The present invention relates to a wireless communication antenna used by a base station or a relay in a wireless communication (PCS, Cellular, CDMA, GSM, LTE, etc.) system and, particularly, to a multi-band multi-polarized antenna (hereinafter, referred to as “antenna”).
An antenna used by a base station, including a relay, in a wireless communication system may have various shapes and structures. Recently, in a wireless communication antenna, a dual-polarized antenna structure has been generally used by applying a polarization diversity scheme.
Usually, a dual-polarized antenna has a structure in which four radiation elements having the shape of a dipole, as one radiation module, are properly arranged, in the shape of a tetragon or in the shape of a rhombus, on at least one longitudinally upright reflector. The four radiation elements, for example, radiation elements catty-cornered from each other make a pair and respective pairs of radiation elements are arranged +45 to −45 degrees with respect to verticality (or horizontality) and are used, for example, in transmitting (or receiving) the corresponding one of two linear polarizations, which are orthogonal to each other. Further, multiple radiation modules, each of which includes the four dipole-shaped radiation elements, are usually arranged vertically on the reflector so as to form one antenna array.
Further, an example of such a dual-band polarized antenna is disclosed in KR Patent Application No. 2000-7010785 (Title: “Dual-Polarized Dual-Band Antenna”, Filed Date: Sep. 28, 2000) first filed by Kathrein-Verke A G, or in KR Patent Application No. 2008-92963 (Title: “Dual-Polarized Dual-Band Antenna for a Mobile Communication Base Station”, Filed Date: Sep. 22, 2008) first filed by the present applicant.
In a multi-band antenna, multiple antennal arrays, according to each band, are installed on one reflector. For example, in order to implement a tri-band antenna, a total of three antenna arrays, one for each band, should be installed. In order to seek the best method for installing multiple antenna arrays as described above, an arrangement structure of an antenna array for each band, a structure of radiation modules constituting antenna arrays for each band, and an effect by mutual interference between antenna arrays for each band should be considered. At this time, the radiation performance of antenna arrays should be ensured while making the entire size of the antenna as small as possible. However, it is considerably difficult to design an antenna that satisfies such conditions in a limited space (on one reflector).
Therefore, various studies are currently being carried out on the more optimized structure of a multi-band multi-polarized antenna, the optimization of the size of an antenna, a stable radiation characteristic, the easy adjustment of beam width, an easy antenna design, etc.
Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a multi-band multi-polarized wireless communication antenna having the more optimized structure, optimized size, the stable radiation characteristic, the easy beam width adjustment, and the easy antenna design.
In order to achieve the above-described purpose, the present invention provides a multi-band multi-polarized wireless communication antenna, which includes: a reflector; a first radiation module of a first band, which is installed on the reflector; and a second or third radiation module of a second or third band, which is installed on the reflector, wherein the first radiation module includes first to fourth radiation elements having a dipole structure, each of the first to fourth radiation elements is configured such that two radiation arms are connected to each other in the shape of letter “¬”, one of the two radiation arms is configured to be placed parallel to and along a side the reflector, and wherein the second or third module is installed to be included in an installation range of the first radiation module.
In the above description, one of the fifth to eighth radiation elements, each of which is configured such that two radiation arms are connected to each other in the shape of the letter “¬”, is included inside the first radiation module and the fifth to eighth radiation elements may be installed to form a structure of the overall shape of the letter “+”.
In the above description, at least one 1-2th radiation module of the first band which is installed on the reflector is further included; and the at least one 1-2th radiation module may be combined with the first radiation module so as to implement an antenna array of the first band.
In the above description, a feeding network may be formed so that at least some of radiation elements catty-cornered from each other in the first radiation module are linked with each other to generate one of X polarized waves, respectively.
In the above description, a feeding network may be formed so that at least some of the radiation elements catty-cornered from each other in the first radiation module are linked to generate the first to forth polarized waves, respectively.
In the above description, each of the first to fourth radiation elements of the first radiation module may form a feed network so as to generate the first to fourth polarize waves, respectively.
In the above description, when the fifth to eighth radiation elements are installed correspondingly to the first to fourth radiation elements respectively, the first and fifth radiation elements may be configured to generate a first polarized wave, the second and sixth radiation elements may be configured to generate a second polarized wave, the third and seventh radiation elements may be configured to generate a third polarized wave, and the fourth and eighth radiation elements may be configured to generate a fourth polarized wave.
In the above description, the first and seventh radiation elements may be configured to generate a first polarized wave, the second and eighth radiation elements may be configured to generate a second polarized wave, the third and fifth radiations may be configured to generate a third polarized wave, and the fourth and sixth radiation elements may be configured to generate a fourth polarized wave.
Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, identical elements are provided with an identical reference numeral where possible. Various specific definitions found in the following description are provided only to help general understanding of the present invention, and it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention can be implemented without such definitions.
Referring to
The second and third radiation modules 12 and 13 can be implemented as a radiation module that includes generally used radiation elements having various structures and shapes, including a general radiation element having the shape of a dipole. However, the first radiation modules 11 have a characteristic structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The first radiation module 11 includes eight first to eighth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-8 having a dipole structure. At this time, similar to a general dipole structure, the four outer first to fourth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 includes two radiation arms a1 and a2, each of which is supported by a support b having a balloon structure. The two radiation arms a1 and a2 are connected to be, for example, perpendicular to each other and one of the two radiation arms a1 and a2 is placed parallel to and along a side edge of the reflector 10 on which the corresponding radiation element is installed. In other words, depending on such a configuration, the plane structure of each of the four radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 has the shape of letter “¬” and the overall outer structure of the four radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 has the shape of a tetragon, the left and right sides of which are parallel to side surfaces of the reflector 10.
Further, each of the four fifth to eighth radiation elements 11-5 to 11-8 inside the first radiation modules 11 may also have the same configuration as the first to fourth radiation elements (11-1 to 11-4). However, the fifth to eighth radiation elements 11-5 to 11-8 are arranged in the overall shape of the letter “+” with reference to the overall center of the corresponding first radiation modules 11. In other words, in the case of the fifth to eighth radiation elements 11-5 to 11-8, the radiation elements adjacent to each other are arranged side by side at the corresponding radiation arms.
In the above-described structure, in the first radiation modules 11 having the overall outer shape of a tetragon, a feeding network (not illustrated) is formed so that radiation elements, which are arranged in a diagonal direction, are linked with each other to generate one of X polarized waves, respectively. In other words, the feeding network is formed so that the first, third, fifth, and seventh radiation elements 11-1, 11-3, 11-5, and 11-7 are linked with each other and the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth 11-2, 11-4, 11-6, and 11-8 are linked with each other.
Examining the above-described structure, it can be known that the reflector 10 can be designed to have the minimum size, without an area substantially extending to the outside beyond an installation area of the first to fourth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 of the first radiation module 11. In such a structure, it can be known that the structure of the first radiation module 11 of a low frequency band utilizes, to the utmost, an area of the reflector 10 which serves as a ground, the overall size of the first radiation module being large; the separation distance between the first to fourth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 of the first radiation module 11 is maximized; the shape of radiation arms of the first to fourth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 is formed to be the same as the shape of a side edge part of the reflector 10; and an antenna having the narrow beam width (about beam width of 60 degrees or less) is thereby formed. In other words, as specifically shown in
Here, broadband characteristics can be implemented by using a mutual combination between the fifth to eighth radiation elements 11-5 to 11-8 arranged in the inside. Further, the horizontal beam width can be formed by properly adjusting and designing an arrangement interval between the first to fourth radiation elements 11-1 to 11-4 arranged in the outside and the fifth to eighth radiation elements 11-5 to 11-8 arranged in the inside.
Meanwhile, as in
Such an arrangement structure of the first to third radiation modules 11, 12, and 13 can minimize the size of an overall arrangement space and minimize an effect which radiation elements of radiation modules of different bands have on each other.
Unlike the structure illustrated in
Unlike the structure illustrated in
In the above-described structure, multiple, for example, five second and third radiation modules 12 and 13 are vertically arranged to form antenna arrays according to the corresponding second and third bands, respectively, and some (e.g., 12-3, 12-4, 13-3, and 13-4) of the five second and third radiation modules are installed to be included in the installation space of the first radiation modules 11.
In implementing antenna arrays of a first band, the antenna arrays of the first band are not to be implemented by only the first radiation module 11 having the structure of embodiments of the present invention and are implemented through a 1-2th radiation module 21, which is vertically arranged together with the first radiation module 11 and has a structure that is different from the first radiation module 11. The 1-2th module 21 can be implemented as a radiation module which includes generally used radiation elements having various structures and shapes, including a general radiation element having the shape of a dipole.
The above-described structure is in order to make a design for allowing a beam width characteristic of an antenna array of the first band to be properly adjusted. In other words, for example, by combining the 1-2th radiation module 21, which has a general structure and may have a relatively wide beam width (e.g., 70 degrees or more), and the first radiation module 11, which is designed to have a relatively narrow beam width, so as to form one antenna array of the first band, it is possible to properly adjust and design the overall beam width of an antenna of a first band to have a desired beam width characteristic.
