WO2018023929A1

WO2018023929A1 - Integrated antenna test system

Info

Publication number: WO2018023929A1
Application number: PCT/CN2016/112523
Authority: WO
Inventors: 韩栋; 陈海波; 孙赐恩; 陈源; 邓东亮
Original assignee: 深圳市新益技术有限公司
Priority date: 2016-08-01
Filing date: 2016-12-28
Publication date: 2018-02-08

Abstract

An integrated antenna test system characterized by comprising: a probe motion control system, a radio frequency switch system, a data collection and calculation system, a signal transmitter, and a probe. The system can combine far field radiation parameters and near field radiation parameters to obtain pattern data and determine data. A radiation parameter test is based on an algorithm that combines the amplitude and phase of an array antenna, comprises two test modes, that is, a far field mode and a near field mode, and can output pattern data of the corresponding mode. A high-performance radio frequency switch system subsequently integrates antenna circuit parameter test items, which can greatly the improve efficiency and level of automation of base station antenna production line quality inspection. The system has high accuracy, high mobility, low cost, and low maintenance requirements.

Description

Antenna integrated test system

Technical field

The present invention relates to an antenna test system, and more particularly to an antenna integrated test system.

Background technique

The rapid development of mobile communications has promoted the research and development of antennas. There are some enterprises in China that have an annual output of several million antennas and hundreds of varieties. Antenna testing has become a bottleneck in the process of enterprise R&D.

A single-probe antenna test system in which the antenna under test must be rotated two-dimensionally before a single probe to ensure that the field surrounding the antenna under test is on a spherical surface. When the probe is moving, it is easy to cause up and down and left and right jitter. It is difficult to judge whether the probe's stroke reaches the set target and influence the consistency of the data acquisition phase. At the same time, the longer the test time is caused by environmental changes, instrument instability, etc. The higher the probability that a test problem occurs due to external factors.

The traditional antenna test system needs to test the radiation parameters and the electrical performance parameters at different sites. In particular, the radiation parameter test environment of the plate-oriented directional base station antenna of large enterprises is expensive, and the cost of a large far field can reach tens or even a few. Tens of thousands of people, and the entire test site has a large footprint, which is not convenient for relocation. If a small antenna test system is used, the size of the measurement will be limited.

The domestic antenna industry has reached mass production. However, due to the efficiency of antenna testing and the cost of site construction, the quality control of antenna radiation performance in the mass production stage is basically lacking, only one percent or even one thousand, so the antenna currently used. The test system needs to be improved.

Summary of the invention

In view of this, the present invention provides an antenna integrated test system with high precision, convenient movement, low cost and convenient maintenance.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

An antenna integrated test system, the device comprising: a probe motion control system: coupled to the probe and configured to move freely in a radiation field of the object to be measured by arranging motion trajectories in three directions of XYZ; Radio frequency switching system: control the transmission and reception of radio frequency signals, and switch the antenna downtilt angle to enable switching between radio frequency multi-channels;

Signal transmitter: used to receive the radio frequency signal transmitted by the radio frequency switching system and transmit the signal to the output;

The data acquisition and computing system is coupled to the signal transmission device to receive the transmission signal and pass the probe to realize data acquisition, and obtains near-field and far-field pattern data by using a calculus operation, and immediately performs determination; wherein the data is determined The method is to compare the collected data with the standard data according to the standard data, and judge the current object to be tested; the standard data is based on the pre-stored product gold machine data or directly according to the actual test data.

In the above-mentioned antenna integrated test system, the comparison method has high efficiency and low false positive rate, which greatly facilitates on-site determination of the production line.

In the above-mentioned antenna integrated test system, the probe motion control system can drive the dual-polarized probe to move freely in the XYZ direction, and can adapt to the antenna test of different sizes. The mechanized moving position is accurate and repeatable, which ensures the accuracy of the test data obtained;

Preferably, the radio frequency switching system integrates an AISG control module, and the control module forms an interaction between the entire system and the antenna through the AISG communication manner, so that all the electrical tilt angles of the antenna are automatically switched.

