CN113131107A

CN113131107A - Phase shifting device, antenna and base station

Info

Publication number: CN113131107A
Application number: CN202110394708.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴庚飞; 苏国生; 黄明达; 陈礼涛; 郑桂鑫
Original assignee: Comba Telecom Technology Guangzhou Ltd; Jingxin RF Technology Guangzhou Co ltd
Current assignee: Comba Telecom Technology Guangzhou Ltd; Jingxin RF Technology Guangzhou Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-13
Filing date: 2021-04-13
Publication date: 2021-07-16

Abstract

The invention provides a phase shifting device, an antenna and a base station, wherein the phase shifting device comprises a fixed dielectric plate, a movable dielectric plate and a plurality of phase shifters; each phase shifter comprises a fixed transmission line printed on a fixed dielectric slab and a movable transmission line printed on a movable dielectric slab, and the fixed transmission line is coupled with the movable transmission line; the movable dielectric slab is opposite to the fixed dielectric slab in surface and can be in pivot connection with the pivot shaft, the fixed transmission lines of the phase shifters are arranged in a coplanar mode around the pivot shaft, and the pivot motion of the movable dielectric slab relative to the fixed dielectric slab enables the phase shifters to synchronously implement phase shifting. The phase shifting device is different from the traditional layout and can be arranged on the same surface of the dielectric plate with the antenna radiation unit, so that a feed pin or a cable with the front surface butted with the back surface is not required to be additionally used, the signal and the phase error thereof are reduced, and the space utilization rate of the antenna reflecting plate is improved.

Description

Phase shifting device, antenna and base station

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of mobile communication, and particularly relates to a phase shifting device, an antenna and a base station.

Background

With the development of modern mobile communication technology, the communication system has great demand for the electrically tunable antenna, and the weight and cost of the electrically tunable antenna depend on the phase shifter assembly. The phase shifter is used as a core component of the electric tuning antenna and plays a significant role in planning and construction of a communication network system. The phase shifter can control the change of signal phase and is a key device for realizing the beam forming of the antenna directional diagram of the base station. The phase shifter is used for shifting the phase of the signal of the base station antenna, the signal phase between the antenna radiation units is changed, the downward inclination angle of the antenna beam can be adjusted, and the electric tuning optimization of the communication network is facilitated.

In the base station, the transmission or rotation structural part of a coupling circuit of the phase shifter used by the electrically tunable antenna is positioned on the same side of the movable transmission circuit board, and the radiation direction of the antenna can be influenced by the traditional phase shifter arranged on the front side; when the antenna is disposed on the back of the array antenna, the weight and the volume of the antenna are large, and the antenna has a high profile, which is not favorable for reducing the weight and the cost of the communication system.

It can be seen that there is a need in the art for improved phase shifter structures to accommodate antenna applications.

Disclosure of Invention

A first object of the present invention is to provide a phase shifting apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an antenna.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a base station.

The invention is suitable for the purpose of the invention and adopts the following technical scheme:

a first object of the present invention is to provide a phase shifter, which includes a fixed dielectric plate, a movable dielectric plate, and a plurality of phase shifters; each phase shifter comprises a fixed transmission line printed on a fixed dielectric slab and a movable transmission line printed on a movable dielectric slab, and the fixed transmission line is coupled with the movable transmission line; the movable dielectric slab is opposite to the fixed dielectric slab in surface and can be in pivot connection with the pivot shaft, the fixed transmission lines of the phase shifters are arranged in a coplanar mode around the pivot shaft, and the pivot motion of the movable dielectric slab relative to the fixed dielectric slab enables the phase shifters to synchronously implement phase shifting.

Further, the fixed transmission lines of at least some of the plurality of phase shifters are arranged in a centrosymmetric relationship with respect to the pivot axis.

Preferably, in the plurality of phase shifters, the fixed transmission lines of at least some of the phase shifters are concentrically arranged around the pivot axis.

Specifically, the plurality of phase shifters are an even number of phase shifters, and are divided into two groups for accessing and processing two polarized signals of the same frequency band.

