CN118040345A

CN118040345A - Antenna device

Info

Publication number: CN118040345A
Application number: CN202211368937.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王世华; 胡友建
Original assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Current assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-03
Filing date: 2022-11-03
Publication date: 2024-05-14

Abstract

The disclosure provides antenna equipment, which belongs to the technical field of communication. The antenna device comprises 2 ⁿ transceiving channels and 2 ⁿ antenna modules, wherein n is more than 2, and n is an integer; a transceiver channel communicatively coupled to an antenna module; each antenna module comprises a plurality of vibrators, the plurality of vibrators are divided into K subarrays, K is more than or equal to 2, and K is an integer; for one of the antenna modules, each subarray is in communication connection with a corresponding receiving and transmitting channel of the antenna module, and at least one subarray is in communication connection with the receiving and transmitting channel through a digital phase shifter.

Description

Antenna device

Technical Field

The disclosure belongs to the technical field of communication, and in particular relates to antenna equipment.

Background

China has entered the 5G mobile communication era, by the end of 2021, 8 months, china has accumulated to open more than 100 thousands of stations of 5G base stations, and covers cities above all levels of the country. With the large-scale deployment of 5G base station construction, the problems of high equipment cost, high power consumption and the like caused by 5G network construction and application are also more prominent, so that the 5G base station AAU (ACTIVE ANTENNA Unit) equipment also evolves from the original 64TR (Transmitter & Receiver) equipment to 32TR, that is, the number of radio frequency channels is reduced by half, and the basic architecture of a large-scale array antenna system adopted by the 64TR and 32TR AAU equipment of the 5G base station is shown in fig. 1 and 2. The 64TR AAU device in fig. 1 has 32 antenna modules, each of which is composed of 3 elements in a vertical plane, one antenna module corresponds to one radio frequency channel, while the 32TR AAU device in fig. 2 has 16 antenna modules, each of which is composed of six elements in a vertical plane, and also one antenna module corresponds to one radio frequency transceiving channel. By comparison, it can be found that the 64TR AAU device has 4 antenna modules in the vertical plane, and the 32TR AAU device has only 2 antenna modules in the vertical plane, and thus the scanning range of the 32TR AAU device in the vertical plane is greatly reduced compared with the 64TR AAU device. This not only affects the overall performance of the 32TR AAU device, but also limits the application scenarios of the operator networking.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art and to provide an antenna device.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides an antenna device, which comprises 2 ⁿ transceiving channels and 2 ⁿ antenna modules, n is more than 2, and n is an integer; a transceiver channel communicatively coupled to an antenna module; each antenna module comprises a plurality of vibrators, the plurality of vibrators are divided into K subarrays, K is more than or equal to 2, and K is an integer; wherein,

For one of the antenna modules, each of the subarrays is communicatively connected with a corresponding transceiver channel of the antenna module, and at least one of the subarrays is communicatively connected with the transceiver channel through a digital phase shifter.

Each subarray of any antenna module is in communication connection with the receiving and transmitting channel through the digital phase shifter, and the digital phase shifters connected with different subarrays are different.

Wherein, for any one of the antenna modules, at least one of the subarrays is communicatively connected with the transceiving channel through a plurality of the digital phase shifters.

Wherein k=2, and each of the subarrays in the antenna module is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel through the digital phase shifter corresponding to each.

Wherein k=2, and one of the sub-arrays in the antenna module is in communication connection with the transceiving channel through two serially connected digital phase shifters, and the other sub-array is in direct communication connection with the transceiving channel.

Wherein k=2, and one of the sub-arrays in the antenna module is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel through the digital phase shifter, and the other sub-array is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel through a fixed delay line.

Wherein k=2, the plurality of subarrays in the antenna unit are divided into a plurality of groups arranged side by side along the vertical direction, and the plurality of subarrays in each group are arranged side by side along the horizontal direction; the subarrays in the 1 st group and the last 1 st group are in communication connection with the corresponding receiving and transmitting channels through the digital phase shifters.

The digital phase shifter comprises a first microwave radio frequency switch, a second microwave radio frequency switch and a plurality of phase delay lines; the first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave switch are provided with a first port and a plurality of second ports;

The first port of the first microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the receiving and transmitting channel, the second port of the first microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the first port of the second microwave radio frequency switch through phase delay lines corresponding to the second port of the first microwave radio frequency switch, and the second port of the second microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the subarray through phase delay lines corresponding to the second port of the second microwave radio frequency switch.

The first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave radio frequency switch comprise any one of an RF switch chip, a solid state radio frequency switch and a micro-electromechanical radio frequency switch.

Wherein n is 3 or 4.

Wherein the number of the vibrators in each subarray is the same.

Wherein the antenna further comprises: a base band; any receiving and transmitting channel comprises a radio frequency module and a digital intermediate frequency module, wherein the digital intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the baseband, and the intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the antenna module through the radio frequency module.

Each subarray comprises a feed network, the feed network comprises a first feed port and a plurality of second feed ports, the first feed ports are in communication connection with the receiving and transmitting channels, and the second feed ports are in one-to-one correspondence connection with the vibrators in the subarray.

Each vibrator comprises a phase adjusting component and a radiation component, one end of the phase adjusting component is electrically connected with one second feed port, and the other end of the phase adjusting component is electrically connected with the radiation component.

