JP2000349538A - Waveguide antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a waveguide antenna that can configure a waveguide antenna facility with lightweight and compactness and can attenuate an adjacent interference wave down to a sufficient degree. SOLUTION: In the waveguide antenna, where a bottom section 7 and covers 8, 9 are assembled to integrally provide an antenna section 6 and a feeding section 3 at the bottom section 7, the bottom section 7 is made of a plastic 11 where a conductor layer 12 is provided to a face configuring an antenna guide path 14 and a distribution guide path 13, the cover 9 of the antenna section 6 consists of a metallic thin plate provided with a plurality of slots 15 and the cover 8 of the feeding section 3 consists of a metallic thin plate. A filter 5 is provided in a waveguide path 4 between the distribution guide path 13 of the feeding section 3 and the feeding port 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a waveguide antenna which is easy to process and has excellent frequency selection characteristics.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a generally known waveguide antenna.
It consists of 22. The antenna unit 21 has a structure in which a slot 24 for transmitting or receiving a radio wave is provided in a waveguide 23. The power supply unit 22 transmits a signal to be transmitted to the antenna unit 21.
And a function of collecting signals received by the antenna unit 21.

On the other hand, JP-A-3-7406 and JP-A-3-3406
No. 65805 describes a waveguide antenna obtained by improving the above-mentioned waveguide antenna. The waveguide antenna described in these publications has an antenna unit 25 as shown in FIG.
The waveguide 26 that forms the bottom portion 28 provided with the groove 27 and the slot
The cover 30 is provided with a cover 29, and the bottom 28 and the cover 30 are bonded together by a conductive adhesive 31, or assembled by screwing, fitting, or the like. In addition, it is described that the power supply unit is similarly configured with a bottom and a lid and assembled. Further, the use of a plastic material at the bottom is described. In this case, a structure in which a groove serving as a waveguide is formed in the plastic material, a conductor layer is provided on the surface where the groove is formed, and a lid is assembled is described. ing.

The waveguide antenna configured as described above has a relatively gentle frequency-gain characteristic having a peak at a design frequency [see FIG. 7 (source: IEICE, Technical Research Report). AP88-40)]. Therefore, if there is a strong radio wave outside the design frequency, the signal also has some gain, so that the signal enters the receiver and saturates the first-stage amplifier, resulting in background noise for the desired signal. There is. In particular, in recent years, channels have been allocated close to each other in order to increase the frequency use efficiency. In this case, even if the radio waves of each channel are valid signals, radio waves other than the intended channel may cause interference. Becomes Therefore, a countermeasure is provided by inserting a channel separation filter between the antenna and the receiver first-stage amplifier. However, in order to attenuate adjacent interference waves to a sufficient extent, a filter having a steep cutoff characteristic is required.

[0005]

Incidentally, a filter having a steep cutoff characteristic for attenuating the adjacent interference wave to a sufficient extent is usually a multistage waveguide filter in many cases. Such a waveguide filter is generally manufactured using a metal waveguide, and when this is separately connected between a waveguide antenna and a receiver or a transmitter, the waveguide filter is used. This results in an increase in the number of parts of the antenna equipment, an increase in cost, and an increase in weight.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to improve the above situation, and an object of the present invention is to make the waveguide antenna equipment light and compact, and sufficiently reduce adjacent interference waves. It is intended to provide a waveguide antenna which can be attenuated to a certain degree.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a waveguide antenna according to the present invention has a bottom and a lid assembled, and an antenna and a feeder are provided integrally at the bottom. The bottom is made of plastic in which a conductor layer is provided on the surface constituting the antenna waveguide and the distribution waveguide, and the cover of the antenna section is a metal sheet provided with a plurality of slots, and the cover of the feeding section is a metal sheet. In the above-mentioned waveguide antenna, a filter is provided in the waveguide between the distribution waveguide of the power supply unit and the power supply port.

According to the present invention, in addition to the configuration in which the bottom portion and the lid are assembled and the antenna portion and the feeding portion are integrally provided at the bottom portion, the inside of the waveguide between the distribution waveguide of the feeding portion and the feeding port is provided. In addition, since the bottom part is made of plastic and a conductor layer provided on the surface, the waveguide antenna equipment is made lighter and more compact than when a waveguide filter is separately connected and provided. Can be configured. In addition, since the bottom part is made of plastic and a conductor layer provided on the surface, it is easy to process not only the grooves that become the waveguides and distribution waveguides, but also the filters. In addition to being easily manufactured, the adjacent interfering waves can be attenuated to a sufficient extent by incorporating a filter in accordance with the frequency used. The plastic forming the bottom may be a single piece, but may be a fiber reinforced plastic or the like. Further, the lid may be a laminate of a dielectric and a metal thin plate instead of the metal thin plate.

