Patent Application
20210408672
The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010611310.2, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on Jun. 30, 2020, with the entire contents of the above-identified application incorporated by reference as if set forth herein.
The present invention generally relates to radio communications and, more particularly, to radiating elements, antenna assemblies and base station antennas for cellular communications systems.
Cellular communications systems are well known in the art. In a cellular communications system, a geographic area is divided into a series of regions that are referred to as “cells” which are served by respective base stations. The base station may include one or more base station antennas that are configured to provide two-way radio frequency (“RF”) communications with mobile subscribers that are within the cell served by the base station.
In many cases, each base station is divided into “sectors”. In perhaps the most common configuration, a hexagonally shaped cell is divided into three 120° sectors, and each sector is served by one or more base station antennas that have an azimuth Half Power Beam width (HPBW) of approximately 65°. Typically, the base station antennas are mounted on a tower structure, with the radiation patterns (also referred to herein as “antenna beams”) that are generated by the base station antennas directed outwardly. Base station antennas often include a linear array or a two-dimensional array of radiating elements, such as crossed dipole or patch radiating elements.
Due to the growing demand for wireless communications, multi-band technology, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, and beamforming technology have been rapidly developed to support different services. However, with the integration of more and more frequency bands and/or RF ports in one base station antenna, the antenna system, such as feed networks on a feed board, become more complex. The complex feed networks may increase the design difficulty, such as routing difficulty, and increase the size of the feed board, making the base station antenna larger and/or heavier, both of which are undesirable.
Thus, one object of the present invention is to provide a radiating element, an antenna assembly and a related base station antenna capable of overcoming at least one drawback in the prior art.
Some embodiments include a radiating element. The radiating element may include a feed stalk. The element may include a radiator mounted on the feed stalk. The element may include where the feed stalk includes a dielectric substrate, a first metal pattern printed on a first major surface of the dielectric substrate, and a second metal pattern printed on a second major surface of the dielectric substrate that may be opposite the first major surface. The element may include where the first metal pattern includes a first feed transmission line, and a first feed welding region electrically connected to the first feed transmission line, and the second metal pattern includes a second feed welding region electrically connected to the first feed welding region.
In some embodiments, one or more of the following features may be included. The first feed welding region may be electrically connected to the second feed welding region via a metalized hole through the dielectric substrate. The first feed welding region and the second feed welding region may be provided on a support end of the feed stalk, where the feed stalk may be configured to mount to a feed board for the radiating element via the support end, and where the first feed welding region and the second feed welding region are configured to be welded to a feed board feed welding region on the feed board. The first feed transmission line may be configured as a feed balun. The feed balun may be printed integrally with the first feed welding region. The feed stalk includes a first feed stalk and a second feed stalk, where the radiator may include a first radiator mounted on the first feed stalk and a second radiator mounted on the second feed stalk, where the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk are arranged crosswise, and where the first feed welding region on one of the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk may be arranged facing the second feed welding region on the other feed stalk. The second metal pattern may include a first ground welding region, and a ground metal region may be electrically connected to the first ground welding region. The second feed welding region may be spaced apart from the first ground welding region and the ground metal region by a gap, within which metallization may be removed, so that the second feed welding region may be electrically isolated from the first ground welding region and the ground metal region. The first ground welding region and the second feed welding region are arranged side by side. The first ground welding region may be provided on a support end of the feed stalk, and the feed stalk may be configured to mount on a feed board for the radiating element via the support end, and where the first ground welding region may be configured to be welded to a ground pad on the feed board. The ground metal region may be printed integrally with the first ground welding region. The first feed transmission line may be configured as a feed line for RF signals and the ground metal region may be configured as a return line for RF signals. The ground metal region may be electrically connected to a feed end of the feed stalk via an inductive-capacitive filter circuit, and the feed end may be welded to the radiator.
Some embodiments include an antenna assembly. The antenna assembly may include a feed board. The assembly may include a radiating element mounted on the feed board, the radiating element may include: a first feed stalk, a first radiator mounted on the first feed stalk, a second feed stalk, and a second radiator mounted on the second feed stalk. The assembly may include where the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk each include a dielectric substrate. The assembly may include where a first metal pattern may be printed on a first major surface of the dielectric substrate and a second metal pattern may be printed on a second major surface of the dielectric substrate opposing the first major surface. The assembly may include where the first metal pattern includes a first feed transmission line and a first feed welding region electrically connected to the first feed transmission line. The assembly may include where the second metal pattern includes a second feed welding region electrically connected to the first feed welding region. The assembly may include where the first feed welding region on one of the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk faces the second feed welding region on the other feed stalk.
