WO2024020804A1

WO2024020804A1 - Movement controlling apparatus, antenna and method of operating movement controlling apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2024020804A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/108026
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yonghui JIANG; Guangyong HE; Wenmin YANG; Chengming Liu
Original assignee: Rfs Technologies, Inc.
Priority date: 2022-07-26
Filing date: 2022-07-26
Publication date: 2024-02-01

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a movement controlling apparatus, an antenna and a method of operating the movement controlling apparatus. The movement controlling apparatus comprises: a central gear, a shifting shaft and a transmitting assembly. A first protrusion is actuated by a stationary chassis as the central gear rotates to drive the central gear to move from a first axial position to a second axial position along an axial direction. The transmitting assembly is configured to engage with the central gear when the central gear moves to the second axial position, the transmitting assembly comprising a converter configured to shift from a first engaging position to a second engaging position as the central gear rotates, wherein the converter engages with a first adjusted gear in the first engaging position, and wherein the converter engages with a second adjusted gear in the second engaging position.

Description

MOVEMENT CONTROLLING APPARATUS, ANTENNA AND METHOD OF OPERATING MOVEMENT CONTROLLING APPARATUS

FIELD

Example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of wireless communication, and in particular, to a movement controlling apparatus, an antenna and a method of operating the movement controlling apparatus.

BACKGROUND

In the field of wireless communication, antennas working at different frequency bands may be integrated into a multi-band antenna. Such a multi-band antenna operates under a wide range of frequency bands. The multi-band antenna with a compact size is highly desired in 4G or 5G communication networks and future generation communication networks. The antennas may include a plurality of radiation units working at different frequency bands. How to adjust the radiation units in a straightforward and inexpensive manner remains a challenge.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure propose a solution for cheaply and conveniently adjusting the radiation units of the antenna.

In a first aspect, there is provided a movement controlling apparatus. The movement controlling apparatus comprises: a central gear in a form of a disc, comprises: a plurality of teeth provided at a circumferential edge of the central gear, a first protrusion provided at a first side of the central gear and comprises a first slope; and a plurality of transmitting teeth, provided at a second side of the central gear opposite to the first side; and a shifting shaft comprises a shifting shaft gear, configured to drive the central gear to rotate via the plurality of teeth, wherein the first protrusion is actuated by a stationary chassis as the central gear rotates to drive the central gear to move from a first axial position to a second axial position along an axial direction, the movement controlling apparatus further comprises a transmitting assembly configured to engage with the central gear when the central gear moves to the second axial position, the transmitting assembly comprises a converter configured to shift from a first engaging position to a second engaging position as the central gear rotates, wherein the converter engages with a first adjusted gear in the first engaging position, and wherein the converter engages with a second adjusted gear in the second engaging position.

In some example embodiments, the transmitting assembly comprises: an adapting gear configured to couple to the transmitting teeth of the central gear, and a position selecting gear in a form of a disc and comprises: a plurality of teeth provided at a first side of the position selecting gear and configured to couple to the adapting gear; and a pillar provided at a second side of the position selecting gear opposite to the first side, the converter being provided around the pillar.

In some example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus further comprises an actuating shaft coupled to the central gear to allow the central gear to move along the axial direction relative to the actuating shaft, wherein the actuating shaft comprises a main gear thereon configured to engage with the converter to drive the converter as the actuating shaft rotates.

In some example embodiments, the actuating shaft further comprises a boss thereon extending along the axial direction, the boss configured to insert one of a plurality of slots provided at the position selecting gear when the central gear moves to the second axial position.

In some example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus further comprises a spring coupled to the central gear and configured to reset when the first slope disengages from the stationary chassis to allow the central gear to move from the second axial position to the first axial position along a direction opposite to the axial direction.

In some example embodiments, the central gear further comprises a second protrusion at the second side, the second protrusion being configured to be actuated by the stationary chassis so as to allow the central gear to move from the second axial position to the first axial position along a direction opposite to the axial direction.

In some example embodiments, the converter comprises: a first converting gear and a second converting gear provided coaxially and having different diameters.

In some example embodiments, the plurality of transmitting teeth are provided at the second side of the central gear partially in the circumferential direction.

