JPH11261334A - High frequency element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a high frequency element constituted of superconductive antennas whose sensitivity is high and whose directivity can be controlled by stacking a plurality of superconductive plane array antennas where a plurality of antennas constituted of superconductors are formed in parallel on the same substrate. SOLUTION: A plurality of superconductive plane array antennas where a plurality of antennas 1-4 of the same forms, which are constituted of superconductors, are formed in parallel are stacked on the same substrate 6. Namely, an element is constituted of the four semiconductor antennas 1-4 of the same forms and a superconduction strip line 5 becoming a feeding line. In such a case, YBa2 Cu3 Oy is used as the superconductors and YSZ as the substrate 6, for example. Anything except YSZ is possible for the substrate if a dielectric constant is low. In such a case, the number of antennas in one plane array antenna is set to be four but it is not restricted. A plurality of the superconductive plane array antennas of the same patterns are stacked so that they are overlapped in an almost same position and therefore the small antenna with the high gain can be obtained without increasing an area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a high-frequency device applied to the field of communication and the like, and more particularly, to a laminated array antenna in which a plurality of planar array antennas made of a superconductor are stacked, and furthermore, a laminated array antenna. The present invention relates to a high-frequency element obtained by combining an antenna, a mixer including a superconductor, and a filter integrated circuit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since superconductors have a surface resistance about two orders of magnitude lower in the high-frequency region than normal metals, realization of high-frequency elements using superconductors, such as high-gain, compact antennas and filters, is expected. Have been. For example, IEICE Technical Report SC
As described in E97-10 (April 1997), PP55-60, the YBaCuO-based superconducting patch antenna actually obtains a higher gain than the Au patch antenna. In addition, superconducting planar array antennas have been studied. According to simulations, as the number of antennas increases, the difference in gain becomes more remarkable than when a normal metal is used.

[0003]

However, the conventional high-frequency device using a superconducting antenna has the following problems.

[0004] Although a superconducting antenna can surely obtain a higher gain than an antenna using a normal conducting metal, it cannot be said that a value of a single superconducting antenna is sufficient for practical use. As a method of gaining gain, a planar array antenna in which a plurality of superconducting antennas are arranged on the same substrate is conceivable. However, as the number of antennas increases, the size of the substrate increases, and the advantage of miniaturization expected at the beginning is lost. In addition, super-directivity is also expected with a planar array antenna,
The direction is only perpendicular to the substrate and cannot be controlled. Filters and mixers using superconductors are also high-performance elements, and high-performance high-frequency elements can be realized by combining them with superconducting antennas. However, array antennas, filters, and mixers are formed on the same substrate. However, there is a problem that the design is difficult due to interference between the elements and the substrate size is further increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and it is a high-frequency element comprising a superconducting antenna which is small in size, has high sensitivity, and is capable of controlling the direction of directivity. The present invention provides a small, high-performance high-frequency element in which a high-frequency element is combined with a mixer.

[0006]

A high-frequency device according to the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and comprises a superconducting planar array antenna in which a plurality of antennas of the same shape made of a superconductor are formed in parallel on the same substrate. That a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas are stacked, and that each of the superconducting planar array antennas has the same pattern, Furthermore, power is supplied to at least one of the superconducting planar array antennas stacked in plural, and the thickness of the substrate is set to 0.05 to 0.05 mm of the effective wavelength of transmission and reception.
0.4. Further, the high-frequency element of the present invention supplies power to each of a plurality of stacked superconducting planar array antennas, and shifts the feeding position and phase of each superconducting planar array antenna by 180 °, or each superconducting planar array antenna. Are shifted in the plane direction and stacked.

Further, the high-frequency device of the present invention is characterized in that a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas are provided with openings in each of them, and a filter having at least a mixer made of a superconductor below a lowermost superconducting planar array antenna. And a strip line circuit.

The high-frequency element of the present invention is a high-frequency element having a directional antenna formed thereon, and is characterized in that an RF filter is omitted.

