CAPACITIVELY SHIELDED HOUSING, IN PARTICULAR CAPACITIVELY SHIELDED COMPONENT HOUSING FOR AN ANTENNA DEVICE
20170222313 · 2017-08-03
Inventors
- Mathias MARKOF (Assling, DE)
- Anian Gasteiger (Brannenburg, DE)
- Klaus ROTHBÄCHER (Traunreut, DE)
- Andreas JÜRGENS (Rosenheim, DE)
- Christoph STAITA (Brannenburg, DE)
- Philipp Ponn (Rosenheim, DE)
Cpc classification
H01Q19/108
ELECTRICITY
H01Q1/42
ELECTRICITY
International classification
Abstract
An electrically capacitively shielded component housing for a mobile radio antenna has an opening region which is shielded with respect to HF radiation by a shielding cover or plate. The contact or anchoring cover segments of the shielding cover or plate are arranged against the component and/or reflector housing immediately adjacent to and in parallel with the contact or anchoring housing segments. An insulating layer is interposed, and the planar contact or anchoring housing segments and the planar contact or anchoring cover segments are oriented parallel to or at an angle to an insertion or mounting direction (E) and/or a central axis (Z) extending through the component and/or reflector housing, at an angle α where 0°≦α<90°.
Claims
1. Capacitively shielded component housing for a mobile communications antenna device, comprising: an electrically conductive component and/or reflector housing comprising: an opening region that is shielded from HF radiation by a shielding covering or a shielding plate, and at least two contact or anchoring housing portions, in the shielded state, the shielding covering or the shielding plate being inserted in the opening region of the component and/or reflector housing such that contact or anchoring cover portions on the shielding covering or on the shielding plate extend in parallel with the contact or anchoring housing portions on the component and/or reflector housing, the contact or anchoring housing portions on the component and/or reflector housing and the planar contact or anchoring cover portions of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate being oriented parallel to or obliquely to an insertion or mounting direction (E) and/or to a central axis (Z) that extends through the component and/or reflector housing, at an angle α in accordance with the following condition: 0°≦α<90°, the contact or anchoring cover portions of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate being arranged so as to be directly adjacent to and in a parallel position with respect to the contact or anchoring housing portions on the component and/or reflector housing, with the interposition of an insulation layer, the shielding covering or the shielding plate being capacitively coupled to the component and/or reflector housing, and the shielding covering or the shielding plate being carried and retained by supporting or retaining elements that are anchored in the manner of spacers on the component or reflector housing and comprising projections or pins spaced apart therefrom, which projections or pins are inserted in an associated hole in the shielding covering or in the shielding plate or penetrate holes.
2. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the angle α is ≦80°.
3. The housing according to either claim 1, wherein the shielding covering or the shielding plate is structured to be mounted or dismantled without the use of tools.
4. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the fixing of the shielding covering or the shielding plate is designed to be screw-free.
5. (canceled)
6. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the holes are formed in recessed portions of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate such that the projection or the pin ends below the upper side of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate that is adjacent to the recessed portion.
7. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the holes are made in the component and/or reflector housing, adjacently to the contact and/or anchoring housing portion, so as to be offset from one another in the longitudinal direction, in which holes retaining elements are or can be inserted, without the use of tools, which elements comprise a web that protrudes towards the shielding covering or shielding plate and is formed as a clamping arm or carries a separate clamping arm, such that an adjacent contact or anchoring cover portion can be inserted between the clamping arm and the contact and/or anchoring housing portion and can be brought into a position in parallel with the adjacent contact or anchoring housing portion in a manner force-loaded by the clamping arm.
8. The housing according to claim 7, wherein the retaining elements comprise, on the protruding web, a clamping lever that protrudes and is prestressed towards the contact or anchoring housing portion on the component and/or reflector housing, by which lever, when the shielding covering or shielding plate is placed on, the whole of the associated contact or anchoring cover portions are retained in a manner prestressed towards the contact or anchoring housing portions of the component and/or reflector housing that extend in parallel therewith.
9. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the shielding covering or the shielding plate comprises a separation extending in the longitudinal direction, by which two shielding covering or shielding plate parts or halves are formed, which parts or halves are displaceable relative to one another in the direction transverse to said separation and overlap in a central overlap region, and by which parts or halves the operative width of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate can be adjusted by adjusting the width of the opening region on the component and/or reflector housing.
10. The housing according to claim 9, wherein the two parts or halves can be differently adjusted in the width direction by a limited adjustment mechanism, for which purpose retaining clips are provided that penetrate the two at least partially overlapping holes in the two parts or halves of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate and retain the two parts or halves of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate that overlap in this region in a position in parallel with one another, an insulation layer being provided between the two overlapping portions of the shielding covering or of the shielding plate in order to produce a capacitive coupling.
11. The housing according to claim 10, wherein the retaining clips are formed in a recessed region in the shielding covering or in the shielding plate such that the anchoring portion of the retaining clips that protrudes in this region is below the surface that otherwise delimits the shielding covering or the shielding plate.
12. The housing according to claim 1, wherein, in the longitudinal direction of the housing, the shielding covering or the shielding plate comprises two portions that are positioned so as to be separated from one another and have a spacing therebetween, in which spacing a power strip is accommodated, and the power strip is covered by a shielding frame, the peripheral flange of which is capacitively coupled by the portions of the shielding covering or the shielding plate located therebelow, while preventing galvanic isolation.
13. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the shielding covering or the shielding plate is part of a further housing structure in which HF electronics or HF electronics components are accommodated.
14. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the shielding covering or the shielding plate is designed such that the orientation position of the associated contact or anchoring cover portions can be adapted in a self-adjusting manner to the orientation position of the contact or anchoring housing portions.
15. A communications antenna device comprising: an electrically conductive housing comprising an opening region and a first contact or anchoring cover portion; a shielding covering or plate that shields the opening region from high frequency radiation, the shielding covering or plate being capacitively coupled to the housing, the shielding covering or plate defining holes therethrough and having a second contact or anchoring cover portion; the shielding covering or plate being inserted into the opening region such that the second contact or anchoring cover portion extends in parallel with the first contact or anchoring housing portion, the first and second contact or anchoring housing portions being oriented relative to an insertion or mounting direction (E) and/or to a central axis (Z) that extends through the housing at an angle α where: 0°≦α<90°; the first contact or anchoring cover portion being arranged so as to be directly adjacent to and in a parallel position with respect to the second contact or anchoring housing portion; an insulation layer interposed between the first and second contact or anchoring cover portions; and supporting or retaining elements anchored in the housing, the supporting or retaining elements carrying and retaining the shielding covering or plate, the supporting or retaining elements comprising spaced apart projections or pins inserted into the holes.
Description
[0029] Further advantages, details and features of the invention will emerge from the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in which, in detail:
[0030]
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[0040]
[0041]
[0042]
[0043] An antenna or mobile communications antenna of this kind usually comprises a housing or a covering 5 having a radome 105 and an upper and lower cover cap 5a. The connections provided for the operation of the antenna, including the coaxial connections and the control connections, can in particular be formed at the lower cover cap 5a, but there is no restriction to this.
[0044] An antenna or mobile communications antenna 1 of this kind is usually mounted so as to be positioned vertically or substantially vertically.
[0045] Mobile communications antennas of this kind can also be designed as what are known as active antennas. In this case, the active mobile communications antennas comprise high-frequency electronics that are preferably integrated into the antenna housing on the rear side or placed on the rear of the antenna housing, in the form of a radio or a remote radio head. The antenna housing then forms a common overall housing together with the radio or remote radio head.
[0046]
[0047] It can be seen from these drawings that the embodiment shown is an antenna, i.e. a mobile communications antenna, having two antenna gaps 8 that extend in parallel with one another, i.e. that are usually oriented vertically or substantially vertically.
