Disclosure of Invention
Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a base station antenna and a communication base station system capable of achieving both miniaturization and radiation index, in order to solve the problem that the conventional miniaturized base station antenna has poor radiation index.
A base station antenna, comprising:
each antenna array comprises a plurality of in-line radiating units and dislocation radiating units, the in-line radiating units form a linear array, and the dislocation radiating units are staggered relative to the linear array;
the phase shifters are in one-to-one correspondence with the antenna arrays, each phase shifter comprises a plurality of output ports, and the output ports are respectively and electrically connected with the plurality of in-line radiating units and the dislocation radiating units in the corresponding antenna arrays in one-to-one correspondence to form a plurality of antenna channels; a kind of electronic device with high-pressure air-conditioning system
The frequency attenuator is arranged on the antenna channel where the dislocation radiating unit is arranged.
In one embodiment, the offset radiating elements of any one of the antenna arrays are positioned on the same line as the line queues of adjacent antenna arrays.
In one embodiment, the dislocation radiating element in each antenna array is located at one end of the linear array.
In one embodiment, the offset radiating elements in any one of the antenna arrays and the plurality of in-line radiating elements in the other of the antenna arrays are equally spaced.
In one embodiment, the antenna further comprises a reflecting plate, at least two antenna arrays are mounted on the surface of the reflecting plate, and the at least two antenna arrays are distributed in an axisymmetric mode by taking the central axis of the reflecting plate as a symmetry axis.
In one embodiment, the phase shifter includes a PCB board and a printed circuit formed on the PCB board, and the plurality of output ports are electrically connected to the printed circuit.
In one embodiment, the frequency attenuator is a dielectric material that is disposed over the printed wiring.
In one embodiment, the dielectric material has a dielectric constant greater than 3.
In one embodiment, the antenna further comprises a linear antenna array, wherein the linear antenna array is formed by arranging a plurality of radiating units along a straight line, and the linear antenna array is arranged in parallel with the antenna array.
A communication base station system comprising a base station antenna as in any of the preferred embodiments above.
The base station antenna has the advantage that the staggered radiating elements staggered with the plurality of in-line radiating elements can play a role in narrowing the beam width, so that the wave width is narrowed. Thus, the spacing between adjacent antenna arrays can be reduced under the same bandwidth requirement. However, the dislocated radiating elements may also cause boundary asymmetry, causing the beam to diverge. The higher the frequency the greater the loss as the electrical signal passes through the frequency attenuator. Therefore, by introducing the frequency attenuator into the antenna channel where the dislocation radiating unit is located, the low-frequency point power provided by the phase shifter to the dislocation radiating unit is basically kept unchanged, and the high-frequency point power is obviously reduced, so that the problems of narrow high-frequency point bandwidth and wide low-frequency point bandwidth brought by the dislocation radiating unit are solved, and the convergence of the wave beam is improved. Therefore, the base station antenna can realize miniaturization and ensure radiation indexes.
Detailed Description
In order that the invention may be readily understood, a more complete description of the invention will be rendered by reference to the appended drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. When an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. The terms "vertical," "horizontal," "left," "right," and the like are used herein for illustrative purposes only.
Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used herein in the description of the invention is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The term "and/or" as used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Referring to fig. 1, the present invention provides a communication base station system and a base station antenna 100, where the communication base station system includes the base station antenna 100. In addition, the communication base station system may obviously further include a signal transceiver device, a feed network device, etc. for implementing the functions of the base station.
Referring to fig. 2, a base station antenna 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna array 110, a phase shifter 120 and a frequency attenuator 130.
The antenna arrays 110 are at least two and are arranged in parallel. The number of antenna arrays 110 determines the number of operating frequencies of the base station antenna 100. For the dual low frequency antenna in this embodiment, the antenna array 110 is two columns. Further, each antenna array 110 includes a plurality of in-line radiating elements (not shown) and offset radiating elements (not shown). The plurality of in-line radiating elements are arranged in a straight line, thereby forming a straight line array. The dislocation radiating elements are staggered relative to the linear array. That is, the dislocation radiating unit is deviated from the straight line in which the above-described straight line array is located.