In some example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus further comprises a positioning block configured to rotate around a pivot adjacent to the position selecting gear and comprises an end, the end being configured to abut a side surface of the position selecting gear, wherein the position selecting gear further comprises a recess at the side surface, the recess configured to receive the positioning block.

In some example embodiments, a plurality of adjusted gears are distributed along a virtual circle concentric with the central gear.

In a second aspect, there is provided an antenna. The antenna comprises a phase shifter network shaft and a movement controlling apparatus in the first aspect. The movement controlling apparatus is coupled to the phase shifter network shaft and configured to actuate the phase shifter network shaft.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method of operating the movement controlling apparatus in the first aspect. The method comprises: actuating a shifting motor to drive the shifting shaft, so as to drive the converter to shift from the first engaging position to the second engaging position, wherein the converter engages with a second adjusted gear in the second engaging position; and actuating an actuating motor to drive an actuating shaft coupled to the central gear, so as to rotate the second adjusted gear.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the above and other objectives, features and advantages of the example embodiments disclosed herein will become more comprehensible. In the drawings, several example embodiments disclosed herein will be illustrated in an exemplary and in a non-limiting manner, wherein:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example perspective view of an antenna in accordance with example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the movement controlling apparatus in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 3 illustrates the bottom perspective view of the movement controlling apparatus in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 4 illustrates a perspective view of the transmission structures inside the movement controlling apparatus in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figs. 5A-5B show the top and bottom perspective views of the central gear in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure, respectively;

Fig. 6 illustrates a bottom view of the upper housing in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 7 illustrates a perspective view of the transmitting assembly in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 8 illustrates a perspective view of the position selecting gear and a positioning block mating with the position selecting gear in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9 illustrates the actuating shaft and the components mounted thereon in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 10 illustrates a perspective view of the converter in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 11 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and to help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to apply such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It should be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of only a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future types of communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

In communication networks where a number of network devices are jointly deployed in a geographical area to serve respective cells, a terminal device may have an active connection with a network device when it is located within the corresponding cell. In the active connection, the terminal device may communicate with that network device on the frequency band in both an uplink (UL) and a downlink (DL) . The terminal device may need to switch a link in one direction such as the UL to another network device due to various reasons such as quality degradation in the UL.

A phase shifter network (PSN) shaft may be used to regulate the radiation unit comprised by the antenna. Conventionally, for each PSN shaft, one motor must be provided to drive the PSN shaft. If more PSN shaft would be driven, more motor must be provided, which increase the cost greatly. Worse still, a large space has to be provided to accommodate the increasing number of motor. Therefore, it is almost impossible to regulate more PSN shaft.

At least to address the above problems existed in the conventional approaches; the present disclosure proposes a solution which allows a convenient adjustment of the PSN shaft to regulate the radiation units. Example embodiments will be described in more detail hereinafter in accordance with Figs. 1-11.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example perspective view of an antenna 2 in accordance with example embodiments of the present disclosure. The antenna 2 as described herein may be used in various scenarios. For example, the antenna 2 may be used as a communication module for bidirectional communication. The antenna 2 may comprise sub-antennas working at different frequency bands. The sub-antennas may be divided into two types of sub-antennas, i.e., the sub-antenna (s) working at a higher frequency band and the sub-antenna (s) working at a lower frequency band. The layout of the sub-antennas may be varied according to the actual need of the users.

In the example as illustrated in Fig. 1, a row of lower frequency band sub-antennas 91 and two rows of higher frequency band sub-antennas 92-1, 92-2 are included. However, it is to be understood that the numbers of rows of the lower and/or higher sub-antennas are merely exemplary, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure.

The lower frequency band sub-antenna 91 may include one or more radiation units 93 which work at a lower frequency band. The higher frequency band sub-antenna 92-1, 92-2 may each include one or more radiation units working at a higher frequency band. For example, as illustrated in Fig. 1, the higher frequency band sub-antenna 92-1 may include four radiation units 94-1 working at a higher frequency band, and the higher frequency band sub-antenna 92-2 may include four radiation units 94-2 working at a higher frequency band. The lower frequency band sub-antenna 91 may include two radiation units 93 working at a lower frequency band. Again, it is to be understood that the numbers of the radiation units are merely exemplary, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure.

