CN116169488A

CN116169488A - Antenna assembly and communication equipment

Info

Publication number: CN116169488A
Application number: CN202310111564.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陆秀颖; 谢星华
Original assignee: Anhui Tatfook Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Anhui Tatfook Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-01
Filing date: 2023-02-01
Publication date: 2023-05-26

Abstract

The application relates to the field of communication technology, and provides an antenna assembly and communication equipment, the antenna assembly includes metal reflector, antenna structure and insulating medium spare, and antenna structure sets up on metal reflector, and antenna structure includes antenna element, and insulating medium spare is located between antenna element and the metal reflector, and dielectric constant of insulating medium spare is greater than the dielectric constant of air. The antenna assembly that this application provided, owing to the setting of insulating medium spare, can reduce the height of back of the body chamber structure or get rid of back of the body chamber structure, and then reduce antenna assembly's overall thickness.

Description

Antenna assembly and communication equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to an antenna assembly and a communications device.

Background

The antenna assembly is a functional assembly for transmitting or receiving electromagnetic waves, and can be applied to communication equipment such as a base station. The antenna assembly generally includes a reflecting plate and an antenna insulatively disposed on the reflecting plate, and in order to increase the bandwidth, it is generally necessary to provide a back cavity structure on the reflecting plate at a location corresponding to an element of the antenna. However, the arrangement of the back cavity structure increases the overall thickness of the antenna assembly, and affects the light and thin design of the antenna assembly.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides an antenna assembly and communication equipment, which can improve the technical problem that the overall thickness of the antenna assembly is large to influence the light and thin design of the antenna assembly.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an antenna assembly, the antenna assembly comprising:

a metal reflecting member;

the antenna structure is arranged on the metal reflecting piece and comprises an antenna oscillator; and

and the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric piece is larger than that of air.

The technical scheme in the embodiment of the application has at least the following technical effects or advantages:

according to the antenna assembly provided by the embodiment of the application, the insulating medium piece is arranged between the antenna element and the metal reflecting piece of the antenna structure, electromagnetic waves pass through the insulating medium piece when propagating between the metal reflecting piece and the antenna element, and the dielectric constant of the insulating medium piece is larger than that of air, so that the propagation size of the electromagnetic waves can be reduced; thus, the height of the back cavity structure may be reduced or the back cavity structure removed, with otherwise identical conditions; that is, under the condition of realizing the same bandwidth, the overall thickness of the antenna assembly adopting the insulating medium piece in the embodiment of the application is smaller than that of the antenna assembly adopting only the back cavity structure in the related art, which is beneficial to realizing the light and thin design of the antenna assembly.

In some embodiments, a portion of the metal reflector facing the antenna element is a first portion, the first portion not having a back cavity structure; the insulating medium piece is located between the antenna element and the first part.

In some embodiments, the insulating medium member is laid on the surface of the first portion; and/or the antenna element is laid on the surface of one side of the insulating medium piece, which is away from the first part.

In some embodiments, the antenna structure further includes a feed network connected to the antenna element, and a portion of the metal reflecting member facing the feed network is a second portion; the surface of the first portion is flush with the surface of the second portion.

In some embodiments, the antenna assembly further comprises a first insulating pad located between the metallic reflector and the antenna structure; the antenna structure further comprises a feed network connected to the antenna element, and the feed network is supported on the first insulating pad; the antenna element is supported on the insulating dielectric member.

In some embodiments, a portion of the first insulating pad facing the antenna element is provided with a receiving space, and the insulating medium member is disposed in the receiving space.

In some embodiments, a surface of a side of the insulating dielectric member facing away from the metal reflector is flush with a surface of a side of the first insulating pad facing away from the metal reflector.

In some embodiments, the antenna assembly further comprises a positioning structure disposed on the metallic reflector; the insulating medium piece is provided with a first positioning hole, and the positioning structure is inserted into the first positioning hole.

In some embodiments, a second positioning hole is formed in the antenna element, and the position of the second positioning hole corresponds to the position of the first positioning hole; the positioning structure penetrates through the first positioning hole and is inserted into the second positioning hole.

In some embodiments, the antenna assembly further comprises:

the metal cover plate piece is buckled with the metal reflecting piece to form a cavity between the metal cover plate piece and the metal reflecting piece; the antenna structure and the insulating dielectric member are located in the cavity; and

a second insulating pad located between the antenna structure and the metal cover plate; the second insulating pad is provided with a third positioning hole, the position of the third positioning hole corresponds to that of the first positioning hole, and the positioning structure penetrates through the first positioning hole and the second positioning hole and is inserted into the third positioning hole.

In some embodiments, the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric member is less than 5.

In some embodiments, the antenna assembly further comprises a filter comprising a housing having a resonant cavity therein, the housing being disposed on a side of the metallic reflector facing away from the antenna structure; the first part of the shell is connected to the metal reflecting piece and is of an integral structure with the metal reflecting piece.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, including an antenna assembly according to any one of the embodiments described above.