Furthermore, between two adjacent phase shifters, an isolation circuit/power divider for isolating mutual interference between the two adjacent phase shifters is correspondingly disposed on the fixed dielectric plate.

Preferably, in each phase shifter, the fixed transmission line includes a pair of concentrically arranged arc-shaped arms; the movable transmission line is U-shaped and comprises a pair of concentrically arranged arc arms and a connecting section, wherein the positions of the pair of concentrically arranged arc arms correspond to those of the pair of arc arms, and the connecting section connects the two arc arms in series at the same end.

Specifically, the arc-shaped arm of the fixed transmission line/the movable transmission line is in a linear shape or a reciprocating bending shape.

Preferably, the fixed transmission line/the movable transmission line is a microstrip line or a stripline.

Preferably, the phase shifting device is arranged and packaged in a shielding cavity, the shielding cavity comprises a shielding cover covered on the fixed dielectric plate and a metal coating printed on one surface of the fixed dielectric plate, and the shielding cover is electrically connected with the metal coating through a metalized through hole on the fixed dielectric plate.

Preferably, the phase shifting device is provided with a transmission device, the transmission device comprises the pivot shaft and a transmission mechanism, and the transmission mechanism receives external transmission torque to control the pivot shaft to drive the movable medium plate to perform pivoting motion so as to control a plurality of phase shifters to synchronously shift the phase.

The present invention further provides an antenna, including a power distribution network for feeding a plurality of radiating elements of a same array in parallel, where the power distribution network includes at least one phase shifter according to any one of the preceding objects, the phase shifter is installed on a radiating surface of the antenna, at least two phase shifters in the phase shifter are used for controlling phase shift of signals of two polarizations of the array, and a phase-shifted output of the phase shifter is transmitted to at least one of the radiating elements.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a base station comprising an antenna as described above.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

first, the invention sets the fixed dielectric slab and the movable dielectric slab as a pivot structure, so that the movable transmission line and the fixed transmission line which are coupled and connected with each other can change the coupling position of each other through pivoting, when a plurality of phase shifters are integrated together in a coplanar manner, the structure is simple, the section is low, the size is small, the space utilization rate is improved, the cost of a communication system is reduced, and the large-scale production and manufacturing are facilitated.

Secondly, because a plurality of phase shifters are arranged in a coplanar manner, the planar layout relationship among the phase shifters is easy to process, and then phase shift control is realized by controlling the pivot shaft, so that the phase shifter is suitable for being installed on the front face of an antenna where an antenna radiation unit is located, and the pivot shaft is arranged on the back face of a dielectric plate of the antenna or a metal reflecting plate of the antenna, so that the phase shift of the phase shifter is controlled by the pivot shaft arranged on the back face of the antenna, the defect that a transmission or rotation structural member of a coupling circuit of a traditional phase shifter and a movable transmission circuit board are on the same side and cannot be installed on the front face of.

In addition, because the phase shifters are in surrounding coplanarity and the phase shift is controlled by the pivot shaft, a feed pin or a cable with the front surface butted with the back surface is not required to be additionally used, the signal and the phase error thereof are reduced, and the production cost is reduced.

Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Drawings

The foregoing and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a phase shifting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a movable dielectric plate of a phase shift device according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a movable dielectric plate of a phase shift device according to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a movable dielectric plate of a phase shift device according to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a phase shifter according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic exploded view of a phase shifting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic front view of an antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of the back side of an antenna according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is an exploded view of the back of the antenna according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic illustration of a gear set in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of a gear set according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While certain embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but rather are provided for a more thorough and complete understanding of the present invention. It should be understood that the drawings and the embodiments of the present invention are illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

It should be understood that the various steps recited in the method embodiments of the present invention may be performed in a different order and/or performed in parallel. Moreover, method embodiments may include additional steps and/or omit performing the illustrated steps. The scope of the invention is not limited in this respect.