Wherein, the phase adjustment component is a liquid crystal phase shifter.

The radiation component comprises any one of a radiation patch, a dipole and a waveguide structure.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a64 TR AAU device in the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 32TR AAU device in the prior art.

Fig. 3 is a schematic architecture diagram of a 32TR AAU device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 4 is a vertical plane radiation pattern when the beam is tilted up-7 deg. for a 32TR AAU device of an embodiment of the present disclosure and a 64TR AAU device of the prior art.

Fig. 5 is a vertical plane radiation pattern when the beam is tilted down 19 ° for a 32TR AAU device of an embodiment of the present disclosure and a 64TR AAU device of the prior art.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a first digital phase shifter in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a second digital phase shifter in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a vertical pattern of 2 ° downtilt of the beam when the first digital phase shifter of fig. 3 is used as the first digital phase shifter of fig. 6 and the second digital phase shifter of fig. 7 is used as the second digital phase shifter.

Fig. 9 is a vertical pattern of 12 ° downtilt of the beam when the first digital phase shifter of fig. 6 is used as the first digital phase shifter and the second digital phase shifter of fig. 7 is used as the first digital phase shifter in the 32TR AAU device of fig. 3.

Fig. 10 is a vertical pattern of-5 ° beam tilt when the 32TR AAU device of fig. 3 employs the first digital phase shifter and second digital phase shifter combination of table 4.

Fig. 11 is a vertical pattern of 16 ° downtilt of the beam when the 32TR AAU device of fig. 3 employs the first digital phase shifter and the second digital phase shifter combination of table 4.

Fig. 12 is a schematic architecture diagram of another 32TR AAU device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 13 is a schematic architecture diagram of yet another 32TR AAU device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 14 is a pattern for controlling the digital phase shifters to which the group 1 and group 4 sub-arrays are connected to achieve a beam tilted down 10 ° in the vertical plane and a beam tilted up 2 ° in the vertical plane.

Fig. 15 is a diagram comparing the 3dB beamwidth of an embodiment of the present disclosure with a conventional beam.

Fig. 16 is a top view of a phase shift section in a liquid crystal phase shifter of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 17 is a cross-sectional view of A-A' of fig. 16.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the drawings and detailed description for the purpose of better understanding of the technical solution of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms used in this disclosure should be given the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The terms "first," "second," and the like, as used in this disclosure, do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. Likewise, the terms "a," "an," or "the" and similar terms do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one. The word "comprising" or "comprises", and the like, means that elements or items preceding the word are included in the element or item listed after the word and equivalents thereof, but does not exclude other elements or items. The terms "connected" or "connected," and the like, are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc. are used merely to indicate relative positional relationships, which may also be changed when the absolute position of the object to be described is changed.

Along with the development of the 5G mobile communication technology, the requirement on energy conservation and cost reduction is more and more prominent, so that the 5G base station is changed from 64TR AAU equipment to 32TR AAU equipment in the initial stage of deployment, the number of radio frequency channels is reduced to half, the equipment cost and the power consumption are effectively reduced, and the scanning capability of the 5G AAU equipment in the vertical dimension is also reduced. For example, the scanning range of the vertical dimension of the 5g 64tr AAU device is 6±13°, that is, beam scanning is performed centering around 6 °, the tilt angle may reach 7 °, and the tilt angle may reach 19 °. The vertical dimension scanning range of the 5G 32TR AAU device is reduced to 7+/-5 degrees, namely beam scanning is performed by taking 7 degrees as the center, the upward inclination angle can reach 2 degrees, the downward inclination angle can reach 12 degrees, namely the scanning capacity of the 32TR in a vertical plane is reduced by more than half compared with that of a 64TR antenna, so that the application deployment scene is seriously influenced, and the method is one of the problems to be solved by the current industry function. Aiming at the technical problems, the embodiment of the disclosure provides the following technical scheme.

Before describing the antenna device of the embodiment of the present disclosure, a part of the structure of the antenna device will be described. The antenna device of the embodiment of the disclosure comprises 2 ⁿ transceiving channels and 2 ⁿ antenna modules, n is more than 2, and n is an integer, that is, the embodiment of the disclosure is a2 ⁿ⁺¹ TR AAU device. For example: the antenna device in the embodiment of the disclosure may be a 32TR AAU device, that is, n is 4, or may be a 16TR AAU device, that is, n is 3. When the antenna device is a 32TR AAU device, the antenna unit in the antenna device comprises 16 antenna modules and 16 transceiving channels, and the antenna modules are in one-to-one correspondence communication connection with the transceiving channels. Similarly, if the antenna device is a 16TR AAU device, the antenna unit in the antenna device includes 8 antenna modules and 8 transceiver channels. The following example of the present disclosure exemplifies the antenna device as a 32TR AAU device.

The antenna unit may include 192 vibrators arranged in an array, and 16 antenna modules in the antenna unit are arranged in two rows and eight columns. Each antenna module comprises 6 vibrators arranged side by side along the column direction. The 6 oscillators in each antenna module can be divided into two sub-arrays 10 arranged side by side, and each sub-array 10 comprises 3 oscillators. The feed network in each antenna module may include a first sub-feed network and two second sub-feed networks, where the first sub-feed network is a one-to-two power divider, and the second sub-feed network is a one-to-three power divider, where two branches of the first feed network are respectively connected to main branches of the two second sub-feed networks, and three branches of each second sub-feed network are respectively connected to three vibrators of the corresponding sub-array 10.