It will be appreciated that the advantages of the second aspect may be found in the relevant description of the first aspect, and will not be described in detail herein.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following description will briefly explain the embodiments or the drawings needed in the related art, and it is obvious that the following description is only a few embodiments of the present application, and other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an antenna assembly in the related art;

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an antenna assembly according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the structure of FIG. 2 in the direction A-A;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of FIG. 3B;

fig. 5 is an exploded view of the antenna assembly of fig. 2;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of the antenna assembly of fig. 2 with the antenna structure, second insulating pad, metal cover plate member, insulating support and guide plate removed;

fig. 7 is a schematic view of the antenna assembly of fig. 2 with the second insulating pad, metal cover plate member, insulating support and guide piece removed;

fig. 8 is a schematic view of the antenna assembly of fig. 2 with the metal cover plate member, insulating support member and guide tab removed;

fig. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an antenna assembly according to other embodiments of the present application.

Wherein, each reference sign in the figure:

01. a reflection plate; 02. an antenna; 021. a vibrator; 011. a back cavity structure;

100. an antenna assembly; 10. a metal reflecting member; 20. an antenna structure; 21. an antenna element; 30. an insulating dielectric member; 11. a first portion; 22. a feed network; 12. a second portion; 40. a first insulating pad; 401. an accommodation space; 50. a positioning structure; 301. a first positioning hole; 201. a second positioning hole; 60. a metal cover plate member; 70. a second insulating pad; 701. a third positioning hole; 51. a boss; 52. an insulating part; 81. an insulating support; 811. a first connection portion; 812. a second connecting portion; 82. guiding the sheet; 90. a filter; 91. a housing; 910. a resonant cavity; 911. a first component.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions throughout. The embodiments described below by referring to the drawings are exemplary and intended for the purpose of explaining the present application and are not to be construed as limiting the present application.

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 application belongs; the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. The terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof in the description and claims of the present application and in the description of the figures above are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the terms "inner", "outer", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc. indicate an orientation or a positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, and are merely for convenience of description and simplification of the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus or element in question must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like, are used merely to distinguish between descriptions and should not be construed to indicate or imply relative importance or implying an order of magnitude of the technical features indicated. For example, the first portion and the second portion are merely for distinguishing between different portions, and are not limited in order and number, and the first portion may be named as the second portion, and the second portion may be named as the first portion, without departing from the scope of the various described embodiments. And the terms "first," "second," and the like, do not necessarily denote different characteristics.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "connected," "connected," and the like are to be construed broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally formed; can be mechanically or electrically connected; can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communicated with the inside of two elements or the interaction relationship of the two elements. The specific meaning of the terms in this application will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art as the case may be. The meaning of "plurality" is at least two, i.e., two and more than two; the term "plurality" means at least two, i.e., two and more.

In the present application, "and/or" is merely one association relationship describing the association object, meaning that three relationships may exist; for example, a and/or B may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

It is noted that in this application, words such as "in some embodiments," "illustratively," "for example," and the like are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described herein as "in some embodiments," "illustratively," "for example," should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "in some embodiments," "illustratively," "for example," and the like is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion, meaning that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those of skill in the art will explicitly and implicitly appreciate that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

The antenna assembly is a functional assembly for transmitting or receiving electromagnetic waves, and can be applied to communication equipment such as a base station. Referring to fig. 1, the antenna assembly generally includes a reflecting plate 01 and an antenna 02 insulated from the reflecting plate 01, and in order to increase the bandwidth of the antenna assembly, a back cavity structure 011 (i.e. an air back cavity) is generally disposed on the reflecting plate 01 at a position corresponding to a vibrator 021 of the antenna 02, so that an empty space is formed between the vibrator 021 and the back cavity structure 011, i.e. air is used as a medium between the vibrator 021 and the reflecting plate 01.

However, in order to provide the back cavity structure 011 on the reflecting plate 01, it is necessary to make the portion of the reflecting plate 01 corresponding to the oscillator 021 protrude or bulge away from the oscillator 021 to form a concave cavity on the side facing the oscillator 021, or to thicken the portion of the reflecting plate 01 corresponding to the oscillator 021 and provide the cavity on the portion, which results in a larger overall thickness of the antenna assembly and affects the light and thin design of the antenna assembly. Particularly, when the antenna assembly is applied to a Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Massive Multiple-antenna transmission and Multiple-antenna reception) technology, in order to realize high-capacity communication, the number of the adopted antennas may be changed from original traditional 2 antennas, 4 antennas or 8 antennas to 64 antennas, 128 antennas or 256 antennas, so that the overall size is not excessively large, and even miniaturization is required to be realized in consideration of actual installation, and the size of the antenna assembly plays a critical role in the overall size of the communication equipment such as a base station and the like as an important part of the communication equipment.

Based on this, the inventors have proposed the following solutions to solve the technical problem that the overall thickness of the antenna assembly is large, which affects the design of the antenna assembly that is light and thin.