In some embodiments, one or more of the following features may be included. The antenna assembly where the feed board may be provided thereon with a first RF feed source and a second RF feed source; the antenna assembly may include: a second feed transmission line electrically connected to the first RF feed source; a first feed board feed welding region electrically connected to the second feed transmission line; a third feed transmission line electrically connected to the second RF feed source; and a second feed board feed welding region electrically connected to the third feed transmission line, where the first feed welding region on one of the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk may be welded to the first feed board feed welding region on the feed board, and where the second feed welding region on the other feed stalk may be welded to the second feed board feed welding region on the feed board. The radiating element may include a first radiating element and a second radiating element; the first RF feed source may be electrically connected to the second feed welding region on the first feed stalk of the first radiating element via a first branch of the second feed transmission line and the feed welding region on the feed board; the first RF feed source may be electrically connected to the first feed welding region on the first feed stalk of the second radiating element via a second branch of the second feed transmission line and the feed welding region on the feed board; the second RF feed source may be electrically connected to the first feed welding region on the second feed stalk of the first radiating element via a first branch of the third feed transmission line and the feed welding region on the feed board; and the second RF feed source may be electrically connected to the second feed welding region on the second feed stalk of the second radiating element via a second branch of the third feed transmission line and the feed welding region on the feed board. The first feed welding region may be electrically connected to the second feed welding region via a metalized hole. The first feed transmission line may be configured as a feed balun. The second metal pattern includes a first ground welding region and a ground metal region electrically connected to the first ground welding region, and the second feed welding region may be spaced from the first ground welding region and the ground metal region by a gap, within which metallization may be removed, so that the second feed welding region may be electrically isolated from the first ground welding region and the ground metal region. The feed board may be printed thereon with ground pads, to which the first ground welding region on each of the first feed stalk and the second feed stalk may be welded. Each of the ground pads may be electrically connected to a ground metal layer on the feed board.
Some embodiments include a base station antenna that includes one or more of the radiating elements or antenna assembly described herein.
The above are not the only embodiments provided by the present application, and other embodiments are disclosed herein, either explicitly or implicitly to those skilled in the art.
The present invention will be explained in more detail below by specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The schematic drawings are briefly described as follows:
The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, in which several embodiments of the present invention are shown. It should be understood, however, that the present invention may be implemented in many different ways, and is not limited to the example embodiments described below. In fact, the embodiments described hereinafter are intended to make a more complete disclosure of the present invention and to adequately explain the scope of the present invention to a person skilled in the art. It should also be understood that, the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in various ways to provide many additional embodiments.
It should be understood that, the wording in the specification is only used for describing particular embodiments and is not intended to limit the present invention. All the terms used in the specification (including technical and scientific terms) have the meanings as normally understood by a person skilled in the art, unless otherwise defined. For the sake of conciseness and/or clarity, well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail.
In the specification, when an element is referred to as being “on,” “attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting,” etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly attached” to, “directly connected” to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. In the specification, references to a feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap, overlie or underlie the adjacent feature.
In the specification, words describing spatial relationships such as “up,” “down,” “left,” “right,” “forth,” “back,” “high,” “low” and the like may describe a relation of one feature to another feature in the drawings. It should be understood that these terms also encompass different orientations of the apparatus in use or operation, in addition to encompassing the orientations shown in the drawings. For example, when the apparatus in the drawings is turned over, the features previously described as being “below” other features may be described to be “above” other features at this time. The apparatus may also be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the relative spatial relationships will be correspondingly altered.
Herein, the term “A or B” used through the specification refers to “A and B” and “A or B” rather than meaning that A and B are exclusive, unless otherwise specified.
The term “schematically” or “exemplary,” as used herein, means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” rather than as a “model” that would be exactly duplicated. Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, summary or detailed description.
Herein, the term “substantially,” is intended to encompass any slight variations due to design or manufacturing imperfections, device or component tolerances, environmental effects and/or other factors.
In this context, the term “at least a portion” may be a portion of any proportion, for example, may be greater than 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or even 100%.
In addition, certain terminology, such as the terms “first,” “second” and the like, may also be used in the following description for the purpose of reference only, and thus are not intended to be limiting. For example, the terms “first,” “second” and other such numerical terms referring to structures or elements do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context.
