KR102648078B1 - Slot Array Antenna Using Multiple Holes - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention includes a resonator whose one side is open, and whose other side opposite to the open side is connected to a connector, and power is supplied through the connector; and a metal plate coupled to the open surface of the resonator and having a plurality of holes formed thereon to radiate radio waves into the resonator through the holes, wherein the metal plate has a plurality of holes n×m (n, m is an integer of 1 or more) or is formed radially based on the center of the metal plate, so that it is small in size, easy to design, and improves the performance of the antenna.

Description

Slot Array Antenna Using Multiple Holes}

The present invention relates to an array antenna applied to a high frequency band, and more specifically, to a planar array antenna in which radio waves are radiated through a metal plate.

As wireless communication services are widely used and related technologies develop, various types of antennas are being developed to meet various standards. With the recent commercialization of 6G mobile communications, antennas are required to communicate high frequency signals in the THz band (100 GHz or higher). An antenna suitable for signal communication in a high frequency band must be able to minimize path loss and loss occurring from the antenna material itself. In particular, antennas used for signal communication in high frequency bands may have high path loss. Therefore, a highly directional array antenna is essential to compensate for this.

At this time, it may be considered whether a horn antenna, a widely used antenna, can be used in a high frequency band. However, commercial dielectrics that make up conventional antennas still have this path loss problem. Therefore, to minimize this loss, an antenna with a metal structure instead of a dielectric was used. However, manufacturing an antenna using a metal structure causes problems in that the manufacturing process is difficult, the size of the antenna increases, and the cost of manufacturing the antenna increases. To solve this problem, a technology to design a flat antenna was developed. Compared to existing horn antennas, flat-type antennas have the advantage of being small in size and easy to manufacture, making them easy to design and manufacture even in high frequency bands.

However, in the case of such a planar antenna, the gain of radio waves radiated through the metal plate is low due to the influence of the shape of the metal plate. Accordingly, the present applicant conducted research and development on the shape of a metal plate that can optimize antenna gain in the high frequency range.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0117855 Korean Patent No. 10-1099255

The present invention was designed to solve the above-mentioned problem, and its purpose is to provide an antenna capable of securing antenna performance by compensating for high path loss occurring in a high frequency band and optimizing the radiation gain propagated through a metal plate.

The problems that the present invention seeks to solve are not limited to the problems mentioned above. Other problems and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood by the description below.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes: a resonator whose one side is open, and whose other side opposite to the open side is connected to a connector so that power is supplied through the connector; and a metal plate coupled to the open surface of the resonator and having a plurality of holes formed thereon to radiate radio waves into the resonator through the holes, wherein the metal plate has a plurality of holes n×m (n, m is an integer of 1 or more) and is characterized in that it is formed in an array or radially based on the center of the metal plate.

Preferably, the metal plate may have a plurality of holes radiated in two directions perpendicular to the center of the metal plate.

Preferably, the metal plate may be formed in an n×m (n, m is an integer of 1 or more) arrangement in which a plurality of the holes are rotated in a range of 0 degrees to 90 degrees.

Preferably, in the metal plate, the arrangement spacing between the holes may be less than 1 wavelength.

Preferably, the metal plate may have a plurality of the holes formed in a combination of an n × m (n, m is an integer greater than 1) array and a p × q (p, q is an integer greater than 1) array on one side. .

According to the present invention, since the antenna is configured as a flat type, it has the advantage of having a simpler structure and being easier to design and manufacture than the existing resonator type slot antenna. In addition, the metal plate shape of the present invention is a shape that allows radio wave radiation with improved antenna gain even in the case of high-frequency signals, and has the effect of compensating for high path loss and improving antenna performance.

Figure 1a is a configuration diagram of a slot array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where holes are formed in a 2×2 array.
FIG. 1B shows the center of the slot array antenna of FIG. 1A cut off according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2a is a configuration diagram of a slot array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case in which holes are formed in a cross shape.
FIG. 2B shows the center of the slot array antenna of FIG. 2A cut off according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of a slot array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where holes are formed in a honeycomb shape.
Figure 4 is a configuration diagram of a slot array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case in which holes formed in 3 rows and 3 columns are rotated by 45 degrees.
Figure 5 shows a general array structure and beam steering control.
Figure 6 shows the spacing arrangement structure and beam steering control.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited or limited by the exemplary embodiments. The same reference numerals in each drawing indicate members that perform substantially the same function.