Referring to fig. 2 to 5, an antenna assembly 100 is provided, the antenna assembly 100 includes a metal reflector 10, an antenna structure 20 and an insulating medium 30, wherein:

the metal reflector 10 is a structure capable of reflecting electromagnetic wave signals, so as to facilitate reflection and aggregation of electromagnetic wave signals toward the front (the side where the antenna structure 20 is located), enhance the signal receiving and transmitting efficiency and sensitivity of the antenna structure 20, and block and shield electromagnetic wave signals from the rear (the side facing away from the antenna structure 20) to avoid interference with the antenna structure 20. It will be appreciated that at least the outer surface of the metallic reflector 10 is provided with a metallic material to facilitate reflection of electromagnetic waves; that is, the metal reflector 10 may be entirely made of a metal material, or may be formed by providing a metal layer on the surface of a base made of a non-metal material. The metal reflector 10 may be a structure of various shapes, for example, a plate-like structure, a sheet-like structure, a cover structure, a shell-like structure, etc., which are regular or irregular in shape, but is not limited thereto.

The antenna structure 20 is disposed on the metal reflector 10, and the antenna structure 20 includes an antenna element 21. It will be appreciated that the antenna structure 20 is a structural member having a basic antenna function, and may transmit and/or receive signals, also referred to as an antenna element, typically having an antenna element 21 and a feed line. The antenna structure 20 may be a metal strip (for example, but not limited to, a metal strip formed by cutting a metal sheet), an antenna structure in which a feeding line is formed by etching or printing on a substrate, or an antenna structure in which a desired feeding line is plated on a substrate; the antenna structure 20 is exemplarily shown in fig. 5 as a metal strip line.

The insulating dielectric member 30 is located between the antenna element 21 and the metal reflecting member 10, and the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric member 30 is greater than that of air. It will be appreciated that the insulating dielectric member 30 is a structural member made of an insulating material, and may be made of various dielectric materials having a dielectric constant greater than that of air, for example, but not limited to, PEI (Polyetherimide) material, quartz material, ceramic material, etc. The insulating medium member 30 may be a structure of various shapes, for example, a plate-like structure, a sheet-like structure, a block-like structure, etc., which are regular or irregular in shape, but is not limited thereto. In some cases, the dielectric constant epsilon of air is approximately 1.000583.

As can be seen from the above, in the antenna assembly 100 provided by the embodiment of the present application, since the insulating medium member 30 is disposed between the antenna element 21 of the antenna structure 20 and the metal reflecting member 10, the electromagnetic wave passes through the insulating medium member 30 when propagating between the metal reflecting member 10 and the antenna element 21, and since the dielectric constant of the insulating medium member 30 is greater than that of air, the electrical length of the electromagnetic wave is reduced when propagating in the insulating medium member 30, so that the propagation size or propagation distance of the electromagnetic wave can be reduced; therefore, under the condition that other conditions are the same, the height of the back cavity structure can be reduced or the back cavity structure can be removed, namely, the insulating medium piece 30 with smaller thickness size can be used for partially or completely replacing the back cavity structure; that is, in the case of realizing the same bandwidth, the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 using the insulating dielectric member 30 in the embodiment of the present application is smaller than that of the antenna assembly using only the back cavity structure in the related art, so that the effect of low profile can be realized, and the design of thinning the antenna assembly can be facilitated.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 3 to 5, the portion of the metal reflecting member 10 facing the antenna element 21 is a first portion 11, i.e. a portion opposite to the antenna element 21, i.e. a portion of the antenna element 21 within a range covered by an orthographic projection of the metal reflecting member 10. The first portion 11 does not have a back cavity structure, i.e., the first portion 11 does not have a cavity structure or a groove structure, but a protrusion structure may be provided on the first portion 11. The insulating dielectric member 30 is located between the antenna element 21 and the first portion 11.

With this arrangement, the back cavity structure in the related art is removed from the metal reflector 10, so that the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 can be effectively reduced, and the antenna assembly can be more easily thinned. And because the back cavity structure is not required to be arranged, namely one side of the metal reflecting piece 10, which is away from the antenna structure 20, is not required to protrude outwards away from the antenna oscillator 21, the one side of the metal reflecting piece 10, which is away from the antenna structure 20, and at least part of the shell of the filter are manufactured into an integrated structure.

Of course, in other embodiments, the first portion 11 may also be provided with a back cavity structure, i.e. a cavity structure or a groove structure, but the total thickness of the back cavity structure and the insulating medium member 30 is smaller than the thickness of the back cavity structure alone, while achieving the same bandwidth.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, referring to fig. 3 to 5, the insulating medium member 30 is laid on the surface of the first portion 11, that is, the surface of the insulating medium member 30 facing the side of the first portion 11 contacts the surface of the first portion 11; the antenna element 21 is laid on a surface of the insulating medium member 30 facing away from the first portion 11, that is, a surface of the antenna element 21 facing the insulating medium member 30 contacts a surface of the insulating medium member 30 facing away from the first portion 11.

By the arrangement, the distance between the insulating medium piece 30 and the first portion 11 and the distance between the antenna element 21 and the insulating medium piece 30 can be reduced, so that the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 can be further reduced, and the antenna assembly 100 can be more light and thin.

Of course, in other embodiments, only the insulating dielectric member 30 may be laid on the surface of the first portion 11, and a gap is formed between the antenna element 21 and the surface of the insulating dielectric member 30 facing away from the first portion 11. Alternatively, only the antenna element 21 is laid on the surface of the insulating medium member 30 facing away from the first portion 11, and a gap is formed between the insulating medium member 30 and the surface of the first portion 11. Alternatively, a gap is formed between the insulating medium 30 and the surface of the first portion 11, and a gap is also formed between the antenna element 21 and the surface of the insulating medium 30 on the side facing away from the first portion 11.

