Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
In view of the drawbacks of the related art, embodiments of the present invention provide a phase shifter. The phase shifter includes: a power divider A0 and at least two routing areas; the power divider A0 at least comprises 2 branches, each branch is respectively connected with at least one wiring area, each wiring area comprises a phase shift unit and a medium, at least one wiring area is provided with a plurality of phase shift units, and parallel feeding is performed between the phase shift units in the wiring area with the plurality of phase shift units; the phase change of the output end of the phase shift unit is controlled by relative motion between the medium and the phase shift unit.
The power divider a0 may be a one-to-three power divider, including a non-phase-shift port P16. The embodiment of the present invention is not particularly limited thereto. The power divider A0 is preferably set to be free of medium coverage, so that medium loss can be reduced, and gain performance of the whole antenna including the phase shifter can be improved. In addition, the input end Pin of the power divider a0 is electrically connected to the coaxial cable, and the medium may be a dielectric plate, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. The dielectrics in the line region may adopt the same dielectric constant or different dielectric constants, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present invention. In addition, the medium can be provided with a through hole for matching.
According to the phase shifter provided by the embodiment of the invention, the power divider A0 can be connected with a plurality of wiring areas, and the phase shifting units in each wiring area are in parallel feeding instead of series feeding structure, so that the volume of the phase shifter can be reduced, and the overall layout and cost control are facilitated.
Based on the contents of the above embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the number of the wiring regions is 4, and the first wiring region a1, the second wiring region a2, the third wiring region A3, and the fourth wiring region a4 are respectively; the power divider A0 comprises 3 branches, namely a first branch, a second branch and a third branch; the first branch circuit, the first wiring region a1, and the second wiring region a2 are electrically connected in this order, the second branch circuit, the third wiring region A3, and the fourth wiring region a4 are electrically connected in this order, and the third branch circuit serves as a non-phase-shifting port
Referring to fig. 1 in particular, the phase shift units in the first wiring region a1 and the third wiring region A3 may be symmetrically or asymmetrically disposed with respect to the power divider a 0; the phase shift units in the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 may be symmetrically disposed with respect to the power divider a0, or asymmetrically disposed, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present invention. The third branch in the power splitter a0 is the non-phase shifted port P16, i.e., the port without phase change. The symmetric arrangement means that the arrangement position of the phase shift unit, the type of the strip line in the phase shift unit and the arrangement mode of the strip line in the phase shift unit are the same, and the asymmetric arrangement means that the arrangement position of the phase shift unit, the type of the strip line in the phase shift unit and the arrangement mode of the strip line in the phase shift unit are different.
Based on the contents of the above embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the first wiring region a1 includes a first phase shift unit S1, an input terminal of the first phase shift unit S1 is electrically connected to the first branch of the power divider, and an output terminal of the first phase shift unit S1 is electrically connected to the phase shift unit in the second wiring region a 2.
Based on the contents of the above embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the second wiring region a2 includes a second phase shift unit S2, a third phase shift unit S3, and a fourth phase shift unit S4; the output terminal of the first phase shift unit S1 is electrically connected to the input terminals of the second phase shift unit S2, the third phase shift unit S3 and the fourth phase shift unit S4, respectively, and each of the second phase shift unit S2, the third phase shift unit S3 and the fourth phase shift unit S4 includes an output terminal.
The output end of the first phase shift unit S1 can also be regarded as the direct output, which is denoted as the output end P14. The output terminal of the second phase shifting unit S2 may be denoted as P12, the output terminal of the third phase shifting unit S3 may be denoted as P13, and the output terminal of the fourth phase shifting unit S4 may be denoted as P11. In the second wiring region a2, the second phase shift unit S2, the third phase shift unit S3, and the fourth phase shift unit S4 may be disposed on the same side in the cavity, or may be disposed on both sides in the cavity. For example, P12, P14 and P11, P15 are located on the same side or different sides of the central axis of the cavity, and when P12, P14 and P11, P15 are located on the same side of the central axis of the cavity, P12, P14, P11 and P15 are all located on the same side; when P12, P14 and P11, P15 are on opposite sides of the central axis of the cavity, P12 and P14 are on one side and P11 and P15 are on the other side. The embodiment of the present invention is not particularly limited thereto.
