The disclosure relates to antenna systems.
Trends to provide users with ubiquitous access to multiple radio terminals in wireless communication have been growing. As a result, reconfigurable radio platforms are being developed and advanced to address this need. In addition, as system complexity increases, efforts to create more energy efficient designs are desired. Fabry-Perot Cavity (FPC) antenna systems offer the ability to beam-form a source signal.
The present disclosure describes one or more techniques for generating one or more beams using a Fabry-Perot Cavity Antenna (FPCA) system approach. The FPCA system may include a source antenna that emits electromagnetic signals and a frequency selective surface (FSS) that forms the electromagnetic signals into the one or more beams. In some examples, the FPCA system may be used in applications such as 5G. Additionally, in some examples, the FPCA system may be used in applications such as space (e.g., nano-satellites), communications, (e.g., Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Space), imaging (millimeter wave to THz spectroscopy), diagnostics (e.g., spectroscopy), and 3D chip power splitting, to name only a few examples. The FPCA system may be configured to generate the one or more beams while preserving a high aperture efficiency, a high gain value, and a substantially uniform phase response associated with signals that are emitted from the source antenna.
The techniques of this disclosure may provide one or more advantages. For example, the FSS may include one or more square sections each having a set of horizontally oriented unit cells, where the one or more square sections increase an aperture efficiency associated with the FPCA system and produce uniform circular near-field beams. In some examples, the FSS may include a single square section facing the source antenna, where the single square section forms a single circular beam from signals emitted from the source antenna, the single square section preserving a high aperture efficiency and a high gain value associated with signals emitted from the source antenna. Additionally, in some examples, the FSS may include a first section, a second section, and a third section between the first section and the second section, where the first section and the second section are substantially square in shape. As the source antenna emits electromagnetic signals within a metal enclosure, the third section, which includes a set of vertically oriented unit cells, may reflect one or more portions of the electromagnetic signals back into the metal enclosure. The first section and the second section may allow one or more portions of the electromagnetic signals to pass outside of the metal enclosure and form a first uniform beam corresponding to the first section and a second uniform beam corresponding to the second section. In this way, the FPCA system including the FSS may enable a single source antenna to produce one or more uniform near-field beams while preserving aperture efficiency, antenna gain, and signal phase.
In some examples, an antenna system includes a source antenna and a frequency selective surface (FSS) that has a first section including a first set of horizontally oriented unit cells, a second section including a second set of horizontally oriented unit cells, and a third section between the first section and the second section, the third section including a set of vertically oriented unit cells, wherein the first section is substantially square in shape, wherein the second section is substantially square in shape, wherein the FSS is separated from the source antenna by a defined distance. The source antenna is configured to emit one or more electromagnetic signals through the FSS, wherein the FSS causes the one or more signals to form at least a first beam corresponding to the first section, and wherein the FSS causes the one or more signals to form at least a second beam corresponding to the second section. Additionally, the antenna system includes an enclosure that is configured to partially or entirely enclose the source antenna and the FSS.
In some examples, a method includes emitting, using a source antenna of an antenna system, one or more electromagnetic signals through a frequency selective surface (FSS) comprising a first section including a first set of horizontally oriented unit cells, a second section including a second set of horizontally oriented unit cells, and a third section between the first section and the second section, the third section including a set of vertically oriented unit cells, wherein the first section is substantially square in shape, wherein the second section is substantially square in shape, wherein the FSS is separated from the source antenna by a defined distance, and wherein an enclosure is configured to at least partially enclose the source antenna and the FSS, forming, by the FSS based on the one or more signals, at least a first beam corresponding to the first section, and forming, by the FSS based on the one or more signals, at least a second beam corresponding to the second section.
In some examples, an antenna system includes a source antenna and a frequency selective surface (FSS) comprising a set of horizontally oriented unit cells, wherein the FSS is substantially square in shape, wherein the FSS faces the source antenna, wherein the FSS is separated from the source antenna by a defined distance, and wherein the source antenna is configured to emit one or more electromagnetic signals through the FSS, wherein the FSS causes the signals to form one or more beams.