The orientations of the radiation units 93, 94-1, 94-2 are important parameter of the antenna 2, which can be controlled by using the phase shifter network (PSN) shafts. The PSN shafts may be adjusted by the movement controlling apparatus 1 in accordance with example embodiments of the present disclosure. The movement controlling apparatus 1 may operates in a shifting mode and an actuating mode. In the shifting mode, the movement controlling apparatus 1 allows simple and accurate shifting to the shaft to be adjusted, while in the actuating mode, the shaft to be adjusted may be turn by a desired angle to control the orientation of the radiation units. The connection and the operating principle of the movement controlling apparatus 1 will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to Figs. 2-11.

Fig. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the movement controlling apparatus 1 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The movement controlling apparatus 1 may be used with an antenna 2 as shown in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that the scenario shown in Fig. 1 is only one of the possible scenarios applicable to the movement controlling apparatus 1, the movement controlling apparatus 1 described herein may be used in various scenarios.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the movement controlling apparatus 1 includes an upper housing 72 and a lower housing 74. The upper housing 72 and the lower housing 74 are separated by an intermediate housing 76. The upper housing 72, the lower housing 74 and the intermediate housing 76 are stationary, and they may be referred to as stationary chassis throughout the context. A plurality of adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3 are illustrated to extend out from the lower housing 74. These adjusted shafts can be connected to the radiation units 93, 94-1, 94-2 as shown in Fig. 1 to adjust the orientations of these radiation units.

For example, in some example embodiments, the adjusted shaft 60-1 may be connected to the radiation units 94-1 working at a higher frequency band in the same row via a common level (not shown) . As the adjusted shaft 60-1 rotates, by means of the transmission of the common level, the radiation units 94-1 in the same row can be adjusted synchronously accordingly.

Similarly, the adjusted shaft 60-2 may be connected to the radiation units 94-2 working at a higher frequency band in the same row via a common level (not shown) , and the adjusted shaft 60-3 may be connected to the radiation units 93 working at a lower frequency band in the same row via a common level (not shown) . With these embodiments, the radiation units 94-2 in the same row can be adjusted synchronously as the adjusted shaft 60-2 rotates, and the radiation units 93 in the same row can be adjusted synchronously as the adjusted shaft 60-3 rotates.

It is to be understood that the above mapping relation between the adjusted shafts and the radiation units are merely illustrative. In the illustrative embodiments, six adjusted shafts may be included in the movement controlling apparatus 1. Fig. 3 illustrates the bottom perspective view of the movement controlling apparatus 1 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure, which shows the six adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3, 60-4, 60-5 and 60-6 from the bottom view. The upper housing 72 and the lower housing 74 are omitted in Fig. 3 to clearly show the interior configuration inside the movement controlling apparatus 1. The adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3, 60-4, 60-5 and 60-6 may be collectively referred to as adjusted shaft 60 herein. The six adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3, 60-4, 60-5 and 60-6 allow more radiation units to be adjusted. Therefore, more lower frequency band sub-antennas 91 and more higher frequency band sub-antenna 92-1, 92-2 may be adjusted. The six adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3, 60-4, 60-5 and 60-6 may be equidistantly distributed. It is to be understood that the number of the adjusted shafts are merely example without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. In other example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may include more or less adjusted shafts. The configuration and the functions of those adjusted shafts may be similar to each other and some of them may be omitted in the drawings for brevity.

With reference back to Fig. 2, an actuating shaft 40 and three shifting shafts 20 are shown to extend out from the upper housing 72. For the movement controlling apparatus 1, the actuating shaft 40 and three shifting shafts 20 are input shafts, and the adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3 are output shafts. The actuating shaft 40 and shifting shafts 20 may be connected to motors (not shown) and are thus driven by the motors. By means of the transmission structures within the movement controlling apparatus 1, the adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2, 60-3 and may be rotated in a desired manner to control the corresponding radiation units. It is to be understood that the number of the shifting shafts 20 are merely for illustration without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. In other example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may include more or less shifting shafts. The configuration and the functions of those shifting shafts may be similar to each other and some of them may be omitted in the drawings for brevity.