The term "include" and variations thereof as used herein are open-ended, i.e., "including but not limited to". The term "coupled" may refer to direct coupling or indirect coupling via intermediate members (elements). The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment"; the term "some embodiments" means "at least some embodiments". Relevant definitions for other terms will be given in the following description.

It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", and the like in the present invention are only used for distinguishing the devices, modules or units, and are not used for limiting the devices, modules or units to be different devices, modules or units, and are not used for limiting the sequence or interdependence relationship of the functions executed by the devices, modules or units.

Referring to fig. 1, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the present invention provides a phase shift device including a fixed dielectric plate 1, a movable dielectric plate 2, and a plurality of phase shifters; each phase shifter comprises a fixed transmission line 13 printed on the fixed dielectric plate 1 and a movable transmission line 23 printed on the movable dielectric plate 2, and the fixed transmission line 13 is coupled with the movable transmission line 23; the movable dielectric plate 2 is opposite to the fixed dielectric plate 1 in a surface-to-surface manner and is in pivotable connection with a pivot shaft 40, the fixed transmission lines 13 of the phase shifters are arranged around the pivot shaft 40 in a coplanar manner, and the phase shifters are synchronously shifted by the pivoting motion of the movable dielectric plate 2 relative to the fixed dielectric plate 1.

Referring to fig. 1 to 5, in each phase shifter, the fixed transmission line 13 includes a pair of first and second arc-

shaped arms

131 and 132 concentrically arranged; the movable transmission line 23 is U-shaped, and includes a pair of concentrically arranged third and

fourth arc arms

231 and 232 at positions corresponding to the pair of arc arms, and a connecting section 230 connecting the two arc arms in series at the same end.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the movable dielectric plate 2 and the fixed dielectric plate 1 are pivotally connected about the pivot shaft 40, in each phase shifter, the fixed dielectric plate 1 is provided with an input end 13A and an output end 13B which are respectively electrically connected to two fixed transmission lines 13 of the phase shifter, a circuit feeds a signal from the input end 13A into the first arc-shaped arm 131 of the fixed transmission line of the phase shifter, since the movable dielectric plate 2 is opposite to the fixed dielectric plate 1 in a surface-to-surface manner (the back surface of the movable dielectric plate on which the movable transmission line is provided is opposite to the front surface of the fixed dielectric plate on which the fixed transmission line is provided), the signal entering the fixed transmission line is first coupled to the third arc-shaped arm 231 of the U-shaped movable transmission line and then transmitted to the fourth arc-shaped arm 232 along the U-shaped path of the movable transmission line through the connecting section 230, and is coupled to the second arc-shaped arm 132 of another fixed transmission line of the same phase shifter, and is fed out from the output terminal 13B connected to the fixed transmission line, thereby realizing transmission of signals inside the phase shifter, and the electrical transmission path formed from one fixed transmission line of the phase shifter to the movable transmission line and then to the other fixed transmission line of the phase shifter also actually forms the phase-shifting transmission path of the phase shifter.

Referring to fig. 1, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the arc-shaped arm of the fixed transmission line is configured in a reciprocating bent shape, and in other embodiments, it may be designed as a straight line. It will be appreciated that the same approach can be applied to the active transmission line as described. It is understood that the fixed transmission line and the movable transmission line can be microstrip lines or strip lines.

When the movable dielectric slab 2 pivots relative to the fixed dielectric slab 1, the length of the electrical transmission path of the phase-shifting transmission line changes, and the coupling distance/coupling area between the corresponding fixed transmission line and the movable transmission line in each phase shifter changes, so that the phase of a signal flowing through the phase shifter can be changed, and the phase shifting quantity is generated.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, the fixed transmission lines 13 belonging to the two phase shifters are disposed on the fixed dielectric plate 1 in a coplanar manner, the movable transmission lines 23 belonging to the two phase shifters are also disposed on the movable dielectric plate 2 in a coplanar manner, and the fixed transmission lines 13 and the movable transmission lines 23 of the same phase shifter are in one-to-one correspondence when the fixed dielectric plate 1 and the movable dielectric plate 2 are pivotally connected (see fig. 5, and fig. 5 shows a correspondence relationship between the movable transmission lines and the fixed transmission lines), so as to form the two phase shifters. For the two phase shifters, when the pivot shaft 40 of the phase shifting device drives the movable medium plate 2 to pivot relative to the fixed medium plate 1, the phase changes of the two phase shifters increase and decrease simultaneously, and the two phase shifters with the same increasing and decreasing phase changes can form a pair of phase shifters.

