The present disclosure in some embodiments relates to a phase shifter.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and do not necessarily constitute prior art.
Antennas when radiating a horizontal beam, could exhibit the maximum effective coverage, but signal interference or loss exacts designing the antennas with a predetermined tilt, e.g., a 5° down tilt. Mechanical downward tilting of an antenna is burdensome because it requires installers to visit the site and switch the antenna off during the repositioning. Accordingly, methods have been introduced to electrically alter the tilt of the radiating beam by providing the radiating elements in an array with phase changes induced along the length of the array corresponding to tilts of various angles, which is carried out by a phase shifting device. Respective phase shifting devices receive a signal at a common input port, and transmit the same via a plurality of output ports to the radiating elements installed in an antenna.
The applicant has proposed in Korean registered patent No. 101567882, an example of an electrical phase shifting device as shown in
When the moving board 12′ reciprocates in the vertical direction in the drawing, the contact length between the variable strip 126′ and the circuit pattern 114′ changes to generate variable capacitive coupling between the transmission lines, which in turn changes the phase of the signal transmitted to each output port. Letter “d” represents the range of moving distance of the moving board.
As shown in
Another background art example is U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0248494 A1 which discloses, as shown in
The prior art moving mechanism involves, as shown in
The background art described above employs a structure in which a fixed board 14′ and a moving board 12′ are installed only on one side of the phase shift device. In addition, the prior art moving mechanisms are susceptible to a shortened service life and aged deterioration in that the prior art moving mechanisms get reduced durability due to repetitive friction of the convex portion 144′ (
Recently, antennas, widely used in base stations and repeaters of mobile communication systems, are required to meet the needs for a multi-band frequency capability to provide services of various frequency bands and even miniaturization as well as lightening of weight, for which various researches are being conducted. Multi-band frequency antennas are required to adjust the phase of frequencies across different frequency bands individually. This, however, needs a sizable number of phase shift devices which adversely involves spatial restrictions on antenna designs.
The approach to assign the phase shift devices more interior space of an antenna leads to more crowded antenna elements in a tight space allowance, which raises practical implementation issues of dimensional and configuration restrictions on the antenna elements.
Currently, excluding the minimum required space for phase shifting devices, the remaining space in an antenna is used for the element section, further increasing the antenna size undesirably.
Accordingly, the present disclosure in some embodiments seeks to provide a phase shifter having a new structure which can enhance use of the space of an antenna device.
The present disclosure in another embodiment seeks to provide a guide unit which can easily lead the phase shifting drive of the phase shifter.
At least one aspect of the present disclosure provides a phase shifter including a housing, a first shifting unit and a second shifting unit. The housing has a first surface and a second surface. The first shifting unit is configured to be disposed on the first surface of the housing, and to include a first fixed board formed with a first circuit pattern, and a first moving board formed with a first conductive strip that is coupled to the first circuit pattern of the first fixed unit. The second shifting unit is configured to be disposed on the second surface of the housing, and to include a second fixed board formed with a second circuit pattern, and a second moving board formed with a second conductive strip that is coupled to the second circuit pattern of the second fixed unit.
Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an antenna device including a guide configured to be linked with the phase shifter, and an actuator configured to linearly move the guide, and a driving source configured to drive the actuator.
Yet another aspect of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus including the phase shifter.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, in a multi-band antenna which needs to individually adjust the phases of frequencies of multiple bands, the number of phase shifters can be reduced to thereby address the spatial restriction issue.
Furthermore, the present disclosure is advantageous in terms of downsizing and weight reduction of the antenna device, and can provide a compact antenna device with an increased usable space.
Further, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, rotation of a guide roller provides a smooth guided movement of a board, and a inclined surface contact prevents the wear of parts and improves the durability of the phase shifter.
The above is example effects of illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure, and other effects of the present disclosure will become clearer from the technology of some embodiments described below.
Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, like reference numerals designate like elements, although the elements are shown in different drawings. Further, in the following description of some embodiments, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated therein will be omitted for the purpose of clarity and for brevity.