Further, it should be noted that, the terms “comprise/include,” as used herein, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
As shown in
It should be understood that, the base station antenna 100 according to embodiments of the present invention may be any of a wide variety of different types of base station antennas such as, for example, a beamforming antenna, a multi-band base station antenna and/or a multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) antenna, and thus it will be appreciated that the antenna assemblies disclosed herein may be used in any of these types of antennas. Likewise, it will be appreciated that in other embodiments the radiating elements in the base station antenna 100 may operate in any other frequency band, not limited to the frequency bands exemplarily mentioned herein. In other embodiments, the base station antenna 100 may include only the first radiating element 201, the second radiating element 202, or the third radiating element.
Each radiating element 301, 302 includes a first feed stalk 400, a first radiator 410 mounted on the first feed stalk 400, a second feed stalk 500, and a second radiator 510 mounted on the second feed stalk 500. The first radiator 410 and the first feed stalk 400 may transmit and receive RF signals having a first polarization (for example, +45° polarization), while the second radiator 510 and the second feed stalk 500 may transmit and receive RF signals having a second polarization (for example, −45° polarization).
Referring to
As shown in
As shown in
The lowermost portion of the support end 606 that includes the first feed welding region 612, the additional ground welding region 618 and the first ground welding region 616 may be inserted through slots 408 in the feed board 310 so that distal portion of the support end 606 is behind the feed board 310 when the feed assembly 300 is full assembled. The remainder of the feed stalk 400 projects forwardly from a front surface of the feed board 310.
As shown in
Referring to
Based on the operating principle of the dual-polarized radiating element, the first feed welding regions 612 on the crossed feed stalks (e.g., the first feed stalk 400 and the second feed stalk 500) have to be spaced apart from each other by the dielectric substrate 603, and in some embodiments, may be oriented opposite to each other relative to the direction of longitudinal axis L. In other words, the first feed welding region 612 on the first feed stalk 400 may be located on an upper side of the first feed stalk 400, i.e. being oriented towards a top end cover of the radome, whereas the first feed welding region 612 on the second feed stalk 500 may be located on a lower side of the second feed stalk 500, i.e. being oriented towards a bottom end cover of the radome; or vice versa. As shown in
Next, an antenna assembly 300′ according to embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to
It should be understood that the elements that were described in detail with reference to
As shown in
As the two major surfaces 601, 602 of the feed stalk 400′ of the radiating elements 301′, 302′ are both provided with feed welding regions (i.e., the first and second feed welding regions 612, 624), the welding of the feed stalk 400′ with the feed board 310′ may be flexibly selected to be performed at either or both of the two major surfaces, thereby potentially eliminating any need for the feed transmission lines 314, 318 from going a long way and being wired meanderingly on the feed board 310′.
As shown in
In the radiating element according to embodiments of the present invention, the first feed welding region 612 on one of the first feed stalk 400′ and the second feed stalk 500′ is disposed facing the second feed welding region 624 on the other feed stalk, that is, the two feed welding regions 612, 624 are not spaced apart from each other by the dielectric substrate 603, and in some embodiments may be oriented in the same direction with respect to the direction of the longitudinal axis L. In other words, the first feed welding region 612 on the first feed stalk 400′ may be located on the upper side of the first feed stalk 400′, and the second feed welding region 624 on the second feed stalk 500′ may also be located on the upper side of the second feed stalk 500′, that is, they are both oriented towards the top end cover of the radome; alternatively, the first feed welding region 612 on the first feed stalk 400′ may be located on the lower side of the first feed stalk 400′, and the second feed welding region 624 on the second feed stalk 500′ may also be located on the lower side of the second feed stalk 500′, that is, they are both oriented towards the bottom end cover of the radome.
It should be understood that the design of the first metal pattern 604 and/or the second metal pattern 605 on the feed stalks 400′, 500′ of radiating elements 301′, 302′, for example, the number and arrangement of the corresponding feed welding region 612, 624, the ground welding region 616, 618 and/or of the ground metal region 614 may exhibit various modifications, not limited to the present embodiment.
In some embodiments, the first metal pattern 604 may include a plurality of first feed welding regions 612, the second metal pattern 605 may include a plurality of second feed welding regions 624, and the first feed welding region 612 and/or the second feed welding region 624 may also have any shape.
Although exemplary embodiments of this disclosure have been described, those skilled in the art should appreciate that many variations and modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, all such variations and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the claims. The present disclosure is defined by the appended claims, and equivalents of these claims are also contained.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202010611310.2 | Jun 2020 | CN | national |
