This application claims the benefit of PCT Application No. PCT/GB2005/001474, filed Apr. 15, 2005, and GB Application 0409251.6, filed Apr. 26, 2004, both of which are herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electromagnetic couplings, and in particular, a contactless rotary coupler.
The objective is to suggest a design of a rotary coupler working at UHF, in particular in the 400-500 MHz frequency range, that provides a contactless link between one or two resonant sensors installed on the two opposite sides of the rotating shaft and the stationary electronic interrogation unit. The coupler should ensure
2. Description of the Related Art
1. Racal patent WO 96/37921 (hereinafter, Racal)
The patent discloses a rotary coupler that is based on a quarter-wave coupled-line directional coupler (see
In order to achieve a total power transfer from port 1 of the stator ring 10 to port 4 of the rotor ring 20, the quarter-wave 3 dB coupler can be loaded as shown in
The rotary RF or microwave coupler is needed for a torque sensor based on Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), STW and FBAR resonators or other types of resonant structures sensitive to strain on the shaft surface. It can also be used to do temperature measurements and other types of measurements on rotating shafts. We are interested only in the sensor application of the rotary coupler although it is widely used in other areas (e.g. radars). Further on we shall use the term SAW sensor to denote any type of the resonant structure sensitive to physical quantities of interest. The aim of the interrogation unit is to measure die resonant frequency of the SAW sensor. If the sensor 30 is connected to the rotor ring instead of the load Z as shown in
For the sensor application, it is not essential to have a strictly defined amount of coupling between the stator and the rotor rings (3 dB coupling, for instance) and a strictly defined circumference length of the coupler (λ/4 for instance) in order to be able to measure the resonant frequency at port 1. The resonant peak in S11 exists within a wide range of the coupler geometrical parameters but its amplitude and position depend to a large extent on the geometry of the coupler disclosed in the Racal patent. For some shaft diameters and frequencies it is quite difficult to obtain a well-pronounced resonant peak at any rotation angle.
For sensor applications two aspects are important:
Transense patents quoted below are devoted to the solution of this problem.
2. Transense patent application GB 2328086 (hereinafter, Transense '086)
This application differs from the Racal patent by the addition of the trimming capacitor between the terminals 1 and 2 of the stator ring in order to slightly broaden the coupler bandwidth and reduce the angular variation of the resonant frequency seen at port 1. The SAW sensor is connected between the terminal 4 of the rotor ring and the ground as shown in
3. Transense patent application GB 2368470 (hereinafter, Transense '470)
This application discloses a coupler similar to that described in the previous patent application. In fact it consists of two Racal-type couplers each forming not a full circle but just half a circle and connected in parallel. This allows using the coupler with the shafts of a larger diameter so that the total coupler circumference is larger than λ/4. The SAW sensor is again connected between the stripline end and the ground plane.
4. Transense patent application 2371414 (hereinafter, Transense '414)
The coupler disclosed in this application is not based on electro-magnetically coupled transmission lines as it was in all previous patents. It utilises two purely magnetically coupled loops with the grounded electric screen between them that prevents a coupling by means of electric field. This coupler should work all right at low frequencies where the circumference is considerably shorter than the wavelength. At higher frequencies, due to the absence of ground planes on both sides of the coupler and poor field confinement, there will be considerable radiation losses and the coupler will also be susceptible to interference. Small signal amplitude at the input of the stator can also be problematic for this coupler.
5. Paper by O. Shteinberg and S. Zhgoon (hereinafter, Shteinberg)
The paper describes the coupler consisting of two annular coupled transmission lines as shown in
According to a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided a spilt ring coupler comprising a split stator ring having first and second ends, a split rotor ring having first and second ends, said rotor ring being oriented substantially coaxially with and axially spaced apart from some stator ring, and at least one saw resonator electrically coupled between said first and second ends of the rotor ring, wherein neither of said ends of said stator ring are directly connected to ground.
In use, one of the ends of the stator ring is coupled to a signal analysis means such as a network analyser or other electronic component. In a preferred embodiment, the other end of the stator ring is coupled to earth through a resistor, the value of which may be varied for different applications. It has, though, been found to be advantageous for the value of the resistor to be greater than the characteristic impedance of the signal line. In another embodiment, said other end may be left open circuit, that is effectively with an infinite resistance attached thereto.