In the above-mentioned antenna integrated test system, the radio frequency switching system is integrated with a control module, and the control module can be used as an interaction mode between the entire system and the antenna, so that all the electric tilt angles of the antenna can be automatically switched. Implement a way to automate testing. The radio frequency switching system integrates tests belonging to different channels; and integrates two different types of test parameters, such as circuit parameters and radiation parameters, into the integrated test system through a large-scale array of radio frequency switchers, thereby realizing the synthesis. The highly integrated features of the test system save the user's investment in cost and space;

Preferably, the radio frequency switching system includes a radiation parameter test mode and a circuit parameter test mode.

In the above antenna integrated test system, the radio frequency switching system can integrate tests belonging to different channels, and the tests of the different channels are tests of radiation parameters and circuit parameters. Integrating the two test positions can reduce the user's investment in labor costs and increase efficiency.

Preferably, the method for collecting the radiation parameters of the far-field direction map is: obtaining the line array antenna pattern, the array factor and the unit lobe by using the unit array lobe multiplication principle through the amplitude phase information of each vibrator coupled to the probe. Multiply to obtain the far-field pattern data of the line array antenna, as shown below: If there are N units in one antenna array, the lobe of the n-th unit in the array is

Its position in the array is (X _n , Y _n , Z _n ), the amplitude of the excitation is I _n , and the phase is

Then the lobes of the array of antennas can be written

In the actual application environment, the oscillator lobes of each unit in the array are basically the same, and the array lobes can be written as

In the formula,

Is a cell array lobe, referred to as a unit factor;

S is called the factor or spatial factor of the array and is related to the number of cells, position, excitation amplitude, and phase. For a line array in which the elements in the array are equidistant on a straight line, the array factor is reduced to

Where θ is the angle between the observation direction and the straight line, and the array factor is multiplied by the unit lobe to obtain the far-field pattern data of the line array antenna.

In the above antenna comprehensive test system, the method for collecting the far-field direction number radiation parameter is: obtaining the line array antenna pattern by using the unit array lobe multiplication principle through the amplitude phase information of each vibrator coupled to the probe. The far-field pattern data of the line array antenna can be obtained by multiplying the array factor by the unit lobe. The efficiency of this method is much higher than the current darkroom pattern test efficiency, which can turn the batch product into a reality.

Preferably, the driving probe moves in a linear direction of the current line array, and the amplitude information of the position is collected at a predetermined collection interval distance, and the azimuth coordinates are normalized to the data to obtain a near-field amplitude rectangular coordinate pattern data.

In the above antenna comprehensive test system, the method for collecting the near-field direction number radiation parameter is: controlling the distance between the probe and the vibrator within 3 times of the current frequency point through the near-far field radiation of the antenna, The scanning frame drives the probe to move linearly in the linear direction, and the linear movement distance is the X axis, and the amplitude acquired by the probe is the Y axis, and the near field pattern data of the antenna is drawn. The near-field pattern is a useful complement to the far-field pattern in terms of product performance determination, and provides more reference for users in terms of consistency testing.

According to the above technical solution, compared with the prior art, the radiation parameter test in the present invention is based on an algorithm of array antenna amplitude phase synthesis, including two test modes of far field and near field, and can output pattern data in corresponding mode. Then, through a set of high-performance RF switching system, the antenna circuit parameter test project is integrated, which can greatly provide the efficiency and automation degree of the base station antenna production line quality inspection. First of all, it has the following advantages over the traditional antenna quality detection bottleneck:

1. Low equipment cost and small size are conducive to large-scale deployment. Conventional antenna enterprises generally only have 1 to 2 sets of radiation performance testing equipment. The equipment investment is tens of millions, and it is necessary to build a huge civil construction to accommodate. It is not enough for manufacturers who sell tens of thousands of antennas every year. .