In the above embodiment, because the fixed transmission lines 13 of the plurality of phase shifters and the movable transmission lines 23 of the plurality of phase shifters are respectively disposed in a coplanar manner, unlike the conventional phase shifting device in which the phase shifters on the front and back sides need to be electrically connected, a feed pin or a cable for realizing the butt joint of the front and back sides does not need to be additionally used, and the components of the phase shifting device are simplified and the phase error of the signal is reduced.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, on the basis of the above exemplary embodiment shown in fig. 1 having one pair of phase shifters, another pair of phase shifters is further provided, the two pairs of phase shifters are divided into a first pair of phase shifters and a second pair of phase shifters, and the fixed transmission line 13 and the movable transmission line 23 of the first pair of phase shifters are arranged as described above. Two phase shifters in the second pair of phase shifters are also arranged according to the above arrangement, so that the fixed transmission lines and the movable transmission lines of the two phase shifters are arranged on the fixed dielectric plate 1 and the movable dielectric plate 2 in a centrosymmetric relationship with respect to the pivot shaft 40, respectively. Regarding the spatial layout relationship between the two pairs of phase shifters, as shown in fig. 2, on the movable dielectric slab 2, with the pivot axis 40 as the center of circle, and referring to the position of the movable transmission line 23 of the first pair of phase shifters, the movable transmission line 23 of the second pair of phase shifters is synchronously and clockwise deflected by 90 ° to the right, so that the layout of the movable transmission line 23 can be completed; the fixed transmission lines 13 of the second pair of phase shifters may be arranged in the same way. Thus, all the fixed transmission lines of the two pairs of phase shifters are arranged substantially around the same circumference, as are the movable transmission lines thereof. Since the two pairs of phase shifters have a centrosymmetric layout relationship, it can be understood that when the pivot shaft drives the movable dielectric slab 2 to pivot relative to the fixed dielectric slab 1, the coupling area between the fixed transmission line 13 and the movable transmission line 23 concentrically arranged is changed synchronously, thereby realizing synchronous phase shifting.

Referring to fig. 3, in other embodiments, the phase shifting device is provided with three pairs of phase shifters, that is, two pairs of phase shifters are additionally provided on the basis of the pair of phase shifters in the above exemplary embodiment, wherein a first pair of phase shifters is the pair of phase shifters in the above exemplary embodiment, and a second pair of phase shifters is arranged by being shifted by 60 ° clockwise and rightward relative to the line synchronization of the first pair of phase shifters; the third pair of phase shifters is arranged to be shifted clockwise by 120 ° to the right in correspondence to the corresponding line synchronization of the first pair of phase shifters. Based on the above embodiments of the present application, those skilled in the art can flexibly adapt to the situation of other three or more pairs of phase shifters on the basis of the above embodiments, which is not exhaustive.

In further embodiments, the phase shifting device is provided with two pairs of phase shifters, which may be arranged distributed on different circumferences, unlike the previous embodiments. As shown in fig. 4, on the movable dielectric slab 2, with the pivot axis 40 as a center, the movable transmission line 23 of the second pair of phase shifters is disposed at a distance away from the movable transmission line 23 of the first pair of phase shifters, specifically at the periphery of the latter; the same applies to the arrangement of the fixed transmission line 13. Thus, the first pair of shifters are disposed around a relatively smaller dummy circle and the second pair of shifters are disposed around a relatively larger dummy circle, such that the first and second pairs of shifters are concentrically disposed and still maintain a centrosymmetric relationship. When the pivot shaft drives the movable dielectric slab 2 to pivot relative to the fixed dielectric slab 1, the coupling areas between the fixed transmission lines 13 and the fixed transmission lines 23 of the first pair of phase shifters and the second pair of phase shifters are changed synchronously, so that the phases of signals flowing through the phase shifters are changed synchronously, and synchronous phase shifting of the coplanar phase shifters is realized.