More particularly, the at least one SAW resonator is connected between the first and second ends of the rotor ring, that is in series therewith. A plurality of resonators may alternatively be connected to said rotor ring. In one embodiment, a plurality of resonators are connected in parallel with each other and in series with rotor ring, that is one contact of each resonator is connected to the first end of the rotor ring and the other contact of each resonator is connected to the second end of the rotor ring.
In a further development of the present invention, the rotor ring may be formed as a double split ring so as to be divided into two distinct arcuate sections separated by two split portions, each end of each arcuate section being associated with one end of the other arcuate section. At least one SAW resonator is then coupled between each pair of associated ends of the two arcuate sections, so as to form a rotor ring having two resonators or resonator assemblies each being coupled in series with the two arcuate sections of the rotor ring as well as with each other. Of course, it will be understood that for each end pair, a plurality of SAW resonators may be connected in parallel with each other and in series with the rotor ring. It will also be understood that the rotor ring may be sub-divided into more than two sections with at least one SAW device coupled in series between neighbouring sections of the rotor ring.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
a is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotary coupler that is based on a quarter-wave coupled-line directional coupler well known in the prior art as a four-port microwave device.
b is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotary coupler known to the prior art, the rotary coupler having linear coupled transmission lines.
a is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotary coupler where the output port is loaded with a characteristic external load as known to the prior art.
b is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotary coupler with a SAW sensor disposed between the output port and ground as known to the prior art.
c is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotary coupler consisting of two annular coupled transmission lines with the SAW resonator connected between the terminals 3 and 4, as known to the prior art.
a is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of rotary coupler with a SAW sensor as contemplated by the present principles.
b is a schematic diagram illustrating an alternative exemplary embodiment of rotary coupler with a SAW sensor as contemplated by the present principles.
c is a schematic diagram illustrating an alternative exemplary embodiment of the rotary coupler.
a is a chart illustrating the frequency response of the coupler with the resonator and no resistor.
b is a chart illustrating the frequency response of the coupler with the resonator with a 50 Ohm resistor.
c is a chart illustrating the frequency response of the coupler with the resonator with a 10 kOhm resistor.
The first embodiment of the suggested coupler is shown in
Similar to the couplers disclosed in the abovementioned prior art documents, namely, Racal, Transense '086 and Transense 470, the proposed coupler consists of two microstrip split rings, the stator ring and the rotor ring, with a certain gap of about 0.5-2 mm between them. Both of them form electro-magnetically coupled transmission lines with their respective ground planes (not shown in
Another difference is that the port 2 of the stator ring is loaded in the general case by a resistor R. By varying the value of the resistor, the frequency response of the coupler with the resonator can be adjusted in such a way that the resonant peak in S11 has sufficiently high amplitude and at the same time acceptable amount of angular variation of its amplitude and position. The latter can be seen from
The new coupler shown in
The difference between the first embodiment shown in
The difference between the first embodiment shown in
The third embodiment of the coupler is shown in
If needed, more than two sensing elements can be connected in series within more than two splits of the rotor ring.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
0409251.6 | Apr 2004 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/GB2005/001474 | 4/15/2005 | WO | 00 | 10/24/2006 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2005/104292 | 11/3/2005 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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1233553 | Coover | Jul 1917 | A |
4089049 | Suzuki | May 1978 | A |
4118670 | Dickens | Oct 1978 | A |
4242666 | Reschovsky | Dec 1980 | A |
4730224 | Komatsu | Mar 1988 | A |
5192923 | Komatsu | Mar 1993 | A |
6437656 | Guynn et al. | Aug 2002 | B1 |
6864759 | Lonsdale et al. | Mar 2005 | B2 |
20030174062 | Lonsdale | Sep 2003 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2328086 | Feb 1999 | GB |
2368470 | May 2002 | GB |
2371414 | Jul 2002 | GB |
63-220401 | Sep 1988 | JP |
WO 9637921 | Nov 1996 | WO |
WO 0133180 | May 2001 | WO |
WO 0219457 | Mar 2002 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20080061910 A1 | Mar 2008 | US |