Optionally, in some embodiments, referring to fig. 5, the antenna structure 20 further includes a feeding network 22 connected to the antenna element 21, and a portion of the metal reflecting member 10 facing the feeding network 22 is the second portion 12, i.e. a portion opposite to the feeding network 22, i.e. a portion of the feeding network 22 covered by the orthographic projection of the metal reflecting member 10. The surface of the first portion 11 is flush with the surface of the second portion 12, i.e. the surface of the first portion 11 is arranged substantially coplanar with the surface of the second portion 12.

It will be appreciated that the feed network 22, i.e. the structure comprising the feed lines, may deliver signals to the antenna element 21 or receive signals from the antenna element 21. The feed network 22 may be of various regular or irregular configurations, and may be specifically configured according to actual needs.

So set up, because the surface of first position 11 flushes with the surface of second position 12, need not to set up groove structure or set up the ladder structure between first position 11 and second position 12, not only do benefit to the thickness that reduces metal reflector 10 in order to further reduce antenna assembly 100's whole thickness, do benefit to the structure of simplifying metal reflector 10 moreover, reduce the processing degree of difficulty.

Of course, in other embodiments, the surface of the first portion 11 and the surface of the second portion 12 may not be flush, i.e., there is a height difference therebetween.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 5 to 7, the front projection of the antenna element 21 on the metal reflecting member 10 is within the range covered by the front projection of the insulating medium member 30 on the metal reflecting member 10, that is, the front projection area of the antenna element 21 on the metal reflecting member 10 is smaller than or equal to the front projection area of the insulating medium member 30 on the metal reflecting member 10.

The arrangement is such that the insulating medium member 30 has a sufficient size so that electromagnetic waves can pass through the insulating medium member 30 when propagating between the metal reflecting member 10 and the antenna element 21, thereby facilitating the improvement of the bandwidth.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 5 to 7, the antenna assembly 100 further includes a first insulating pad 40, and the first insulating pad 40 is located between the metal reflector 10 and the antenna structure 20. The antenna structure 20 further comprises a feeding network 22 connected to the antenna element 21, the feeding network 22 is supported on the first insulating pad 40, and a gap may or may not be provided between the feeding network 22 and the first insulating pad 40. The antenna element 21 is supported on the insulating dielectric member 30 with or without a gap between the antenna element 21 and the insulating dielectric member 30.

It will be appreciated that the first insulating pad 40, i.e., a pad structure formed of an insulating material, is generally plate-like or sheet-like in shape and serves to insulate and separate the antenna structure 20 from the metallic reflector 10. The first insulating pad 40 may be made of various insulating materials, for example, PMI (polymethylacryl imide) material having low dielectric constant (epsilon=1.07), low loss, and high temperature resistance, which may reduce the loss of the feed network 22, but is not limited to this material. The number of the first insulating pads 40 may be the same as the number of the antenna structures 20, and the first insulating pads 40 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the antenna structures 20; the plurality of antenna structures 20 may share the same first insulating pad 40, or a plurality of first insulating pads 40 may be disposed between one antenna structure 20 and the metal reflector 10.

In this way, since the antenna element 21 is supported on the insulating medium member 30 and the feed network 22 is supported on the first insulating pad 40, that is, the antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 are respectively supported on different components, compared with the case that the antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 are both supported on the insulating medium member 30, the first insulating pad 40 can be made of a material with low dielectric constant and low loss, so that the loss of the feed network 22 can be reduced, and the performance such as gain can be improved. And because the first insulating pad 40 is a pad structure, compared with a protruding structure that is discretely arranged, the stability of supporting the feed network 22 is improved, and the method is particularly suitable for the case when the antenna structure 20 is a metal strip (when the antenna structure 20 is a metal strip, the structural strength of the feed network 22 is relatively low and deformation is easy to occur).

Optionally, in some embodiments, referring to fig. 5 and 6, a receiving space 401 is formed at a portion of the first insulating pad 40 facing the antenna element 21, and the insulating medium member 30 is disposed in the receiving space 401.

It is understood that the accommodating space 401 may be an inner space of a through hole or a through slot formed on the first insulating pad 40, or may be an inner space of a blind hole or a blind slot formed on the first insulating pad 40.

Because the insulating medium piece 30 is arranged in the accommodating space 401 formed on the first insulating pad 40, on one hand, the first insulating pad 40 can avoid the insulating medium piece 30, and the thickness formed by overlapping the first insulating pad 40 and the insulating medium piece 30 can be reduced, so that the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 is reduced; on the other hand, the inner wall of the accommodating space 401 can limit the insulating medium member 30, so as to facilitate improving the stability and reliability of the position of the insulating medium member 30.

Alternatively, referring to fig. 6 and 7, a surface of a side of the insulating dielectric member 30 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10 is flush with a surface of a side of the first insulating pad 40 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10, i.e., a surface of a side of the insulating dielectric member 30 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10 is disposed substantially coplanar with a surface of a side of the first insulating pad 40 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10.

The antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 can be supported on the same plane formed by the surface of the insulating medium member 30 and the surface of the first insulating pad 40, the antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 can be located on the same plane, and the antenna structure 20 can be a substantially flat sheet structure, so that the processing and the forming are facilitated; and the antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 can be supported, which is beneficial to improving the stability of the antenna structure 20.

Of course, in other embodiments, the surface of the insulating medium member 30 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10 and the surface of the first insulating pad 40 facing away from the metal reflecting member 10 may not be flush, i.e., have a height difference. In this case, the antenna element 21 and the feeding network 22 may have a height difference, so that the antenna element 21 and the feeding network 22 can be supported by adapting to the height of the insulating medium 30 and the height of the first insulating pad 40, respectively.

Alternatively, referring to fig. 5 and 6, the accommodating space 401 penetrates opposite sides of the first insulating pad 40, and the thickness of the insulating medium member 30 is substantially the same as that of the first insulating pad 40.

The arrangement is that the first insulating pad 40 is provided with the through hole or the through groove to form the accommodating space 401, and the through hole or the through groove is more convenient to process than the blind hole or the blind groove when the thickness of the first insulating pad 40 is smaller, so that the processing difficulty can be reduced; compared with the first insulating pad 40 with a blind hole or a blind slot to form the accommodating space 401, the thickness of the insulating medium member 30 needs to be smaller than the thickness of the first insulating pad 40, and the thickness of the insulating medium member 30 can be made to be approximately the same as the thickness of the first insulating pad 40, which is more convenient for processing and manufacturing the insulating medium member 30, and can reduce the manufacturing difficulty and cost.

Of course, in other embodiments, the accommodating space 401 may be formed by forming a blind hole or a blind slot in the first insulating pad 40, and it is also possible to implement that the surface of the insulating medium member 30 on the side facing away from the metal reflecting member 10 is flush with the surface of the first insulating pad 40 on the side facing away from the metal reflecting member 10.

It should be noted that the accommodating space 401 is not necessary. In other embodiments, the first insulating pad 40 may be located on one side of the insulating medium member 30, where the two do not interfere with each other, and the accommodating space 401 may not need to be formed on the first insulating pad 40.

It should be noted that the first insulating pad 40 is not essential. In other embodiments, the antenna element 21 is supported on the insulating dielectric member 30, and a gap may be formed between the feeding network 22 and the metal reflecting member 10 by the insulating dielectric member 30 to support the antenna element 21, and the feeding network 22 may be supported on the insulating dielectric member 30 by the antenna element 21. In other embodiments, both the antenna element 21 and the feed network 22 may be supported on an insulating dielectric member 30; in this case, to reduce the loss, a portion of the feeding network 22 may be supported on the insulating dielectric member 30, and another portion may be suspended (i.e. form a gap with the metal reflecting member 10). In other embodiments, a discretely disposed raised structure may be employed to support the feed network 22.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 4 to 6, the antenna assembly 100 further includes a positioning structure 50, and the positioning structure 50 is disposed on the metal reflector 10. The insulating medium member 30 is provided with a first positioning hole 301, and the positioning structure 50 is inserted into the first positioning hole 301.

It is understood that the positioning structure 50, i.e., the structure protruding from the metal reflector 10, may be a structure with various shapes, such as a columnar structure, a block structure, etc. with regular or irregular shapes, but is not limited thereto. The first positioning hole 301 may be a through hole or a blind hole.

By means of the arrangement, the insulating medium piece 30 can be positioned by inserting the positioning structure 50 into the first positioning hole 301, positioning accuracy and consistency of relative positions between the insulating medium piece 30 and the metal reflecting piece 10 can be improved, and assembly of the insulating medium piece 30 is facilitated.

Optionally, in some embodiments, referring to fig. 4, 5 and 7, the antenna element 21 is provided with a second positioning hole 201, where the position of the second positioning hole 201 corresponds to the position of the first positioning hole 301, that is, the orthographic projections of the first positioning hole 301 and the second positioning hole 201 on the metal reflecting member 10 partially or completely coincide. The positioning structure 50 is inserted into the first positioning hole 301 and the second positioning hole 201, and at this time, the first positioning hole 301 is a through hole, and the second positioning hole 201 may be a through hole or a blind hole.

The positioning structure 50 is inserted into the second positioning hole 201, so that the antenna element 21 can be positioned, the positioning accuracy and the consistency of the relative positions between the antenna element 21 and the insulating medium piece 30 are improved, and the antenna element 21 is convenient to assemble; and the insulating medium piece 30 and the antenna element 21 are positioned simultaneously through the same positioning structure 50, and the structure can be simplified without additionally arranging a positioning structure.

Alternatively, referring to fig. 4, 5 and 7, the positioning structure 50 includes a protruding portion 51 and an insulating portion 52, the protruding portion 51 is fixed on the metal reflecting member 10, a mounting hole is formed in the insulating portion 52, and the insulating portion 52 is sleeved outside the protruding portion 51 through the mounting hole.

