This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of French Patent Application 0451506, filed Jul. 13, 2004.
The present invention relates to a radiating device intended to receive and/or emit electromagnetic signals comprising at least two means for receiving and/or transmitting electromagnetic signals of the slot connected antenna type and, more particularly, these antennas having a common slot and a connection means for connecting at least one of the said reception and/or transmission means to means for processing electromagnetic signals.
In the field of “indoor” communications, wireless links are required to connect different devices in a house. For this, means for receiving and/or transmitting electromagnetic signals, or antennas, of the end-fire tapered slot type are used. Such antennas mainly constituted by a tapered slot realised on a metallic substrate are commonly called Vivaldi antennas or LTSA (Linear Tapered Slot Antenna). They can be integrated more easily into the devices because they radiate in the plane of the substrate. When several antennas of this type are used, for example in a network, the connection of the radiating device rapidly becomes complex.
The dimensioning of a Vivaldi antenna is well-known by those in the profession. It can be divided into three parts shown in
There are two techniques for placing Vivaldi antennas A1 and A2 in a network. A first technique, shown in
A second technique, shown in
One solution, presented in document EP 0,301,216, is to replace the two line/slot transitions by a single line 2/slot FC transition by connecting the two slots together as shown in
However, such a radiating device has a fixed radiation pattern possessing, in particular, a null in the axis of symmetry of the antennas when the line 2 cuts the slot at an equal distance of A1 and A2. Such characteristics can prove to be very damaging within the framework of applications that require great isotropy in the radiating device.
The present invention proposes a radiating device presenting a radiation pattern that can be reconfigured dynamically with a simple connection.
The present invention relates to a radiating device as described in the introduction section in which the connection means include two connection lines connected to processing means, the two lines terminated by an open circuit being coupled electromagnetically with the common slot of the two means of reception and/or transmission so as to enable a phase difference to be introduced between the electromagnetic signals of the two means of reception and/or transmission when the connection is switched from one line to the other using at least a switching device present on the connection lines.
Indeed, the common connection allowed by two lines coupled to a slot common to two antennas enables the radiation pattern of the radiating device to be modulated by switching from one line to the other.
According to one embodiment, the means of reception and/or transmission are grouped in pairs with a common slot, the connection of each pair being realised using two lines placed so as to cut the common slot at different distances from the axis of symmetry of the pair of means of reception and/or transmission so as to introduce a phase difference between the means of reception and/or transmission of the pair.
In this case, one line is, for example, centred on the axis of symmetry of the antennas and the other is offset by a quarter of the wavelength. A phase difference of 180° is then introduced between the signals transmitted by the two antennas of the pair. Hence, the radiation pattern no longer has any null points in the axis.
According to one embodiment, the pairs are grouped by groups of two pairs connected by the same two connection lines, a fixed phase difference having been introduced on one of the lines for the connection of one of the two pairs.
This embodiment enables, for example, four antennas to be controlled with two lines. For example, the fixed phase difference is 180°.
According to one embodiment, the means of reception and/or transmission are grouped in groups of N means of reception and/or transmission by connecting the N slots in a common slot having N branches, connection lines, isolated from each other, forming N′ branches centred on the common slot and arranged in an offset manner in rotation with respect to the branches of the common slot.
The embodiment enables a simplified connection of many antennas. It can, for example, be advantageously used in a multi-layer substrate where each line occupies a separate plane.
It is advantageous to choose an even number N. It is also advantageous to choose N′=N. In this manner, the rotation shift is such that the lines are each inserted in each angular sector formed between the branches of the common slot.
According to one embodiment, the means of reception and/or transmission are Vivaldi type antennas evenly spaced around a central point.
Such antennas are commonly used and well known by those in the profession. The invention is advantageously realised with these antennas but can also be realised by any type of antennas connected by a line/slot transition, for example printed dipoles, LTSA (Linear Tapered Slot Antenna) devices.
According to one embodiment, the connection lines are constituted by microstrip lines or coplanar lines.
According to one embodiment, the switching device includes at least one diode.
According to another embodiment, the switching device includes a discrete switch for selectively activating one connection line or the other.
Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge on reading the description of different embodiments, the description being made with reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
a and 5b are block diagram views of connection means of two antennas used in the present invention.
a, 6b and 6c show the radiation patterns of the device of
a and 7b show a case of a radiating device with 2N antennas and a corresponding circuit diagram.
a and 5b show a first embodiment of the invention. In these figures, two antennas A1 and A2 are connected and fed by the same line (L1 or L2)/slot FC transitions. According to the position of the lines L1 and L2, linked to a port P, on the slot, a phase difference between the signal E1 sent by A1 and the signal E2 sent by A2 can be defined. This phase difference is due to a difference in distance between the line/slot transition and the antennas A1 and A2.
This enables different patterns to be obtained according to the position of the line/slot transition. Hence, when the angle between the two antennas A1 and A2 is 90°, two distinct radiation patterns are obtained, shown in
In this figure it is seen that, as the line L1 crosses the slot at equal distance from the antennas A1 and A2, the pattern D1, corresponding to a connection by the line L1, has a null in the axis because the signals sent are of the same amplitude and in phase at the level of the antennas A1 and A2 but recombine negatively in phase opposition along this axis. However, the line L2 is offset by a quarter of the guided wavelength in the slot Ls/4, which enables a phase difference of 90° to be introduced. Hence, a phase difference of 180° is introduced on the signal arriving at the antenna A2 in comparison with the signal arriving at the antenna A1. The radiation sent by the two antennas thus recombines constructively along the axis. Hence, the pattern D2, corresponding to the line L2, no longer has any null along the axis.
a and 5b differ by the implementation of the switching device 3 between the two lines L1 and L2. The switching device enables the connection of one line to be switched to another one and, consequently, obtain a structure with a diverse radiation pattern.
In
In
It will be noted that in the embodiment shown in
The concept of diversity of radiation patterns was validated in simulation for several values of the angle α, with the device shown in
It will be noted that the transition between a line, for example, microstrip and several slots operates correctly. When two antennas are combined on the same slot and are connected by the same line, this results, from the point of view of the electrical diagram, in putting the antenna impedances in parallel. As shown in
When the connection switches from line L1 to line L2, the signal E3 present in the antenna A3 is phase shifted by 180° with respect to signal E2 present in antenna A2, represented by the change in orientation of the vector E3 on
The behaviour of the electromagnetic signals is similar, all things being the same, for the antennas A4 and A1. However, in order to obtain phase changes that enable the genuine observation of radiation pattern diversity, a fixed phase difference of 180° is realised on line L1, next to the antenna pair A1 and A4.
Another embodiment enabling the number of antennas to be increased is shown in
Such a multi-layer substrate enables antennas and the connection means to be realised on the same substrate without using additional components between the two.
The radiating device thus obtained has an operating bandwidth for matching as well as in transmission, with an equal distribution of energy between the antennas. Owing to the excellent intrinsic insulation of the connections, this embodiment does not require any additional components to provide the insulation between the lines. A good diversity of radiation is obtained, the radiation patterns obtained for each of the lines being complementary.
The invention is not limited to the embodiments described and those in the profession will recognise the existence of diverse embodiment variants such as, for example, the multiplication of antennas connected according to the principle of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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04 51506 | Jul 2004 | FR | national |
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7057569 | Isoifovich et al. | Jun 2006 | B1 |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20060012536 A1 | Jan 2006 | US |