The summary is intended to provide an overview of the subject matter described in this disclosure. It is not intended to provide an exclusive or exhaustive explanation of the systems, device, and methods described in detail within the accompanying drawings and description below. Further details of one or more examples of this disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and in the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Currently, the number of elements in an array of a specific antenna are used to determine its gain. To increase the gain, the number of elements may be increased. When the number of elements increases, two things may occur. First, the overall size of the antenna aperture may increase. Second, the necessary feedlines and their layout configuration complexity may increase, which leads to higher loss. As a result, array performance may be degraded due to losses associated with elements and feedline complexity and require additional losses associated with electronics (e.g., amplifiers) to compensate for these losses.
According to certain techniques of the present disclosure, a high-gain array using virtual-element Fabry Perot-Cavity Antenna (VE-FPCA) with near field split-beam that emulates a multi-element (e.g., two-element) slot array is presented. A novel frequency selective surface (FSS) design may be used to split the source antenna beam into two or more beams in the near field. Each beam may substantially circular and generated by a square aperture of horizontal slots within the FSS, according to various examples. As further described below, comparison of electric field magnitude, phase and beam separation may be made between the FPCA system and 2-element slot array in the near field. Feedline loss is also compared between both systems. The FPCA may, in various cases, provide a 5 dB far-field gain improvement over the 2-element array and constant E-field phase in the E-plane, which is the result of an increased aperture efficiency.
Compact arrays are increasing in demand because of their great beam-forming and beam-steering capabilities for wireless and mobile applications. They are also extensively used in remote sensing applications where side lobe levels need to be controlled. Despite these benefits, array designs introduce complex feeding mechanisms as the size of the array increases. FPCA systems have been shown to achieve similar directivities as arrays with fewer elements. As a leaky wave antenna system, the system uses a single source and an FSS in place of the conventional antenna arrays and associated feedline networks.
FPCA systems use the FSS to control radiation leakage and distribution based on the unit cell design. An aperture with uniform FSS cells can be optimized to enhance gain. However, to achieve similar far-field beam shaping to n×m element (e.g., n columns by m rows) array performance, the FSS design complexity may increase to control the source amplitude distribution across the FSS. Near-field beam splitting has been demonstrated with uniform rectangular unit cells. If the near field beams can be manipulated to emulate the location and behavior of elements in arrays, design complexity can be reduced considerably using FSS designs.
This application presents the design of a VE-FPCA array that achieves symmetry and placement control of two or more near field beams that emulate the behavior of a multi-element (e.g., two-element) slot array. The design for the FSS, feed lines and the source antennas used in the arrays is described herein. Antenna systems described herein may, in some examples, be configured to transmit signals having frequencies of up to 3 Terahertz (THz).
Modelled E-field magnitude and phase in the near field for both designs are compared followed by measured far-field gain plots and aperture efficiency comparison. The VE-FPCA source antenna and two element slot array design with feedlines are shown in
The cross-section of the FPCA system with the FSS is shown in
The FSS unit cells in
In some non-limiting examples, a surface area of a first one of the two square apertures is within a range from 30 millimeters squared (mm2) to 10,000 mm2, a surface area of a second one of the two square apertures is within a range from 30 mm2 to 10,000 mm2, and a surface area of the vertically oriented region is within a range from 10 mm2 to 3,000 mm2. In some examples, the surface area of the first one of the two square apertures is 729 mm2, the surface area of the second one of the two square apertures is 729 mm2, and the surface area of the vertically oriented region is 243 mm2.
The simulations were performed with Ansys HFSS and antenna and FSS designs were fabricated with a LPKF Protomat S103 Milling Machine. A 3-dimensional (3D) printed fixture was used to house the system and to increase alignment accuracy.
Anritsu 37369D VNA and DAMS software was used to measure the antennas in an anechoic chamber.
A direct consequence is seen in the E-field phase plots along E-plane cuts B-B′ and C-C′ in
Aperture efficiency is given by the following equation.
G is the gain of the antenna, λ is the free space wavelength and Aph is the physical area. Aph is 63 mm×27 mm. Using the peak gain and frequency values from
The design of a virtual-element FPCA system array is presented. The VE-FPCA performance is compared to a linear 2-element slot array. The VE-FPCA design produces two circular and symmetrically placed beams in near field with similar magnitudes. The VE-FPCA system phase is nearly constant over the E-plane and across the FSS aperture, which leads to higher aperture efficiencies, and thus higher far-field gain. The side lobe powers were similar in both cases, illustrating that the FSS can independently boost the main beam level thereby increasing the Side Lobe Level (SLL).