The structure and function of the in-line radiation unit and the dislocation radiation unit can be identical, and the in-line radiation unit and the dislocation radiation unit are all radiation units for radiation and reception of signals. The names are different only to distinguish between radiation elements that are arranged differently. As shown in fig. 1, each antenna array 110 in the present embodiment includes 4 in-line radiating elements and 1 offset radiating element. The radiating elements 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d form a linear array and are therefore referred to as inline radiating elements, while the radiating element 11e is referred to as offset radiating element.
It should be noted that the number and form of the radiating elements in the base station antenna 100 can be adjusted accordingly according to the different requirements of the number of operating frequencies and the frequency spectrum width. For example:
in one embodiment, the base station antenna 100 further comprises a linear antenna array (not shown). The linear antenna array is formed by arranging a plurality of radiating elements in a straight line, and is arranged in parallel with the antenna array 110. The structures and functions of the radiating elements, the in-line radiating elements and the dislocation radiating elements which form the linear antenna array can be identical.
In this embodiment, the base station antenna 100 further includes a reflecting plate 140, and at least two antenna arrays 110 are mounted on the surface of the reflecting plate 140.
Specifically, the reflection plate 140 is generally formed of a metal plate structure, and can reflect electromagnetic waves, thereby improving the transmission/reception efficiency of the base station antenna 100. Meanwhile, the reflecting plate 140 may also support the radiating element, thereby facilitating assembly of the antenna array 110.
Further, in the present embodiment, at least two antenna arrays 110 are axisymmetrically distributed with the central axis of the reflecting plate 140 as the symmetry axis.
Specifically, the symmetrically distributed antenna array may promote symmetry of the base station antenna 100. The reflecting plate 140 in the present embodiment is rectangular, and the two antenna arrays 110 are respectively located at two sides of the central axis. Thus, it is helpful to improve the radiation index of the base station antenna 100.
The phase shifters 120 are in one-to-one correspondence with the antenna arrays 110. That is, the number of phase shifters 120 is the same as the number of antenna arrays 110. For the dual low frequency antenna in the present embodiment, since the antenna array 110 has two columns, the phase shifters 120 have two columns. Only one phase shifter 120 is shown in fig. 1, the other not being shown. In addition, since each phase shifter 120 is connected to the corresponding antenna array 110 in the same manner, only a pair of phase shifters 120 and antenna arrays 110 will be selected for description.
Further, each phase shifter 120 includes a plurality of output ports 121, and the plurality of output ports 121 are electrically connected to a plurality of in-line radiating elements and offset radiating elements in the corresponding antenna array 110, respectively, to form a plurality of antenna channels. As shown in fig. 1, the phase shifter 120 in the present embodiment has 5 output ports 121a, 121b, 121c, 121d, and 121e, and is electrically connected to the radiation units 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d, and 11e, respectively.
The phase shifter 120 is used for electrically modulating and phase-shifting the antenna array 110, and each antenna channel can receive and transmit a signal. The dislocation radiating element may act to narrow the beam width, thereby narrowing the bandwidth. Therefore, the space between adjacent antenna arrays 110 can be reduced under the same bandwidth requirement, thereby realizing a miniaturized design of the base station antenna 100.
In this embodiment, the phase shifter 120 includes a PCB 123 and a printed circuit 125 formed on the PCB 123, and the plurality of output ports 121 are electrically connected to the printed circuit 125.
Specifically, the phase shifter 120 further has an input port (not shown), and the printed wiring 125 may be a microstrip line structure or the like. The printed circuit 125 has a plurality of branches, and is electrically connected to the plurality of output ports 121. There is a difference in electrical length between the input port and each output port 121, thereby achieving a difference in output phase of each output port 121. The phase shifter 120 in the form of a printed circuit board has the advantage of small size, thereby further facilitating the miniaturized design of the base station antenna 100.
The frequency attenuator 130 is disposed on the antenna channel where the dislocation radiating element is located. In the present embodiment, the frequency attenuator 130 is disposed on the antenna channel formed by the radiating unit 11e and the output port 121 e. The frequency attenuator 130 may be a capacitive or resistive attenuator. The higher the frequency the greater the partial loss of the electrical signal as it passes through the frequency attenuator 130.
