KR102415784B1 - A microstrip antenna and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving radar signal with the antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a microstrip antenna and a radar signal transmission/reception device having the same. The present invention proposes a microstrip antenna characterized in that a dielectric including a ground plane and a microstrip line having a length of 1/2 in-pipe wavelength are electrically connected to each other and connected in a zigzag form, and a radar signal transmission/reception device having the same do. An antenna according to the present invention includes a main body constituting the body of the antenna; and a strip line portion formed on one surface of the body portion, arranged to face different directions, and including interconnected conductors.

Description

A microstrip antenna and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving radar signal with the antenna

The present invention relates to a microstrip antenna. The present invention also relates to a vehicle radar signal transceiver having a microstrip antenna.

Microstrip antenna is suitable for mass production because it is manufactured with a printed board, and it is sturdy because it has a low height and is flat. Therefore, the microstrip antenna is widely used as an array antenna element requiring a large number of small antennas.

"A 79GHz Differentially Fed Grid Array Antenna; Frei, M./Bauer, F./Menzel, W./Stelzer, A./Maurer, L.; in EUROPEAN MICROWAVE CONFERENCE; 1320-1323; 41st European microwave conference (EuMC 2011) ); Manchester, United Kingdom, 10 ~ 13 October 2011" proposes a grid array antenna composed of 10 square microstrip line loop elements as a microstrip antenna. This antenna is connected by a line having a half-wavelength (in-pipe wavelength) length based on the center frequency for in-phase, and the central loop is connected by a differential microstrip line.

However, in the antenna, the y-axis direction of current flowing to the grid cancels out each other and the polarized wave is configured in the x-axis direction, which is the grid array direction, so that the polarized wave in the direction orthogonal to the array cannot be configured. In addition, since the power is supplied from the center of the array antenna, if an RF chip is mounted on a single plane in which the antenna is configured, interference of the RF chip may occur when the grid antennas are arranged.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, wherein a dielectric including a ground plane and a microstrip line having a length of 1/2 the tube wavelength are electrically connected to each other and connected in a zigzag form. An object of the present invention is to propose an antenna and a radar signal transmission/reception device having the same.

However, the object of the present invention is not limited to the above, and other objects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

The present invention is a body part constituting the body of the antenna; and a strip line formed on one surface of the main body, arranged to face different directions, and including interconnected conductors.

Preferably, the strip line unit includes: at least one first unit element including a first conductor and a second conductor forming a first predetermined angle; and at least one second unit element including a third conductor connected to any one of the first conductor and the second conductor and forming a second predetermined angle with the one of the conductors.

Preferably, the first conductor or the second conductor has a different width than the third conductor.

Preferably, the strip line unit includes at least two first unit elements, and as one of the at least two first unit elements, a first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line unit includes the at least two first unit elements. As another one of the one unit elements, the width is wider than that of the first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part.

Preferably, the strip line part further includes at least one first unit element between a first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part and a first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part, and the strip line The width of the first unit element positioned at the center of the part is the widest and the width of the first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part is the narrowest.

Preferably, the strip line part further includes at least two first unit elements between a first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part and a first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part, and the at least two Among the first unit elements of , a first unit element positioned closer to the first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line portion has a relatively wider width.

Preferably, the conductors are interconnected in a zigzag fashion.

Preferably, the conductors are interconnected in a zigzag form in a left and right direction with respect to the body portion.

Preferably, the microstrip antenna has a polarization orthogonal to an arrangement direction of the conductors.

Preferably, the conductor positioned at one end of the strip line part is connected to a power feed, and the conductor positioned at the other end of the strip line part is opened.

Preferably, the microstrip antenna functions as a grounding (GND), and is separate from the main body, and further includes a grounding unit attached to the other surface of the main body or integrally formed with the main body.

Preferably, the microstrip antenna is mounted on a vehicle and used when transmitting and receiving radar signals.