The above is a partial arrangement of the plurality of fixed transmission lines 13 and the movable transmission lines 23, and it can be seen that, in the plurality of phase shifters provided in the embodiments of the present invention, there are various arrangements in which the fixed transmission lines are arranged in a central symmetrical relationship with respect to the pivot axis or in which the fixed transmission lines are arranged concentrically with respect to the center of the pivot axis, and furthermore, although the embodiments of the present invention produce related products according to a number relationship, these recommendations should not be used to limit the protection scope covered by the whole inventive spirit of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can flexibly adapt to the above embodiments of the present application based on the knowledge, and are not exhaustive.

In addition, referring to fig. 6, in some embodiments, the pivot shafts 40 respectively vertically pass through centers of planes where the transmission lines of the movable dielectric slab 2 and the fixed dielectric slab 1 are located, and face the front surface of the fixed dielectric slab and the back surface of the movable dielectric slab, so that the fixed transmission lines and the movable transmission lines are correspondingly coupled to form an electric transmission path for phase shifting, one end of the pivot shaft, which is far away from the movable dielectric slab 2, is concentrically and fixedly connected with a transmission mechanism, and the transmission mechanism receives an external transmission torque to control the pivot shaft to drive the movable dielectric slab to perform a pivot motion, thereby controlling a plurality of phase shifters therein to synchronously shift phases.

In view of the need to adapt to a dual-polarized antenna, in some embodiments, the phase shifting apparatus of the present invention may be configured as an even number of phase shifters, divided into two groups for accessing and processing two polarized signals of the same frequency band. Referring to fig. 1, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, 2 phase shifters correspond to two polarized signals, respectively; when the number of phase shifters is 4, 6 or other even number, the phase shifters are divided into two groups, and each group feeds a polarized signal of the same frequency band. The 4 phase shifters shown on the upper and lower sides of fig. 4 can be divided into two groups, one above the other, and 2 phase shifters in each group feed the same polarized signal in the same frequency band. When the movable medium plate 2 is pivotally movable relative to the fixed medium plate 1, the phase of the two polarizations changes to increase and decrease. As for the variation relationship of the phase shift amount of the phase shifter used for the same polarization signal, a person skilled in the art can flexibly calculate the variation relationship of the electrical transmission path between the phase shifters according to the antenna requirement, for example, two phase shifters used for the same polarization signal can be set to respectively realize different phase shift amounts when synchronously pivoting according to the phase difference relationship of different radiation units in the same frequency band, so as to meet the requirement of the phase difference relationship. Based on the disclosure of this principle, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the length and area of the fixed transmission line, the movable transmission line, and the electrical transmission path of each phase shifter can be flexibly set according to the adjustment of the phase shift amount.

Therefore, for the dual-polarized antenna, the two polarized circuits are integrated, so that the volume of the phase shifting device is reduced, higher integration is realized, the plate resource is saved, and the equipment integration degree is improved.

To further disclose the advantages of the present invention, please refer to fig. 1, in an embodiment of the present invention, which is found to have better performance, in the phase shifting apparatus, between two adjacent phase shifters, an isolation circuit 51 for isolating the mutual interference between the two adjacent phase shifters is correspondingly disposed on the fixed dielectric plate 1, and the isolation circuit 51 can isolate two polarized electrical signals to reduce the interference. By arranging the isolation circuit, the isolation of the antenna can be obviously improved when the isolation of the antenna is poor. Further, a ground via 511 may be provided at the isolation circuit 51 to facilitate grounding thereof.