Fig. 4 illustrates a perspective view of the transmission structures inside the movement controlling apparatus 1 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The upper housing 72, the intermediate housing 76 and the lower housing 74 are omitted in Fig. 4 to clearly show the interior configuration inside the movement controlling apparatus 1. In addition, only one shifting shaft 20 and only two adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2 are shown; other shifting shafts and other adjusted shafts 60-1, 60-2 are omitted for brevity.

As shown in Fig. 4, the movement controlling apparatus 1 includes a central gear 10 in a form of a disc. Figs. 5A and 5B show the top and bottom perspective views of the central gear 10 respectively. As illustrated in Fig. 5A, the central gear 10 includes a plurality of teeth 12 provided at a circumferential edge of the central gear 10.

With reference back to Fig. 4, the shifting shaft 20 includes a shifting shaft gear 22 thereon. The shifting shaft gear 22 may be fixedly coupled to the shifting shaft 20. In this way, as the shifting shaft 20 is rotated by a shifting motor (not shown) , the shifting shaft gear 22 can be rotated accordingly. As shown in Fig. 4, the shifting shaft gear 22 are engaged with the plurality of teeth 12 to allow the central gear 10 to rotate with the shifting shaft 20.

As shown in Fig. 5A, the central gear 10 includes two opposite sides. In the illustrated embodiment, two first protrusions 14 are provided at a first side and a plurality of transmitting teeth 16 are provided at the second side. It is to be understood that other numbers of the first protrusions 14, for example, one, three, four or even more, are also possible.

As the central gear 10 rotates, the first protrusion 14 may be actuated by a stationary chassis. The chassis here may refer to the upper housing 72. Fig. 6 illustrates a bottom view of the upper housing 72 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure, which shows the interior structure of the upper housing 72. One or more upper protrusion 720 is provided at the upper housing 72 to cooperate with the first protrusion 14 of the central gear 10. It will be aware that though only one upper protrusion 720 is illustrated in Fig. 6, the number and the size of the upper protrusion 720 may be provided to match the first protrusion 14.

Since the upper housing 72 is remained stationary, the upper protrusion 720 is also fixed. With reference to Figs. 5A and 6, the first protrusion 14 includes the first slope 140 and the upper protrusion 720 includes the upper slope 722. When the central gear 10 rotates, the first slope 140 may lie against the upper slope 722 and thus slide along the upper slope 722 to allow the central gear 10 to move downwardly from a first axial position to a second axial position along the axial direction A.

As illustrated in Fig. 4, the movement controlling apparatus 1 further includes a transmitting assembly 30. The detail of the transmitting assembly 30 will be described hereinafter with reference to Fig. 7. Fig. 7 illustrates a perspective view of the transmitting assembly 30 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 7, the transmitting assembly 30 generally includes two adapting gears 32 and a position selecting gear 34 engaged with both the adapting gears 32. It is to be understood that the number of the adapting gears are merely for illustration. In other example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may include more or less adapting gears. The configuration and the functions of those adapting gears may be similar to each other and some of them may be omitted in the drawings for brevity.

With reference back to Fig. 3, the adapting gears 32 are supported on the intermediate housing 76 and are thus stationary. The position selecting gear 34 are rotatably mounted onto the chassis; that is, the position selecting gear 34 can only rotate around its center axis and its axial position will not be changed during the operation of the movement controlling apparatus 1.

As described above, when the central gear 10 rotates, the interactions of the first slope 140 of the central gear 10 and the upper slope 722 of the upper housing 72 allows the central gear 10 to move downwardly from a first axial position to a second axial position along the axial direction A. In the first axial position, the central gear 10 is positioned at an axial distance away from the adapting gears 32 and there is no interaction between the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 of the central gear 10 and the adapting gears 32. Since adapting gears 32 are keep still, as the central gear 10 moves along the axial direction A, the axial distance between the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 of the central gear 10 and the adapting gears 32 will reduce. When the central gear 10 arrives at the second axial position, the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 of the central gear 10 starts to touch the adapting gears 32. As a result, the rotation of the central gear 10 will start to drive the adapting gears 32 to rotate. The position selecting gear 34 will rotate around its central axis accordingly via the adapting gears 32.