Examining the structure of the second embodiment illustrated in
Similar to the structure of the first embodiment, the overall plane structure of each of multiple radiation elements 24-1, 24-2, 25-1, 25-2, 26-1, 26-2, 27-1, and 27-2, which form the first module, is configured to have the shape of a letter “¬”, wherein each of the multiple radiation elements has two radiation arms perpendicular to each other. Further, similar to the structure of the first embodiment, in the overall structure of the first radiation module, 1-1th, 2-1th, 3-1th, and 4-1th radiation elements 24-1, 25-1, 26-1, and 27-1 are arranged to form an overall tetragonal structure at the outer side and 1-2th, 2-2th, 3-2th, and 4-2th radiation elements 24-2, 25-2, 26-2, and 27-2 are arranged in the overall shape of letter “+”.
Here, in the structure of the third embodiment illustrated in
More specifically, in the above-described structure, the 1-1th and 1-2th radiation elements 24-1 and 24-2 are implemented so as to be linked with each other to be fed and are configured to generate a first polarized wave. Similarly, the 2-1th and 2-2th radiation elements 25-1 and 25-2 are configured to generate a second polarized wave, the 3-1th and 3-2th radiation elements 26-1 and 26-2 are configured to generate a third polarized wave, and the 4-1th and 4-2th radiation elements 27-1 and 27-2 are configured to generate a fourth polarized wave. Logically, such a structure can be designed so that the first to fourth polarized waves have differences in the characteristics thereof. However, in the embodiment of
For example, the 1-1th and 1-2th radiation elements 24-1 and 24-2 may be configured to generate one of first sub-X polarized waves corresponding to the first band and the 4-1th and 4-2th radiation elements 27-1 and 27-2 may be configured to generate another polarized wave of the first sub-X polarized waves. In this case, the 1-1th and 1-2th radiation elements 24-1 and 24-2 and the 4-1th and 4-2th radiation elements 27-1 and 27-2, as a whole, are configured to form the first sub-X polarized waves.
Similarly, for example, the 2-1th and 2-2th radiation elements 25-1 and 25-2 may configured to generate one of second sub-X polarized waves corresponding to the first band and the 3-1th and 3-2th radiation elements 26-1 and 26-2 may be configured to generate another polarized wave of the second sub-X polarized waves. In this case, the 2-1th and 2-2th radiation elements 25-1 and 25-2 and the 3-1th and 3-2th radiation elements 26-1 and 26-2 are, overall, configured to form the second sub-X polarized waves.
In this configuration, when designing a dipole structure between the radiation elements 24-1, 24-2, 27-1, and 27-2, which form the first sub-X polarized waves, and the radiation elements 25-1, 25-2, 26-1, and 26-2, which generate the second sub-X polarized waves, the detailed structure may be slightly different in the size thereof according to a characteristic of respectively corresponding first and second sub-bands. In this case, if the detailed dipole structures of the radiation elements 24-1, 24-2, 25-1, 25-2, 26-1, 26-2, 27-1, and 27-2, which implement the first radiation module are identically implemented, it will be noted the structure may have the same radiation characteristic as the embodiment illustrated in
In the modified structure illustrated in
In the modified structure illustrated in
Here, in the structure of the third embodiment illustrated in
As illustrated in
Further, in the structures illustrated in
A multi-band multi-polarized wireless communication antenna according an embodiment of the present invention may be configured and operated as described above. Meanwhile, specified embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, various modifications may be made without deviating from the scope of the present invention.
For example, as an example of a structure modified from that of the third embodiment in
Further, the first, second, and third embodiments have been described above while being distinguished from each other. However, according to another embodiment, at least some characteristics of the embodiments can be combined with each other.
Further, in the above-described structures of the embodiments, for example, a stick-shaped director, which is made of a conductive material, can further be installed at the upper parts of the radiation elements which constitute the first radiation module in directions toward which beams are radiated from locations which are spaced apart from the corresponding radiation elements so as to adjust a radiation characteristic, such as a beam width.
In addition to that, various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention shall not be determined by the above-described embodiments and has to be determined by the following claims and equivalents thereof.
As described above, a multi-band multi-polarized wireless communication antenna, according to the present invention, may provide a more optimized structure and size, a stable radiation characteristic, the easy adjustment of beam width, and an easy antenna design.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2013-0133584 | Nov 2013 | KR | national |
This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/KR2014/010245 filed on Oct. 29, 2014, which claims priority to Korean Application No. 10-2013-0133584 filed on Nov. 5, 2013, which applications are incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Child | 15143976 | US |