Further, the high-frequency element according to the present invention is provided with a moving mechanism for moving at least one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked in a plane direction.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas constituting a high-frequency device according to the present invention. It comprises four superconducting antennas 1, 2, 3, 4 having the same shape and a superconducting stripline 5 serving as a feed line. Here, YBa ₂ Cu is used as a superconductor.
₃ O _y , YSZ was used as the substrate 6. The substrate may be anything other than YSZ as long as it has a low dielectric constant. The substrate size was 20 mm square so that it could be mounted on a small refrigerator. All the antennas described hereinafter are designed for a high frequency band of 12 GHz. At this time, the gain of one antenna is about 5
The gain was 12 dB by using four planar arrays. Here, the number of antennas in one planar array antenna is four, but the number is not limited to four.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a high-frequency device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. This is a stack of two superconducting planar array antennas shown in FIG. Although not shown in the figure, a superconducting film is formed as a ground on the back surface of the lower substrate. The patterns of the superconducting planar array antennas were exactly the same, and were bonded together using polyimide so that the patterns overlapped at substantially the same positions as shown in FIG. As described above, the gain of the single superconducting planar array antenna shown here was about 12 dB, but the gain was about 16 dB by stacking two and feeding them in phase.
Rose. At this time, the thickness of the substrate was about 1.4 mm. This corresponds to about ４ of the effective wavelength. Here, assuming that the wavelength of the signal is λ and the permittivity of the substrate is ε, the effective wavelength is λ /
√ε. When power is supplied to each of the two superconducting planar array antennas, the thickness of the substrate 6 is 0.5
０．６0.6 mm, that is, about 0.09 to 1.05 of the effective wavelength
The highest gain was obtained at the time of (1), and the value was 18 dB. The reason why the gain of 12 dB or more was exhibited was that the thickness of the substrate was 0.05 times the effective wavelength.
It was at the time of 、 0.4, and the gain of 15 dB or more was 0.07〜0.3. Therefore, the thickness of the substrate is set to 0.05 to 0.4, preferably 0.07 to 0.3 of the effective wavelength.
It is better to It is necessary to match the optimal absolute value of the substrate thickness according to the frequency and the type of the substrate. Now, for simplicity, a stack of two superconducting planar array antennas has been described, but the gain was further improved by increasing the number of stacks. For example, when four superconducting planar array antennas were similarly stacked, the gain increased to 24 dB. This value was comparable to that of the BS antenna, and was higher than the value of one planar array antenna in which 16 superconducting antennas were arranged on the same 40 mm square substrate. On the other hand, the radiation pattern of the antenna showed superdirectivity sharply extending in the direction perpendicular to the substrate by stacking, and the directivity also improved as the number of stacked layers increased. Thus, by stacking a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas having the same pattern so as to overlap at substantially the same position, a small-sized and high-gain antenna can be manufactured without increasing the area.

Although the back surface of the superconducting planar array antenna 102 in the upper layer and the surface of the superconducting planar array antenna 101 in the lower layer are joined here, the back surfaces may be joined when the number of layers is two. According to this, if the ground is formed on one of the back surfaces, the other can be shared, and the process can be simplified. At this time, the thickness of the two substrates is preferably 0.5 to 0.6 mm. This value also needs to be appropriately selected according to the frequency and the type of the substrate.

(Embodiment 2) There is also a method of increasing the gain by feeding power to only one of a plurality of stacked superconducting planar array antennas. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, two superconducting planar array antennas having the same pattern are stacked so as to overlap substantially at the same position. At this time, since the power is supplied only to the lower superconducting planar array antenna 101, the superconducting stripline 5 serving as the feeder line in the pattern of the upper superconducting planar array antenna 102 is unnecessary. A superconducting film is formed on the back surface of the lower superconducting planar array antenna 101 as a ground.