A Fabry-Perot cavity antenna (FPCA) system with high efficiency is proposed. The design consists of a source antenna with an FSS. The source antenna is an aperture coupled microstrip slot antenna with cavity backing. The FSS is a square aperture with rectangular unit cells. The E-field in the near and far field is compared for the FPCA system and the source antenna without the FSS (i.e. source antenna only). The FPCA has low phase variation of approximately 100 in the E-plane compared to high sinusoidal phase variation of 90° of the source antenna. The far-field gain of the FPCA system is 11.3 dB, which is a 4.5 dB improvement of the source antenna gain. The aperture efficiency of the FPCA system is 84% compared to the source antenna efficiency of 30%.
Emerging mobile applications that require miniaturization of systems has created an increasing demand for compact directional antennas. Examples include nano-satellites, 5G applications, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) applications, and applications that use communications like Internet of Things, Internet of Space, imaging, biomedical diagnostics, and/or and 3D chip power splitting. These types of systems typically utilize highly directive antennas, such as arrays. Arrays employed for this purpose can require many elements that can introduce challenges for managing feedline complexity and large sizes. Fabry-Perot Cavity (FPC) antenna systems offer the potential to create low complexity high gain antenna systems compared to conventional antenna array systems. This leaky wave antenna system uses a single source and FSS in place of multiple antenna array elements and associated feedline networks and circuitry. Fabry-Perot cavity systems are also easy to design and integrate.
High frequency operation of Fabry-Perot Cavity antenna is a viable solution for applications like 5G. Beam forming can be achieved by optimizing the signal distribution across the FSS. It can also be obtained by selecting an optimum design of the FSS unit cells to shape beams in the far-field in place of n-element arrays.
This application identifies the near-field behavior of an FPC antenna with uniform FSS unit cells and its impact on far-field performance (e.g. gain). The designs for the unit cell, the FSS aperture and the source antenna are described. Simulations of the near field beam over the aperture is shown. Next, modelled electric field magnitude and phase are compared at a similar reference location above the FPCA and source antenna without FSS. Finally, simulated and measured far-field gains are compared and the impact of the FSS design on aperture efficiency is discussed.
Design of the FPCA antenna system is carried out in, e.g., three stages. First is the design of the source antenna. The second is design of the unit cell and last is the arrangement of the unit cells in the FSS aperture layer.
The cavity backed antenna design is a slot fed by an aperture coupled microstrip line with length of 18.04 mm and width of 2.29 mm.
In certain examples, the substrate is Rogers RT/Duroid5880 (εr=2.2) with a copper cladding of 35 μm. The antenna and FSS substrate thickness is 0.75 mm and 0.51 mm, respectively. The designs were simulated using Ansys HFSS and fabricated using LPKF Protomat S103 Milling Machine. In the assembly, a 3D printed fixture is used for placement and alignment accuracy. All side walls are enclosed with metal for shielding. Anritsu 37369D VNA was used with DAMS Software Studio in the anechoic chamber to obtain far-field measurements.
One advantage of using FSS is evident when the phase of electric field is compared.
The aperture efficiency is computed for the FPCA and source antenna using the equation below where G is the gain of the antenna, λ is the free space wavelength and Aph is the physical area. The value of Aph is (27)2 mm2. For the FPCA and source antenna, the gain is evaluated at 12.6 GHz and 13.2 GHz, respectively. The frequencies are different as observed in literature. Using the peak gain and frequency values from
Near field magnitude and phase behavior were analyzed for FPCA system and source antenna without FSS. It shows that a square FSS aperture with optimized unit cells produce symmetrical near field beams with uniform phase in E-plane cut. The FSS effectively spreads the source antenna radiation over the physical area of the system. This increases the aperture efficiency to 84%, which leads to an increase in far-field gain.