A phase adjustment assembly and a radiation assembly are included for each vibrator; wherein one end of the phase adjusting component is connected with one branch of the second sub-feed network, and the other end of the phase adjusting component is connected with the radiation component. The phase adjustment component may be a liquid crystal phase shifter and the radiation component may radiate patches, dipoles, waveguide structures, etc.

In summary, in the following description, n=4 and k=2, the antenna unit includes 192 resonators, and each subarray 10 includes 3 subarrays 10 as an example. It should be understood that the case n=3 is similar to n=4 and is within the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure. The antenna device of the embodiment of the present disclosure is specifically described below.

Fig. 3 is a schematic architecture diagram of a 32TR AAU device according to an embodiment of the disclosure. ; as shown in fig. 3, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides an antenna apparatus, which is a 32TR AAU apparatus including 16 transceiving channels and an antenna unit composed of 16 antenna modules. The receiving and transmitting channels are in one-to-one correspondence communication connection with the antenna modules so as to realize communication between the baseband and the antenna modules. Each antenna module comprises 6 elements divided into 2 sub-arrays 10, each sub-array 10 comprising 3 elements. In particular, in the presently disclosed embodiments, for any antenna module, at least one of the two sub-arrays 10 is communicatively coupled to the corresponding transmit-receive channel of that antenna module via the digital phase shifter 2. In fig. 3, for example, 3 vibrators corresponding to each subarray 10 are respectively connected to one digital phase shifter 2.

Referring to fig. 2, it can be seen that in the vertical dimension, one transceiving channel (digital radio frequency channel) is corresponding to every six antenna elements, whereas in the embodiment of the present disclosure, in the digital domain, one transceiving channel still corresponds to 6 elements in the vertical plane for the 32TR AAU device, but for the analog domain, a digital phase shifter 2 is added, for example, one digital phase shifter 2 is correspondingly connected to every three elements. Logically, every three antenna elements correspond to a set of digital phase shifters 2, and then the two sets of digital phase shifters 2 are combined together to connect with a transceiver channel, as shown in fig. 3. In the embodiment of the disclosure, from the whole 32TR AAU device architecture, the digital phase shifter 2 is introduced, so that the degree of freedom of a vertical plane is increased, and the original 2 is changed into 4, so that the scanning capability of a vertical plane beam is enhanced, and therefore, the same scanning capability as that of a 64TR AAU can be achieved.

In the above, two subarrays 10 of each antenna module are respectively and correspondingly connected with the digital phase shifter 2. For convenience of description, two sub-arrays 10 in an antenna module are respectively a first sub-array 10 and a second sub-array 10, and the digital phase shifter 2 connected to the first sub-array 10 is referred to as a first digital phase shifter 21, and the digital phase shifter 2 connected to the second sub-array 10 is referred to as a second digital phase shifter 22. That is, for any antenna module, the first subarray 10 is connected to the first digital phase shifter 21, the second subarray 10 is connected to the second digital phase shifter 22, and the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 are connected in parallel and then connected to the corresponding receiving channel of the antenna module.

Referring to fig. 3, in the analog domain (antenna unit side), the degree of freedom of the 32TR AAU device of the present disclosure is 4 in the vertical dimension, and is consistent with that of the 64TR AAU device in the related art, so that the same beam scanning effect as that of the 64TR AAU device can be achieved in the vertical dimension. The beam scanning range in the vertical dimension is 6±13° for the 64TR AAU device in the prior art, whereas the beam scanning range in the vertical dimension is 7±5° for the 32TR AAU device in the prior art, that is, the 64TR maximum tilt angle is-7 °, the maximum tilt angle is 19 °, whereas the 32TR AAU device in the prior art has no tilt angle capability, and the maximum tilt angle is 12 °. The antenna device in the embodiment of the present disclosure solves the problem that the vertical dimension scanning capability of the 32TR AAU is limited by adding the digital phase shifter 2, and can achieve the same beam scanning capability as the 64TR AAU, i.e., the maximum tilt-up and tilt-down angles of the beam can reach-7 ° and 19 °, respectively, as shown in fig. 4 and 5.

The scanning of the vertical dimension of the 32TR AAU device in the prior art needs to satisfy 2 ° -12 °, and the corresponding phase shift amounts are shown in table 1. For the digital phase shifter 2, the engineering approximated equivalent is an arithmetic progression, and each phase shifter is 12 ° apart, so as to achieve continuous adjustment of the beam tilt angle.

TABLE 1 phase demand analysis of phase shifter (units: °)

Beam tilt angle	Phasor transfer	Phase shift amount of digital phase shifter
			2	25	25
3	37	37
			4	49	49
5	61	61
			6	74	73
7	86	85
			8	98	97
9	110	109
			10	123	121
11	135	133
			12	147	145

In some examples, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a first digital phase shifter in an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a second digital phase shifter in an embodiment of the present disclosure; as shown in fig. 6 and 7, each of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 may include a first microwave radio frequency switch, a second microwave radio frequency switch, and a plurality of phase delay lines; the first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave switch are provided with a first port and a plurality of second ports; the first port of the first microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the receiving and transmitting channel, the second port of the first microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the first port of the second microwave radio frequency switch through the phase delay lines corresponding to the second port of the first microwave radio frequency switch, and the second port of the second microwave radio frequency switch is connected with the subarray 10 through the phase delay lines corresponding to the second port of the second microwave radio frequency switch.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 6 and 7, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave radio frequency switch are single-pole four-throw RF switch chips, and in order to achieve the scanning requirement of the vertical dimension of the existing 32TR AAU device, special design needs to be performed on a phase delay line, and the first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave radio frequency switch are connected together, so that phase shifting quantities required by different beam inclinations are achieved by selecting different signal branches. One possible phase combination design is given in table 2 below.