It is understood that the protruding portion 51, i.e., the protruding structure protruding from the metal reflector 10, may have various regular or irregular structures, such as a columnar structure, a block structure, etc., but is not limited thereto. The protruding part 51 and the metal reflecting member 10 may be an integrally formed one-piece structure; of course, the protruding portion 51 may be formed separately from the metal reflector 10 and fixed to the metal reflector 10, and for example, the protruding portion 51 may be fixed to the metal reflector 10 by welding, screwing, riveting, or the like, but the fixing method is not limited thereto. The boss 51 may be made of a metallic material or a nonmetallic material. The insulating portion 52 is a structural member made of an insulating material, and may be a sleeve-like structure, a tubular structure, a hood-like structure, or the like, but is not limited thereto.

When the positioning structure 50 is inserted into the second positioning hole 201, the insulation portion 52 can insulate the protruding portion 51 from the antenna element 21, so as to prevent the protruding portion and the antenna element from shorting, and improve stability and reliability of the antenna structure 20.

Of course, the structure of the positioning structure 50 is not limited to include the boss 51 and the insulating portion 52. In other embodiments, the positioning structure 50 may be a structure made of an insulating material and assembled on the metal reflector 10, that is, the positioning structure 50 is made of an insulating material as a whole.

It should be noted that, in other embodiments, the antenna element 21 may not be provided with the second positioning hole 201, for example, may be directly laid on the insulating medium member 30, or may be positioned in other manners (for example, the antenna element 21 may be adhered to the insulating medium member 30, or may be positioned by positioning the feed network 22, for example).

Optionally, referring to fig. 2, 3 and 5, the antenna assembly 100 further includes a metal cover member 60, where the metal cover member 60 is buckled with the metal reflector 10 to form a cavity between the metal cover member 60 and the metal reflector 10; the antenna structure 20 and the insulating dielectric member 30 are located in the cavity.

It will be appreciated that the metal cover plate member 60 is a metal structure for cooperating with the metal reflector 10 to enable a cavity to be formed therebetween. The metal reflecting member 10 may be provided with a groove, and the metal cover member 60 covers the opening of the groove to form a cavity. Of course, the metal cover plate 60 may be provided with a groove, and the metal cover plate may be fastened to the metal reflector 10 to form a cavity, where the metal reflector 10 may or may not be provided with a groove. The metal cover plate 60 and the metal reflecting member 10 can be fixed by various manners, for example, laser penetration welding can be adopted, which is not only beneficial to improving the firmness of welding spots, but also can reduce the possibility of deformation of the metal cover plate 60 and the metal reflecting member 10 at the welding positions.

By means of the arrangement, after the metal cover plate 60 and the metal reflecting piece 10 are buckled to form a cavity, the antenna structure 20 and the insulating medium piece 30 can be protected, and a shielding effect can be achieved.

Optionally, referring to fig. 4, 5 and 8, the antenna assembly 100 further includes a second insulating pad 70, and the second insulating pad 70 is located between the antenna structure 20 and the metal cover member 60. The second insulating pad 70 is provided with a third positioning hole 701, and the position of the third positioning hole 701 corresponds to the position of the first positioning hole 301, that is, the orthographic projection parts or all of the first positioning hole 301 and the third positioning hole 701 on the metal reflecting member 10 are overlapped. The positioning structure 50 is inserted into the first positioning hole 301 and the second positioning hole 201 and is inserted into the third positioning hole 701, at this time, the first positioning hole 301 and the second positioning hole 201 are through holes, and the third positioning hole 701 may be a through hole or a blind hole.

It will be appreciated that the second insulating pad 70, i.e., a pad structure formed of an insulating material, is generally plate-like or sheet-like in shape and serves to insulate and separate the antenna structure 20 from the metal cover plate member 60. The second insulating pad 70 may be made of various insulating materials, for example, PMI (polymethylacryl imide) material having low dielectric constant (epsilon=1.07), low loss, and high temperature resistance, which may reduce the loss of the feed network 22, but is not limited to this material. The number of the second insulating pads 70 may be the same as the number of the antenna structures 20, and the second insulating pads 70 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the antenna structures 20; the plurality of antenna structures 20 may share the same second insulating pad 70, or a plurality of second insulating pads 70 may be disposed between one antenna structure 20 and the metal cover member 60.

Thus, the second insulating pad 70 can prevent the antenna structure 20 from being connected with the metal cover plate 60 in a short circuit manner, and can improve the working stability of the antenna structure 20. The positioning structure 50 is inserted into the third positioning hole 701, so that the second insulating pad 70 can be positioned, the positioning accuracy and the consistency of the relative positions between the second insulating pad 70 and the antenna structure 20 can be improved, and the second insulating pad 70 can be assembled conveniently; and the insulating medium piece 30, the antenna element 21 and the second insulating pad 70 are positioned simultaneously through the same positioning structure 50, and the structure can be simplified without additionally arranging a positioning structure.

Optionally, referring to fig. 2 to 5, openings are formed in the metal cover member 60 at positions corresponding to the antenna elements 21. The antenna assembly 100 further comprises an insulating support 81 and a guide tab 82; the insulating support 81 is a structural member made of insulating material; the guide piece 82 is made of a metal material to improve the radiation bandwidth of the antenna element 21. The insulating support 81 is located at the opening on the metal cover plate 60, and the insulating support 81 has a first connecting portion 811 and a second connecting portion 812, wherein the first connecting portion 811 is connected to the metal cover plate 60 or the metal reflector 10, and the second connecting portion 812 extends outwards away from the metal cover plate 60. The guide piece 82 is connected to the second connection portion 812, and the guide piece 82 is coupled to the antenna element 21; the guide piece 82 is spaced apart from the antenna element 21 by an insulating support 81 to facilitate coupling with the antenna element 21.