Referring to fig. 5, another embodiment may also be adopted to achieve an effect substantially equivalent to that of the isolation circuit 51, specifically, in the phase shifting apparatus, an input end of each phase shifter is connected to a power divider 52, preferably a wilkinson power divider, and the power divider 52 itself has a certain isolation effect, which not only implements a shunting function, but also divides one input into two outputs, one of which is output after phase shifting is implemented in the current phase shifter, and the other is directly output; but also can play the role of isolation. In order to achieve a better technical effect, the fixed dielectric plate 1 and the movable dielectric plate 2 of the invention are generally made of materials with stable dielectric constants.

Referring to fig. 6, in consideration of stability factors during the phase shifting device process, the phase shifting device may be configured and packaged in a shielding cavity 6, where the shielding cavity 6 includes a shielding cover 61 covering the fixed dielectric plate and a metal plating layer printed on the back surface (opposite to the surface where the fixed transmission line is located) of the fixed dielectric plate 1, and the shielding cover 61 and the metal plating layer (not shown) are electrically connected through a metalized via hole on the fixed dielectric plate 1. In order to ensure the connection effect, a plurality of connection pieces 12 may be formed on the fixed dielectric plate 1, and the metalized via hole may be provided on each connection piece 12 to be electrically connected to the metal plating layer, so that when the shield case 61 is mounted on the fixed dielectric plate 1, a stable connection between the shield case and the metal plating layer may be ensured in cooperation with the connection pieces 12.

Referring to fig. 5, in order to enhance the isolation effect, isolation sheets 22 may be disposed between the arc-shaped arms of the fixed dielectric plate 1 or the movable dielectric plate 2, and each of the connection sheets 22 is provided with the metalized via hole to be electrically connected to the metal plating layer, so that when the shield case 61 is mounted on the fixed dielectric plate 1, the shield case and the metal plating layer can be stably connected with each other by the connection sheets 12.

In some embodiments, the phase shifter is manufactured by disposing or printing the corresponding components on the fixed dielectric plate 1 and the movable dielectric plate 2. The specific production process is that the fixed transmission line 13 is printed at the corresponding position of the fixed dielectric slab 1, the movable transmission line 23 is printed at the corresponding position of the movable dielectric slab 2, and the fixed dielectric slab 1 is provided with a corresponding metallized through hole and the fixed transmission line 13 is provided with an insulating layer; the movable transmission line 23 is printed on the movable dielectric board 2, and an insulating layer is provided on the movable transmission line 21. The movable dielectric plate 2 on which the respective elements are disposed or printed is then face-to-face opposed to the fixed dielectric plate 1 so that the movable transmission line 23 is disposed opposite to the fixed transmission line 13. Then, the shield case 61 is welded to the fixed dielectric plate 1 to form a shield cavity for accommodating the movable dielectric plate 2, so that the movable dielectric plate 2 can move relative to the fixed dielectric plate 1.

Preferably, the insulating layer on the movable dielectric plate 1 or the fixed dielectric plate 2 may be an insulating material such as green oil (i.e., liquid photosolder resist), an insulating film (e.g., teflon), or a metal oxide layer formed by an anodization reaction.

Similarly, for other metal materials on the fixed dielectric plate 1 and the movable dielectric plate 2, those skilled in the art may also set the insulating layer according to actual needs, and details are not repeated.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 6, the movable dielectric plate 2 is configured in a disc shape, and the disc-shaped structure facilitates the movable dielectric plate 2 to perform a pivoting motion in the shielding cavity 6.

Referring to fig. 7, a schematic front view of an antenna includes a plurality of radiation units belonging to the same array, and a power distribution network for feeding the plurality of radiation units of the same array in parallel, where the power distribution network includes at least one phase shifter 10 as described above, the phase shifter 10 is installed on a radiation surface of the antenna, specifically, on a front surface of a metal reflection plate of the antenna, at least two phase shifters are disposed in the phase shifter 10, the two phase shifters are configured to control phase shifting of two polarized signals of the array, and output of the phase shifted signals is transmitted to at least one of the radiation units through a differential feeding network.