TABLE 2 digital phase shifter design

Since a single pole four throw RF switch chip is used, a total of 16 phase combinations can be produced. The first digital phase shifter 21 in table 2 includes four phase shift amounts of 0 °,12 °, 72 °, and 108 °, respectively, and the second digital phase shifter 22 also includes four phase shift amounts of 25 °, 49 °, 73 °, and 109 °, respectively. Referring to table 2, different signal branches are gated through the first rf switch and the second rf switch, so that the requirements of different beam inclinations on the phase shift quantity in table 1 can be satisfied.

It should be noted that, by using 2 RF switch chips plus a corresponding delay line design, the first digital phase shifter 21 realizes four phases of 0 °, 12 °, 72 °, and 108 °, where the four phases are relative phases, 0 ° is a reference phase, and the other three phases are phases that are increased relative to the reference phase. From the 8 phase simulation graphs contained in the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 in the 3.5GHz band, 8 phase values described in table 2 can be obtained by comparing with the reference phase.

Since the first subarray 10 of each antenna module is connected to the first digital phase shifter 21, the second subarray 10 is connected to the second digital phase shifter 22, the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 are connected in parallel, and then are connected to the corresponding receiving channel of the antenna module. The beam sweep capability is such that it meets the beam tilt requirements specified in table 1, where the simulation values for the maximum and minimum two tilt angles are given, as shown in fig. 8 and 9. Fig. 8 is a vertical pattern of 2 ° downtilt of the beam when the first digital phase shifter 21 of fig. 3 is used as the first digital phase shifter 21 of fig. 6 and the second digital phase shifter 22 is used as the second digital phase shifter 22 of fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a vertical pattern of 12 ° downtilt of the beam when the first digital phase shifter 21 of fig. 6 is used for the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 of fig. 7 is used for the second digital phase shifter 22 in the 32TR AAU device of fig. 3. Further, since the conventional antenna of the 32TR AAU device requires 11 continuous beam tilt values in total for the vertical beam scan as shown in table 1, and the 64TR AAU device has a wide scan range, and the total of 27 continuous beam tilt values exceeds the combination range (maximum 16) of the single pole four throw switch, some adjustments are required in the design of the digital phase shifter 2.

Table 3.64 analysis of digital phase shifter phase demand (units: °) for TRAAU apparatus

Table 3 shows the design of a digital phase shifter 2 for achieving a vertical scanning capability comparable to that of a 64TR AAU device antenna, the layout of the phase shifter being shown in fig. 7, i.e. using a parallel arrangement, wherein the four states of the first digital phase shifter 21 are denoted x1, x2, x3 and x4, respectively, and the four states of the second digital phase shifter 22 are denoted y1, y2, y3 and y4, respectively. The phase design relationship of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 is shown in table 4.

TABLE 4 phase State relationship Table for phase shifter

From the phase state relationship of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 shown in table 4, it can be observed that the beam tilt angles (-5, -3, -1, 1) in table 3 are implemented using a set of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 (combination of y1 and x), the beam tilt angles (2, 4, 6, 8) are implemented using a set of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 (combination of y2 and x), the beam tilt angles (3, 5, 7, 9) are implemented using a set of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 (combination of y3 and x), and the beam tilt angles (12, 14, 16, 18) are implemented using a set of the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22 (combination of y4 and x), and thus the combination of the beam tilt angles and the phase shifters can be flexibly configured according to specific requirements.

Fig. 10 and 11 show that the above design is used to make the 32TR AAU device exceed the original beam tilt range, and achieve a beam tilt effect comparable to that of the 64TR AAU device.

In some examples, fig. 12 is an architectural schematic diagram of another 32TR AAU device of an embodiment of the disclosure; as shown in fig. 12, in an antenna module, one of the first subarray 10 and the second subarray 10 is in communication connection with a corresponding transceiving channel of the antenna module through at least one digital phase shifter 2, and the other is in communication connection with the corresponding transceiving channel of the antenna module. While in order to satisfy the beam tilt effect that the 32TR AAU device can be comparable to that of the 64TR AAU device, the number of digital phase shifters 2 to which the subarrays 10 connecting the digital phase shifters 2 are connected may be plural, for example, 2, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, two digital phase shifters 2 are connected to the first subarray 10 of the antenna module, and the two digital phase shifters 2 are connected in series. For convenience of description, the two digital phase shifters 2 will be referred to as a first digital phase shifter 21 and a second digital phase shifter 22.