Compact high-directivity antenna systems are needed for emerging applications like 5G, nano-satellite, Internet of Things etc. FPCA can fulfil this requirement. FPCA consists of a source antenna and an FSS. An FSS is a periodic arrangement of unit cells. It shapes near field radiation to use available aperture area more effectively. This increases aperture efficiency which in turn leads to higher antenna gain for similar physical area. This application provides design methodology for FPCA systems which produce a single concentrated beam in the near field of the antenna. Two types of source antennas are described—a microstrip fed patch antenna and an aperture coupled cavity backed slot antenna. The design is completely scalable in frequency. In certain examples, design variants resonate between 10-100 GHz (e.g., 12 GHz, 13.5 GHz, or 60 GHz). The best aperture efficiency obtained is 94% for slot antenna based FPCA system and 86% for patch antenna based FPCA system.
The slot antenna and patch antenna designs are discussed first with and without metallized side walls. This comparison gives an idea about the effect of side walls in introducing load on the antenna. Next, FPCA systems with slot and patch antenna are studied by considering three variations on the FSS:
The FSS is also known as partially reflective surface (PRS). It partly reflects the radiated electric field depending on the shape and size of the slots within the FSS. The geometry of slots are responsible for one or more beam formations in the near field of the FPCA structure (APS VE-FPCA). Only horizontally arranged slots in the FSS which align with the E-field direction radiated by the source antenna produce only a single beam in the near field.
Square aperture for FSS is important to generate symmetric beams. An initial design with 9×3 horizontal unit cells was made as shown in
To maintain square nature of aperture, the aspect ratio of rows and columns must be kept the same. Hence, the different apertures finally contain 15×5, 21×7 and 27×9 unit cells shown in
The 9×3 unit cell configuration in
Fixed array. For the second parametric simulation, 9×3 configuration of slots is hence kept intact as the size of the aperture is changed to 45 mm×45 mm, 63 mm×63 mm and 81 mm×81 mm.
The slot antenna system with aperture measuring 27 mm×27 mm was first analyzed. Recall that this aperture has 9×3 unit cell configuration. The distance between the FSS and antenna was varied until the best result was achieved.
Even at other separation values, the peak gain is obtained at the frequency where the height is a factor of λ0/2. For example, separation of 9.5 mm is λ0/2 for 15.7 GHz.
Aph is the physical area which in this case is 27 mm×27 mm. Table 1 indicates aperture efficiency for all four separation values. A similar analysis is performed for the patch antenna.
Both the optimally designed source antennas are then used for performing the three parametric simulations mentioned in the introduction. The first parametric simulation is discussed in the next section.
In case of slot antenna as the source, the 11.5 mm separation between slot antenna and the FSS was carried forward for the other three aperture sizes (45 mm×45 mm, 63 mm×63 mm and 81 mm×81 mm). Gain and S11 is plotted against frequency for all the four aperture sizes in
Aperture measuring 27 mm×27 mm has a peak gain at 13.4 GHz (
Table 3 shows that as the aperture size increases, the aperture efficiency drops to about 70%. For the aperture measuring 45 mm×45 mm, the efficiency is a little lower. This can be attributed to mismatch in the design. The electric field contours are observed in the near-field reference plane. The location of the plane for both the slot and patch antenna systems can be seen in
The magnitude of main beam is relatively high for the smallest aperture (27 mm×27 mm). The peak magnitude is ˜1450V/m for the smallest aperture and around 950V/m for other three apertures. This shows that the beam for the smallest aperture is very concentrated. The darkest region is also the smallest indicating almost complete aperture illumination. The second aperture measuring 45 mm×45 mm did not achieve a convergent single beam at resonance frequency. The reference plane was moved to observe if the two beams converged at a height greater than λ/4. A convergence is achieved at 0.27λ but the beam was not uniform. Table 4 gives a ratio of the main beam width to aperture width for all the aperture sizes. This ratio has a similar trend to aperture efficiency (Table 3), thus acting as an important design guide.
Next sub-section provides a similar analysis or the FPCA system with patch antenna as the source.