Preferably, the main body is formed of a dielectric substrate having a dielectric constant of 2.5 or more and 7.0 or less.

Preferably, two conductors adjacent to each other in the strip line part form an obtuse angle.

Preferably, the width of the conductors continuously increases from one end to the other end and then continuously decreases.

Preferably, the microstrip antenna further includes an impedance matching unit for controlling an impedance of the strip line unit at at least one end of the strip line unit.

In addition, the present invention is a radar signal generating unit for generating a radar signal; and outputting the radar signal to the outside and receiving the reflected and returned radar signal, the body portion constituting the body of the antenna, and formed on one surface of the body portion, arranged to face in different directions and interconnected We propose a radar signal transceiver device comprising a microstrip antenna including a strip line section including conductors.

Preferably, the radar signal transceiver is mounted on a vehicle.

The present invention can obtain the following effects through the configurations for achieving the above object.

First, it is possible to construct a microstrip line array antenna having a polarization orthogonal to the array direction.

Second, since power is supplied from one end of the array antenna and the other end is open, interference of the RF chip can be prevented.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a first reference diagram for explaining the principle of operation of the microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a second reference diagram for explaining the operating principle of the microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a first reference diagram for explaining performance verification of the present invention through simulation.
5 is a second reference diagram for explaining performance verification of the present invention through simulation.
6 is a conceptual diagram of a microstrip line array antenna according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First of all, it should be noted that in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, the same components are given the same reference numerals as much as possible even though they are indicated on different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below, but the technical spirit of the present invention is not limited thereto and may be variously implemented by those skilled in the art without being limited thereto.

The microstrip antenna is one of the planar antennas, and is used in high-performance aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, missile, and mobile communication fields in which size, weight, price, performance, ease of installation, air resistance, etc. must be considered.

The microstrip antenna is thin and can be easily attached to both flat and non-planar surfaces. In addition, the microstrip antenna is inexpensive because it can be easily manufactured using printed circuit technology, and is suitable for MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) design.

The microstrip antenna can change the resonant frequency, polarization, pattern and impedance by selecting the patch shape and mode. That is, the microstrip antenna can arbitrarily vary the resonance frequency, impedance, polarization and pattern by adding an active element such as a pin or a varactor diode as a load between the patch and the ground plate.

The present invention proposes a microstrip line array antenna having a polarization characteristic orthogonal to the array direction and capable of terminal feeding for direct integration on a single plane with an RF chip.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the microstrip line array antenna 100 includes a body part 110 and a strip line part 120 .

The strip line unit 120 is formed on one surface of the body unit 110 and includes interconnected conductors 121 . The conductors 121 are arranged to face different directions and constitute the strip line unit 120 .

The conductors 121 may be interconnected in a zigzag form. In particular, the conductors 121 may be interconnected in a zigzag form in the left and right directions with respect to the main body 110 . The microstrip line array antenna 100 may have a polarization perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the conductors 121 connected as described above. A more detailed description thereof will be described later with reference to FIG. 2 .

Meanwhile, the conductor (ex. 123) located at one end of the strip line unit 120 is connected to a power feed, and the conductor (ex. 124) located at the other end of the strip line unit 120 is open. do.

The strip line unit 120 may include at least one first unit element 122 and at least one second unit element 125 .

The first unit element 122 includes a first conductor and a second conductor forming a first predetermined angle.

The second unit element 125 includes a third conductor connected to any one of the first conductor and the second conductor. In this case, the third conductor forms a second predetermined angle with the connected conductors (ie, any one of the first conductors and the second conductors connected to the third conductor).

The first conductor or the second conductor is formed to have a width different from that of the third conductor. Comparing the first conductor and the second conductor constituting one unit element (ie, the first unit element 122 ), both the length and the width are the same. On the other hand, when comparing the first conductor and the third conductor constituting different unit elements (that is, the first unit element 122 and the second unit element 125), the length is the same, but the width is not the same. do. The same is true for the second conductor and the third conductor. That is, in the case of the second conductor and the third conductor, the length is the same but the width is not the same.