Because different products may adopt different hardware architectures, some 32TR AAU device antennas cannot adopt the digital phase shifter 2 architecture based on the parallel design due to the limitation of design scheme or hardware layout, and at this time, the digital phase shifter 2 architecture based on the serial design shown in fig. 10 may be adopted. Based on the serial architecture design, the digital phase shifters 2 are arranged on one branch of one receiving and transmitting channel in a centralized way, so that the complexity of arrangement can be effectively reduced, a larger board arrangement area is released, and the arrangement and wiring of hardware devices are more facilitated. The arrangement mode of the serial architecture is adopted, and the beam inclination angle effect which can be realized is not basically different from the parallel arrangement mode, so that the beam inclination angle effect can be flexibly selected according to the arrangement mode of an actual product.

Although a better beam scanning effect in the vertical plane can be achieved by the arrangement of the digital phase shifters 2 in the parallel or serial architecture, more RF switch chips are used, for example, if the arrangement of the phase shifters in the parallel and serial architectures shown in fig. 3 and 12 is used, 128 single-pole four-throw RF switch chips are needed for the whole antenna, which results in relatively high cost of the whole antenna, and therefore, in the embodiment of the disclosure, a low-cost antenna device is also provided. Fig. 13 is a schematic architecture diagram of yet another 32TR AAU device according to an embodiment of the disclosure; as shown in fig. 13, for two sub-arrays 10 in each antenna module, one of them is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel through a fixed delay line, and the other is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel through a digital phase shifter 2, that is, the fixed delay line and the digital phase shifter 2 are connected in parallel and then communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel. The digital phase shifter 2 is also composed of two RF switch chips, only 64 antenna devices are needed in the whole antenna device, and compared with the two previous architectures, the number of the RF switch chips is reduced by half, so that the cost can be effectively reduced.

Further, the antenna unit of the 32TR AAU device includes 16 antenna modules, each antenna module includes 2 sub-arrays 10, that is, the 32TR AAU device includes 32 sub-arrays 10, and the 32 sub-arrays 10 are divided into 4 groups arranged side by side in a vertical direction, for example, referred to as 1 st group, 2 nd group, 3 rd group and 4 th group from top to bottom; each subarray 10 in the 1 st group is connected with a first digital phase shifter 21 and each subarray 10 in the 4 th group is connected with a second digital phase shifter 22, so that the effect of double beams can be realized, and the effect of expanding beams can be realized by double beams, thereby improving the coverage range of a vertical plane and expanding the application scene. By arranging the digital phase shifters 2 at the positions of the 1 st and 4 th groups, the two groups of digital phase shifters (the first digital phase shifter 21 and the second digital phase shifter 22) can be switched, and the dual-beam effect can be achieved by using different antenna modules, respectively. For example, by opening the first digital phase shifter 21 to which the 1 st group of subarrays 10 are connected and the second digital phase shifter 22 to which the 4 th group of subarrays 10 are connected, the 1 st to 3 rd groups of subarrays 10 may be used, thereby producing a beam effect such as a vertical beam tilt up of 2 °; when the second digital phase shifter 22 to which the group 4 subarray 10 is connected is opened and the first digital phase shifter 21 to which the group 1 subarray 10 is connected is closed, the group 2 to group 4 subarrays 10 are used, thereby generating another beam effect, such as a beam inclined 10 ° downward from the vertical. The effect of the two beams is shown in fig. 14, and it can be observed that one beam is tilted up by 2 ° (solid line) and the other beam is tilted down by 10 ° (dotted line).

The vertical plane beam width can be expanded by adopting the dual-beam scheme, compared with the traditional beam, the vertical plane 3dB beam width can be expanded by 2.2 degrees, and if a vertical plane weighting algorithm is adopted, the beam width can be further expanded. Fig. 15 is a graph comparing the 3dB beamwidth of the disclosed embodiment with that of a conventional beam, as shown in fig. 15, with a dual beam having a 3dB beamwidth of 9 ° (solid line) and a conventional beam having a 3dB beamwidth of 6.8 ° (dotted line).

In some examples, the first microwave RF switch and the second microwave RF switch adopted in the digital phase shifter 2 are both single-pole four-throw RF switch chips, but in practical engineering implementation, the first microwave RF switch and the second microwave RF switch are not limited to single-pole four-throw RF switch chips, but may be single-pole two-throw or single-pole multi-throw RF switch chips, and may also be other switching manners, for example, solid state RF switches, including PIN diodes or Field Effect Transistors (FETs), and micro-electromechanical RF switches (RF MEMs), and the like. The combination of the different types of switch types and the phase delay line can form a digital phase shifter 2, so as to achieve the effect of adjusting the beam inclination angle.

In some examples, the antenna device in the embodiments of the present disclosure includes not only the above-described structure, but also a baseband; any receiving and transmitting channel comprises a radio frequency module and a digital intermediate frequency module, wherein the digital intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the baseband, and the intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the antenna module through the radio frequency module. The baseband provides signals of at least one frequency band, such as a 2G signal, a 3G signal, a 4G signal, a 5G signal, etc., and transmits the signals of the at least one frequency band to the digital intermediate frequency module. The digital intermediate frequency module is used for modulation and demodulation, digital up-down conversion, digital-to-analog conversion and the like of upstream optical transmission; the radio frequency module converts the intermediate frequency signal into the radio frequency signal, then transmits the radio frequency signal through the antenna unit through the power amplifier and the filter, and finally, the receiving and transmitting of the electromagnetic wave signal are completed through the antenna.

