TWM635681U - Communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication device includes a curved transmission array and an array antenna. The curved transmission array has a plurality of focuses to homogenize its radiation gain. The array antenna is between the curved transmission array and the plurality of focuses. According to an operation of an active RF module of the array antenna, the array antenna emits a first-order beam and performs beam scanning. The curved transmission array is used to focus the first-order beam to produce a second-order beam with high gain. The beamforming injection excitation weight of the active RF module makes the communication device have a beam scanning mechanism.

Description

communication device

This creation relates to a communication device capable of achieving active array antenna beam scanning with high gain, especially a communication device that reduces the number of active array antenna units and utilizes the multi-focus focusing characteristics of the transmission array to achieve similar beam scanning.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional communication device 10 . The communication device 10 in FIG. 1 is a transmission antenna device, which includes a transmission array 12 and a feeding antenna 14 , and the feeding antenna 14 is located at the focal point 122 of the transmission array 12 . The transmissive array 12 can be implemented by a multi-layer circuit board or a waveguide structure. The transmissive array 12 has a plurality of array units (not shown) arranged periodically to focus the signal (or electromagnetic radiation) 142 sent from the feeding antenna 14 . The plurality of array units generate different transmission phases according to different shapes, structures and/or sizes. Through different transmission phases, the multiple array units focus the signal 142 to generate a high-gain beam 142' for transmission to a remote receiving device (such as a low-orbit satellite). When the receiving device moves, in order to make the beam 142' point to the receiving device, the position of the feed antenna 14 must be moved to change the direction of the beam 142', as shown by the dotted line in Figure 1, this operation of changing the beam direction is called beam Scanning (beam scanning). However, the traditional transmissive array 12 has only one focal point 122, so when the position of the feed antenna 14 is not on the focal point 122, the focusing ability of the transmissive array 12 will be reduced, resulting in a significant decrease in the gain of the beam 142' and a reduction in communication quality. The gain reduction is called sweep loss. In other words, in the traditional communication device 10, the signal feeding element, such as the feeding antenna 14, must be arranged at the focal point 122 of the transmission array 12 in order to obtain a good communication product. quality. Furthermore, the traditional design method of the array unit requires more complicated formulas, which makes the design more difficult.

FIG. 2 shows another conventional communication device, which is an array antenna 20 . The array antenna 20 has multiple feed antennas 22 connected in parallel, wherein the feed antennas 22 may be patch antennas. The array antenna 20 controls the coefficient of each feeding antenna 22 to form a beam 24 and controls the direction of the beam 24 . The coefficients of the feed antenna 22 include the phase and intensity of the signal sent by the feed antenna 22 . However, if the array antenna 20 is to generate a high-gain beam 24 , the size of the array antenna 20 must be increased to accommodate more feeding antennas 22 . Since the feeding antennas 22 are active components, the cost will be greatly increased. In addition, as the number of feed antennas 22 increases, the power consumption will inevitably increase. As a result, the heat energy generated by the array antenna 20 will increase, and the performance of the active transceiver module (not shown in the figure) in the array antenna 20 will be affected by the high temperature. impact is reduced. Moreover, the increase in the number of feeding antennas 22 will also make the control system more complicated, resulting in an increase in the time required for the array antenna 20 to complete beam scanning, resulting in a decrease in the characteristics and capacity of the array antenna.

The purpose of this invention is to propose a communication device capable of achieving beam scanning and having high gain. The communication device can achieve high gain while reducing the number of antennas, and can also reduce beam scanning loss.

According to the invention, a communication device includes a curved transmission array and a feeding array antenna. The curved transmissive array has multiple focal points to uniformize its radiation gain, and the feed array antenna is located between the curved transmissive array and the multiple focal points. According to the control of the active radio frequency module of the feeding array antenna, the feeding array antenna emits a first-order beam and controls the direction of the first-order beam. The curved transmission array is used to focus the first-order beam to generate a second-order beam with high gain. The beamforming of the active radio frequency module feeds in the recombination of excitation weights to match the refocusing of the multiple focal points, so that the overall communication device has a beam scanning mechanism. Utilizing the refocusing characteristics of the curved transmission array can enhance the beam gain of wide-angle scanning and reduce the beam scanning loss. The curved transparent The radiation array has a plurality of array elements for changing the signal phase and determining the gain of the second order beam.

The communication device of this invention uses the feed-in array antenna to generate the first-order beam and achieve beam scanning, and then uses the curved transmission array to focus the first-order beam to generate a high-gain second-order beam. The second-order beam is High-gain beams generated for the communication device. Therefore, the feeding array antenna of the present invention does not need to increase the size to accommodate more feeding antennas to increase the gain of the beam, thereby reducing cost and power consumption. If interpreted in reverse, under a certain specification of antenna scanning gain, the number of array elements fed into the array antenna used in this creation can be greatly reduced compared with the number of array elements of traditional array antennas, while maintaining similar antenna gain and beam width. In addition, the curved transmission array created in this invention has multiple focal points, so when beam scanning is performed, the gains of the second-order beams in different directions can be relatively consistent, which can reduce scanning loss and even increase the beam gain of wide angles. need to face a longer propagation distance.