The strip line unit 120 includes at least two first unit elements. At this time, as one of the at least two first unit elements, the first unit element 122 positioned at the center of the strip line unit 120 is the other one of the at least two first unit elements. It is wider than the first unit element 123 or 124 positioned at one end of the .

In the strip line unit 120 , the first unit element is positioned at the center 122 of the strip line unit, both ends 123 or 124 of the strip line unit. The first unit element 122 positioned at the center of the strip line unit 120 is wider than the first unit elements 123 and 124 positioned at both ends of the strip line unit 120 , and the strip line unit The first unit elements 123 and 124 positioned at both ends of 120 are formed to have the same width. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the first unit elements 123 and 124 positioned at both ends of the strip line unit 120 may be formed to have non-uniform widths. However, even in this case, the first unit elements 123 and 124 positioned at both ends of the strip line unit 120 are formed to be narrower in width than the first unit elements 122 positioned at the center of the strip line unit 120 . .

The strip line unit 120 includes at least one between the first unit element 122 located in the center of the strip line unit 120 and the first unit element 123 or 124 located at one end of the strip line unit 120 . may further include a first unit element of

In the above description, the first unit element 122 positioned at the center of the strip line unit 120 is defined as the 1A unit element, and the first unit element 123 or 124 positioned at one end of the strip line unit 120 is formed. It is defined as a 1B unit element, and a first unit element positioned between the 1A unit element and the 1B unit element is defined as a 1C unit element.

When there is only one 1C unit element, the width of the first unit element 1A is the widest and the width of the first unit element 1B is the narrowest. The 1C unit element has an intermediate width. That is, the first C unit element is narrower than the first A unit element and wider than the first B unit element.

Next, when there are two 1C unit elements, a 1C unit element located relatively close to the 1A unit element is defined as a 1Ca unit element, and a 1C unit element located relatively far from the 1A unit element (that is, the first C unit element positioned relatively close to the first B unit element) is defined as the first Cb unit element. In this case, the result of comparing the widths of the 1A unit element, the 1Ca unit element, the 1Cb unit element, and the 1B unit element is as follows.

1A unit element > 1Ca unit element > 1Cb unit element > 1B unit element

On the other hand, when there are three or more 1C unit elements, the first Ca unit element, the 1Cb unit element, . , Let it be defined as the first Cn unit element. In this case, the first A unit element, the first Ca unit element, the first Cb unit element, ... , The result of comparing the widths of the first Cn unit element and the first B unit element is as follows.

1A unit element > 1 Ca unit element > 1Cb unit element > ... > 1Cn unit element > 1B unit element

As described above, when there are two or more 1C unit elements, the width of the 1C unit elements located closer to the 1A unit element is relatively wider.

The main body 110 constitutes the body of the antenna 100 and may be implemented as a dielectric substrate.

The microstrip line array antenna 100 may further include a ground unit (not shown).

The ground part functions as a ground (GND). This grounding part is separate from the body part 110 and may be attached to the other surface of the body part 110 . Here, the other surface of the body part 110 means a surface different from the one surface of the body part 110 on which the strip line part 120 is formed. In addition, the grounding part may be integrally formed with the body part 110 , such as being embedded in the body part 110 or adhesively formed on one surface of the body part 110 .

The above-described microstrip line array antenna 100 may be mounted on a vehicle and used when transmitting and receiving radar signals. For example, the microstrip line array antenna 100 may be mounted on a 77 GHz Long Range forward radar system.

The characteristics of the microstrip line array antenna 100 described above with reference to FIG. 1 are summarized as follows.

First, the microstrip line array antenna 100 is characterized in that a dielectric substrate 110 including a ground plane and a microstrip line 120 having a length of 1/2 the tube wavelength are electrically connected to each other and connected in a zigzag form. do it with

Second, it is characterized in that the feed is located at one end of the microstrip line 120 constituting the microstrip line array antenna 100, and the opposite end is opened.