The purpose and effect of the present invention can be naturally understood or become clearer through the following description, and the purpose and effect of the present invention are not limited to the following description. Additionally, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of known techniques related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted.

Figure 1a is a configuration diagram of a slot array antenna 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where holes 310 are formed in a 2×2 array. FIG. 1B shows the center of the slot array antenna 10 of FIG. 1A cut off according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The slot array antenna 1 may be an array antenna with high manufacturability applicable to high frequency bands such as THz through a plurality of holes 310. Compared to existing resonator-type slot antennas, it is very easy to design and has a simple structure, making it easy to design and manufacture in the THz band. The slot array antenna 1 may include a resonator 10 and a metal plate 30.

One side of the resonator 10 is open, and the other side opposite to the open side is connected to the connector 110 so that power can be supplied through the connector 110. As an example of the connector 110, the connector 110 may be a waveguide. Referring to FIG. 1A or 2B, the connector 110 may be located at the center of one side of the resonator 10. As an example of the shape of the resonator 10, FIGS. 1A to 4 illustrate the case where the resonator 10 is square, but the shape of the resonator 10 is not limited to this and may vary, such as circular.

The metal plate 30 is coupled to one open surface of the resonator 10, and a plurality of holes 310 are formed so that radio waves can be radiated into the resonator 10 through the holes 310. That is, the slot array antenna 1 of the present invention is provided with a metal plate 30 with a plurality of holes 310 formed on the upper surface of the resonator 10 fed through the connector 110, and the holes 310 of the metal plate 30 ) can be designed to radiate radio waves through.

The slot array antenna 1 of the present invention may be affected by the height of the resonator 100, and in particular, the size of the hole 310 disposed in the metal plate 30 or the occupied area occupied by the hole 310 among the metal plate 30. may be affected. In the embodiment of the present invention, the hole 310 is shown as a circular shape, but the hole 310 may have various shapes and is not limited thereto. For example, the hole 310 may be square. In one embodiment, when the hole 310 is circular, the gain or efficiency of the slot array antenna 1 may be determined according to the diameter (A) of the hole 310 and the distance between the hole centers (B), and the hole 310 ) is a square, it can be affected by the size of the area.

The metal plate 30 is coupled to the open surface of the resonator 100, and a plurality of holes 310 may be formed. The metal plate 30 can radiate radio waves into the resonator 100 through the plurality of holes 310.

The holes 310 may be formed in an n×m (n, m is an integer equal to or greater than 1) arrangement, or may be formed radially based on the center of the metal plate 30. Additionally, the metal plate 30 may have holes 310 radiated in two directions perpendicular to the center of the metal plate 30 . This form will be described in detail later in Figure 2a or Figure 2b. The metal plate 30 may be formed in an n×m (n, m is an integer equal to or greater than 1) arrangement in which the holes 310 are rotated by 90 degrees. This form will be described in detail in Figure 4 below. Additionally, the holes 310 may be formed by combining an n×m (n, m is an integer greater than 1) array and a p×q (p, q is an integer greater than 1) array on one side. At this time, n, m, p, and q include cases where two or more variables are the same or cases where all four variables are different. For example, a 4×2 array and a 2×2 array can be combined, and in this case, the 2×2 array can be combined on the right side of the 2nd and 3rd rows of the 4×2 array to form an ‘ㅏ’ shape. Accordingly, the arrangement of the holes 310 may be asymmetric.

Meanwhile, the distance B between the centers of the holes 310 formed in the metal plate 30 may be less than 1 wavelength in order to suppress the grating lobe. At this time, if the element antennas are arranged in a spaced array structure, the overall size of the horizontal and vertical axes can be electrically reduced to half of the existing structure to dx/2, dy/2, while the overall size of the horizontal and vertical axes remains the same. It has advantages. Through this, side lobe characteristics can be improved and steering errors can be minimized during beam steering control.