10: Communication device

12: Transmission array

122:Focus

14: Feed the antenna

142: signal

142': Beam

20: Array Antenna

22: Feed antenna

24: Beam

30: Communication device

32: Curved transmission array

322:Focus

324:Focus

326:Focus

328:Array unit

34: Body-into-array antenna

342:First order beam

342': second order beam

344: Feed Antenna

346:Active RF module

Figure 1 shows a conventional communication device.

FIG. 2 shows another conventional communication device.

Figure 3 shows the communication device of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the architecture of the inventive curved transmission array.

Figure 5 shows the gain of a conventional planar transmissive array at different angles.

Figure 6 shows the gain of the inventive curved transmissive array at different angles.

3 shows a communication device 30 of the present invention, which includes a curved transmission array 32 and a feed array antenna 34, wherein the curved transmission array 32 has multiple focal points, and the feed array antenna 34 serves as a signal feed element. In the embodiment of Fig. 3, the curved transmission array 32 can be based on the Rotman lens (Rotman lens) principle to design the initial shape of the curved surface, so the curved transmission array 32 has three focal points 322 , 324 and 326 . The principle derivation of the Rotman lens can refer to the document "Development of 2-D Generalized Tri-Focal Rotman Lens Beamforming Network to Excite Conformal Phased Arrays of Antennas for General Near/Far-Field Multi-Beam Radiations", FIG. 4 shows the structure of the curved transmission array 32 deduced according to the formula of the aforementioned literature. The curved transmissive array 32 of the present invention is not limited to three focal points. The multiple focal points of the curved transmission array 32 are not limited to be located on the co-tangent plane, and may be distributed in three-dimensional space. The plurality of focal points 322, 324 and 326 need to be properly defined to achieve a focusing effect. The design of the focus is a mature technical means, so how to properly define the focus will not be explained here. The number of focal points of the curved transmissive array 32 can be changed according to requirements, and the shape of the curved transmissive array 32 can also be changed from the above-mentioned initial curved surface (for example, planar). Using the electromagnetic numerical algorithm, the multiple focal points 322 , 324 and 326 of the curved transmission array 32 and the phase changes of the array units can be optimized.

The feed array antenna 34 is disposed between the curved transmissive array 32 and the focal points 322 , 324 and 326 of the curved transmissive array 32 . The feed array antenna 34 includes a plurality of parallel feed antennas 344 and an active radio frequency module 346 . The feed antenna 344 of the feed array antenna 34 may be but not limited to a patch antenna, and the antenna layout of the feed array antenna 34 may be a plane or a curved surface. The active RF module 346 feeding into the array antenna 34 is a control circuit for controlling the feeding antenna 344 . The active radio frequency module 346 fed into the array antenna 34 controls the coefficient of each fed antenna 344 to generate a first-order beam (radiation waveform) 342 and controls the direction of the first-order beam 342. The first-order beam 342 matches the curved surface The phase change of the array units of the transmission array 32 is used to generate the focusing function. By recombining the beamforming of the active RF module 346 to feed excitation weights, the first-order beam 342 can match one of the multiple focal points 322, 324, and 326, and then refocus through the curved transmission array 32, so that the overall communication device 30 With beam scanning mechanism. Beamforming feeds excitation weights to adjust the phase and amplitude of the signal.

Feed into the array antenna 34 to generate the first order beam 342 and perform beam scanning operation and transmission Similar to the conventional array antenna 20, both have proper amplitude and phase. The difference is that the traditional array antenna operation adopts a linear phase change to excite the adjacent feed antenna 344, and the feed antenna 344 of the feed array antenna 34 in this invention is based on the presence of the curved transmission array 32 to generate a matching phase to generate the maximum the antenna gain. The first-order beam 342 fed into the array antenna 34 has a virtual focal point (not shown) corresponding to one of the focal points 322 , 324 or 326 of the curved transmissive array 32 in the presence of the curved transmissive array 32 . Preferably, the virtual focal point of the first order beam 342 completely overlaps the focal point 322 , 324 or 326 . The curved transmissive array 32 focuses the first order beam 342 to generate a high gain second order beam 342'. In other beam directions, the virtual focal points are located between these focal points 322 , 324 and 326 . The implementation of the focusing mechanism is described as follows. Each feeding antenna 344 of the feeding array antenna 34 is turned on and excited one by one to obtain the first-order beam 342 . According to the beam direction to be generated, the electromagnetic field signal strength and phase of each feeding array antenna 34 at this position are obtained. The excitation weights fed into the array antenna 34 that generate the directional beams are numerically computed by conjugate of the strength and phase of the electromagnetic field signal, so as to obtain the excitation weights fed into the array antenna 34 . If the beam is scanning, change the direction of the selected signal one by one to update the excitation weight of the array antenna