Fig. 8 illustrates a perspective view of the position selecting gear 34 and a positioning block 50 mating with the position selecting gear 34 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The configuration and the operation of the positioning block 50 will be described in more detail hereinafter. As shown in Fig. 8, the position selecting gear 34 is in a form of a disc and generally includes a plurality of teeth 35 and two pillars 36 provided at a second side opposite to the first side. The plurality of teeth 35 is configured to engage with the adapting gears 32. The pillars 36 extend away from the second side. Each pillar 36 may be provided with a converter 31. It is to be understood that the number of the pillars 36 are merely for illustration. In other example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may include more or less pillars. The configuration and the functions of those pillars 36 may be similar to each other and some of them may be omitted in the drawings for brevity.

With reference back to Fig. 4, as the position selecting gear 34 is rotated by the adapting gears 32, the pillar 36 and the converter 31 around the pillar 36 can be driven to move from a first engaging position to a second engaging position. The first engaging position where the converter 31 is engaged with a first adjusted gear 61-1 provided on the first adjusted shaft 60-1 is shown in Fig. 4. When the pillar 36 and the converter 31 are driven to the second engaging position, the converter 31 has disengaged from the first adjusted gear 61-1 on the first adjusted shaft 60-1 and is engaged with a second adjusted gear 61-2 provided on the second adjusted shaft 60-2.

With the example embodiments, as shown in Fig. 4, when the movement controlling apparatus 1 is in the shifting mode, the shifting shaft 20 is driven by the shifting motor, the shifting shaft gear 22 on the shifting shaft 20 rotates the central gear 10. The interactions of the first slope 140 of the central gear 10 and the upper slope 722 of the upper housing 72 allows the central gear 10 to move downwardly along the axial direction A to the second axial position.

In the second axial position, the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 are engaged with the adapting gear 32 to actuate the position selecting gear 34 to rotate. As the position selecting gear 34 rotates, the converter 31 mounted to the position selecting gear 34 will disengage from the first adjusted gear 61-1 on the first adjusted shaft 60-1 and engage with the second adjusted gear 61-2 on the second adjusted shaft 60-2. In this way, the shaft to be adjusted which is referred to as a target shaft can be shifted conveniently from the first adjusted shaft 60-1 to the second adjusted shaft 60-2.

The first adjusted shaft 60-1 and the second adjusted shaft 60-2 are used as example adjusted shafts throughout the specification. It is to be understood that this is only illustrative, the operating steps describe above may also be applicable to other adjusted shafts.

In some example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 further comprises an actuating shaft 40 coupled to the central gear 10. The central gear 10 may move along the axial direction A relative to the actuating shaft 40.

Fig. 9 illustrates the actuating shaft 40 and the components mounted thereon in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. As can be seen in Fig. 9, the actuating shaft 40 may include a main gear 42. The main gear 42 may rotate along with the actuating shaft 40. The main gear 42 is also configured to move along the actuating shaft 40 in the axial direction A. With reference back to Fig. 7, the main gear 42 is dimensioned to engage with the converter 31 to drive the converter 31 as the actuating shaft 40 rotates.

With reference to Fig. 9, when the movement controlling apparatus 1 is in shifting mode, as described above, the first protrusion 14 on the central gear 10 forces the central gear 10 to move along the axial direction A towards the main gear 42 and push the main gear 42 to slide along the axial direction A on the actuating shaft 40. At this time, in connection with Fig. 7, the main gear 42 disengages from the first converting gear 311 of the converter 31. Since the diameter of the second converting gear 312 is smaller than that of the first converting gear 311, the main gear 42 will completely disengages from the converter 31 and they no longer meshed. When the shifting failures occur caused by the situation where the main gear 42 is stationary and the PSN shaft is stuck, the disengagement of the main gear 42 and the converter 31 allows the converter 31 not to be influenced by the main gear 42. In this way, the main gear 42 can operates as normal.

With the example embodiments, after the target shaft is shifted to the desired shaft, the actuating shaft 40 may be driven by an actuating motor (not shown) . The movement controlling apparatus 1 start to enter the actuating mode. As the actuating shaft 40 rotates, the main gear 42 may be rotated accordingly. The adjusted gear on the adjusted shaft can be driven in this way by means of the converter 31. For example, in the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 7, since the target shaft is the first adjusted shaft 60-1, the main gear 42 will drive the first adjusted gear 61-1 to rotate the first adjusted shaft 60-1. In this way, the target shaft can be adjusted to control the orientations of the radiation units.