[0048] Each antenna gap 8 comprises a reflector 10 having a reflector front side 11a and a reflector rear side 11b, in front of which reflector a plurality of radiators or radiator groups 13 are generally arranged, in a known manner, so as to be spaced apart from one another. These can be plane-polarised or dual-polarised radiators, etc. that radiate, for example, in two polarisation planes that are perpendicular to one another and that are preferably oriented at an angle of +45° to the vertical or to the horizontal. In this respect, reference is made to known solutions in which corresponding dipole radiators or for example what are known as vector radiators or, for example, also patch radiators, etc. can be used, which radiators are part of a mono-band, dual-band or multi-band antenna arrangement.
[0049] In the embodiment shown, the two reflectors 10 that each belong to one antenna gap 8, respectively, do not form single reflectors having an antenna gap therebetween, but instead are part of a common overall reflector arrangement 15 that is formed in one piece, is integral in the embodiment shown, and is also referred to for short in the following as the component and/or reflector housing 16. In this case, the drawings further show that the reflector 10 provided for an antenna gap 8, i.e. in the embodiment shown the gap reflector or partial reflector 10′ provided for an antenna gap 8, is provided with a side web 10a on the two sides thereof that each extend in the longitudinal direction L, i.e. usually in the vertical direction V, which side web is oriented, on the reflector front side 11a, for example perpendicularly to or, at an angle that differs therefrom, obliquely to the reflector plane RE. Usually, the side webs 10a that are each provided laterally relative to an antenna gap 8 are oriented so as to be slightly divergent in the direction of radiation R with respect to the radiator or radiator group 13 provided therebetween.
[0050] In this case, the respectively adjacent side webs 10a of the two adjacent antenna gaps 8 are rigidly interconnected by means of a connecting web 17, i.e. a connecting bridge 17. In other words, the two gap reflectors or partial reflectors 10′ of the two antenna gaps 8 form a common rigid, integral reflector structure.
[0051] The two side webs 10a that are on the outside and are the most remote in each case also transition, on the radiation side of the reflector arrangement, into a connecting web 18 that extends in an outwardly diverging manner, which connecting web then transitions, via a further elbow 20, into a first shielding wall 19 that extends more or less counter to the radiation direction R of the antenna arrangement.
[0052] In this case, the shielding walls 19 mentioned extend in a slightly diverging manner in the rear direction H, but this is not necessary in principle.
[0053] An anchoring portion 21 adjoins the shielding walls 19. That is to say that the two outside shielding walls 19 that extend in the rear direction H transition into an anchoring portion 21, specifically via a in the manner of a horizontal U-shaped mounting portion 22, the opening region of which faces outwards in each case, which mounting portion ultimately consists of two side webs 22a that are more or less parallel in the embodiment shown and that are interconnected in the radiation direction or front direction R, preferably so as to be spaced apart from one another in parallel and by means of a base web 22b that extends transversely or perpendicularly to the reflector plane RE, the above-mentioned base webs 22b forming the contact or anchoring housing portions 122 that will be explained in detail in the following and on which a shielding covering is to be positioned.
[0054] In this case, the side web 22′a that is remote from the antenna gaps 8 comes to rest in a mounting plane ME in which or close to which the electrical HF components, which will be explained subsequently, are mounted.
[0055] Finally, the above-mentioned side web 22′a that is more remote from the antenna gaps 8 transitions into a second shielding wall 27 which is preferably positioned quasi in the extension of the first shielding wall 19 and is separated therefrom only by the mentioned anchoring portions 21 formed in the manner of a horizontal U (the anchoring portion 21 ultimately also functioning as and being able to be interpreted as a shielding wall, either as an intermediate shielding wall or as a shielding wall that can be included in the first or second shielding wall). Said second shielding wall 27 is also an integral part of the overall reflector arrangement 15, i.e. of the overall reflector 16.