In case of patch antenna as the source, the 9.5 mm separation between patch antenna and the FSS was carried forward for the other three aperture sizes (45 mm×45 mm, 63 mm×63 mm and 81 mm×81 mm). Gain and S11 is plotted against frequency for all the four aperture sizes in
FPCA systems constructed using all the four aperture sizes are matched at similar frequencies between 13.5 GHz-13.9 GHz. As compared to the slot antenna-based systems, the variation in matching frequencies is minimal. This indicates that FSS does not have prominent loading effect on patch antenna as discussed earlier. 45 mm×45 mm aperture is not as well matched as the other three apertures. This was also the case with slot antenna-based system (
Table 6 shows that as the aperture size increases, the aperture efficiency drops to about 60% for the next two sizes. For the aperture measuring 81 mm×81 mm, the efficiency very low. This can be attributed to very small ratio of the antenna length to aperture length. The electric field contours are observed in the near-field reference plane. The location of the plane for both the slot and patch antenna systems can be seen in
In
The peak magnitude is around 1100V/m for 45 m×45 mm aperture and 63 mm×63 mm aperture and 1300V/m for 81 mm×81 mm aperture. The higher peak magnitudes indicate that although the near-field beam is more concentrated, radiation is not distributed over the aperture. This leads to greater amount of dark region in the contour. This explains the lower aperture efficiency observed for patch antenna based FPCA systems as compared to slot antenna based FPCA systems. A concentrated near-field beam though can be picked up more efficiently by a receiver in the near field. This concept is used in the vertical interconnect system which employs patch antenna for transmitting and receiving [Patent 1 supporting draft].
Table 7 gives a ratio of the main beam width to aperture width for all the aperture sizes. This ratio has a similar trend to aperture efficiency (Table 6), thus acting as an important design guide.
To summarize, even though larger apertures provide higher gain, they are not as efficient. A high efficiency for larger apertures would have pushed the gain obtained even higher. Since aperture efficiency refers to how much gain is extractable from a given aperture size, a high aperture efficiency is a superior performance metric. The ratio of slot antenna size to aperture size decreases as the aperture size increases. Hence the source antenna may not effectively illuminate the aperture at larger sizes. Comparison between the relative efficiencies of the slot based FPCA system to patch based FPCA systems (Table 3) validates this point. This can be further validated by seeing the electric field contours in
The resonance frequency of structures made using Patch antenna and slot antenna differs. Since both source antennas are designed to operate at the same frequency, the shift can be attributed to the loading effect of FSS. The FSS which acts as a load matches at frequencies which are different than the patch and slot antenna radiating frequencies. However, once the source antenna is selected and aperture is scaled, resonance frequency of structures does not shift a lot. The shift is lesser for patch antenna FPCA than slot antenna FPCA.
The FSS geometry may be looked at carefully to determine how the loading effect can be altered. One intuitive solution may be to change the thickness of the dielectric or using a different permittivity of dielectric. The altered FSS structures should be able to present a different load value but have similar Floquet mode performance (
Using patch antennas and slot antennas it is shown that the FPCA scaling is source antenna independent. This means that once a particular aperture size is used and FPCA system is designed for a source antenna, geometry scaling does not shift the resonance frequency by a great amount, and the system matching is maintained. There is however operating discrepancies if two different source antennas are used (Different resonance for Patch and slot based systems).
Since the 9×3 configuration in the 27 mm×27 mm aperture resulted in best performance, it is thought of scaling the apertures using that configuration. This would also change the unit cell size. Discussion on both source antenna based FPCA systems for these modified apertures forms the next section.
The modified unit cells are shown in
Separation between FSS and slot antenna is 11.5 mm. Recall that this was the optimized distance for the 9×3 unit cells in 27 mm×27 mm aperture. Since the number of unit cells are the same, same separation is used for the three other apertures. (45 mm×45 mm, 63 mm×63 mm and 81 mm×81 mm). Gain and S11 is plotted against frequency for all the four aperture sizes in
The aperture measuring 27 mm×27 mm was discussed in paragraphs [0106] to [0116]. Hence all curves for that aperture are the same. Looking at the 45 mm×45 mm aperture, the unit cell used for that aperture has its Floquet mode self-resonance at 12.5 GHz (
For other two apertures, the corresponding unit cells operate on the other side of self-resonance. A good gain bandwidth and aperture efficiency is not attained as seen in
The E-field contour plots in
Table 9 shows the ratio of main beam width to aperture widths. The pattern observed in Table 4 in the previous section regarding trends of aperture efficiency and Main beam width to Aperture width ratio is not observed here.