Figure 1a or 1b shows four holes 310 formed in a 2×2 arrangement. At this time, the four holes 310 formed in the metal plate 30 may be formed with the same distance B between the centers of the holes 310 between rows and columns based on the center point of the metal plate 30. 1A or 1B, as an embodiment of the present invention, the diameter (A) of the holes 310 may be 1.8 mm, and the spacing (B) between the holes 310 may be 2.0 mm. The distance (B) between the centers of the holes 310 represents the distance between the centers of two neighboring holes 310. In the case of Figure 1a or 1b, the hole 310 is formed in a square shape and the distance between the centers of the holes 310 is The distance (B) can be the same between rows and columns.

As shown in Figure 1a, four holes 310 are formed in a 2×2 arrangement, and when a square resonator structure is applied, the radiation characteristics are shown in [Table 1] below, and the 3D radiation pattern and antenna are shown in [Table 2] below. It represents efficiency. [Table 1] and [Table 2] are for the case where the hole 310 has a diameter of 1.8 mm, and are the results of analyzing the effect of the size of the resonator 10 on antenna performance and the optimal shape of the resonator 10.

Meanwhile, even when four holes 310 are formed in a 2×2 arrangement as shown in Figure 1a, when a circular resonator structure is applied, radiation characteristics and 3D radiation patterns are different from [Table 1] and [Table 2] where a square resonator structure is applied. and antenna efficiency. [Table 3] and [Table 4] below show the radiation characteristics ([Table 3]), 3D radiation pattern, and antenna efficiency ([Table 4]) when the hole 310 has a diameter of 1.8 mm, and the resonator 10 This is the result of analyzing the effect of the size on antenna performance and the optimal shape of the resonator 10.

Figure 2a is a configuration diagram of the slot array antenna 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where the holes 310 are formed in a cross shape. FIG. 2B shows the center of the slot array antenna 10 of FIG. 2A cut off according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B shows a total of five holes 310 being formed, with each hole 310 formed one by one on the top, bottom, left, and right based on the central hole 310. That is, the hole 310 may be formed in two axes, a vertical axis and a horizontal axis, and the two axes may be perpendicular to each other. Although FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B illustrates a case in which the hole 310 is shaped like a cross, a case in which the hole 310 located on an outer corner rather than the center is rotated 45 degrees (for example, in an X shape) may also be included. 2A or 2B is an embodiment of the present invention, in which the diameter (A) of the hole 310 may be 1.8 mm, and the distance (B) between the centers of the holes 310 may be 2.0 mm. FIG. 2B shows the center of the slot array antenna 10 being cut when the vertically formed holes 310 are vertical, and may show three vertically arranged holes 310 being cut.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the holes 310 are arranged in a cross shape, with three holes (total of five holes) formed on the horizontal and vertical axes, and when a circular resonator structure is applied, the radiation characteristics are shown in Table 5 below, and the holes 310 are shown in Table 6 below. ] shows the same 3D radiation pattern and antenna efficiency. [Table 5] and [Table 6] show the case where the hole 310 has a diameter of 1.8 mm, the array spacing between the holes 310 is 2 mm on both the horizontal and vertical axes, and the effect of the size of the resonator 10 on antenna performance and the resonator This is the result of analyzing the optimal shape of (10).

Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of the slot array antenna 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where the hole 310 is formed in a honeycomb shape. In the arrangement of the holes 310 in FIG. 3, the outer holes 310 may be formed radially around the central hole 310. The outer holes 310 may be linearly symmetrical to each other, or may be formed by rotating the position of the outer holes 310. Additionally, the outer hole 310 may be formed by rotating the outer hole 310 according to the diameter A of the hole 310. The number that can be formed may vary depending on the number. In the case of FIG. 3, as an example, the diameter (A) of the hole 310 is 1.8 mm, and the horizontal and vertical lengths of the resonator 10 are 10.0 mm. As an example, six outer holes 310 can be formed. .