Specifically, the digital intermediate frequency module may include a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, a modulating circuit, and a demodulating circuit, where after the transmitting circuit receives the multiple types of signals provided by the substrate, the modulating circuit may modulate the multiple types of signals provided by the baseband, and then send the modulated signals to the antenna unit. And the antenna unit receives signals and transmits the signals to a receiving circuit of the intermediate frequency module, the receiving circuit transmits the signals to a demodulation circuit, and the demodulation circuit demodulates the signals and transmits the demodulated signals to the radio frequency module.

Further, the digital intermediate frequency module is connected with a signal amplifier and a power amplifier in the radio frequency module, the signal amplifier and the power amplifier are connected with a filtering unit, and the filtering unit is connected with at least one antenna unit. In the process of transmitting signals by the antenna system, the signal amplifier is used for improving the signal-to-noise ratio of signals output by the radio frequency transceiver and then transmitting the signals to the filtering unit; the power amplifier is used for amplifying the power of the signal output by the radio frequency transceiver and transmitting the power to the filtering unit; the filtering unit specifically comprises a duplexer and a filtering circuit, the filtering unit combines signals output by the signal amplifier and the power amplifier, clutter is filtered, the signals are transmitted to the antenna unit, and the antenna unit radiates the signals. In the process of receiving signals by the antenna system, the signals are received by the antenna unit and then transmitted to the filtering unit, clutter is filtered by the signals received by the antenna unit and then transmitted to the signal amplifier and the power amplifier by the filtering unit, and the signal amplifier gains the signals received by the antenna unit, so that the signal to noise ratio of the signals is increased; the power amplifier amplifies the power of the signal received by the antenna unit. The signal received by the antenna unit is processed by the power amplifier and the signal amplifier and then transmitted to the digital intermediate frequency module, and the digital intermediate frequency module is transmitted to the baseband.

In some examples, the signal amplifier may include multiple types of signal amplifiers, such as low noise amplifiers, without limitation.

In some examples, the antenna apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure further includes a power management unit connected to the power amplifier, and providing the power amplifier with a voltage for amplifying the signal.

In some examples, each subarray 10 includes a phase adjustment assembly and a radiation assembly coupled to the phase adjustment assembly. The phase adjusting component may be a liquid crystal phase shifter.

In some examples, fig. 16 is a top view of a phase shifting portion in a liquid crystal phase shifter of an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of A-A' of FIG. 16; as shown in fig. 16 and 17, regardless of whether the antenna of the embodiment of the present disclosure adopts any of the above-described architectures, the phase shifter 30 in the antenna may adopt a liquid crystal phase shifter 30, the liquid crystal phase shifter 30 includes a first transmission portion structure and a second transmission structure, and the phase shifting portion 303 connected between the first transmission structure and the second transmission structure may include a first dielectric substrate 304 and a second dielectric substrate 305 disposed opposite to each other, and a first electrode layer disposed on a side of the first dielectric substrate 304 adjacent to the second dielectric substrate 305, a second electrode layer disposed on a side of the second dielectric substrate 305 adjacent to the first dielectric substrate 304, and a liquid crystal layer 306 disposed between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer. Wherein the first dielectric substrate 304 is closer to the reference electrode layer 50 than the second dielectric substrate 305, i.e. in the antenna, the reference electrode layer 50 is disposed between the first dielectric substrate 304 and the first dielectric substrate 101, so that the first electrode layer, the second electrode layer and the reference electrode layer 50 can form a current loop. Thus, the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer 306 may be changed by applying a voltage to the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer so that an electric field is formed therebetween to drive the liquid crystal molecules to be inverted, thereby achieving the phase shift of microwaves. In the antenna of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the phase shifting section 303 may employ any form of differential mode double-line phase shifter 30. The phase shifting portion 303 in the embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to a focused specific example.

For example: the first electrode layer in the phase shift portion 303 includes a first main line 31 and a second main line 32, and the second electrode layer includes a plurality of patch electrodes 33 arranged at intervals. Wherein the extending directions of the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 are the same; the patch electrodes 33 are disposed side by side along the extending direction of the first main line 31, and the orthographic projections of the opposite ends of the patch electrodes 33 along the extending direction thereof on the first dielectric substrate 101 overlap with orthographic projections of the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 on the first dielectric substrate 304, respectively. In this case, the overlapping regions of the first trunk line 31 and the second trunk line 32 with the patch electrode respectively form capacitance regions, and the overlapping regions of the first trunk line 31 and the patch electrode 33 also form an electric field by applying different voltages to the first trunk line 31, the second trunk line 32, and the patch electrode 33, so that the dielectric constants of liquid crystal molecules in the overlapping regions of the first trunk line 31 and the patch electrode 33 and the overlapping regions of the second trunk line 32 and the patch electrode 33 are changed, thereby achieving phase shifting of the microwave signal. For such a phase shifting section 303, both ends of the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 are respectively connected to the first transmission structure 301 and the second transmission structure 302.