Additionally, various terms such as “first”, “second”, “A”, “B”, “(a)”, “(b)”, etc., are used solely for the purpose of differentiating one component from the other, not to imply or suggest the substances, the order or sequence of the components. Throughout this specification, when a part “includes” or “comprises” a component, the part is meant to further include other components, not excluding thereof unless specifically stated to the contrary. The terms such as “unit,” “module,” and the like refer to units for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination thereof.
Hereinafter, a phase shifter according to at least some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The phase shifter of at least some embodiments roughly includes a first shifting unit including a first fixed board and a first moving board, a second shifting unit including a second moving board and a second fixed board, and a housing on which the boards are mounted.
As shown in
The first fixed board 2 (
Three recessed grooves 8 (
The first moving board 4 (
A protrusive rib 60 (
Sub-boards 12 (
Those skilled in the art know that the fixed board provides a predetermined circuit pattern, while the moving board provides conductive strips that move over the fixed board to be in contact or coupled with the predetermined circuit pattern in order to carry out the function of varying the contact length between the fixed board and the moving board. It should be noted, however, that when engaged in that function, the first fixed board 2 and the first moving board 4 according to at least some embodiments of the present disclosure contemplate not to stop at the aforementioned example but to go beyond the very limitation thereof.
The phase shifter 1 (
One of the features of the present disclosure is that the phase shifter 1 (
The housing 30 is an H-shaped frame having a transversely extending web when viewed from the front, and has a body 34 and a pair of upright side walls 36 erected from both ends of the body 34.
The body 34 is planar which provides space enough to accommodate the first fixed board 2 and the second fixed board 3. The body 34 has a top surface 32 and a bottom surface 32a installed with the first shifting unit 10 and the second shifting unit 20, respectively. In the housing 30 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the top surface 32 forms a first surface and the bottom surface 32a forms a second surface.
The body 34 is made of a material taking account of heat radiation of the printed circuit board. The material used may be an alloy containing aluminum, boron, quartz or vitreous quartz or ceramics or plastics such as nylon including polyphthalamide (PPA) or mixtures thereof, which have high heat resistance.
The side walls 36 correspond to longitudinally extending flanges, and extend upwardly integrally with the body 34 so as to cover the entire side surfaces of the housing 30. In the illustrated example, each side wall 36 is divided into four separate walls, and side wall guides 102 are provided between the separate walls.
The first fixed board 2 is fixedly attached by adhesion or lamination to the top surface 32 of the housing 30. The first moving board 4 is mounted so that the first moving board is biased toward the first fixed board 2 and thereby its first conductive strips 12a (
The phase shifter 1 according to some embodiments includes a guide unit 100 for guiding movement of the first moving board 4 and/or the second moving board 5. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the guide unit 100 includes the side wall guide 102, a guide roller 104, and the recessed groove 8 formed in the first fixed board 2 and/or the second fixed board 3. In addition, three side wall guides 102 may be provided at a predetermined pitch along both lateral sides of the housing 30, respectively.
The guide unit 100 has the similar guide roller 104 installed at its underside, and therefore when the pair of guide rollers 104 rotates, the upper first moving board 4 and the lower second moving board 5 slidably moves on the corresponding first fixed board 2 and the second fixed board 3 so as to establish a variable capacitive coupling relationship with the first circuit pattern 6 and a second circuit pattern so that the phase-shifted signal is simultaneously transmitted to the output ports of the first circuit pattern 6 and the second circuit pattern.
As described above, some embodiments of the present disclosure effect generating phase-shifted signals by the first shifting unit 10 and the second shifting unit 20 provided on both surfaces of the housing 30. This reduces the number of phase shifters in a multi-band antenna which needs to individually adjust the phases of multi-band frequencies.
This will be explained referring to
When the drive motor M rotates in one direction, the first moving board 4 and the second moving board 5 installed respectively in the first shifting unit 10 and the second shifting unit 20 of each of four phase shifter 1 are respectively brought into contact with or coupled to their first fixed board 2 and second fixed board 3 electrically, while the moving boards are slidably guided by the guide unit 100, whereby the phase-shifted signal is transmitted to the output ports. Conversely, when drive motor M rotates in the reverse direction, the first moving board 4 in the first shifting unit 10 and the second moving board 5 in the second shifting unit 20 of each of four phase shifters 1 are respectively brought into contact with or coupled to their first fixed board 2 and second fixed board 3 electrically, while the moving boards are slidably guided in the opposite direction, whereby the opposite phase-shifted signal is transmitted to the output ports. As shown in
The phase shifter 1 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure allows, as shown at (a) in
In addition, the saved space may be converted into a usable space for placing other phase shifters 1 or antenna members or other purposes, to substantially contribute to compactness of the antenna device.
