The present disclosure relates to a multilayer printed circuit board capable of reducing loss in signal transmission and to an electronic device including the same.
To meet increasing demands for wireless data traffic after commercialization of the fourth generation (4G) communication system, efforts have been made to develop an improved fifth generation (5G) or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a Beyond 4G Network or a Post long-term evolution (LTE) System.
The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency millimeter wave (mmWave) bands so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, various techniques such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming, and large scale antenna techniques are being discussed in the 5G communication system.
Additionally, in the 5G communication system, development for system network improvement is underway based on an advanced small cell, a cloud radio access network (cloud RAN), a ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, a moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, and the like.
Further, in the 5G system, hybrid frequency shift keying (FSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) are being developed as an advanced coding modulation (ACM) schemes, and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) are also being developed as advanced access technologies.
Meanwhile, in the 5G system as described above, electronic devices and base stations are confronted with an increasing complexity in an antenna module. This results in an increase in a transmission line between the antenna module and a circuit board included in the electronic device for using the 5G system. Therefore, there is a need for reducing a signal loss due to an increase in the transmission line.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.
Aspects of the present disclosure are to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a multilayer printed circuit board for reducing a signal loss occurring in a transmission line connected to an antenna module and an electronic device including the multilayer printed circuit board.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a multilayer printed circuit board is provided. The multilayer printed circuit board includes a plurality of substrate layers formed in stack may comprise a first substrate layer located on an outer side of the plurality of substrate layers, a second substrate layer located on another outer side of the plurality of substrate layers that is opposite to the first substrate layer, and a transmission line, connecting a first point of the first substrate layer and a second point of the second substrate layer, which passes through the first and second substrate layers, and includes a sub-transmission line disposed between and extended along at least two adjacent substrate layers among the plurality of substrate layers.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a multilayer printed circuit board including a plurality of substrate layers formed in stack, and the multilayer printed circuit board may include a first substrate layer located on an outer side of the plurality of substrate layers, a second substrate layer located on another outer side of the plurality of substrate layers that is opposite to the first substrate layer, and a transmission line, connecting a first point of the first substrate layer and a second point of the second substrate layer, which passes through the first and second substrate layers, and includes a sub-transmission line disposed between and extended along at least two adjacent substrate layers among the plurality of substrate layers.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, it is possible to reduce a signal loss that occurs in the transmission line that connects substrate elements and an antenna module. This reduction of signal loss may increase transmission power of a signal transmitted from the antenna module of the electronic device, thus ensuring the coverage of a wide area even with a small number of base stations. Further, this technique is cost-effective.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure.
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
In describing the embodiments, descriptions of techniques which are well known in the art to which the present disclosure belongs and which are not directly related to the present disclosure will not be described or illustrated in detail. This is to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present disclosure.
For the same reason, some elements are exaggerated, omitted or shown schematically in the accompanying drawings. Also, the size of each element does not entirely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals.
The advantages and features of the present disclosure and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. To fully disclose the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art, and the disclosure is only defined by the scope of the claims.
It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which are executed via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, generate means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions that are executed on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.
And each block of the flowchart illustrations may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.
The term “unit”, as used herein, may refer to a software or hardware component or device, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs certain tasks. A unit may be configured to reside on an addressable storage medium and configured to execute on one or more processors. Thus, a unit may include, by way of example, components, such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functionality provided for in the components and units may be combined into fewer components and units or further separated into additional components and units. In addition, the components and units may be implemented to drive one or more central processing units (CPUs) in a device or a secure multimedia card. Also, in embodiments, a unit may include one or more processors.
An electronic device according to the present disclosure may include a mobile terminal in general, and may indicate any device that has subscribed to a mobile communication system and is to receive a service from the mobile communication system. The mobile terminal may include a smart device such as a smart phone or a tablet PC, which is merely exemplary and not to be construed as a limitation of the present disclosure.
Referring to
Referring to
Hereinafter, the upper part of the multilayer PCB connected to the antenna module as shown in
The signal transmission unit 200 may include a transmission line 210 for connecting the substrate and the antenna module. The transmission line 210 may be connected to the substrate including various elements of the electronic device at a first point 211 and connected to the antenna module at a second point 212. For example, a signal generated in the electronic device may be transmitted to the antenna module via the transmission line 210.
Although
The transmission line 210 may be interposed between a plurality of layers 230 and extended along a certain layer. In addition, the transmission line 210 may be surrounded by ground layers 230-1 and 230-2. The plurality of layers 220 forming the respective layers of PCB may be implemented as prepreg (PPG).
The ground layers 230-1 and 230-2 may be formed on outer sides of the plurality of layers 220 in which the transmission line 210 is interposed.
Referring to
In the signal transmission unit 200 as shown in
In addition, the signal loss occurring in the transmission line is proportional to the length of the transmission line. As the number of antenna modules used in the 5G communication system increases, the length of the transmission line also increases. Therefore, in the 5G communication system, the signal loss occurring in the transmission line is further increased in comparison with the existing communication system.
In addition, as described above, the 5G communication system performs communication through a super high frequency band. In this super high frequency band, the signal loss occurring in the transmission line may increase depending on the characteristics of materials of the transmission line. Therefore, the transmission power of the electronic device may be greatly reduced due to an increase in the signal loss.
Hereinafter, a method according to the present disclosure for reducing a signal loss occurring in the transmission line will be described in detail. This technique may be advantageously applied to the 5G communication system as described above. This is, however, exemplary only and not to be construed as a limitation. Additionally, the technique of the disclosure may be also applied to any communication system before and after 5G.