Compared with the conventional approaches, only two motors (i.e., the shifting motor and the actuating motor) are needed to regulate the radiation unit via the PSN shaft. If more PSN shafts are required to regulate, it is only necessary to provide more adjusted shaft, and the number of the motors will not be increased. Therefore, the cost and the volume can be kept in an acceptable range. Moreover, the two motors can be controlled separately to adjust the movement controlling apparatus 1 in a more flexible manner.

In some example embodiments, with reference back to Fig. 8, the position selecting gear 34 may include a plurality of wedges 341 at a side facing the central gear 10. Slot 342 may be formed by every two adjacent wedges 341. As shown in Fig. 9, the actuating shaft 40 may further comprise a boss 44 thereon. The boss 44 may extend along the axial direction A and may insert one of a plurality of slots 342 to allow the actuating shaft 40 to rotate with the position selecting gear 34.

In some example embodiments, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may further comprises a spring (not shown) coupled to the central gear 10. When the central gear 10 moves from the first axial position to the second axial position along the axial direction A, due to the pressing force exerted by the upper protrusion 720 onto the first protrusion 14, the spring is remained compressed. After the first protrusion 14 begins to disengage from the upper protrusion 720, the spring may start to actuate the central gear 10 to move from the second axial position to the first axial position along a direction opposite to the axial direction A.

In some example embodiments, as shown in Figs. 5A-5B, the central gear 10 may further comprise a second protrusion 18 at the second side. The second protrusion 18 may include a second slope 180, which is configured to be actuated by the stationary chassis. The interaction between the second protrusion 18 and the stationary chassis may be similar to that between the upper protrusion 720 onto the first protrusion 14. The second protrusion 18 is provided to assist in driving the central gear 10 from the second axial position to the first axial position along the direction opposite to the axial direction A. In this way, a less force may be required by spring to actuate the central gear 10 to move from the second axial position to the first axial position. Therefore, the service life of the spring may be prolonged.

Fig. 10 illustrates a perspective view of the converter 31 in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, in some example embodiments, the converter 31 includes a first converting gear 311 and a second converting gear 312. The first converting gear 311 and the second converting gear 312 are coaxially provided and have different diameters. In some example embodiments, when the movement controlling apparatus 1 is in the actuating mode, the first converting gear 311 may be engaged with the main gear 42 of the actuating shaft 40 while the second converting gear 312 may be engaged with the gear arranged on the target shaft, e.g., the first adjusted gear 61-1. In this way, the rotating speed ratio of the actuating shaft 40 to the target shaft may be determined by the diameter ratio of the first converting gear 311 and the second converting gear 312. Therefore, by simply changing the diameter ratio of the first converting gear 311 and the second converting gear 312, the rotating speed of the first adjusted gear 61-1 can be adjusted conveniently and easily without changing the rotating speed of the actuating motor connected to the actuating shaft 40.

In other example embodiments, the number of teeth of the first converting gear 311 and the second converting gear 312 may also be different from each other. In this way, by changing the gear ratio of the first converting gear 311 to the second converting gear 312, the rotating speed of the first adjusted gear 61-1 can be adjusted in a simple manner.

In some example embodiments, as shown in Fig. 5B, the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 are provided at the second side of the central gear 10 partially in the circumferential direction. The central gear 10 is coupled to the transmitting assembly 30 by the engagement of the transmitting teeth 16 and the adapting gear 32. As a result, when the central gear 10 is rotated to a position where the transmitting teeth 16 are engaged with the adapting gear 32, the rotation of the central gear 10 can be delivered to the adapting gear 32. When the central gear 10 is rotated to a position where the transmitting teeth 16 are not engaged with the adapting gear 32, the rotation of the central gear 10 will not be delivered to the adapting gear 32. Therefore, the range of the transmitting teeth 16 on the central gear 10 may determine the movement of the adapting gear 32. Such a range may be designed according to the number of the target shafts. For example, as illustrated in Fig. 5B, the angle α indicates a central angle of the length of the transmitting teeth 16. In the example embodiments, six target shafts are included, which means the position selecting gear 34 should be turned by 60 degrees when shifting the shaft to be adjusted. Therefore, the central angle α of the length of the transmitting teeth 16 may be designed to be 60 degrees.