2, the equipment is highly efficient, can be applied to the quality of the full inspection work. From the installation of the test object to the test results, the system only needs 1/5 of the common test method of the antenna, and integrates the circuit parameter test function. As a quality full inspection position, it can fully automate the product inspection work. It will greatly benefit the antenna quality assurance and the healthy development of the antenna industry.

DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only It is an embodiment of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can obtain other drawings according to the provided drawings without any creative work.

Figure 1 is a schematic structural view of the principle of the present invention;

2 is a schematic view showing the movement of the probe motion control system in the XYZ direction according to the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of the connection of the radio frequency switching system of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram showing the connection of a radio frequency switching system for testing a radiation parameter according to the present invention;

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing the connection of a circuit parameter test radio frequency switching system according to the present invention;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the data determination mode of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a schematic view of the positioning calibration system of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts are within the scope of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention discloses an antenna integrated testing system with high precision, convenient movement, low cost and convenient maintenance.

Referring to FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 , FIG. 3 , FIG. 4 , FIG. 5 , FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 , the present invention discloses an antenna integrated testing system, which specifically includes:

Probe motion control system, RF switching system, data acquisition and computing system, positioning calibration system, signal transmission instrument, probe, antenna, can synthesize far-field and near-field radiation parameters, and obtain direction data and data determination; The method of data determination is to compare the collected data with the standard data according to the standard data, and judge the current object to be inspected; the standard data is based on the pre-stored product gold machine data or directly according to the actual test data.

The radiation parameter test in the invention is based on an array antenna amplitude phase synthesis algorithm, including two test modes of far field and near field, and can output the direction map data in the corresponding mode, and then the antenna circuit is adopted through a set of high performance RF switching system. The parameter test project integration can greatly improve the efficiency and automation of the base station antenna production line quality inspection, and has the characteristics of high precision, convenient movement, low cost and easy maintenance.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the probe motion control system can drive the dual-polarized probe to move freely in the XYZ direction as shown in FIG. 2, and can adapt to antenna testing of different sizes.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the radio frequency switching system integrates a control module, and the control module can be used as an interaction mode of the whole system and the antenna, so that all the electric tilt angles of the antenna can be automatically switched, and an automatic test mode is realized.

In order to further optimize the above technical solutions, the RF switching system can integrate tests belonging to different channels, and the tests of different channels are tests of radiation parameters and circuit parameters.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the positioning calibration system can detect the relative position of the probe to a fixed position and determine the stroke of the probe.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the method for collecting the radiation parameters of the far-field direction map is: obtaining the line array antenna pattern, the array factor and the unit by using the unit array lobe multiplication principle through the amplitude phase information of each vibrator coupled to the probe. The far field pattern data of the line array antenna can be obtained by multiplying the lobe.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the method for collecting the radiation parameters of the near-field direction image is: the distance between the probe and the vibrator is controlled to be 3 times of the wavelength of the current frequency point by the near-far field radiation of the antenna, and the probe array is driven by the scanning frame. Move in a straight line direction and intensively sample to generate near-field pattern data.

In order to further optimize the above technical solution, the positioning calibration system installs the receiving device at a distance from the transmitting point by installing a laser calibration transmitting point at any position of the mobile probe. When the probe is moving, it can detect whether the probe is up and down or left and right. When the jitter occurs and the stroke of the probe reaches the set target, the detection feedback accuracy can reach 20μm. As shown in Figure 7, because the probe is the scanning terminal, if the jitter occurs during the movement or the formation accuracy is insufficient, the test will be performed. Consistency affects the test system in the present invention to ensure the accuracy of the entire system and form a closed loop.

