the microstrip antenna structure 200, a predetermined gap exists between the signal transmission port 230 and the ground conductor 240, such that the signal transmission port 230 and the ground conductor 240 are electrically insulated.
One feature of the microstrip antenna structure 200 is that, by the disposal of multiple antenna units and the design of the ring microstrip line 220 in each antenna unit, the receiving power of the electromagnetic signal can be enhanced, and the receiving range of the signal can be enlarged. When the microstrip antenna structure 200 is operated in a high-frequency environment with the frequency higher than 5 GHz, relatively low return loss can be obtained, so as to improve the performance of SNR ratio.
Referring to
In
The microwave signal processing unit 320 is electrically connected to the microwave scan unit 310, which is used for inputting the microwave radio signal from the receiver 314 and performing a dielectric parameter analysis and an image recovery analysis on the microwave radio signal, so as to obtain a scan image of the object B.
The control and record unit 330 is electrically connected to the microwave scan unit 310 and the microwave signal processing unit 320, which is used for controlling the microwave scan unit 310, recording the microwave radio signal processed by the microwave signal processing unit 320 and providing a data reading and writing function for the microwave signal processing unit 320.
One feature of the microwave imaging system 300 is that, by applying the microstrip antenna structure 100 or 200, the return loss of the microwave imaging system 300 can be reduced when operated in an environment with the operating frequency higher than 5 GHz. Therefore, the microwave imaging system 300 of the invention can improve the image resolution and quality of an object, so as to improve the detection accuracy.
Although the disclosure has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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103140845 | Nov 2014 | TW | national |