By the arrangement, the antenna element 21 and the guide piece 82 adopt a coupling feed mode, the antenna element 21 can be assembled without welding, assembly can be simplified, and assembly efficiency of the antenna structure 20 and phase consistency among different ports can be improved. At the same time, the metal cover plate 60 is provided between the guiding plate 82 and the feeding network 22 for isolation, so that crosstalk between the guiding plate 82 and the feeding network 22 is reduced, and loss caused by mutual coupling is reduced.

It will be appreciated that the number of the antenna elements 21, the number of the insulating supports 81 and the number of the guiding strips 82 may be one or more, and the antenna elements 21, the insulating supports 81 and the guiding strips 82 are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence, i.e. one antenna element 21 corresponds to one insulating support 81 and one guiding strip 82.

Alternatively, the metal cover plate 60 may be provided with a snap-fit structure, and the first connecting portion 811 is provided with a snap-fit structure; one of the clamping structure and the clamping matching structure can be a clamping groove structure, and the other clamping structure is a clamping hook structure; through the block cooperation structure and block structure looks block, can realize the connection between insulating support 81 and the metal cover plate piece 60 and fix, it is convenient to connect, can improve assembly efficiency.

In some embodiments, the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric member 30 is less than 5, and may be, for example, but not limited to, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3, 3.2, 3.5, 3.7, 4, 4.5, 4.9, etc.

By such arrangement, since the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric member 30 is less than 5, the antenna assembly 100 can have a wider bandwidth and can be manufactured easily while the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 can be reduced by partially or completely replacing the back cavity structure. When the dielectric constant of the insulating dielectric member 30 is greater than 5, the bandwidth of the antenna assembly 100 is narrower, so that the required performance requirement is difficult to achieve, and the insulating dielectric member 30 may need to be smaller in size to meet the requirement, which increases the difficulty of production and manufacture.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the dielectric constant of the insulating medium member 30 may have a value ranging from 2 to 4, for example, but not limited to, 2, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.7, 2.9, 3.1, 3.15, 3.3, 3.6, 3.9, 4, etc.

Thus, a more optimized dielectric constant range is provided, since the dielectric medium member 30 has a dielectric constant greater than or equal to 2, so as to be advantageously set to a more suitable size, so as to partially replace or completely replace the back cavity structure to reduce the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100, and the dielectric medium member 30 has a dielectric constant less than or equal to 4, so as to facilitate the antenna assembly 100 having a wider bandwidth. When the dielectric constant of the insulating medium member 30 is smaller than 2, the insulating medium member 30 needs to be set with a larger size or thickness due to the dielectric constant close to that of air, so that the effect of reducing the overall thickness of the antenna assembly 100 is not obvious enough; and when the dielectric constant of the insulating medium member 30 is greater than 4, the improvement of the bandwidth of the antenna assembly 100 is not significant.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 5 to 7, the number of the antenna elements 21 is plural, the number of the insulating dielectric members 30 is plural, and the insulating dielectric members 30 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the antenna elements 21.

So set up, there is an insulating medium spare 30 between every antenna element 21 and the metal reflector 10, adopts the scheme of a plurality of insulating medium spare 30 of dispersion setting promptly, compares in a plurality of antenna elements 21 sharing an insulating medium spare 30, can reduce the size of insulating medium spare 30 and the space that occupies, and then reduces the loss.

Of course, in other embodiments, the same insulating medium member 30 may be disposed between at least two antenna elements 21 and the metal reflecting member 10, that is, at least two antenna elements 21 share the same insulating medium member 30.

It will be appreciated that the number of antenna structures 20 may be one or more, and may be specifically set according to actual needs. The number of the antenna elements 21 of each antenna structure 20 may be one or more, and may be specifically set according to actual needs.

For example, referring to fig. 5 to 7, the number of the antenna structures 20 is four, each antenna structure 20 includes three antenna elements 21, and the feed network 22 of the antenna structure 20 is connected to the three antenna elements 21. Each antenna structure 20 has two feed ports to form an 8-port array antenna, although the number of antenna structures 20 may be increased to achieve a 32-port or 64-port array antenna, depending on practical requirements.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 5 and 7, the antenna structure 20 is a metal strip, i.e. an antenna structure made of a metal material, for example, may be formed by cutting or stamping a metal sheet, or may be directly made of a metal material by casting, but is not limited thereto.

In this way, compared with the antenna structure in which the feeding circuit is formed by etching or printing on the substrate, or the antenna structure in which the feeding circuit is required by electroplating on the substrate such as plastic, the antenna structure 20 of the metal strip wire is made of metal material without using the substrate, so that the manufacturing is simple, the cost is low, the loss caused by the arrangement of the substrate can be reduced, and the gain is improved.

Alternatively, aluminum foil with the thickness of 0.3mm can be adopted, and the metal belt wire is manufactured through wire cutting, laser cutting or stamping die machining, so that the manufacturing is convenient and the manufacturing cost is low.