[0056] As a result, a receiving space 29 for a plurality of components to be shielded, including the cabling, is provided on the rear side of the component and/or reflector housing 16, the rear opening region 30 of which space is intended to be closed in a HF-tight manner and to be shielded by means of a shielding covering 31, i.e. in particular a shielding wall 31 or a shielding plate 31.
[0057] A simplified view that is comparable to the cross-sectional view according to
[0058]
[0059] It can be seen therefrom that, in the specific embodiment, although this may be different in other variants, it is not the case that a continuous shielding plate 31 is provided over the entire length of the antenna 1, but rather two shielding plate arrangements 31a, 31b are provided that are offset from one another in the longitudinal direction L of the antenna. This is because, in the embodiment shown, a power strip 133 (which can also be seen in cross section in
[0060] In the embodiment shown, each of the shielding covering or plate arrangements 31a, 31b visible in the rear view according to
[0061] For this purpose, the two shielding wall portions 31′a and 31″a, and 31′b, 31″b, respectively, each have an overlapping shielding wall contact region 35, which regions are plane-parallel to one another, specifically with the interposition of an insulation layer 36, for example in the form of a film or a plastics film, that separates the two shielding wall portions. This also ensures capacitive contacting between the two shielding wall portions (
[0062] The overlapping region 35 of the shielding wall portions 31′a and 31″a, and 31′b and 31″b, respectively, is formed in a portion 131 that is recessed towards the plane of the reflectors 10, it being possible for connecting or retaining clips 37 or comparable retaining devices 37 to be inserted in this region in each case, the retaining portion of which retaining devices is pushed, by means of two spread retaining feet 37a, through corresponding holes 39a, 39b in the relevant portion of the shielding wall portions and is held on the edge of the holes so as to be partially inserted therein. In this case, the holes 39a, 39b come to rest in a position in which they at least partially overlap. Said holes can also be formed as slots that preferably extend in the transverse direction Q. This recessed design of the overlapping portions of the two shielding plate regions also ensures that the upper side 40′ of the connecting or retaining clips 37, which will be explained in detail in the following, does not protrude beyond the upper side FL of the other portions of the shielding plates 31. A bracket or head region 40 or the like that covers the two at least partially overlapping holes 39a, 39b is provided in a manner similar to an anchor opposite the mentioned retaining feet 37a, the comparatively narrow anchor portion 41 of which head region penetrates the corresponding holes 39 in the two contact plate portions, which holes are in principle arranged substantially congruently above one another, and holds the two parts so as to be prestressed towards one another. Since the anchor portion 41 has a significantly smaller diameter than the hole 39 through which it passes, the two shielding wall portions 31′a and 31′b, and 31″a and 31″b, respectively, can in each case be displaced relative to one another by a corresponding amount in the mentioned transverse direction Q, i.e. the shielding region can be adjusted so as to be wider overall or so as to be narrower by a specified amount.
[0063] Moreover, as can be seen in the cross section according to
[0064] At least one of the corresponding contact or application surfaces is covered or pasted over with an insulation layer or film 47, or an insulation film 47 of this kind is at least interposed, with the result that a capacitive coupling is produced and galvanic contact is prevented here between the shielding plate on one side and the reflector or the reflector housing on the other side.
[0065] In order to ensure anchorage here, the anchoring portions 51a of retaining elements 51 (made of non-conductive material such as, in particular, plastics material) that are arranged so as to be spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction L are inserted, preferably without the use of tools, through corresponding holes 53, as can be seen in the enlarged cross section according to
[0066] These retaining elements 51 form an L-shaped web 57 that protrudes towards the shielding wall 31, engages below the contact or anchoring portion 45 and comprises a clamping arm or a clip 58 that faces the contact surfaces. This makes it possible for the corresponding contact or application portion of the shielding plate to be inserted from above in the mounting or insertion direction E according to the arrow in
[0067] This ensures high-frequency-tight shielding of the housing interior 29. The relative adjustment in the transverse direction according to the arrow Q means that the shielding plate can be exactly adjusted to the desired transverse extension dimensions between the corresponding contact surfaces on the reflector housing and can compensate for tolerance errors.