Based on the contents of the above embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the second wiring region a2 further includes a fifth phase shift unit S5; the output terminal of the first phase shift unit S1 is electrically connected to the input terminal of the fifth phase shift unit S5, which includes an output terminal. Wherein, the output end of the fifth phase shift unit S5 can be denoted as P15. Note that the phase shift units in the second wiring region a2 may be disposed on different sides or the same side of the first phase shift unit S1.
Based on the contents of the above-described embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the first wiring region a1 includes the first medium D1; the second wiring region a2 includes a second medium D2 and a third medium D3; wherein, the second medium D2 covers the second phase shift unit S2 and the third phase shift unit S3; when the second medium D2 moves, the phase change at the output end of one of the second phase shift unit S2 and the third phase shift unit S3 is advanced, and the phase change at the output end of the other phase shift unit is delayed;
the third medium D3 covers the fourth phase shift unit S4 and the fifth phase shift unit S5; when the third medium D3 moves, the phase change at the output terminal of one of the fourth phase shift unit S4 and the fifth phase shift unit S5 is advanced, and the phase change at the output terminal of the other phase shift unit is delayed.
The relative dielectric constants of the first medium D1, the second medium D2, and the third medium D3 may be the same. Under the condition that the media have the same motion stroke, the absolute value of the phase shifting amount of the first phase shifting unit S1 is larger than the absolute values of the phase shifting amounts of the second medium D2 and the third medium D3.
In addition, if the relative dielectric constants of the sliding media of the phase shift units in the second wiring region a2 are the same, the phase shift amount of the fourth phase shift unit S4 may be an integer multiple or a non-integer multiple of the second phase shift unit S2, and the phase shift amount of the fifth phase shift unit S5 may be an integer multiple or a non-integer multiple of the third phase shift unit S3. If the relative dielectric constants of the sliding media of the phase shift units in the second wiring region a2 are different and the relative dielectric constants of the first phase shift unit S1, the fifth phase shift unit S5, and the third phase shift unit S3 are sequentially decreased, the phase shift amount of the fifth phase shift unit S5 may be an integer multiple or a non-integer multiple of the phase shift amount of the third phase shift unit S3.
Based on the contents of the above embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the first phase shift unit S1 is composed of three pieces of bent strip lines or straight strip lines; the second phase shift unit S2, the third phase shift unit S3, the fourth phase shift unit S4 and the fifth phase shift unit S5 are all composed of straight or square strip lines.
As shown in fig. 2, the first phase shift unit S1 is composed of three pieces of bent strip lines, the second phase shift unit S2 and the third phase shift unit S3 are composed of straight strip lines, and the fourth phase shift unit S4 and the fifth phase shift unit S5 are composed of square wave strip lines. The input end of the linear and square wave phase shift unit is covered by a medium, and the output end of the linear and square wave phase shift unit is electrically connected with the radiation unit. In addition, in the unit stroke, the phase shift amount of the phase shift unit of the square strip line is larger than that of the phase shift unit of the straight strip line. In fig. 2, the third wiring region A3 and the first wiring region a1 are symmetrically disposed with respect to the power divider a0, and the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 are symmetrically disposed with respect to the power divider a 0.
The phase shifter also comprises a cavity, and the strip line and the medium are arranged in the cavity. The cavity is not shown in fig. 2. In fig. 2, the second phase shift unit S2, the third phase shift unit S3, the fourth phase shift unit S4, and the fifth phase shift unit S5 are disposed at two sides of the cavity, or may be disposed at the same side of the cavity, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.
Based on the above description of the embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the second medium D2 and the third medium D3 may be made of the same material, i.e., have the same relative dielectric constant. The square wave phase shift unit S4 may shift twice as much phase as the linear phase shift unit S2 in a unit stroke.
Based on the above description of the embodiments, as an alternative embodiment, the second medium D2 and the third medium D3 may be made of different materials and have different relative dielectric constants. Wherein the relative dielectric constant of the second medium D2 is greater than that of the third medium D3. Through this setting, can reduce the design degree of difficulty of square waveform phase shift unit. In a unit stroke, the square wave phase shift unit S4 has twice the phase shift amount of the linear phase shift unit S2.
It should be noted that, besides that the square-wave phase shift unit S4 may be set to have a phase shift amount twice that of the linear phase shift unit S2, other multiples may also be set, such as 1.8 times and 2.2 times, so as to be suitable for antenna scenes with different pitches, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention. In conjunction with the above embodiments, it can be seen that the phase of the second phase shift unit S2 and the phase of the third phase shift unit S3 are changed to be one leading and one lagging during the sliding process of the third medium D3. Similarly, during the sliding of the second medium D2, the phases of the fourth phase shift unit S4 and the fifth phase shift unit S5 change to be advanced by one lag.