The thickness of the substrate is set to １ ／ of the effective wavelength of the frequency of 12 GHz, and the lower superconducting planar array antenna 101 is formed.
When power was fed to only the upper layer and the lower layer superconducting planar array antenna, the same gain as that obtained when power was fed to each of the antennas was obtained. Here, the effective wavelength is a value obtained by dividing the reception wavelength by √ε (ε: dielectric constant of the substrate). Substrate thickness is set to 1 / effective wavelength
The gain decreases when the wavelength is shifted from 4, and when the effective wavelength becomes 0.05 or less or 0.4 or more, the gain becomes 12 dB or less. In addition, the gain was 15 dB or more at 0.2 to 0.3. Therefore, in this case, the thickness of the substrate is preferably in the range of 0.05 to 0.4, preferably 0.2 to 0.3 of the effective wavelength. The reason why high gain was obtained by feeding only the lower superconducting planar array antenna 101 was that the upper superconducting planar array antenna 102 and the lower superconducting planar array antenna 101 were used.
It is considered that this is due to the excitation effect between. It is considered that the same effect is obtained because high power was obtained by feeding power to each of the upper and lower superconducting planar array antennas described above. However, in this case, there is an optimum value where the thickness of the substrate is thinner than １ ／ of the wavelength. In the case where a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas as described above are stacked, it is not necessary that the patterns overlap at exactly the same position. As mentioned above,
The thickness of the substrate is set to 0.05 to 0.4, preferably 0.2 to 0.3, and more preferably 1/4 of the effective wavelength, and power is supplied to only one of the superconducting planar array antennas stacked. It is also possible to obtain a higher gain, and according to this, only one power supply is required, so that the circuit configuration is simplified, and the effect increases as the number of stacked layers increases. In addition,
There is no problem if power is supplied to every other superconducting planar array antenna.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a high-frequency device according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The superconducting planar array antenna 301 in the lower layer and the superconducting planar array antenna 302 in the upper layer have the same pattern, but are stacked so that the antennas are overlapped in a state of being rotated by 180 °. When the pattern is rotated by 180 °, the power supply position is naturally 180 °.
° rotate. At this time, the thickness of the substrate was 0.5 mm. The upper and lower superconducting planar array antennas 301 and 302 of the stacked array antenna have a phase difference of 1 respectively.
By supplying power at 80 °, the power supply of FIG.
The gain was further improved as compared with the device of No. 1 and the value was 20 dB. This is presumably because some effect was added by inverting the pattern and the phase difference in addition to the above-described excitation effect. To further increase the number of layers, the patterns and phases may be alternately inverted and stacked.
When power was supplied by laminating the pattern and the phase difference by 90 °, the gain was almost the same as that of the device of FIG.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a high-frequency device according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. The basic configuration is the same as that of FIG. 3 except that the superconducting planar array antenna 402 in the upper layer and the superconducting planar array antenna 40 in the lower layer are used here.
The layers are shifted at the position of No. 1. When the radiation pattern of this element was measured, it showed characteristics as shown in FIG. The radiation patterns of the elements of Examples 1 to 3 are perpendicular to the substrate, but by shifting the position of the antenna as shown in FIG. 4, the radiation pattern is changed from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction by the interaction between the upper and lower antennas. You can change the direction. By changing the value of a in FIG. 4, the direction of the radiation pattern can be controlled. That is, as the value of a increases, the direction becomes more horizontal. Thus, by shifting the positions of the upper and lower antennas and changing the shift width, the direction of the radiation pattern of the element can be controlled. Furthermore, directivity can be freely controlled by providing a mechanism for moving at least one of the superconducting planar array antennas in the horizontal direction using a manipulator. In this case, mechanical bonding is performed without bonding between the substrates.

