Antenna
11276934 · 2022-03-15
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
H01Q1/22
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H01Q9/34
ELECTRICITY
H01Q1/22
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
An antenna and an antenna array, the antenna including a dielectric resonator fed by a feeder connected to a ground plane, wherein the dielectric resonator is arranged to emit an electromagnetic radiation along a wave propagation axis upon an electric excitation input to the feeder, and wherein the electromagnetic radiation is equivalent to a combination of a plurality of electromagnetic wave components.
Claims
1. A unilateral antenna comprising a dielectric resonator fed by an off-center probe feeder connected to a ground plane, wherein the probe feeder passes through the ground plane and is disposed within a hole in the dielectric resonator such that the probe feeder inserts into the hole and is embedded in the dielectric resonator; wherein the probe feeder is positioned shifted from a center position of the dielectric resonator; and wherein the probe feeder is arranged to simultaneously excite the dielectric resonator in at least a first dielectric resonator mode and a second dielectric resonator mode, such that the dielectric resonator is further arranged to emit an electromagnetic radiation unilaterally along a wave propagation axis upon an electric excitation input to the probe feeder, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is equivalent to a combination of a plurality of electromagnetic wave components including a first electromagnetic wave component being equivalent to an x-directed magnetic dipole and a second electromagnetic wave component being equivalent to a z-directed electric dipole, and wherein the first and the second electromagnetic wave components are respectively arranged in a first and a second direction along an x-axis and a z-axis respectively, and wherein each of the first and the second direction is orthogonal to the wave propagation axis along ay-axis of a three-dimensional space.
2. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 1, wherein the-ground plane is perpendicular to the z-axis.
3. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first electromagnetic wave component is arranged to produce a broadside radiation pattern in the first direction.
4. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 3, wherein the second electromagnetic wave component is arranged to produce a quasi-omnidirectional radiation pattern in a second direction.
5. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 4, wherein the first and the second electromagnetic wave components combine and form a complementary field pattern equivalent to a field pattern of the electromagnetic radiation.
6. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 5, wherein the first electromagnetic wave component is exited in a fundamental mode of the dielectric resonator.
7. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 6, wherein the second electromagnetic wave component is exited in a higher-order mode of the dielectric resonator.
8. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 4, wherein the first electromagnetic wave component includes an O-shape field pattern and an ∞-shape field pattern in a yz-plane and a xy-plane respectively.
9. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 8, wherein the second electromagnetic wave component includes an ∞-shape field pattern and an elliptical-shape field pattern in a yz-plane and a xy-plane respectively.
10. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 9, wherein the second electromagnetic wave component includes a stronger H.sub.y component than a H.sub.x component in the xy-plane.
11. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 1, wherein the probe feeder is positioned through the ground plane and is disposed within a hole in the dielectric resonator.
12. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 1, wherein the ground plane includes a dimension substantially equal to a planar surface of the dielectric resonator.
13. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 12, wherein the ground plane is positioned adjacent to the planar surface.
14. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 12, wherein planar surface is substantially rectangular in shape.
15. The unilateral antenna in accordance with claim 1, wherein the dielectric resonator is a rectangular block of dielectric material.
16. An antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna in accordance with claim 1.
17. The antenna array in accordance with claim 16, wherein each of the wave propagation axes of the respective antenna includes an orientation different from each other.
18. The antenna array in accordance with claim 16, wherein at least two of the wave propagation axis of the respective antenna are oriented in parallel.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(15) The inventors have, through their own research, trials and experiments, devised that, dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) has the advantageous features of compact size, low loss, and ease of excitation. In addition, by using a different DRA mode, a broadside or omnidirectional radiation pattern can be obtained. A multi-function or diversity DRA can also be obtained by making use of different DRA modes simultaneously.
(16) In some examples, DRAs may be excited in either a boresight or omnidirectional mode. Sometimes, however, a unilateral radiation mode is preferred. For example, when an antenna is placed beside a wall (e.g., WiFi rounter), it is desired that the antenna will radiate unilaterally, with no energy radiated into the wall.
(17) In one example embodiment, a unilateral DRA may be obtained by placing a reflector/cavity beside an omnidirectional DRA to concentrate the radiation in the desired direction. However, the introduced reflector/cavity will complicate the design and increase the antenna size. Alternatively, another complementary antenna design may be applied, such design may have several attractive advantages, such as a high front-to-back ratio (FTBR), considerable beamwidth, and stable radiation pattern. Based on the complementary antenna concept, several example unilateral designs may involve deployments of slots and monopoles.
(18) Such concept has also been applied to another example embodiment. A microstrip patch antenna and a coupling capacitor may be used to obtain a compact unilateral design, at the cost of having a relatively low efficiency of less than 35%. Some of these unidirectional patch antenna design, it may radiate in the boresight direction, however not in the lateral direction.