Referring to
The transmission line 310 may include a plurality of sub-transmission lines. In other words, the transmission line 310 may be connected to the substrate at one starting point thereof and then separated into two or more branches. Thereafter, the branches may be combined into one transmission line, which may be connected to one antenna module.
Specifically, as shown in
In addition, the transmission line 310 may further include a second sub-transmission line 310-2, a third sub-transmission line 310-3 and a fourth sub-transmission line 310-4, which are connected to the first sub-transmission line 310-1 at different points and respectively extended along the plurality of layers 320.
The second sub-transmission line 310-2, the third sub-transmission line 310-3 and the fourth sub-transmission line 310-4 may be connected to a fifth sub-transmission line 310-5 which is extended in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of layers 320 and connected to the antenna module at a second point 312.
The first to fifth sub-transmission lines 310-1, 310-2, 310-3, 310-4, and 310-5 may constitute one transmission line 310 as a whole.
When the signal transmission unit 300 is implemented as shown in
As the width of the transmission line 310 is narrowed, it is possible to miniaturize the signal transmission unit 300.
Meanwhile, although
In addition, the transmission line 310 may further include a second sub-transmission line 310-2 and a third sub-transmission line 310-3, which are connected to the first sub-transmission line 310-1 at different points and respectively extended along the plurality of layers 320.
The second sub-transmission line 310-2 and the third sub-transmission line 310-3 may be connected to a fourth sub-transmission line 310-4 which is extended in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of layers 320 and connected to the antenna module at the second point 312.
The first to fourth sub-transmission lines 310-1, 310-2, 310-3, and 310-4 may constitute one transmission line 310 as a whole.
Referring to
Specifically, as shown in
In addition, the transmission line 410 may be extended along the first layer 421. For example, the transmission line 410 may be extended between the first layer 421 and a second layer 422 which is disposed above the first layer 421.
The transmission line 410 extended along the first layer 421 may be further extended in a direction perpendicular to the second layer 422, a third layer 423, and a fourth layer 424. Then, the transmission line 410 may be connected to the antenna module at a second point 412.
A second ground layer 432 may be disposed above the fourth layer 424.
Meanwhile,
In addition, the transmission line 410 may be extended along the second layer 422. For example, the transmission line 410 may be extended between the second layer 422 and the third layer 423 which is disposed above the second layer 422.
The transmission line 410 extended along the second layer 422 may be further extended in a direction perpendicular to the third and fourth layers 423 and 424. Then, the transmission line 410 may be connected to the antenna module at the second point 412.
The second ground layer 432 may be disposed above the fourth layer 424.
Meanwhile, the transmission line 410 of the signal transmission unit 400 shown in
According to still another embodiment, the transmission line may be separated into a plurality of branches and be extended along a direction that the plurality of layers extend.
Referring to
The transmission line 510 may be interposed between a plurality of layers 520 and extended along a certain layer. In addition, the transmission line 510 may be surrounded by ground layers 531 and 532. The plurality of layers 520 forming the respective layers of PCB may be implemented as PPG.
The ground layers 531 and 532 may be formed on outer sides of the plurality of layers 520 in which the transmission line 510 is interposed.
Referring to
Specifically, the transmission line 510 may be extended in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of layers at the first point 511 connected to the substrate.
Then, the transmission line 510 may be separated into the first sub-transmission line 510-1, the second sub-transmission line 510-2, and the third sub-transmission line 510-3 interposed between and extended along two adjacent layers among the plurality of layers 520.
The first sub-transmission line 510-1, the second sub-transmission line 510-2, and the third sub-transmission line 510-3 may be combined into one transmission line again. Then, the combined transmission line may be extended in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of layers and connected to the antenna module at the second point 512.
As shown in
Referring to
Specifically, a signal transmission unit 600 may include a transmission line 610 connected to the substrate and the antenna module. As described above, the transmission line 610 may refer to a path from one point connected to the substrate to another point connected to the antenna module. Also, the transmission line 610 may be branched into a plurality of sub-transmission lines respectively extended along a plurality of layers 620.
Meanwhile, as described above, the transmission line 610 may be surrounded by ground layers 631 and 632. The ground layers 631 and 632 may be formed on outer sides of the plurality of layers 620 in which the transmission line 610 is interposed.
In addition, the signal transmission unit 600 may further include a ground line 625 that surrounds the plurality of sub-transmission lines and extends in a direction perpendicular to the plurality of layers 620. The ground line 625 is not limited in number. Therefore, two ground lines 625 are possible as shown in
Referring to
With the addition of the additional ground line(s), any undesirable loss that occurs in the transmission line during signal transmission may be reduced.
Referring to
A transmission line 710 connected to the antenna module 730 may be also connected to a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) 720 through the multilayer. For example, when a signal to be transmitted by the electronic device is generated by the RFIC 720 or a signal generator included in the RFIC 720, the transmission line 710 may transmit the transmission signal to the antenna module 730.
The transmission line 710 may connect the RFIC 720 and the antenna module 730 through a plurality of layers. The plurality of layers used for the transmission line 710 may be some layers disposed at an upper part of the multilayer PCB.
The transmission line 710 may be surrounded by a ground layer 740. The ground layer 740 may be composed of a plurality of ground lines.
The electronic device 700 may include any type of the above-discussed signal transmission unit as well as a specific type shown in
While the present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
This application is a continuation application of prior application Ser. No. 15/834,627, filed on Dec. 7, 2017, which has issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,447,330 on Oct. 15, 2019 and was based on and claimed priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) of a Korean patent application number 10-2016-0173002, filed on Dec. 16, 2016, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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