Antenna device

Abstract

The invention relates to an antenna device having at least one antenna element. The antenna element is implemented so as to emit electromagnetic radiation in a beam direction advantageously at frequencies in the GHz range and/or receive same from a beam direction. In addition, the antenna element is arranged on a carrier element which is arranged relative to a holding element. In addition, the carrier element is movable relative to the holding element.

Claims

1. An antenna device, wherein the antenna device comprises at least one antenna element, wherein the antenna element is implemented so as to emit electromagnetic radiation in a beam directionadvantageously at frequencies in the GHz rangeand/or receive same from a beam direction, wherein the antenna element is arranged on a carrier element, wherein the carrier element is arranged relative to a holding elementand advantageously in a recess thereof, wherein the carrier element is moveable relative to the holding element, and wherein a glass layer is arranged between the carrier element and the antenna element.

2. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna element is contacted fixedly to the carrier element.

3. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein dimensions of the antenna element are between one tenth of and one thousand times a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation emitted and/or received.

4. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device has been produced at least partly using methods of microsystems technology.

5. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carrier element comprises, at least partly, a dielectric and low-loss material.

6. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carrier element is connected to the holding element via at least one fixing element, and wherein the fixing element is implemented to be mechanically resilient.

7. The antenna device in accordance with claim 6, wherein the fixing element comprises, at least partly, silicon or polysilicon.

8. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carrier element is arranged in the holding element to be at least rotatable around a rotational axis.

9. The antenna device in accordance with claim 8, wherein the rotational axis is perpendicular to the carrier element.

10. The antenna device in accordance with claim 8, wherein the rotational axis is located within a plane where the carrier element is located in an orientation.

11. The antenna device in accordance with claim 8, wherein rotations of the carrier element generate an angle between +90 and 90 relative to a rest position.

12. The antenna device in accordance with claim 8, wherein rotations of the carrier element generate an angle between +20 and 20 relative to a rest position.

13. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carrier element is moveable in a translatory manner.

14. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises a vacuum encapsulation and/or wherein the antenna device is encapsulated hermetically.

15. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises at least one actuator which moves the carrier element relative to a holding element, and wherein the actuator is implemented so as to move the carrier element on the basis of electrostatic and/or electromagnetic and/or piezoelectric and/or thermal principles.

16. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna element is implemented as a Vivaldi antenna, or wherein the antenna element is implemented as an antenna patch, or wherein the antenna element is implemented as a dipole, or wherein the antenna element is implemented as a slot antenna, or wherein the antenna element is implemented as a Yagi antenna.

17. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises several antenna elements, and wherein the antenna elements are arranged only on the carrier element.

18. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises several antenna elements, wherein the antenna elements are arranged on different carrier elements, and wherein the carrier elements are each arranged in a holding element.

19. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna elements are arranged regularly and advantageously in a matrix structure.

20. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises a driving element, wherein the driving element is implemented so as to electrically drive the several antenna elements such that the beam direction depends on driving.

21. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises a conducting structure for electrically contacting the antenna element, and wherein the conducting structure is arranged at least partly on the carrier element.

22. The antenna device in accordance with claim 21, wherein the conducting structure is implemented as a coplanar line.

23. The antenna device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the antenna device comprises at least one beam-shaping structure.

24. The antenna device in accordance with claim 23, wherein the beam-shaping structure is implemented as a lens, or wherein the beam-shaping structure is implemented as a spherical lens, or wherein the beam-shaping structure is implemented as a cylindrical lens, or wherein the beam-shaping structure is implemented as a reflector, or wherein the beam-shaping structure is implemented as a parabolic mirror, or wherein the beam-shaping structure comprises an adjusting structure, a conical portion and a semi-cylinder.

25. An antenna device, wherein the antenna device comprises at least one antenna element, wherein the antenna element is implemented so as to emit electromagnetic radiation in a beam directionadvantageously at frequencies in the GHz rangeand/or receive same from a beam direction, wherein the antenna element is arranged on a carrier element, wherein the carrier element is arranged relative to a holding elementand advantageously in a recess thereof, wherein the carrier element is moveable relative to the holding element, and wherein the carrier element is implemented as a MEMS micromirror scanner made from silicon and having a metal structure which acts as the antenna element.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Embodiments of the present invention will be detailed subsequently referring to the appended drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a first variation of the antenna device;

(3) FIG. 2 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a second variation of the antenna device;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a variation of the antenna device;

(5) FIG. 4 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a third variation of the antenna device;

(6) FIG. 5 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a fourth variation of the antenna device;

(7) FIG. 6 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a fifth variation of the antenna device;

(8) FIG. 7 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a sixth variation of the antenna device;

(9) FIG. 8 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a seventh variation of the antenna device;

(10) FIG. 9 shows a top view of an eighth variation of the antenna device;

(11) FIG. 10 shows a sectional view of the implementation of FIG. 9;

(12) FIG. 11 shows a sectional view of a ninth variation of the antenna device;

(13) FIG. 12 shows a sectional view of a tenth variation of the antenna device;

(14) FIG. 13 shows a sectional view of an eleventh variation of the antenna device; and

(15) FIG. 14 is a spatial and partly transparent illustration of a twelfth variation of the antenna device having several holding elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(16) FIG. 1 shows a silicon block as a holding element 5. The carrier element 4 which is exemplarily implemented in the type of a micro mirror, is suspended in the recess 50 to be rotatable around the rotational axis 7. A rectangular patch is provided here as the antenna element 2. Producing such a patch exemplarily takes place by sputtering or evaporating a thin metal layer. The metal may, for example, be gold or aluminum. Alternative patches comprise a squared or round outline. Feeding signals and draining signals exemplarily takes place in connection with the mechanical suspension via coplanar grounded coplanar or micro strip lineswhich are not illustrated here. The beam direction 3 is perpendicular to the carrier element 4 so that rotating the carrier element 4 also rotates the beam direction 3. A radiation lobewhich is not illustrated hereis located in the beam direction 3 as a main beam direction.