In the waveguide antenna according to the present invention,
The bottom can be formed of a metal material instead of the composite material of the conductor layer and the plastic. In this case, since the metal material is heavier than the plastic material, the weight cannot be reduced, but other effects described above can be enjoyed.

In the above-mentioned waveguide antenna of the present invention, although not particularly limited, the assembly of the bottom and the lid is performed by using a low melting point metal (for example, tin or indium) between the joining surface of the bottom and the lid. , Solder, wood metal, etc.) may be joined and assembled by heating and melting them, or may be joined and assembled by interposing a conductive adhesive. In this case, bonding using a low-melting metal is more preferable than bonding using a conductive adhesive because the antenna gain increases and the stability increases over time.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a waveguide antenna according to the present invention, wherein a is a top view, b is a top view of a bottom portion with a lid removed, c is a cross-sectional view of A taken along line AA, and FIG. It is an expanded perspective view of the B section of FIG. 1b.

The waveguide antenna 1 has a filter section 5 formed in a waveguide 4 between a feed port 2 and a feed section 3 and a bottom section 7 having the feed section 3 and the antenna section 6 integrally.
The filter unit 5 and the lid 8 of the power supply unit 3 and the lid 9 of the antenna unit 6 are assembled with a low melting point metal 10.

The bottom 7 is composed of a plate-shaped plastic material 11 and a metal layer (conductor layer) 12 provided on the surface thereof.
The filter section 5 is provided with a groove serving as the waveguide 4, the feed section 3 is provided with a groove serving as the distribution waveguide 13, and the antenna section 6 is provided with a groove serving as the antenna waveguide 14. The cover 8 of the filter unit 5 and the power supply unit 3 is a thin metal plate, and the cover 9 of the antenna unit 6 is a thin metal plate provided with a slot 15.

As shown in FIG. 2, the filter section 5 can have a structure similar to that conventionally used as a waveguide filter. For example, in FIG. 2b, a structure in which a post 17 is provided in the waveguide 4 instead of the reactance window 16 in FIG.
Alternatively, although not shown, a structure having a dielectric resonator may be employed. In these structures, components such as the reactance window 16 or the post 17 are attached to the waveguide 4 when the bottom 7 is manufactured, or are formed at the same time (the shape of the bottom 7 is formed in a mold when the bottom 7 is manufactured). ).

The method of joining the lid 8 (or the lid 9) to the bottom 7 with the low melting metal 10 is, for example, in a state where the low melting metal 10 is provided between the bottom 7 and the lid 8 (or the lid 9). A heating element such as a ceramic heating element having good thermal response is pressed onto the lid 8 (or the lid 9), and the low-melting metal 10 is melted and joined by heat from the heating element. Needless to say, this bonding may be performed by using a conductive adhesive in addition to the low melting point metal 10, or by assembling with screws.

In the waveguide antenna 1 having the above configuration,
In addition to the feeding section 3 and the antenna section 6, the filter section 5 has a bottom section 7.
In addition, since the bottom portion 7 is further composed of a plastic material 11 and a metal layer 12 provided on the surface thereof, compared with the case where a waveguide filter is separately provided,
The waveguide antenna equipment including the waveguide antenna 1 can be configured to be lightweight and compact. The bottom 7 is made of plastic
Since it is composed of 11 and the metal layer 12 provided on the surface thereof, not only the processing of the grooves serving as the antenna waveguide 14 and the distribution waveguide 13 but also the processing of the filter section 5 including the waveguide 4 can be easily performed. easy. Further, by incorporating the reactance window 16 and the like of the filter section 5 in accordance with the operating frequency, adjacent interference waves can be attenuated to a sufficient extent.