The dislocated radiating elements may cause boundary asymmetry, causing the beam to diverge. As shown in fig. 4, when the frequency attenuator 130 is not introduced, the bandwidth of the highest frequency point in the operating frequency band is 9 degrees narrower than the bandwidth of the lowest frequency point, and the beams are relatively divergent. As shown in fig. 3, by introducing the frequency attenuator 130, the low-frequency point power provided by the phase shifter 120 to the dislocation radiating unit can be kept basically unchanged, while the high-frequency point power is significantly reduced, so that the problems of narrow high-frequency point bandwidth and wide low-frequency point bandwidth caused by the dislocation radiating unit are solved.
As shown in fig. 5, after the frequency attenuator 130 is introduced, the bandwidth of the highest frequency point and the bandwidth of the lowest frequency point in the working frequency band are different by less than 1 degree, so that the convergence of the beam is effectively improved.
In this embodiment, the frequency attenuator 130 is a dielectric material that is disposed over the printed wiring 125.
Specifically, the dielectric material is disposed on the branches of the printed wiring 125 that connect with the output port 121 e. Wherein the dielectric material may be disposed in direct contact with the printed wiring 125. Since the higher the frequency, the greater the loss when the feed signal propagates in the high-permittivity dielectric material, the lower the power of the high frequency point of the signal output from the output port 121 e.
In addition, when the dielectric material is used as the frequency attenuator 130, the dielectric material is only required to be coated at the corresponding position of the printed circuit 125, and the structure of the phase shifter 120 is not required to be changed excessively. Therefore, the existing phase shifter 120 can be directly used in the fabrication of the base station antenna 100, thereby reducing costs and facilitating fabrication.
Further, in order to reduce the high frequency point power of the output signal as much as possible, in this embodiment, the dielectric constant of the dielectric material is greater than 3.
In particular, in the present embodiment, the dislocation radiating element of any antenna array 110 and the linear array of the adjacent antenna array 110 are located on the same line.
As shown in fig. 1, the number of the antenna arrays 110 is two, and the offset radiating elements of the two antenna arrays 110 are aligned with each other. Thus, the two antenna arrays 110 cooperate with each other to form two columns of radiating elements arranged in a straight line. At this time, the two rows of the radiating elements arranged in a straight line facilitate space reasonable utilization, thereby further facilitating miniaturization of the base station antenna 100.
Further, in the present embodiment, the dislocation radiating element in each antenna array 110 is located at one end of the linear array.
As shown in fig. 1, the offset radiating elements are located at the head and tail of each antenna array 110. At this time, the linear array portions of the plurality of antenna arrays 110 are symmetrical, and only the head or tail portion is asymmetrical, so that the overall symmetry of the base station antenna 100 is advantageously improved, thereby further improving the radiation index.
It should be noted that in other embodiments, the dislocation radiating element may also be located in the middle of each antenna array 110.
Further, in the present embodiment, the offset radiating elements in any one of the antenna arrays 110 and the plurality of in-line radiating elements in the other antenna array 110 are disposed at equal intervals. Therefore, the symmetry of the base station antenna 100 can be further improved, thereby further improving the radiation index.
The base station antenna 100 described above may have a narrowing beam width by using a staggered radiating element that is staggered from a plurality of in-line radiating elements, thereby narrowing the bandwidth. Thus, the spacing between adjacent antenna arrays 110 may be reduced under the same bandwidth requirements. However, the dislocated radiating elements may also cause boundary asymmetry, causing the beam to diverge. The higher the frequency, the greater the loss of the electrical signal as it passes through the frequency attenuator 130. Therefore, by introducing the frequency attenuator 130 into the antenna channel where the dislocation radiating unit is located, the low-frequency point power provided by the phase shifter 120 to the dislocation radiating unit is basically kept unchanged, and the high-frequency point power is obviously reduced, so that the problems of narrow high-frequency point bandwidth and low-frequency point bandwidth brought by the dislocation radiating unit are solved, and the convergence of the beam is improved. Therefore, the base station antenna 100 can be miniaturized and can ensure the radiation index.
The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined, and all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are not described for brevity of description, however, as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features, they should be considered as the scope of the description.
The above examples illustrate only a few embodiments of the invention, which are described in detail and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, which are all within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of protection of the present invention is to be determined by the appended claims.