It should be noted that, in practice, the operation of the phase shifter 303 does not depend on the reference electrode layer 50, and when the phase shifter 303 is integrated in an antenna, one or more reference electrode layers 50 are necessary. Of course, if the reference electrode layer 50 is integrated in the antenna itself, the reference electrode layer 50 of the phase shifting portion 303 may be shared with the reference electrode layer 50 in the antenna. The reference electrode layer 50 may be disposed on a side of the first dielectric substrate 304 facing away from the liquid crystal layer 306, or may be disposed on a side of the second dielectric substrate 305 facing away from the liquid crystal layer 306. In addition, the reference electrode layer 50 includes, but is not limited to, a ground layer. As long as the reference electrode layer 50 forms a current loop with the first main line 31, the patch electrode, and a current loop with the second main line 32 and the patch electrode 33.

In some examples, the patch electrodes in the phase shifter 303 may be electrically connected together by a connection electrode, where the patch electrodes may be applied with the same bias voltage when the phase shifter 303 is in operation, which facilitates control. The front projection of the connection electrode on the first dielectric substrate 304 does not overlap with the front projection of the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 on the first dielectric substrate 101.

In some examples, the individual patch electrodes in the phase shifting portion 303 are arranged periodically, e.g., the pitch between the individual patch electrodes is equal. In some examples, the area of the overlapping region of each patch electrode and the orthographic projection of the first main line 31 on the first dielectric substrate 304 is equal; and/or the area of the overlapping area of each patch electrode and the orthographic projection of the second main line 32 on the first dielectric substrate 304 is equal. Control of the phase shifting portion 303 is facilitated by this arrangement. Further, the widths of the patch electrodes may be equal, and the lengths of the patch electrodes may be equal.

In some examples, the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 in the phase shifting portion 303 may each employ a transmission line of a straight line segment. The extending directions of the first main line 31 and the second main line 32 may be parallel to each other, and this arrangement contributes to miniaturization of the phase shift portion 303, that is, to achieving high integration of the antenna. Of course, the first trunk line 31 and the second trunk line 32 may be curved, and the shapes of the first trunk line 31 and the second trunk line 32 are not limited in the embodiment of the present disclosure.

In some examples, the first transmission structure 301 and the second transmission structure 302 in the phase shifter 30 may be disposed on the first dielectric substrate 304, where the first transmission structure 301 and the second transmission structure 302 and the first trunk line 31 and the second trunk line 32 are disposed in the same layer and made of the same material.

In some examples, for each vibrator, a reference electrode is included that is disposed on a side of the first dielectric substrate 304 facing away from the liquid crystal layer, for example: the ground electrode is provided with a first opening on the reference electrode. The first main line 31 and the second main line 32 in the phase shifting portion 303 of the liquid crystal phase shifter 30 each include a first end and a second end which are disposed opposite to each other; the first transmission structure comprises a first combining path, a first branch path and a second branch path; the second transmission structure comprises a second combining path, a third branch path and a fourth branch path; the first combining way and the orthographic projection of the first opening on the first dielectric substrate 304 are overlapped; one end of the first branch is connected with the first end of the first main line 31, and the other end of the first branch is connected with the first combining path; the second branch is connected with the first end of the second main line 32, and the other end is connected with the first combining path; the second combining path overlaps the orthographic projection of the radiation assembly on the first dielectric substrate 304; one end of the third branch is connected with the second end of the first main line 31, and the other end of the third branch is connected with the second combining path; the fourth branch is connected with the second end of the second main line 32, and the other end is connected with the second combining path; the first branch and the fourth branch are equal in line length; the second branch and the third branch have the same line length, and the line length of the first branch is longer than that of the second branch. Taking an antenna as a transmitting antenna, when a radio frequency signal fed in a feed network is coupled to a first combining way of a first transmission structure through a first opening, the first combining way divides the radio frequency signal into two paths of signals, the first branch and the second branch feed into a first main line 31 and a second main line 32 respectively, and the first branch and the second branch have different line lengths, so that a certain phase difference exists in the fed radio frequency signal, and then the two paths of radio frequency signals are transmitted to a third branch and a fourth branch through the first main line 31 and the second main line 32, and the line lengths of the first branch and the fourth branch are equal; the line length of the second branch and the line length of the third branch are equal, at the moment, the two paths of radio frequency signals are restored, so that the radio frequency signals output by the second combining path are in constant amplitude and phase with the radio frequency signals fed in by the first combining path, and finally the second combining path radiates through the radiation component.

Further, the first transmission structure and the second transmission structure in the liquid crystal phase shifter 30 may employ balun structures. It should be noted that the balun structure is a three-port device, which can be applied to a microwave rf device, and the balun structure is a rf transmission line transformer for converting a matching input into a differential input, and can be used for exciting a differential line, an amplifier, a broadband antenna, a balanced mixer, a balanced frequency multiplier and modulator, a phase shifter 30, and any circuit design that needs to transmit signals with equal amplitude and 180 ° phase difference on two lines. Wherein, two output amplitudes of balun components are equal, the phase place is opposite. In the frequency domain, this means that there is a phase difference of 180 ° between the two outputs; in the time domain, this means that the voltage of one balanced output is negative of the other balanced output.