By providing the plurality of transmitting teeth 16 to be partially around the circumferential direction, this means there is also provided an idle stroke for the shifting motor. As the shifting motor rotates, a frequency loss may occur due to technical and process reasons. With the idle stroke, the transmitting teeth 16 and the adapting gear 32 will not always be in contact to each other. This will prevent the frequency loss of the shifting motor from bringing about the position selecting failure for the movement controlling apparatus 1.

With reference to Fig. 8, the movement controlling apparatus 1 may further comprise a positioning block 50. The positioning block 50 is mounted to a fixed pivot 54 of the intermediate housing 76 and may rotate around the pivot 54. The pivot 54 may be provided near the position selecting gear 34. The positioning block 50 may be couple to the pivot 54 with a spring. With the action of the spring, when the position selecting gear 34 rotates, an end 52 of the positioning block 50 will always abut a side surface 344 of the position selecting gear 34.

As shown in Fig. 8, the position selecting gear 34 may also comprise a recess 346 at the side surface 344, and the recess 346 is configured to receive the positioning block 50.

The spring coupling the pivot 54 and the positioning block 50 can push the positioning block 50 to slide into the recess 346 on the position selecting gear 34, so that the position selecting gear 34 can rotate in a direction, rather than in an opposite direction. For example, the position selecting gear 34 may rotate counterclockwise rather than clockwise. However, it is to be understood that the rotating direction is only illustrative but not limited in this regard.

The more detail of the operations of the movement controlling apparatus 1 will be described hereinafter. In some example embodiments, the operations can be carried out manually by an operator. In other example embodiments, the operations can be carried out automatically by a controller.

In some example embodiments, with reference to Fig. 8, the location of the recess 346, for example, the angle between the recess 346 and the adjusted shaft, is a known parameter when initializing the movement controlling apparatus 1. When the movement controlling apparatus 1 is in the shifting mode, the shifting shaft 20 is rotated by the shifting motor to allow the position selecting gear 34 to rotate continuously in circumferential direction.

While the position selecting gear 34 is rotated to allow the recess 346 to receive the positioning block 50, the position selecting gear 34 cannot rotate. At this time, the shifting motor stops because the resistance exceeds the maximum torque of the shifting motor and the controller receives the stop signal of the shifting motor. The shifting motor then starts to rotate in an opposite direction for a certain angle. This angle is the angular position of the recess 346 relative to the adjusted shaft, and is thus known as described above. At this time, the initialization of the movement controlling apparatus 1 is completed.

In some example embodiment, in case that the movement controlling apparatus 1 is used with the PSN shaft, the movement controlling apparatus may be used to calibrate the PSN shaft. After completing the above initialization process, the controller controls the actuating motor connected to the actuating shaft 40 to rotate in a direction until the PSN shaft moves to the dead center position, resulting in the actuating motor jamming. Then the actuating motor starts to rotate in opposite direction until the PSN moves to another dead center position at the other end, resulting in the actuating motor jamming again. It is to be understood that the above steps are only illustrative, rather than restrictive. In other example embodiments, it is possible to jam the actuating motor only once. After that, the actuating motor starts to rotate and stops after moving the PSN to the desired position, so as to complete the calibration process.

According to example embodiment, an antenna 2 comprising the movement controlling apparatus 1 is provided. The antenna 2 is applicable in various layouts. For example, the antenna 2 may be used in the antenna layout, as illustrated in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that this is merely illustrative. The antenna 2 may also be used in other antenna layouts.

Fig. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1100 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, the device 1100 includes one or more processors 1110, one or more memories 1120 coupled to the processor 1110, and one or more communication modules 1140 coupled to the processor 1110.