(19) In another example unilateral DRA design using the complementary antenna concept, comparing with the previous complementary slot/monopole designs, such unilateral DRA may be more compact as the ground plane may nearly of the same size as the footprint of the DRA. A wideband version that triples the operating frequency bandwidth is also possible.
(20) Alternatively, the compact unilateral DRA may be built with a simplified feed network. All these DRAs deploy a monopole to provide an omnidirectional radiation pattern for obtaining a unidirectional radiation pattern.
(21) In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of using a higher-order mode of a DRA to obtain the required omnidirectional radiation pattern. Preferably, the fundamental mode may be excited to obtain the required equivalent magnetic current. The antenna may be deployed with a single off-center probe. This feeding method may also be used in a probe-fed DRA design, however it generates the unilateral radiation rather than the broadside one in the DRA. Preferably, the probe may be used for exciting both the fundamental and higher-order modes, not for generating the omnidirectional pattern.
(22) With reference to
(23) In this embodiment, the antenna 100 may be used as a probe-fed unilateral rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), in which the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the antenna 100 is unilateral along the wave propagation axis, i.e. y-axis as shown in
(24) The dielectric resonator 102 may be provided as a rectangular block of dielectric material. The dielectric material has a dielectric constant among different material, therefore different dielectric materials may be used for fabricating the DR according to the desired parameters of the antenna. Alternatively, the dielectric resonator 102 may also be provided in different shape based on different requirements.
(25) The rectangular DR 102 includes at least one planar surface which is rectangular or substantially rectangular in shape. Preferably, the ground plane 106 is positioned adjacent to the planar surface, and the ground plane 106 may also include a dimension substantially equal to the planar surface of the dielectric resonator, i.e. the shape and projection area being substantially the same. This may effectively reduce the size and the footprint of the DRA 100.
(26) In addition, the antenna 100 also includes a feeder 104 such as a probe feeder. Referring to
(27) In the example embodiment as shown in
(28) Alternatively, it should be appreciated that the antenna may be designed with different parameters such as dielectric constant, different shapes or and dimensions, a different feeder in a different position, and/or a different ground plane, based on requirements or desired performances achievable by adopting different designs.
(29) Preferably, the result electromagnetic radiation emitted by the unilateral antenna may be a combination of a plurality of electromagnetic wave components, including a first electromagnetic wave component and a second electromagnetic wave component. For example, the first electromagnetic wave component may produce broadside radiation patterns and the second electromagnetic wave component may produce quasi-omnidirectional radiation patterns, such that when the first and the second electromagnetic wave components are combined, a complementary field pattern equivalent to a field pattern of the electromagnetic radiation may be formed.
(30) More preferably, the first and the second electromagnetic wave components are respectively arranged in a first and a second direction, and each of the first and the second direction is orthogonal to the wave propagation axis. Optionally or additionally, the first (x-) direction, the second (z-) direction and the wave propagation (y-) axis are mutually orthogonal to each other.
(31) In one example embodiment, with the wave propagation axis is defined along a y-axis of a three-dimensional space, the first electromagnetic wave component may be exited in a dielectric resonator TE.sub.δ11.sup.x mode, which includes an O-shape field pattern and an ∞-shape field pattern in a yz-plane and a xy-plane respectively. On the other hand, the second electromagnetic wave component may be exited in a dielectric resonator TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y mode, which includes an ∞-shape field pattern and an elliptical-shape (“0”-shape) field pattern in a yz-plane and a xy-plane respectively. The second electromagnetic wave component may have a stronger H.sub.y component than a H.sub.x component in the xy-plane, therefore it has an elliptical-shape field pattern in the xy-plane.
(32) Alternatively or additionally, the target electromagnetic radiation may be formed by combined with other types and numbers of EM wave components or radiations.
(33) A simulation of the DRA 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention was carried out. In this example, the rectangular DRA resonates at 2.32 GHz and 2.51 GHz. The internal E- and H-fields of the first resonant mode (2.32 GHz) was studied first and it was found that the field distributions resemble those of the TE.sub.δ11.sup.x mode. This mode may work like an equivalent x-directed magnetic dipole, having the figure-“O” and -“∞” far-field patterns in the yz- and xy-planes, respectively.
(34) The second resonant mode (2.51 GHz) was studied next. It was found that when moving the probe 104 to the DR center, the resonant frequency shifts to 2.55 GHz due to the change of the probe loading.