The curved transmission array 32 has a plurality of array units 328 . Multiple array elements 328 have a transmission phase that can change the phase of a signal. With different shapes, structures and/or sizes, the transmission phase of each array unit 328 is also different, so by properly designing the shape and/or size of each array unit 328, multiple array units 328 can focus the first order The beam 342 is used to generate the second-order beam 342', and the gain of the second-order beam 342' is determined. The plurality of array units 328 may be of regular or irregular shape, and the shapes of the plurality of array units 328 may be different, as shown in FIG. 3 . The curved transmission array 32 can implement the structure of the array unit 328 by a multi-layer dielectric substrate, but the present invention is not limited thereto. In another embodiment, the array unit 328 of the curved transmissive array 32 may also use a waveguide structure formed of a single dielectric material.

In one embodiment, the transmission phase of each array unit 328 can be designed by the steepest descent method (Steepest Decent Method; SDM). For the details of the specific algorithm, please refer to "Transactions on Antennas" published by IEEE in August 2018. and Propagation" Volume 66 Issue 8 Issue "Synthesis and Characteristic Evaluation of Convex Metallic Reflectarray Antennas to Radiate Relatively Orthogonal Multibeams" on pages 4008-4016. Since the SDM does not require complex formulas, it can reduce the design difficulty of the array unit 328 . SDM is one of the electromagnetic numerical calculation algorithms, and other electromagnetic numerical calculation algorithms that can optimize the transmission phase of the array unit 328 can also be used in the present invention.

In one embodiment, the plurality of array units 328 are routinely arranged periodically, that is, the distance between adjacent array units 328 is the same. However, non-periodical optimal arrangements, such as hexagons, etc. can also be used without affecting the connotation of this creation.

The array unit 328 in FIG. 3 can be made of metamaterial, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and any material that can change the phase of a signal can be used to form the array unit 328 .

In the communication device 30 of the present invention, the feed array antenna 34 is used to generate the first-order beam 342 and achieve beam scanning. In order to increase the gain of the beam, the communication device 30 of the present invention uses a curved transmission array 32 to focus the first-order beam 342 to generate a high-gain second-order beam 342 ′, which represents the radiation of the communication device 30 Beam, the characteristics of the beam can be applied to the specification formulation and actual operation of the actual communication system. Therefore, under the same gain, the feeding array antenna 34 of the communication device 30 of the present invention has a smaller size, less number of input antennas and lower power consumption than the array antenna 20 of the conventional antenna device. In addition, compared with the traditional antenna device 10, the curved transmission array 32 of the present invention has multiple focal points, so when performing beam scanning, the gain of the second-order beam 342' in different directions is relatively consistent, which can reduce scanning loss. Since the feeding array antenna 34 of the present invention (signal feeding element) is arranged between the curved transmission array 32 and its focal points 322, 324 and 326, compared with the transmission array of the traditional antenna device 10, the present invention The height or thickness of the created communication device 30 can be reduced by approximately more than half.

FIG. 5 shows the gain of the traditional planar transmissive array 12 at different angles, and FIG. 6 shows the gain of the curved transmissive array 32 of the present invention at different angles. It can be seen from FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 that the gain of the curved transmission array 32 in the direction of 0-40 degrees is relatively balanced, that is, it has good gains in multiple beam directions.

The above description is only the embodiment of the creation, and does not limit the creation in any form. Although the creation has been disclosed as above with the embodiment, it is not used to limit the creation. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field, Within the scope of not departing from the technical solution of this creation, the technical content disclosed above can be used to make some changes or be modified into equivalent embodiments with equivalent changes. Any simple modifications, equivalent changes and modifications made to the above embodiments still belong to the scope of the technical solution of this creation.

30: Communication device

32: Curved transmission array

322:Focus

324:Focus

326:Focus

328:Array unit

34: Array Antenna

342:First order beam

342': second order beam

344: Feed Antenna

346:Active RF module

Claims (4)

A communication device comprising: A feed-in array antenna for transmitting a first-order beam, wherein the feed-in array antenna includes: a plurality of feed antennas for transmitting signals; and an active radio frequency module, connected to the plurality of feeding antennas, controlling the coefficient of each of the feeding antennas to generate the first-order beam, and controlling the direction of the first-order beam; and A curved transmission array has multiple focal points for focusing the first-order beam to generate a second-order beam. The curved transmission array has a plurality of array units for changing the signal phase and determining the second-order beam gain; Wherein, the feeding array antenna is located between the curved transmission array and the plurality of focal points. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of array units are made of metamaterials. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission phase of each of the array elements is designed by the steepest descent method. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the curved transmission array is designed according to the Rotman lens principle.

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