Third, the center of the microstrip line 120 constituting the microstrip line array antenna 100 is characterized in that it has a thicker width than the end. The above-described characteristics of the microstrip line array antenna 100 make it easy to secure the side lobe level.

Fourth, it is characterized in that the zigzag current flow of the microstrip line 120 constituting the microstrip line array antenna 100 has a polarization orthogonal to the direction in which it is arranged through mutual cancellation and constructive interference. That is, the microstrip line array antenna 100 is characterized as an array antenna having a polarization component orthogonal to the array direction through the cancellation and constructive interference of the current due to the zigzag arrangement.

2 is a first reference diagram for explaining the principle of operation of the microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention. And FIG. 3 is a second reference diagram for explaining the principle of operation of the microstrip line array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention. The following description refers to FIGS. 2 and 3 .

The left view in FIG. 2 shows the antenna structure concept. Reference numeral 210 denotes a first unit device having one wavelength (one wavelength in the tube), and reference numeral 220 denotes a second unit device having a half wavelength (1/2 wavelength in the tube).

Each microstrip line has a half in-pipe wavelength, and actual radiation is generated at a portion bent by the microstrip lines. At this time, the vector component in the direction in which the current is bent destructively interferes with the current, so that the actually radiated polarized wave has only a component orthogonal to the direction in which it is arranged. The middle and right views of FIG. 2 illustrate this. In the middle view, reference numeral 230 denotes currents for the purpose of radiation, and reference numeral 240 denotes currents for the purpose of transmission. In the right view of FIG. 2 , reference numeral 250 denotes a radiation field by vector summation.

Meanwhile, FIG. 3 shows a simulated E-field vector (Electric Field Vector) as a result of the HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simulator) of FIG. 2 .

As described above with reference to FIG. 1 , the width of the microstrip line at the center is relatively thick compared to the microstrip line at the end to secure the level of the side leaf. This allows for greater radiation to occur at the center than at the ends. Therefore, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to secure a side lobe level smaller than the side lobe level of about -13.3 dB, which is a theoretical value, during uniform radiation.

4 is a first reference diagram for explaining performance verification of the present invention through simulation. And FIG. 5 is a second reference diagram for explaining the performance verification of the present invention through simulation.

4 shows an E-field distribution diagram. In FIG. 4, (a) shows a color value for each electric field intensity, and (b) shows a simulation result of the microstrip line array antenna 100 .

As a result of analyzing an embodiment of the microstrip line array antenna 100 using an EM simulation tool (HFSS), as shown in FIG. It can be seen that the distribution of the E-field is similar to the expected result of the operation principle, with a large field strength at the center of the antenna and a relatively weak field strength at the ends.

5 is a graph showing normalized radiation patterns in azimuth and elevation directions. In FIG. 5 , each curve information of reference numerals 310 to 360 is as follows.

310: Freq = 76.5 GHz, Phi = 0 deg

320: Freq = 76 GHz, Phi = 90 deg

330: Freq = 76 GHz, Phi = 0 deg

340: Freq = 77 GHz, Phi = 90 deg

350: Freq = 77 GHz, Phi = 0 deg

360: Freq = 76.5 GHz, Phi = 90 deg

According to FIG. 5 , it can be seen that the side lobe level of the elevation angle including the surface in the direction in which the microstrip line 120 is arranged has a small value compared to the uniform distribution of about -19 dB.

An embodiment of the present invention has been described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 . The present invention described above is a structure in which a polarization in a direction orthogonal to the arrangement direction can be simply implemented by using the cancelation and constructive interference phenomena of some of the vector components of the current through the zigzag arrangement. Hereinafter, the effects of the present invention according to the above-described embodiment are summarized as follows.

First, the microstrip line array antenna 100 is characterized in that it has a polarization orthogonal to the array direction. This is a component orthogonal to the polarization of the prior art. This provides effective performance (performance improvement) in multi-function implementation using the polarization of the radar applied in the embodiment of the antenna.