In order to further optimize the above technical solutions, the present invention is implemented based on the following technical methods:

In the first step, a network analyzer is selected as the signal transmission and reception. The receiving probe is a miniaturized ultra-wideband dual-polarized antenna with a working frequency range of 400 MHz to 6 GHz, including all existing conventional mobile communication frequency bands;

In the second step, the Tx and Rx ports of the network analyzer are connected to the corresponding ports of the RF switching system, and all the ports to be tested are connected to the corresponding ports of the RF switching system, and the two ports of the dual-polarized probe are connected with the corresponding ports of the RF switching system. Connection

In the third step, the RF switching system is switched to the mode of FIG. 4, the probe motion control system starts to work, the driving probe is linearly scanned at the position directly above the antenna, and the data acquisition and computing system collects the current position and the RF signal information in real time, and processes the operation. Obtaining far-field and near-field pattern data;

In the fourth step, if the antenna is an ESC product, the RF switching system can adjust the antenna downtilt angle through the AISG control end, and repeat the third step after the adjustment is completed;

In the fifth step, the radio frequency switching system switches to the mode of FIG. 5, that is, the conventional antenna circuit parameter detection is started. After the test is completed, the antenna downtilt angle is adjusted by the radio frequency switching system, and the test is started again after the adjustment is completed, until all the dip angle tests are completed;

In the sixth step, the system integrates all the test data, compares it with the product gold data, and generates a test report to obtain the judgment result.

The various embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same similar parts between the various embodiments may be referred to each other. For the device disclosed in the embodiment, since it corresponds to the method disclosed in the embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and the relevant parts can be referred to the method part.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments enables those skilled in the art to make or use the invention. Various modifications to these embodiments are obvious to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, the present invention is not to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but the scope of the invention is to be accorded

Claims

An antenna integrated test system, characterized in that the device comprises:

The probe motion control system is coupled to the probe and realizes free movement of the probe in the radiation field of the object by arranging the motion trajectory in three directions of XYZ;

Radio frequency switching system: control the transmission and reception of radio frequency signals, and switch the antenna downtilt angle to enable switching between radio frequency multi-channels;

Signal transmitter: used to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF switching system and transmit the signal to the output; the data acquisition and operation system is coupled to the signal transmitter to receive the transmission signal and pass the probe to realize data acquisition, using calculus operation Obtain near-field and far-field pattern data and immediately make a decision;

The method for determining the data is to compare the collected data with the standard data according to the standard data, and determine the current object to be inspected; the standard data is based on the pre-stored product gold machine data or directly according to the actual test data. .
The antenna integrated test system according to claim 1, wherein the radio frequency switching system integrates an AISG control module, and the control module forms an interaction between the entire system and the antenna through AISG communication manner, so that the antenna is all The electric tilt angle enables automatic switching.
The antenna integrated test system according to claim 1, wherein the radio frequency switching system comprises a radiation parameter test mode and a circuit parameter test mode.
The antenna integrated test system according to claim 1, wherein the method for collecting the far-field direction number radiation parameter is: using a unit array lobe phase through the amplitude phase information of each vibrator coupled to the probe. The line array antenna pattern is obtained by multiplying the principle, and the array factor is multiplied by the unit lobe to obtain the far field pattern data of the line array antenna, as follows:

If there are N cells in an antenna array, the lobe of the nth cell in the array is
Its position in the array is (X n , Y n , X n ), the amplitude of the excitation is I n , and the phase is
Then the lobes of the array of antennas can be written

In the actual application environment, the oscillator lobes of each unit in the array are basically the same, and the array lobes can be written as

In the formula,
Is a cell array lobe, referred to as a unit factor;

S is called the factor or spatial factor of the array and is related to the number of cells, position, excitation amplitude, and phase. For a line array in which the elements in the array are equidistant on a straight line, the array factor is reduced to

Where θ is the angle between the observation direction and the straight line,

The far-field pattern data of the line array antenna can be obtained by multiplying the array factor by the unit lobe.
The antenna integrated test system according to claim 1, wherein the method for collecting the near-field direction number radiation parameter is: driving the probe to move in a straight line direction of the current line array, and collecting at a prescribed collection interval distance The amplitude information of the position, normalized to the data, and then added to the azimuth coordinates to obtain the rectangular coordinate pattern data of the near-field amplitude.