The communication module 1140 may comprise the antenna 1 as illustrated in Fig. 1. The communication module 1140 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1140 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

The processor 1110 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1100 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 1120 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1124, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 1122 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 1130 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1110. The program 1130 may be stored in the memory, e.g., ROM 1124. The processor 1110 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1130 into the RAM 1122.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 1130 may be tangibly stored on a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1100 (such as in the memory 1120) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1100. The device 1100 may load the program 1130 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1122 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any type of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but is not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A movement controlling apparatus (1) , comprising:

a central gear (10) in a form of a disc, comprising:

a plurality of teeth (12) provided at a circumferential edge of the central gear (10) ,

a first protrusion (14) provided at a first side of the central gear (10) and comprising a first slope (140) ; and

a plurality of transmitting teeth (16) , provided at a second side of the central gear (10) opposite to the first side; and

a shifting shaft (20) comprising a shifting shaft gear (22) , configured to drive the central gear (10) to rotate via the plurality of teeth (12) ,

wherein the first protrusion (14) is actuated by a stationary chassis as the central gear (10) rotates to drive the central gear (10) to move from a first axial position to a second axial position along an axial direction (A) ,

the movement controlling apparatus (1) further comprising a transmitting assembly (30) configured to engage with the central gear (10) when the central gear moves to the second axial position, the transmitting assembly (30) comprising a converter (31) configured to shift from a first engaging position to a second engaging position as the central gear (10) rotates, wherein the converter (31) engages with a first adjusted gear (61-1) in the first engaging position, and wherein the converter (31) engages with a second adjusted gear (61-2) in the second engaging position.
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of Claim 1,

wherein the transmitting assembly (30) comprises:

an adapting gear (32) configured to couple to the transmitting teeth (16) of the central gear (10) , and

a position selecting gear (34) in a form of a disc and comprising:

a plurality of teeth (35) provided at a first side of the position selecting gear (34) and configured to couple to the adapting gear (32) ; and

a pillar (36) provided at a second side of the position selecting gear (34) opposite to the first side, the converter (31) being provided around the pillar (36) .
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of Claim 1, further comprising:

an actuating shaft (40) coupled to the central gear (10) to allow the central gear (10) to move along the axial direction (A) relative to the actuating shaft (40) ,

wherein the actuating shaft (40) comprises a main gear (42) thereon configured to engage with the converter (31) to drive the converter (31) as the actuating shaft (40) rotates.
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of Claim 3, wherein the actuating shaft (40) further comprises a boss (44) thereon extending along the axial direction (A) , the boss (44) configured to insert one of a plurality of slots (342) provided at the position selecting gear (34) when the central gear (10) moves to the second axial position.
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-4, further comprising:

a spring coupled to the central gear (10) and configured to reset when the first slope (140) disengages from the stationary chassis to allow the central gear (10) to move from the second axial position to the first axial position along a direction opposite to the axial direction (A) .
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-4,

wherein the central gear (10) further comprises a second protrusion (18) at the second side, the second protrusion (18) being configured to be actuated by the stationary chassis so as to allow the central gear (10) to move from the second axial position to the first axial position along a direction opposite to the axial direction (A) .
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-4, wherein the converter (31) comprises:

a first converting gear (311) and a second converting gear (312) provided coaxially and having different diameters.
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-4, wherein the plurality of transmitting teeth (16) are provided at the second side of the central gear (10) partially in the circumferential direction.
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 2-4, further comprising:

a positioning block (50) configured to rotate around a pivot (54) adjacent to the position selecting gear (34) and comprising an end (52) , the end (52) being configured to abut a side surface (344) of the position selecting gear (34) ,

wherein the position selecting gear (34) further comprises a recess (346) at the side surface (344) , the recess (346) configured to receive the positioning block (50) .
The movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-4, wherein a plurality of adjusted gears (61) are distributed along a virtual circle concentric with the central gear (10) .
An antenna (2) comprising:

a phase shifter network shaft; and

a movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-10, the movement controlling apparatus (1) coupled to the phase shifter network shaft and configured to actuate the phase shifter network shaft.
A method of operating the movement controlling apparatus (1) of any of Claims 1-10, comprising:

actuating a shifting motor to drive the shifting shaft (20) , so as to drive the converter (31) to shift from the first engaging position to the second engaging position, wherein the converter (31) engages with a second adjusted gear (61-2) in the second engaging position; and

actuating an actuating motor to drive an actuating shaft (40) coupled to the central gear (10) , so as to rotate the second adjusted gear (61-2) .