Second, the microstrip line array antenna 100 is a terminal feeding structure, and it is possible to directly connect the RF chip to the terminal of the antenna. It can also be implemented through a PCB process on a dielectric substrate (process simplification).

Third, when the microstrip line array antenna 100 is directly connected to the RF chip and the terminal, it is possible to direct it through a simple SMT process without the need for a board or a connection part for a separate RF configuration, thereby reducing the number of parts.

Fourth, in the practical application of the microstrip line array antenna 100, it is possible to reduce the weight by reducing the number of parts through RF and directization.

Fifth, simplification of the process, reduction in the number of parts, and weight reduction are all effective as cost reduction factors of the microstrip line array antenna 100 .

Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, the microstrip line array antenna 100 may further include an impedance matching unit. Hereinafter, this will be described. 6 is a conceptual diagram of a microstrip line array antenna according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The impedance matching unit 300 controls the impedance of the conductors constituting the strip line unit 120 at one end of the strip line unit 120 .

For example, the impedance matching unit 300 may be implemented as an impedance matching circuit such as a 1/4 impedance matcher for impedance matching when a current flows from the A terminal to the B terminal as shown in FIG. 6 .

Meanwhile, two conductors adjacent to each other in the strip line unit 120 may form an obtuse angle. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6 , the conductors constituting the strip line unit 120 may continuously increase in width from one end to the other, and then decrease continuously. Hereinafter, this will be described.

In order to secure the performance against the manufacturing tolerance of the microstrip line array antenna 100, it is preferable to avoid forming the etched portion at an acute angle. Therefore, it is preferable that the microstrip lines configured for each radiation are not directly connected to each other, but are connected to gradually change the thickness. 6 shows an example suitable for such a configuration.

Comparing conductor A 311 , conductor B 312 , and conductor C 313 in FIG. 6 , in the strip line portion 120 , the width of the conductor continues from conductor A 311 to conductor B 312 . It can be seen that the width of the conductor continuously decreases from conductor B 312 to conductor C 313 after increasing to .

Meanwhile, the main body 110 may be formed of a dielectric substrate having a dielectric constant of 2.5 or more and 7.0 or less. Hereinafter, this will be described.

In the case of the microstrip line array antenna 100, if a low dielectric constant substrate (a substrate having a relative dielectric constant less than about 2.5) is used, the length of the wavelength in the tube increases depending on the direction in which the conductors are arranged, so grating lobes may occur. . Therefore, in this embodiment, it is preferable to use a substrate having a relative permittivity higher than about 2.5 for suppression of the grating lobes.

In an embodiment, the microstrip line array antenna 100 is implemented on a dielectric substrate having a relative permittivity of about 3.

The radar signal transceiver apparatus according to the present invention includes a radar signal generator and a microstrip line array antenna 100 . Such a radar signal transceiver may be mounted on a vehicle.

The radar signal generator generates a radar signal and has the same concept as the RF module.

The microstrip line array antenna 100 outputs the radar signal generated by the radar signal generator to the outside, and receives the reflected radar signal. A more detailed description of the characteristics of the microstrip line array antenna 100 has been described above, and thus will be omitted below.

Even though all the components constituting the embodiment of the present invention described above are described as being combined or operated in combination, the present invention is not necessarily limited to this embodiment. That is, within the scope of the object of the present invention, all the components may operate by selectively combining one or more. In addition, all of the components may be implemented as one independent hardware, but a part or all of each component is selectively combined to perform some or all of the functions combined in one or a plurality of hardware program modules It may be implemented as a computer program having In addition, such a computer program is stored in a computer readable media such as a USB memory, a CD disk, a flash memory, etc., read and executed by a computer, thereby implementing the embodiment of the present invention. The computer program recording medium may include a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, a carrier wave medium, and the like.