[0068] The plan view according to
[0069] Finally, following appropriate mounting of the two shielding plates that are positioned so as to be offset from one another in the longitudinal direction L, the intermediate region shown in plan view in
[0070] Finally, a shielding frame 71 is placed thereon, the peripheral flange 71a of which frame is wide enough to still be able to shield the reflector housing interior 29 from the outside so as to be high-frequency-tight despite the existing capacitive coupling with the end portion of the relevant shielding plate located therebelow. Here, too, an insulating spacer 73 is attached or provided peripherally on the underside of the shielding frame 71 in order to ensure the capacitive coupling between the shielding frame 61 and the ends of the shielding walls that extend in parallel therewith. In this case, an air gap 75 is formed between the free edge 71b of the peripheral flange 71a closer to the material portion of the congruent shielding plate 31 located therebelow in order to produce a capacitive coupling here too, while preventing galvanic contact. In this case, the width or length of the peripheral flange 71a is kept sufficiently small relative to the spacing A between the peripheral flange 71a of the shielding frame 71 and the shielding plate 31 located therebelow that high-frequency radiation can neither enter the interior 29 nor escape therefrom to the outside.
[0071] The following
[0072] In this case, the angle α should be intentionally smaller than 90° in order that the two contact portions that produce the capacitive coupling between the shielding plate and the reflector housing do not build on one another in the mounting direction E or in the direction of the central axis Z and contribute to increasing the height of the overall mounting space.
[0073] In this case, an embodiment according to
[0074] In the above-mentioned embodiment, in this case the shielding covering below the shielding plate 31 is automatically held in the position thereof in which the corresponding contact portions come to rest directly on top of one another in a parallel position, with the interposition of the insulation film 47. Furthermore, snap-in or locking elements formed in any desired manner, for example consisting of plastics material, may also be used to hold the shielding covering 31 or the shielding plate 31 in the desired self-adjusting position. In this case,
[0075] The embodiments illustrated thus show that, within the context of the invention, capacitively coupled shielding of HF waves is possible using a shielding plate that is formed in one piece or in a plurality of pieces and is fixed to the antenna reflector at a suitable point. A dielectric in the form of an insulating solid body (or in the form of air) preferably functions as electrical insulation between the actual reflector or what is referred to as the overall reflector 15, and the shielding plate 31. The resultant gap between the interface and the shielding plate can be formed such that these two parts are insulated. It is further possible, in the region of the interface and of the described plug-in connector (in the central region on the rear side of the antenna in the embodiment shown, although it also being possible for this region to be provided at any other point on the antenna), for the corresponding frame to be formed, by means of overlapping with the reflector and the shielding plate, such that sufficient and optimal HF-shielding is achieved in any case.
[0076] In this case, within the context of the invention it is possible to achieve the advantage that the described shielding on the reflector can mounted or dismantled without the use of tools and in a manner that requires a minimal amount of space. In the insulated structure described, a uniform spacing and a more or less uniform contact pressure between the reflector and the corresponding shielding installation parts is guaranteed, for which purpose the described connecting or retaining clips 37 are used. This measure reduces the risk of undesired intermodulations. Moreover, the interfering radiation of the optionally passive antenna is prevented from penetrating active high-frequency electronics (radio, etc.) that is placed on behind. In addition, the front-to-back ratio improves when operating a corresponding antenna. Finally, the design of the overall arrangement according to the invention makes it possible to significantly shorten the assembly time and reduce costs.
[0077] The embodiment has been described for the cases in which the shielding covering or the shielding plate 31 is formed in a substantially plate-like manner. However, the shielding covering or the shielding plate 31 can also be formed as part of a complex structure, for example of a housing for receiving further electrical HF components. In other words, the shielding plate that is to be inserted in the opening region can, for example, also be part of a radio or remote radio head that is to be placed on, or can in general be part of other HF electronics assemblies.