(35) With reference to
(36) The TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y mode may be modelled as two equivalent horizontal magnetic dipoles. With reference to
(37) The TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y mode of a rectangular DR can be analyzed with the dielectric waveguide model (DWM). This model is based on a Marcatili's approximation that assumes an infinitely large ground plane. Using this model, the wave numbers k.sub.x, k.sub.y, k.sub.z can be obtained as follows:
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where ∈.sub.r and k.sub.0 are the dielectric constant and free-space wavenumber, respectively, and the internal E- and H-fields can then be written as:
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(40) With reference to
(41) With reference to
(42) With reference to
(43) A reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results is obtained. The measured and simulated FTBRs are given by as high as 36.6 dB and 35.1 dB, respectively. For the yz- and xy-plane 3-dB beamwidths, the measured values are given by 174° and 196°, and the corresponding simulated results are 172° and 196°, respectively. These beamwidths are much wider than those of the some example unilateral DRA designs. The results of the FTBRs and beamwidths are summarized as below.
(44) TABLE-US-00001 Measurement Simulation Beamwidth Beamwidth (degree) (degree) Freq. FTBR yz- xy- FTBR yz- xy (GHz) (dB) plane plane (dB) plane plane 2.40 16.8 174 177 15.0 168 198 2.44 36.6 174 196 35.1 172 196 2.48 15.6 152 224 15.0 150 232
(45) It was found that the measured bandwidth for FTBR>15 dB and |S.sub.11|≤10 dB is ˜4%, which is the usable bandwidth of the antenna. With reference to the above table, the measured 3-dB xy-plane beamwidths are at least 177°, which is much larger than that (131°) obtained by using the obliquity factor (1+sin χ) for a x-directed magnetic dipole combined with a z-directed electric dipole in another example. The much wider beamwidth of the DRA of the present invention is due to the characteristics of DR TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y mode as discussed earlier.
(46) With reference to
(47) With reference to
(48) The inventors also conducted a parametric study conducted to investigate the effects of the various parameters of the DRA according to embodiments of the present invention. For example, the length l.sub.a of the DRA is analysed, referring to
(49) In another example, with reference to
(50) Preferably, the design may be further simplified as the parametric studies above suggest that the two DR modes can be tuned separately by changing different DR lengths, if the DR height is fixed.
(51) Furthermore, with reference to
(52) With reference to
(53) Using the parametric study results, a brief design guideline can be devised as follows. The DR dimensions are first determined according to the two DR modes at the given frequency band. Then the probe position can be adjusted to tune the impedance matching and FTBR. Finally, all structural parameters can be adjusted together in order to get the optimized results.
(54) The above embodiments may be advantageous in that the present invention provides a novel dielectric resonator antenna design, which may be used to transmit wireless signal in a unilateral direction by simultaneously exciting the antenna using the fundamental mode as well as the higher-order modes.
(55) Advantageously, a unilateral DRA may be designed, fabricated, and measured in accordance with the preferable embodiments as discussed. The DRA uses two DR modes excited by an off-center located probe, showing a simple structure. The ground plane is as small as the DR dimension, which gives a compact antenna size.
(56) The feeding probe simultaneously excites the adjacent TE.sub.δ11.sup.x and TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y modes of the DR, generating broadside and quasi-omnidirectional radiation patterns. By combining the field patterns of the two modes, a y-directed unilateral radiation can be obtained.
(57) It is also proved that the antenna may operate with a high performance. The FTBR is higher than 15 dB over the 2.4-GHz WLAN band, with the maximum value of 36.6 dB at 2.44 GHz. The measured half-power beamwidths are broader than 152° for both yz- and xy-planes over the WLAN band.
(58) In addition, the unilateral DRA has measured impedance and FTBR bandwidths of 13.2% (2.26-2.58 GHz) and ˜4% (2.39-2.49 GHz), respectively, giving a usable bandwidth of ˜4%. Over the usable frequency band, it has a maximum FTBR of 36.6 dB and widest 3-dB beamwidth of 174°. Compared with previous unilateral DRA designs, the 3-dB beamwidth is larger by −40°. Besides, the maximum antenna gain and total antenna efficiency are 2.2 dBi and 87.3%, respectively, which are both comparable with those unilateral DRA designs.
(59) The antenna may be fine-tuned easily. Parametric studies were also carried out to investigate the relationship between the structural parameters and antenna performance. It was found the DR length l.sub.a and l.sub.b control high-order TE.sub.2δ1.sup.y mode and fundamental TE.sub.δ11.sup.x mode, respectively, after the DR height is fixed. The probe location of l.sub.p can be adjusted to tune the impedance matching and FTBR.
(60) The DRA also shows a very wide 3-dB beamwidth exceeding 177° in the azimuthal plane, which further suggest that the DRA may be applied in base station applications that prefers the wide beamwidth in the azimuthal plane.
(61) For example, the base station may be deployed with an antenna array which comprises a plurality of antenna in the previous discussed embodiments. Each of the wave propagation axes of the respective antenna includes an orientation different from each other, or at least two of the wave propagation axes of the respective antenna are oriented in parallel, such that the coverage of the base station may be optimized based on the complexity of the terrain.
(62) It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.
(63) Any reference to prior art contained herein is not to be taken as an admission that the information is common general knowledge, unless otherwise indicated.