Similar analysis is done for the Patch antenna based FPCA system in this section.
It is observed in Table 10 that the aperture efficiency is really poor. This indicates that modified unit cells do not work well to enhance performance. The E-field contours in
In the case of the patch antenna based FPCA as well, the ratio of main beam width to aperture beam width in Table 11 and aperture efficiency trends do not hold. 63 mm×63 mm aperture has a higher ratio than 45 mm×45 mm but a lower aperture efficiency.
To summarize, changing unit cell lengths for obtaining larger apertures does not enhance FPCA performance. A good aperture efficiency is not obtained in any of the cases. Unit cell leakage based on Floquet mode S11 results is an important characterization of the FSS. Changing unit cells changes the performance and its reaction on the performance of the complete FPCA system cannot be predicted.
The following section deals with investigating separation between FSS and source antenna for larger apertures. Both types of apertures are considered herein. The two types are: larger apertures not having constant unit cell size but more unit cells, and larger apertures having the 9×3 unit cell configuration with modified unit cells. The reason is that 11.5 mm separation and 9.5 mm separation, even though were λg/2, they were determined for the 27 mm×27 mm aperture. It might be possible that some other fraction of half-wavelength holds good for the larger apertures. This will be part of the third parametric simulation in the next section.
Three parametric studies on the Fabry-Perot Cavity Antenna systems were carried out. The systems include two types of source antennas: slot antenna and patch antenna. The FSS has all horizontal slots and evaluated for four different aperture sizes—27 mm×27 mm, 45 mm×45 mm, 63 mm×63 mm and 81 mm×81 mm. The three parametric simulations are—1. FSS scaling with same unit cell size in FSS (increases number of unit cells with scaling) 2. FSS scaling with 9×3 unit cells (increases size of unit cells with scaling) 3. Changing separation height between FSS and source antenna for apertures other than 27 mm×27 mm. Studies indicate that keeping unit cell size is important for ensuring good FPCA system performance. Even though larger apertures provide more gain, aperture efficiency decreases. Scaling FSS under parameter 1 ensures similar frequency of operation for scaled structures and good S11 matching at similar frequencies. This is provided that the same source antenna is used. If source antennas are changed, however, the loading effect of FSS changes. Hence each source antenna must be evaluated in the FPCA structure independently.
One or more FPCA systems described herein may have features including one or more of a square aperture, an enclosed cavity, uniform unit cells, a source antenna (e.g., a cavity backed slot antenna and/or a patch antenna), a microstrip feed, a SubMiniature version A (SMA) connector or 3D fed, and a printed circuit board (PCB) or integrated circuit (IC) implementation. Additionally, one or more parameters may be used to analyze one or more FPCA systems described herein, such as S11 vs frequency, Near-field E-field contour, far field Gain vs Frequency, and a far field polar plot of gain at design frequency.
For emerging wireless and mobile applications such as 5G, compact high performance (e.g., high gain and high aperture efficiency) antennas are used. This disclosure describes one or more examples of a compact solution for arrayed antenna elements that have high gain. The resulting gain is due to a high aperture efficiency design. When compared to conventional array design performance, one or more systems of this disclosure achieve a similar performance in a much smaller footprint.
Commercial applications that could benefit from the techniques described herein may include 5G, Internet of Things, Internet of Space, Nano-satellites, imaging, medical diagnostics, or any combination thereof. Products or services that could be based on one or more techniques of this disclosure may include antenna designs and integrated antennas with IC chips.
In some examples described herein, a system may include a single element. Additionally, in some examples described herein, a system includes an arrayed element.
In some examples, one or more systems described herein may be used for 60 GHz and higher as well as integrated circuit design approaches that can create seamless integration with integrated circuits. In various examples, designs described herein may be used for 12 GHz. At higher frequencies, the integration approach may be implemented for the reduced design size in addition to the modifications in the measurement system to accommodate miniature connections to the antenna measurement system.