When seven holes 310 with a diameter of 1.8 mm are radiated in a honeycomb shape as shown in FIG. 3, the radiation characteristics are shown in Table 7 below, and the 3D radiation pattern and antenna efficiency are shown in Table 8 below. [Table 7] and [Table 8] show that for the H-plane in which the holes 310 have structurally poor side lobe characteristics, at the arrangement distance when 3 holes 310 are arranged, 5 holes 310 are electrically Indicates a case with a configured effect. That is, this means that the gap between holes 310 is narrowed from 2 mm to 1 mm. Therefore, by minimizing the gap between holes 310 on the H-plane, side lobe performance can be improved.

Figure 4 is a configuration diagram of the slot array antenna 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a case where the holes 310 formed in 3 rows and 3 columns are rotated by 45 degrees. Figure 4 shows a case where the rotation angle is 45 degrees, but this is an embodiment of the present invention and may not be limited to the rotation angle.

When the holes 310 with a diameter of 1.8 mm formed in 3 rows and 3 columns as shown in FIG. 4 are rotated 45 degrees, the radiation characteristics are shown in [Table 9] below, and the 3D radiation pattern and antenna are shown in [Table 10] below. It represents efficiency. [Table 9] and [Table 10] show the case where 5 holes 310 have the effect of being electrically configured at the arrangement distance when 3 holes 310 are arranged for both E-plane and H-plane. indicates. In other words, this means that the spacing between holes 310 is narrowed from 2.8mm to 1.4mm, which has the effect of structurally widening the array spacing. Therefore, by minimizing the gap between holes 310 on the H-plane, side lobe performance can be improved.

Figure 5 shows a general array structure and beam steering control, and Figure 6 shows a spaced array structure and beam steering control. In order to improve the sidelobe characteristics of the resonator in which the hole 310 is formed as shown in FIG. 1A or FIG. 2A, an offset array structure can be applied to the resonator structure in which the hole 310 is formed as shown in FIG. 3. The spaced array structure may be a general square 8x2 array structure using 16 element antennas, as shown in FIG. 5. In this case, the array spacing of the holes 310 has dx and dy, and the array spacing can be designed to be less than 1 wavelength (λ) to suppress the grating lobe.

If the array spacing of the holes 310 is difficult to design to be less than 1 wavelength due to reasons such as the array structure and the size of the device antenna, an array structure where the same 16 device antennas are spaced apart can be applied, as shown in FIG. 6. In this case, the overall array size of the spaced array structure compared to Figure 6 is the same as Figure 5, but has the advantage of electrically reducing the array spacing (dx/2, dy/2) between the horizontal and vertical axes to half of the existing structure. has Through this, sidelobe characteristics can be improved and steering errors can be minimized during beam steering control.

Although the present invention has been described in detail through representative embodiments above, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications can be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. will be. Therefore, the scope of rights of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims described later, but also by all changes or modified forms derived from the claims and the concept of equivalents.

1: Slot array antenna
10: resonator
110: connector
30: metal plate
310: Hall
A: Hole diameter
B: Distance between hole centers

Claims (5)

A resonator whose one side is open, and whose other side opposite to the open side is connected to a connector so that power is supplied through the connector; and
It is coupled to one open surface of the resonator and includes a metal plate on which a plurality of holes are formed to radiate radio waves into the resonator through the holes,
The metal plate is implemented in a shape that increases antenna gain for high-frequency signals, and the plurality of holes are formed in an n×m (n, m is an integer of 1 or more) array or radially based on the center of the metal plate, and a plurality of holes are formed in a shape that increases antenna gain for high-frequency signals. The holes are formed in an n×m (n, m is an integer equal to or greater than 1) array rotated in the range of 0 degrees to 90 degrees,
The connector is located at the center of an open area on the other side opposite to the open side of the resonator,
The plurality of holes are formed in the center of a metal plate that is spaced apart from the other surface of the resonator by the height of the open area of the resonator and block the open area of the resonator, and the area where the hole is formed among the open areas of the resonator is defined by the metal plate. connect with the outside world,
The plurality of holes are all circular and have the same diameter (A),
The plurality of holes are formed in an array of n
A slot array antenna characterized in that. delete delete delete delete