In addition, all terms including technical or scientific terms have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs, unless otherwise defined in the detailed description. Terms commonly used, such as those defined in the dictionary, should be interpreted as being consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art, and are not interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present invention.

The above description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various modifications, changes, and substitutions are possible within the range that does not depart from the essential characteristics of the present invention by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains. will be. Accordingly, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention and the accompanying drawings are for explaining, not limiting, the technical spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the technical spirit of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments and the accompanying drawings . The protection scope of the present invention should be construed by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope equivalent thereto should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims (18)

a body part constituting the body of the antenna; and
It is formed on one surface of the body part, and it includes a strip line part that is arranged to face in different directions and includes interconnected conductors,
The strip line unit,
at least one first unit element including a first conductor and a second conductor forming a predetermined first angle; and
At least one second unit element including a third conductor connected to any one of the first conductor and the second conductor and forming a second predetermined angle with the one conductor
Microstrip antenna comprising a. delete The method of claim 1,
The first conductor or the second conductor is a microstrip antenna, characterized in that the width is different from that of the third conductor. The method of claim 1,
The strip line unit includes at least two first unit elements,
A first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part as one of the at least two first unit elements is the other one of the at least two first unit elements, and a first unit positioned at one end of the strip line part Microstrip antenna, characterized in that the width is wider than the element. 5. The method of claim 4,
The strip line part further includes at least one first unit element between a first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part and a first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part,
A microstrip antenna, characterized in that the width of the first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part is the widest and the width of the first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part is the narrowest. 5. The method of claim 4,
The strip line part further includes at least two first unit elements between a first unit element positioned at the center of the strip line part and a first unit element positioned at one end of the strip line part,
The microstrip antenna according to claim 1, wherein the width of the first unit element located closer to the first unit element located at the center of the strip line part among the at least two first unit elements is relatively wider. The method of claim 1,
The microstrip antenna, characterized in that the conductors are interconnected in a zigzag form. 8. The method of claim 7,
The conductors are microstrip antenna, characterized in that interconnected in a zigzag form in the left and right direction with respect to the main body. 8. The method of claim 7,
The microstrip antenna is a microstrip antenna, characterized in that it has a polarization orthogonal to the arrangement direction of the conductors. The method of claim 1,
A conductor positioned at one end of the strip line part is connected to a power feed, and the conductor positioned at the other end of the strip line part is open. a body part constituting the body of the antenna;
a strip line portion formed on one surface of the body portion, arranged to face different directions and including interconnected conductors; and
A microstrip antenna comprising a; as a ground (GND) function, which is separate from the main body and is attached to the other surface of the main body or is integrally formed with the main body. The method of claim 1,
The microstrip antenna is mounted on a vehicle and is used when transmitting and receiving radar signals. a body part constituting the body of the antenna; and
a strip line portion formed on one surface of the body portion, arranged to face different directions, and including interconnected conductors; and
The microstrip antenna, characterized in that the main body is formed of a dielectric substrate having a dielectric constant of 2.5 or more and 7.0 or less. The method of claim 1,
Two conductors adjacent to each other in the strip line part form an obtuse angle. a body part constituting the body of the antenna; and
a strip line portion formed on one surface of the body portion, arranged to face different directions, and including interconnected conductors; and
A microstrip antenna, characterized in that the width of the conductors continuously increases from one end to the other end and then continuously decreases. The method of claim 1,
An impedance matching unit for controlling an impedance of the strip line unit at least at one end of the strip line unit
Microstrip antenna further comprising a. a radar signal generator generating a radar signal; and
The radar signal is output to the outside, and the reflected radar signal is received, the body part constituting the body of the antenna, and the conductor formed on one surface of the body part, arranged to face different directions and interconnected Microstrip antenna including a strip line comprising
Radar signal transmission and reception device comprising a. 18. The method of claim 17,
The radar signal transmission/reception device is a radar signal transmission/reception device, characterized in that it is mounted on a vehicle.

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