(Embodiment 5) FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a high-frequency device according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention. Under the superconducting planar array antennas 501 and 502 stacked, a stripline 504 composed of a superconductor, a mixer 505, and L
An element is formed by stacking an integrated circuit 503 including an O filter 506 and an IF filter 507. Mixer 505
Consists of a weakly-coupled Josephson junction formed by previously forming a damaged portion on a substrate by FIB irradiation and forming a superconducting thin film thereon. That is, after forming a superconducting thin film on a substrate, the integrated circuit 503 can be manufactured only by performing a normal photolithography process once. Although the RF filter is omitted here, the directional antenna, that is, the stacked superconducting planar array antennas 501 and 502 play the role of the RF filter. The laminated superconducting planar array antenna is basically the same as that shown in FIG. 2, but the strip line in each of the superconducting planar array antennas 501 and 502 is not required. 50
8 is provided. The shapes and positions of the four openings 508 of each superconducting planar array antenna are exactly the same. The end of the strip line 504 is formed below each of the openings 508 so as to overlap. At this time, a patch antenna may be formed at the end of the strip line. Each opening 5
08 is previously processed into a substrate before forming a superconducting thin film. Each of these openings functions as a slot antenna, and a signal of 12 GHz is dropped to the strip line 504 of the integrated circuit 503. Therefore, if the LO is set to 11 GHz, an IF signal of 1 GHz can be extracted. In fact, when trying to receive a BS broadcast with this element, it was possible to receive with high sensitivity. In this way, by providing an opening in the stacked superconducting planar array antenna, and superposing the filter, the mixer, and the stripline integrated circuit composed of the superconductor and forming an integrated circuit, it is possible to fit all in one small refrigerator. It is possible to manufacture a small and highly sensitive receiving element. Here, for the sake of simplicity, the number of stacked array antennas is set to two, but the same is true even if the number of stacked arrays is increased.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas in which a plurality of superconducting antennas are formed in parallel on the same substrate are stacked, and a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas are further stacked. The conductive planar array antennas have the same pattern, each superconducting planar array antenna pattern is stacked at a position where it is excited, and at least one of the stacked superconducting planar array antennas is fed with power, Further, by setting the thickness of the substrate to 0.05 to 0.4 of the effective wavelength of transmission and reception, there is an effect that a small-sized high-gain high-frequency element can be provided.

Further, according to the present invention, a small-sized high-gain high-frequency element can be provided by feeding power to each of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked and shifting each feeding position and phase by 180 °. It has the effect of.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect that a high-frequency element capable of controlling the direction of the radiation pattern of the element can be provided by stacking the patterns of the respective superconducting planar array antennas while being shifted in the plane direction.

According to the present invention, an opening is provided in each of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked,
By stacking a filter and a strip line circuit having at least a mixer made of a superconductor under the lowermost superconducting planar array antenna, it is possible to provide a small and highly sensitive high-frequency element that can be all accommodated in one small refrigerator. It has the effect of.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect that the circuit configuration can be simplified by removing the RF filter from the high-frequency element in which the directional antenna is formed.

Further, according to the present invention, by providing a moving mechanism for moving at least one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked in a plane direction, the directivity of the antenna can be freely controlled. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas constituting a high-frequency device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a high-frequency device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a high-frequency device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a high-frequency element according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating characteristics of a high-frequency element according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a high-frequency device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2, 3, 4 Superconducting antenna 5, 504 Strip line 6 Substrate 102, 302, 401, 501 Lower superconducting planar array antenna 101, 301, 402, 502 Upper superconducting planar array antenna 503 Integrated circuit 505 Mixer 506 LO filter 507 IF filter 508 Opening

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Taketomi Kamikawa 3-5-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A high-frequency device comprising a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas each having a plurality of superconductor antennas formed in parallel on the same substrate. 2. The high-frequency device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of superconducting planar array antennas has the same pattern. 3. The high frequency device according to claim 2, wherein the patterns of the superconducting planar array antennas are stacked at positions where they are excited. 4. The high frequency device according to claim 3, wherein power is supplied to at least one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas. 5. The method according to claim 5, wherein the thickness of the substrate is set to 0.0.
4. The high frequency device according to claim 3, wherein the value is 5 to 0.4. 6. The high-frequency device according to claim 2, wherein power is supplied to each of the plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked, and the power supply position and the phase of each superconducting planar array antenna are shifted by 180 °. 7. The high-frequency device according to claim 2, wherein the patterns of the superconducting planar array antennas are stacked while being shifted in a plane direction. 8. A plurality of superconducting planar array antennas each having an opening provided therein, and a filter and a strip line circuit having at least a mixer made of a superconductor are superimposed below a lowermost superconducting planar array antenna. A high frequency device characterized by the above-mentioned. 9. A high-frequency element provided with a directional antenna, wherein an RF filter is removed. 10. A high-frequency device comprising a moving mechanism for moving at least one of a plurality of superconducting planar array antennas stacked in a plane direction.