Power generation reduces at millimeter wave frequencies for emerging system applications, such as 5G. Thus, loss presents many design challenges for complex integrated system design. One or more techniques described herein may alleviate loss associated with vertical interconnects used in such systems. For example, a wireless equal split 3D vertical power divider may offer very low loss. Two near field beams, produced by one source element and a novel frequency selective surface (FSS), may be detected by individual receive elements of the same type. This design is scalable, and in various non-limiting examples, the design may be modeled at 13.5 GHz and 60 GHz. A 13.5 GHz scale model is demonstrated for validation. Simulated insertion loss coefficient at 13.5 GHz is 3.24 dB, with bandwidth of 5.5%. In some examples, the 5G protocol is compatible with frequencies within a range from 24 GHz to 100 GHz, but this is not required. The 5G protocol may be compatible with other frequencies or frequency ranges as well.
Increased integration of on-chip technologies for system level integration requires the ability to power one or more chips in a low power manner. While multi-chip systems offer advanced functionality and compactness, they can suffer from high loss and increase fabrication complexity when via based interconnect technology is used. One or more techniques described herein may reduce loss and integration complexity such as wireless interconnects with millimeter wave antennas.
Intra-chip wireless channels impact wireless Network on Chip (NoC) designs. This confirms that radiation in on-chip environments is present in some cases. For direct line of sight communication, examples exist but suffer from near field effects and high path loss. The path loss of 60 GHz on-chip wireless interconnects can vary from 3 dB in close proximity to 23 dB in distance communications. Although viable, they suffer from considerable radiation loss when antenna beams are not focused. To compensate, an active wireless interconnect can be used in exchange for additional power consumption. For simultaneous power to two or more chips, on-chip wireless interconnects used as equal split power dividers, has demonstrated insertion loss of ˜10 dB. However, for millimeter and sub-millimeter wave applications where power levels are considerably lower, solutions are needed that offer low loss, output port isolation and broader bandwidth.
In some examples, a wireless equal split 3D vertical power divider offers low loss, high isolation that is scalable. In non-limiting examples, the design method is presented for 13.5 GHz and 60 GHz operation. Modelled s-parameter results are discussed and near field behavior is shown.
The wireless 3D power divider design elements are shown in
For the receiver, the receive element and FSS designs are shown in
All 3D structures are modelled using Ansys Electronics Desktop studio. Included are conductor and dielectric loss and models for a V-connector interface. The S-parameters and near field response are obtained for all designs.
The 13.5 GHz design is developed on Rogers Duroid 5880 substrate with εr=2.2 with a thickness of substrate 0.75 mm for the antennas and of 0.51 mm for the FSS. The antennas are fabricated with a LPKF Protomat S103 Milling Machine. The enclosed structure has metal surfaces on the side walls and in the cavity below the antenna. All cavities are air-filled.
The techniques described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Various features described as modules, units or components may be implemented together in an integrated logic device or separately as discrete but interoperable logic devices or other hardware devices. In some cases, various features of electronic circuitry may be implemented as one or more integrated circuit devices, such as an integrated circuit chip or chipset.
If implemented in hardware, this disclosure may be directed to an apparatus such as a processor or an integrated circuit device, such as an integrated circuit chip or chipset. Alternatively or additionally, if implemented in software or firmware, the techniques may be realized at least in part by a computer-readable data storage medium including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform one or more of the methods described above. For example, the computer-readable data storage medium may store such instructions for execution by a processor.
A computer-readable medium may form part of a computer program product, which may include packaging materials. A computer-readable medium may include a computer data storage medium such as RAM, read-only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), EEPROM, Flash memory, magnetic or optical data storage media, and the like. In some examples, an article of manufacture may include one or more computer-readable storage media.
In some examples, the computer-readable storage media may include non-transitory media. The term “non-transitory” may indicate that the storage medium is not embodied in a carrier wave or a propagated signal. In certain examples, a non-transitory storage medium may store data that can, over time, change (e.g., in RAM or cache).
The code or instructions may be software and/or firmware executed by processing circuitry including one or more processors, such as one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), general purpose microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry. Accordingly, the term “processor,” as used herein may refer to any of the foregoing structure or any other structure suitable for implementation of the techniques described herein. In addition, in some aspects, functionality described in this disclosure may be provided within software modules or hardware modules.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/870,925, filed on Jul. 5, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention was made with government support under ECCS-1509543 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The government has certain rights in the invention.
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20190115646 | Chiu | Apr 2019 | A1 |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210005973 A1 | Jan 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62870925 | Jul 2019 | US |