Hereinafter, the guide unit 100 of the phase shifter 1 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to
The guide unit 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure has a structure in which a pair of upper and lower guide rollers 104 are each fastened to a horizontal bracket 106. The horizontal bracket 106 may have holes 108 formed on both sides, through which fastening members such as bolts or pins penetrate to fix the horizontal bracket 106 to the top surface of the first fixed board 2.
The horizontal bracket 106 has a central groove 114. The guide roller 104 has a rotating shaft 112 which penetrates the central groove 114 of the horizontal bracket 106, the recessed groove 8 of the first fixed board 2, and the side wall guide 102 (
To support the rotation of the guide roller 104, a support member 110 such as a washer is inserted on the upper surface of the central groove 114. The washer 110 is a component that accommodates the rotation of the guide roller 104 like a bearing.
As shown in
As described above, according to the guide unit 100 of some embodiments of the present disclosure, the movement of the first moving board 4 is guided by the rotation of the guide rollers 104, resulting in smooth movement of the first moving board 4.
In order to simultaneously guide the movement of the upper and lower moving boards 4 of the first shifting unit 10 and the second shifting unit 20, the guide rollers 104 are employed in the advantageous arrangement by the embodiments of the present disclosure.
Further, the guide roller 104 and the first moving board 4 are brought into slidingly contact with each other, resulting in less wear on the components and improved durability as compared with the conventional compressive fastening technique.
The above illustration highlights the operation of the guide unit 100 against the first fixed board 2 and the first moving board 4 of the first shifting unit 10, and their structural relationship. The phase shifters 1 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure may be configured to have planar symmetry, wherein the operation of the guide unit 100 against the second shifting unit 20 and their structural relationship can be the same as or similar to those of the guide unit 100 against the first shifting unit 10.
The difference from the guide unit 100 of
The guide unit 100 includes a vertical bracket 200 having a body 208 formed, at the corners thereof, with four fastening holes 202 through which bolts or pins penetrate to affix the vertical bracket 200 to a side surface of the first fixed board 2. The body 208 is desirably fabricated to have a height that accommodates both the first shifting unit 10 (
The body 208 of the vertical bracket 200 has support arms 204 on both sides thereof, extending internally, i.e., toward the first fixed board 2 and the second fixed board 3, and the support arms 204 have distal ends each formed with a hooking projection or catch. Correspondingly, slots 206 are formed on the top surface of the first fixed board 2 and the bottom surface of the second fixed board 3, respectively, so that the catches are inserted into the slots 206, to reinforce the fastening of the body 208 to the first fixed board 2 and the second fixed board 3.
Although the embodiments of the guide unit 100 of the present disclosure have been described above, the shape, position, size and number of each member may be appropriately changed. Further, although the guide roller 104 has been highlighted, it is a matter of course that a guide unit of any structure may be employed to effect simultaneous movement of the first and second shifting units.
In addition to simultaneously moving the first shifting unit 10 and the second shifting unit 20, one of the shifting units may be selectively moved. In this case, the rotating shaft 112 of the pair of upper and lower guide rollers 104 may be divided so that the operations of the guide rollers 104 do not cooperate with each other, or the guide unit 100 may be installed on either the top surface or the bottom surface of the phase shifter 1.
The embodiments of the present disclosure described above are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present disclosure, but are for the purpose of illustration only, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited by the presented embodiments. The interpreted scope of the present disclosure should be the scope of the following claims, and all technical ideas equivalent to or admittedly equivalent to the claims are to be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2016-0013629 | Feb 2016 | KR | national |
The present application is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/KR2017/001085 filed Feb. 1, 2017, entitled “PHASE SHIFTING DEVICE,” which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 365 and/or 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0013629 filed Feb. 3, 2016. The full disclosures of the above-listed applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20180337438 A1 | Nov 2018 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/KR2017/001085 | Feb 2017 | US |
Child | 16050216 | US |