As shown in fig. 3, 4 and 5, for the sake of convenience of explanation, fig. 3 to 5 are schematic diagrams of a phase shifter according to an embodiment of the present invention without an intermediate one-to-three power divider. When the first medium D1, the second medium D2, and the third medium D3 slide from the position shown in FIG. 3 to the position shown in FIG. 5, the phase change of the first phase shift unit S1 is recorded as
The phase shift amount of the second phase shift unit S2 is recorded as
The phase shift amount of the third phase shift unit S3 is recorded as
The phase shift amount of the fourth phase shift unit S4 is recorded as
The phase shift amount of the fifth phase shift unit S5 is recorded as
Therefore, the phase shift amount ratio of each port from P11 to P15 is P11: p12: p13: p14: p15 ═ -1: -2: -3: -4: -5. Similarly, the phase shift proportion of each port from P17 to P20 is P17: p18: p19: p20: p21 ═ 1:2:3:4: 5. Wherein, a positive value represents a phase advance, and a negative value represents a phase lag, so that the phase shifter provided by the embodiment of the invention can be suitable for antenna high gainAn electrically tunable antenna product beneficial to gear shift.
In addition to the arrangement of the strip lines in fig. 2, for example, in fig. 6, all the phase shift units are composed of straight strip lines. The relative dielectric constant relationship of the medium is as follows: er1> Er3> Er2, where Eri represents the relative dielectric constant of medium Di, i is 1,2, 3. In a unit stroke, the phase shift amount obtained by the first phase shift unit S1 is three times that of the second phase shift unit S2, and the phase shift amount obtained by the first phase shift unit S1 is 1.5 times that of the third phase shift unit S3, so that the phase shift amount ratio obtained by each output port of the phase shifter is 5: 4: 3: 2: 1: 0: -1: -2: -3: -4: -5.
Or, as shown in fig. 6, the strip lines of all the phase shift units are linear, but the relative dielectric constants of the media are equal, and the sliding media are in a hollow structure, and the equivalent dielectric constant of the media is controlled by the depth of the slot. As shown in fig. 7 to 9, the medium D1 is not grooved, and the groove depth of the medium D2 is greater than that of the medium D3, so that the equivalent dielectric constant relationship of each medium is: er1> Er3> Er2, where Eri represents the relative dielectric constant of medium Di, i is 1,2, 3. In a unit stroke, the first phase shift unit S1 obtains three times the amount of phase shift of the second phase shift unit S2, and the first phase shift unit S1 obtains 1.5 times the amount of phase shift of the third phase shift unit S3. Similarly, each port of the phase shifter can obtain equal-difference phase shifting quantity. Of course, in the actual implementation process, the depth of the slot can also be adjusted, and the phase shift quantity of each port is used as an unequal difference so as to be suitable for the antenna array with special spacing.
In fig. 2 and 6, the strip lines of the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 are symmetrically arranged. Of course, in practical implementation, the strip lines of the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 may be asymmetrically arranged, as shown in fig. 10. In fig. 10, only three phase shift cells S2, S3, S4 are provided in the second wiring region a2, and the number of phase shift cells provided in the fourth wiring region a4 is four phase shift cells as in fig. 2 and 6. Correspondingly, the phase shifter provided in fig. 10 has ten output ports, and is suitable for an electrically tunable antenna product with a high gain stage. In an actual implementation process, the number of the phase shift units in the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 on the left and right sides of the main power divider a0 may be increased or decreased according to actual requirements, so as to adapt to the use of array antennas with different numbers of antenna units. For example, the second wiring region a2 and the fourth wiring region a4 are each provided with three phase shift units, so that the phase shifter is suitable for an electric tilt antenna product with nine radiating elements.
Based on the content of the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present invention provides an array antenna, including any phase shifter provided in the corresponding embodiment of the foregoing phase shifter.
The phase shifter embodiments described above are merely illustrative, where the elements illustrated as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as elements may or may not be physical elements, i.e. may be located in one place, or may also be distributed over a plurality of network elements. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.
Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware. With this understanding in mind, the above-described technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments.
Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.