(17) Advantageously, the carrier element 4 and the at least one antenna element 2 arranged thereon comprise the smallest possible mass so that an actuator is able to achieve the highest possible speeds for moving the antenna element 2. The MEMS arrangement of the antenna device 1 thus exemplarily allows applications in an imaging millimeter wave radar device.

(18) FIG. 2 shows a similar implementation of the antenna device 1 when compared to FIG. 1. However, the antenna element 2 is a dipole which is fed via a conducting structure 10.

(19) FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of an antenna device 1 having an antenna element 2 on the carrier element 4. The carrier element 4 is connected, via two fixing elements 42, to the holding element 5 within the recess 50 of which it is located. The fixing elements 42 here are implemented such that they are of an elastic spring type. In one implementation, the fixing elements 42 are implemented as torsion springs so that, after deflection, the result is a spring force which has an effect back to a starting or rest position. In addition, there is an actuator 9 which moves the carrier element 4, in this case around two rotational axes 7a, 7b. One rotational axis 7a is located within that plane where the carrier element 4 is located in a rest position, that is here in case the carrier element 4 implemented as a disc is in parallel to the ground of the holding element 5. A kind of tilting takes place around this rotational axis 7a. The other rotational axis 7b is perpendicular to the carrier element 4 so that, when rotating, the carrier element 4 rests in a rest plane. A vacuum encapsulation 8 is also indicated here.

(20) In the implementation of the antenna device 1 illustrated in FIG. 4, the antenna element 2 is a slot antenna and the conducting structure 10 is implemented as a coplanar line.

(21) Increasing the antenna gain may, for example, be achieved by using an array radiator as the antenna element 2, wherein the antenna element 2 exemplarily consists of squared, rectangular or round individual patch antennas.

(22) FIG. 5 shows such an antenna device 1 having rectangular individual patch antenna emitters belonging to the antenna element 2. Alternatively, the arrangement of FIG. 8 may, for example, be arranged several times in the style of an array. What is also to be seen is the driving element 20 which, for reasons of clarity, is connected to only two antenna elements 2 and which drives the antenna elements 2 electrically such that, in addition to the mechanical steering of the beam direction 3, electronic steering is also caused.

(23) A further increase in the antenna gain results from using a suitably dimensioned beam-shaping structure 11.

(24) This is shown in FIG. 6. The beam-shaping structure 11 here is implemented as a dielectric lens and, in this example, particularly as a spherical lens. Steering the radiation lobe or beam direction 3 in the implementation shown is done by laterally shifting the carrier element 4 and, in this example, also the holding element 5 along an axis of movement 7. Instead of a spherical lens 11, alternativesnot illustrated hereprovide for parabolic, hyperbolic, ellipse-shaped or cosine-shaped bodies made of a suitable dielectric material as the lens.

(25) FIG. 7 shows an antenna device 1 in which the rotational axis 7 is perpendicular to the carrier element 4 and, consequently, steering of the antenna lobe or beam direction 3 is around the rotational axis 7. The lobe here remains in the same plane. The antenna element 2 here is a Vivaldi antenna. In a similar implementation in FIG. 8, the antenna element 2 is a Yagi arrangement.

(26) FIG. 9 shows a top view of an antenna device 1 having a Vivaldi antenna as an antenna element 2. A beam-shaping structure 11 which extends in a semi-circle around the holding element 5 or around the carrier element 4, which is circular here, is used for increasing the antenna gain. The beam-shaping structure 11 here is a cylindrical lensas the sectional view of FIG. 10 shows.

(27) The beam-shaping structure 11 of the implementation of FIG. 11 comprises a semi-cylinder 112 which leads to an adjusting structure 110 via a conical structure 111. Thus, the electromagnetic waves of the antenna element 2 are adjusted to the semi-cylinder 112.

(28) Instead of a semi-cylinder, in an alternative variationnot illustrated herethe beam-shaping structure comprises a parabolic, hyperbolic, ellipse-shaped or cosine-shaped body.

(29) In the implementations of FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, the beam-shaping structure 11 is a parabolic mirror.

(30) The implementations of FIGS. 10 to 12 each show the carrier element 4 onto which the at least one antenna element 2 is located. Furthermore, the carrier element 4 is arranged in a recess 50which is continuous hereof a holding element 5.

(31) In the implementation of FIG. 13, a glass layer 12 is arranged between the carrier element 4 which exemplarily is made of silicon, and the antenna element 2. The glass layer 12 here increases the antenna's efficiency by reducing losses.

(32) FIG. 14 shows an arrangement where the antenna device 1 comprises several antenna elements 2 which are each arranged on a carrier element 4. The carrier elements 4 in turn are each located in a recess 50 of a holding element 5. The carrier elements 4 here may be rotated individually and, in particular, tilted individually.

(33) While this invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which will be apparent to others skilled in the art and which fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

REFERENCES

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