For example: with continued reference to fig. 16, the first dielectric substrate 304 has oppositely disposed first and second surfaces, and the reference electrode layer 50 is disposed on the first surface of the first dielectric substrate 304. The first transmission structure 301 and the second transmission structure each use balun components, and the phase shifting portion 303 uses the phase shifting portion 303 shown in fig. 3. The first transmission structure, the second transmission structure, the first main line 31, and the second main line 32 are all disposed on the second surface of the first dielectric substrate 304. The first branch and the second branch of the first transmission structure are directly connected with the first combining path, for example, the first combining path, the first branch and the second branch of the first transmission structure are integrated. In the first transmission structure, the first branch includes a meander line so that the first branch obtains a phase difference of 180 ° compared to the second branch. The third branch and the fourth branch of the second transmission structure 302 are all directly connected to the second combining path, for example, the second combining path, the third branch and the fourth branch of the second transmission structure 302 are all integrated. In this first transmission structure 301, the fourth branch comprises a meander line, so that the fourth branch obtains a phase difference of 180 ° compared to the third branch. The first trunk line 31, the first branch line, and the third branch line are integrally structured; the second trunk line 32, the second branch line, and the fourth branch line are integrally constructed. In this case, the first branch obtains a phase difference of 180 ° compared with the second branch by means of a half-wavelength winding, the microwave signal fed through the first branch is fed into the third branch via the first main line 31, and the third branch is fed into the second reasonable end; the second branch feeds the microwave signal to the fourth branch via the second main line 32, and the fourth branch is transmitted to the second combining path after being wound by a half wavelength, and at this time, the microwave signals transmitted by the third branch and the fourth branch are in the same phase with each other in equal amplitude before being fed to the second combining path.

Further, regardless of whether the phase shifter 30 in the embodiment of the present disclosure adopts any of the above-described structures, the first dielectric substrate 304 and the second dielectric substrate 305 may be glass-based, sapphire substrate, or a polyethylene terephthalate substrate, a triallyl cyanurate substrate, or a polyimide transparent flexible substrate having a thickness of 10-500 μm. Specifically, the first dielectric substrate 304 and the second dielectric substrate 305 may be made of high-purity quartz glass having extremely low dielectric loss. Compared with a common glass substrate, the quartz glass adopted by the first dielectric substrate 304 and the second dielectric substrate 305 can effectively reduce the loss of microwaves, so that the phase shifter 30 has low power consumption and high signal to noise ratio.

It is to be understood that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention, but not in limitation thereof. Various modifications and improvements may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and substance of the invention, and are also considered to be within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An antenna apparatus comprising 2 ⁿ transceiving channels and 2 ⁿ antenna modules, n > 2, and n being an integer; a transceiver channel communicatively coupled to an antenna module; each antenna module comprises a plurality of vibrators, the plurality of vibrators are divided into K subarrays, K is more than or equal to 2, and K is an integer; wherein,

2. The antenna device of claim 1, wherein each of the antenna modules is communicatively coupled to the transmit and receive channel via the digital phase shifter, and the digital phase shifters to which different sub-arrays are coupled are different.

3. The antenna device of claim 1, wherein for any one of the antenna modules at least one of the sub-arrays is communicatively coupled to the transmit receive channel through a plurality of the digital phase shifters.

4. The antenna device of claim 1, wherein K = 2 and each of the sub-arrays in the antenna module is communicatively coupled to the transmit receive channel via a respective digital phase shifter.

5. The antenna device of claim 1, wherein K = 2 and one of the subarrays of the antenna modules is communicatively connected to the transmit-receive channel by two serially connected digital phase shifters and the other subarray is communicatively connected directly to the transmit-receive channel.

6. The antenna device of claim 1, wherein K = 2 and one of the sub-arrays of the antenna modules is communicatively coupled to the transmit receive channel via the digital phase shifter and the other sub-array is communicatively coupled to the transmit receive channel via a fixed delay line.

7. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein k=2, the plurality of subarrays in the antenna unit are divided into a plurality of groups arranged side by side in a vertical direction, the plurality of subarrays in each group being side by side in a horizontal direction; the subarrays in the 1 st group and the last 1 st group are in communication connection with the corresponding receiving and transmitting channels through the digital phase shifters.

8. The antenna apparatus of any of claims 1-7, wherein the digital phase shifter comprises a first microwave radio frequency switch, a second microwave radio frequency switch, and a plurality of phase delay lines; the first microwave radio frequency switch and the second microwave switch are provided with a first port and a plurality of second ports;

9. The antenna apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first and second microwave radio frequency switches each comprise any one of an RF switch chip, a solid state radio frequency switch, a microelectromechanical radio frequency switch.

10. The antenna device according to any of claims 1-7, wherein n takes 3 or 4.

11. The antenna device according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the number of elements in each of the sub-arrays is the same.

12. The antenna device according to any one of claims 1-7, further comprising: a base band; any receiving and transmitting channel comprises a radio frequency module and a digital intermediate frequency module, wherein the digital intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the baseband, and the intermediate frequency module is in communication connection with the antenna module through the radio frequency module.

13. The antenna device of any of claims 1-7, wherein each subarray comprises a feed network comprising a first feed port and a plurality of second feed ports, the first feed port being communicatively coupled to the transceiver channel and the plurality of second feed ports being in one-to-one correspondence with a plurality of the elements in the subarray.

14. The antenna device according to claim 13, wherein each of the elements comprises a phase adjustment assembly and a radiation assembly, one end of the phase adjustment assembly being electrically connected to one of the second feed ports, the other end being electrically connected to the radiation assembly.

15. The antenna device of claim 14, wherein the phase adjustment component is a liquid crystal phase shifter.

16. The antenna device of claim 14, wherein the radiating component comprises any one of a radiating patch, a dipole, a waveguide structure.