In some embodiments, the phase shifting device 10 is provided with a plurality of phase shifters, which are divided into two groups and respectively control the phase shift of the signals of two polarizations of the array.

In the current 5G communication system, the phase assignment of the massive MIMO antenna is 2, and those skilled in the art can also set the number of multiple radiating elements or the phase excitation mode according to the requirement.

Referring to fig. 8 and 9, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in combination with an antenna, the phase shifting device is disposed on a back surface of the antenna, and the transmission device 4 is disposed on the back surface of the antenna, where the transmission device 4 includes the pivot shaft 40 and a transmission mechanism 41, and the transmission mechanism 41 receives an external transmission torque to control the pivot shaft 40 to drive the movable dielectric plate 2 to perform a pivot motion, so as to control a plurality of phase shifters therein to synchronously shift phases.

The transmission mechanism comprises a driving shaft 411, a driven plate 412 fixedly connected with the driving shaft 411, a rack 413 fixedly connected with the driven plate 412 and a gear set meshed with the rack 413.

Specifically, referring to fig. 8 to 10, on the back of the antenna, the transmission mechanism 41 receives external transmission torque and transmits the external transmission torque to the driven plate 412 through the driving shaft 411, the driven plate 412 is fixedly connected with at least one rack 413, the rack 413 moves opposite to the gear set, preferably, the driving shaft 411 is parallel to the rack 413, and the driven plate 412 is simultaneously fixed perpendicular to the driving shaft 411 and the rack 413. The gear set comprises a rotating gear 4141 and a reverse gear 4142, and the rotating gear 4141 is concentrically and fixedly connected with the pivot shaft 40. Therefore, when the transmission mechanism 41 receives an external transmission torque, the pivot shaft 40 is driven by the counter gear 4142, so that the movable medium plate 2 is driven to perform a pivoting motion, so that the plurality of phase shifters therein are synchronously shifted in phase. The embodiment shown in fig. 8 to 10 is such that the gear sets move towards each other when the rack 413 moves.

Referring to fig. 11, unlike the above-mentioned gear set moving in opposite directions when the rack 413 moves, in another embodiment, one side of the rack 413 is engaged with the gear set through the reversing gear 4142, and the other side is engaged with the rotating gear 4141, so that the gear directions of both sides of the rack are reversed, thereby moving the gear set in the same direction when the rack 413 moves. Since the modifications relating to some embodiments of fig. 11 only consist in gear sets with respect to the embodiments of fig. 8 to 10 of the present application, the corresponding antenna transmission diagram in the embodiment of fig. 11 is omitted.

In the embodiment of the present invention, which is actually measured to obtain better performance, the two ends of the driving shaft 411 far away from the transmission mechanism 41 are provided with the limiting and guiding modules 415, which is beneficial to limit the transmission distance and angle of the driving shaft 411 so as to obtain better phase shifting effect.

The phase shifting device in the antenna adopts a structure that a plurality of phase shifters are assembled around the pivot shaft in a coplanar manner, so that the volume is greatly reduced, the section is reduced, the front side of the antenna can be selected for installation, the space utilization rate is greatly improved, and signals and phase errors thereof are reduced, the cost of a communication system is reduced, and the large-scale production and manufacturing are facilitated.

Although the present invention recommends the production of the relevant products according to the above shape and quantity relationship, these recommendations should not be used to limit the scope of protection covered by the overall inventive spirit of the present invention.

A base station of the present invention comprises an antenna as described above. In the case of the phase shifting device according to the invention, which can be produced separately and mounted on a corresponding antenna, reference is made in particular to the above description, but for reasons of space, this is not shown here.