In the above example, the filter 5 is connected to the bottom 7
However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a filter fitting portion 18 is provided between the power supply port 2 and the power supply portion 3, and A structure may be employed in which a filter unit 19 manufactured in advance in accordance with the frequency to be used is mounted in the filter fitting portion 18. In the waveguide antenna 1 having such a structure, it is necessary to manufacture the filter unit 19 separately.
Since the antenna is assembled at the time of assembling the waveguide antenna, the filter can be connected only by connecting a transmitter or the like to the power supply port 2 as in the waveguide antenna 1 of the above-described example. Rather than separately connecting and assembling a waveguide filter, the time and effort for assembling the filter can be reduced, the projection of the waveguide filter from the waveguide antenna can be improved and the appearance can be improved. The effect of the above-described example can be enjoyed, for example, the waveguide antenna equipment can be configured to be lightweight and compact. Further, in the waveguide antenna 1 of this example, when using a waveguide antenna structure having the same dimensions and changing the used frequency, a filter unit 19 having the changed used frequency is assembled to the filter fitting portion 18 to obtain a desired one. A waveguide antenna having a built-in filter for the operating frequency can be provided.

In the above-described example, the power supply port 2 is opened on the side surface of the bottom portion 7, but may be opened on the lower surface of the bottom portion 7 as shown in FIG. With such a structure, connection to a transmitter or a receiver is easier. Also, an example has been described in which the lid 8 and the lid 9 are separately manufactured and assembled, but the lid 8 and the lid 9 may be manufactured as a single piece.

[0019]

As described above, in the case of the waveguide antenna according to the present invention, in addition to the configuration in which the bottom and the lid are assembled and the antenna and the feeder are integrally provided at the bottom,
A filter is provided in the waveguide between the distribution waveguide and the power supply port of the power supply unit, and furthermore, the bottom portion is formed of plastic and a conductor layer provided on the surface thereof, so that the waveguide filter is separately connected. The waveguide antenna equipment can be configured to be lightweight and compact as compared with the case where the antenna apparatus is provided. In addition, since the bottom part is made of plastic and a conductor layer provided on the surface, it is easy to process not only the grooves that become the waveguides and distribution waveguides, but also the filters. In addition to being easily manufactured, the adjacent interfering waves can be attenuated to a sufficient extent by incorporating a filter in accordance with the frequency used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a waveguide antenna according to the present invention, wherein a is a top view, b is a top view of a bottom portion with a lid removed, and c is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of a.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are enlarged perspective views of a portion B in FIG. 1B, where a is a case where the filter is a reactive window type, and b is a case where the filter is a post type.

FIG. 3 is a partial explanatory view of another example of the waveguide antenna according to the present invention, wherein a is a top view of a bottom portion with a lid removed,
b is a top view of a filter unit, c is a front view, and d is CC sectional drawing of b.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory partial sectional view of another example of the waveguide antenna according to the present invention.

5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams of a conventional waveguide antenna, wherein a is a top view, and b is a cross-sectional view taken along the line DD.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of another conventional waveguide antenna,
a is an exploded perspective view of the antenna section, and b is a cross-sectional view in the lateral direction.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing the frequency characteristics of the aperture efficiency of the zero-order mode and the first-order mode of the conventional waveguide antenna.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: waveguide antenna 2: feeding port
3: Feeding part 4: Waveguide 5: Filter part
6: Antenna part 7: Bottom part 8: Cover of power supply part
9: Antenna cover 10: Low melting point metal 11: Plastic material 1
2: Metal layer 13: Distribution waveguide 14: Antenna waveguide 1
5: Slot 16: Reactance window 17: Post 1
8: Filter fitting part 19: Filter unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5J014 DA05 DA07 5J045 AA01 AA04 AB05 AB06 DA04 FA02 GA03 GA04 HA01 JA04 JA12 LA01 MA04 NA01

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plastic in which a bottom and a lid are assembled and an antenna section and a feed section are integrally provided at the bottom, and the bottom has a conductor layer provided on a surface forming an antenna waveguide and a distribution waveguide. A metal sheet having a plurality of slots provided on a lid of an antenna section and a metal sheet having a lid on a feeding section, between the distribution waveguide of the feeding section and the feeding port. A waveguide antenna comprising a filter provided in a waveguide. 2. The waveguide antenna according to claim 1, wherein the bottom portion is formed of a metal material instead of the composite material of the conductor layer and plastic. 3. The waveguide antenna according to claim 1, wherein the bottom and the lid are joined by a low melting point metal. 4. The waveguide antenna according to claim 1, wherein the bottom and the lid are joined by a conductive adhesive.