Of course, in other embodiments, the antenna structure 20 may be a circuit board, that is, the antenna structure 20 with the feeding circuit formed on the substrate by etching, printing or plating may be a PCB board or an FPC board. In this case, the antenna element 21 includes a part of the substrate and a metal element formed on the part of the substrate. Illustratively, the antenna structure 20 may be a 0.2mm thick single sided copper clad circuit board, with a gain that may be lower than that of a solution employing metallic tape lines due to the introduction of the substrate.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 9, the antenna assembly 100 further includes a filter 90, where the filter 90 includes a housing 91 having a resonant cavity 910 disposed therein, and the housing 91 is disposed on a side of the metal reflector 10 facing away from the antenna structure 20. The first part 911 of the housing 91 is connected to the metal reflector 10 and is of a unitary structure with the metal reflector 10.

It will be appreciated that the housing 91 is a structure with a cavity formed therein, and may include a cavity and a cover plate, wherein the cavity is formed by covering an opening of the cavity with the cover plate, and may also include two cavities, wherein the cavity 910 is formed by fastening two openings of the two cavities, and may also include a cavity with two opposite ends open and two cover plates, and the cavity 910 is formed by covering two openings of the cavity with the two cover plates respectively. The filter is a cavity filter. The first component 911 may be a cavity or a cover plate, in fig. 9, which illustrates an exemplary case in which the first component 911 is a cavity.

With this arrangement, since the first component 911 of the housing 91 and the metal reflecting member 10 are integrally formed, it is not necessary to separately produce the first component 911 and connect the first component 911 with the metal reflecting member 10, the structure can be simplified, the assembly process can be reduced, and the metal reflecting member 10 can serve as an electromagnetic wave reflecting member of the antenna structure 20 and as a part of the housing 91 for forming the resonant cavity 910, thereby having a dual function, reducing the use of materials, further reducing the weight and volume, facilitating the weight and miniaturization of the antenna assembly 100, and improving the integration level of the antenna assembly 100.

In other embodiments, the filter 90 may also be a dielectric filter, such as a ceramic dielectric filter, where the filter 90 includes a dielectric body made of a dielectric material, and a conductive layer disposed on a surface of the dielectric body, where the conductive layer may cover a part or all of the surface of the dielectric body. Alternatively, the conductive layer may be connected to a side of the metal reflector 10 facing away from the antenna structure 20. In some cases, at least part of the conductive layer may be formed integrally with the metal reflector 10, which is also beneficial to simplifying the structure and improving the integration of the antenna assembly 100.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication device including the antenna assembly 100 of any of the embodiments described above. It will be appreciated that the communication device may be any of a variety of devices requiring communication using an antenna assembly, such as, but not limited to, a communication base station or the like.

Because the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application adopts the antenna assembly 100 of the foregoing embodiment, the same has the technical effects brought by the technical solution of the antenna assembly 100 of any one of the foregoing embodiments, which is not described herein again.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An antenna assembly, the antenna assembly comprising:

a metal reflecting member;

2. The antenna assembly of claim 1, wherein a portion of the metal reflector facing the antenna element is a first portion, the first portion not having a back cavity structure; the insulating medium piece is located between the antenna element and the first part.

3. The antenna assembly of claim 2, wherein the dielectric member is disposed on a surface of the first portion; and/or the antenna element is laid on the surface of one side of the insulating medium piece, which is away from the first part.

4. The antenna assembly of claim 2, wherein the antenna structure further comprises a feed network connected to the antenna element, a portion of the metal reflector facing the feed network being a second portion; the surface of the first portion is flush with the surface of the second portion.

5. The antenna assembly of any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a first insulating pad located between the metallic reflector and the antenna structure; the antenna structure further comprises a feed network connected to the antenna element, and the feed network is supported on the first insulating pad; the antenna element is supported on the insulating dielectric member.

6. The antenna assembly of claim 5, wherein a portion of the first insulating pad facing the antenna element defines a receiving space, and wherein the insulating medium member is disposed in the receiving space.

7. The antenna assembly of claim 6, wherein a surface of a side of the dielectric element facing away from the metallic reflector is flush with a surface of a side of the first dielectric pad facing away from the metallic reflector.

8. The antenna assembly of any one of claims 1 to 4, 6, 7, further comprising a positioning structure disposed on the metallic reflector; the insulating medium piece is provided with a first positioning hole, and the positioning structure is inserted into the first positioning hole.

9. The antenna assembly of claim 8, wherein a second positioning hole is formed in the antenna element, and a position of the second positioning hole corresponds to a position of the first positioning hole; the positioning structure penetrates through the first positioning hole and is inserted into the second positioning hole.

10. The antenna assembly of claim 9, wherein the antenna assembly further comprises:

11. The antenna assembly of any one of claims 1 to 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 wherein the dielectric element has a dielectric constant of less than 5.

12. The antenna assembly of any one of claims 1 to 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, further comprising a filter comprising a housing having a resonant cavity therein, the housing being disposed on a side of the metallic reflector facing away from the antenna structure; the first part of the shell is connected to the metal reflecting piece and is of an integral structure with the metal reflecting piece.

13. A communication device comprising an antenna assembly according to any of claims 1 to 12.