In summary, the phase shifter of the present invention is configured to face the movable dielectric slab and pivotally connect the movable dielectric slab to the pivot axis, and the fixed transmission lines of the plurality of phase shifters are disposed around the pivot axis in a coplanar manner, so that the plurality of phase shifters synchronously perform phase shifting. In the practical application of the 5G base station, the phase shifters used for the large-scale electrically tunable antenna are usually disposed on the back of the array antenna, which is not favorable for reducing the weight and cost of the communication system due to the high weight and profile. The phase shifters are integrated in a coplanar manner, so that the phase shifter is simple in structure, and meanwhile, a feed pin or a cable with the front surface butted with the back surface is not required to be additionally used, so that the signal and the phase error thereof are reduced, and the cost is reduced; the invention has low profile and small volume, improves the space utilization rate, reduces the cost of a communication system and is beneficial to large-scale production and manufacture.

The foregoing description is only exemplary of the preferred embodiments of the invention and is illustrative of the principles of the technology employed. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the scope of the invention according to the present invention is not limited to the specific combination of the above-mentioned features, but also encompasses other embodiments in which any combination of the above-mentioned features or their equivalents is possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. For example, the above features and (but not limited to) features having similar functions of the present invention are mutually replaced to form the technical solution.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A phase shifting device, characterized by: comprises a fixed dielectric plate, a movable dielectric plate and a plurality of phase shifters; each phase shifter comprises a fixed transmission line printed on a fixed dielectric slab and a movable transmission line printed on a movable dielectric slab, and the fixed transmission line is coupled with the movable transmission line; the movable dielectric slab is opposite to the fixed dielectric slab in surface and can be in pivot connection with the pivot shaft, the fixed transmission lines of the phase shifters are arranged in a coplanar mode around the pivot shaft, and the pivot motion of the movable dielectric slab relative to the fixed dielectric slab enables the phase shifters to synchronously implement phase shifting.

2. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the fixed transmission lines of at least some of the phase shifters are arranged in a centrosymmetric relationship with respect to the pivot axis.

3. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 2, wherein: and in the plurality of phase shifters, the fixed transmission lines of at least part of the phase shifters are concentrically arranged by taking the point where the pivot shaft is located as the center of a circle.

4. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 2, wherein: the phase shifters are even number phase shifters and are divided into two groups for accessing and processing two polarized signals of the same frequency band.

5. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 1, wherein: between two adjacent phase shifters, there is an isolating circuit/power divider on the fixed dielectric plate to isolate the mutual interference between the two adjacent phase shifters.

6. The phase shifting apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein in each phase shifter, the fixed transmission line comprises a pair of concentrically arranged arc-shaped arms; the movable transmission line is U-shaped and comprises a pair of concentrically arranged arc arms and a connecting section, wherein the positions of the pair of concentrically arranged arc arms correspond to those of the pair of arc arms, and the connecting section connects the two arc arms in series at the same end.

7. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 6, wherein the curved arms of the fixed/movable transmission lines are straight or bent back and forth.

8. The phase shifting apparatus of claim 6, wherein the fixed/movable transmission lines are microstrip lines or striplines.

9. The phase shifting device of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the phase shifting device is disposed and enclosed in a shielding cavity, the shielding cavity comprises a shielding cover covering a fixed dielectric plate and a metal coating printed on one surface of the fixed dielectric plate, and the shielding cover and the metal coating are electrically connected through a metalized via hole on the fixed dielectric plate.

10. The phase shifting apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: the phase shifting device is provided with a transmission device, the transmission device comprises the pivot shaft and a transmission mechanism, and the transmission mechanism receives external transmission torque to control the pivot shaft to drive the movable medium plate to implement pivot motion so as to control a plurality of phase shifters to synchronously shift the phase.

11. An antenna comprising a power splitting network for feeding a plurality of radiating elements of a same array in parallel, characterized in that: the power distribution network comprises at least one phase shifting device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, the phase shifting device is installed on the radiation surface of the antenna, at least two phase shifters in the phase shifting device are used for correspondingly controlling the phase shifting of signals of two polarizations of the array, and the phase-shifted output is transmitted to at least one radiation unit.

12. A base station, characterized by: comprising an antenna according to claim 11.