High Band Antenna Elements And A Multi-Band Antenna

Abstract

Antenna elements for multiband antennas are disclosed. A multiband antenna is configured to operate in at least two frequency bands. The antenna element is configured to receive a signal from an unbalanced signal feed and comprises: a stalk configured to be mounted on a ground plane; at least one radiating element extending from the stalk; a balun configured to receive and convert an unbalanced signal from an unbalanced signal feed to a balanced signal and to supply the balanced signal to the at least one radiating element; and at least one resonance suppression filter. The at least one resonance suppression filter comprises an inductive component and a capacitive component arranged in parallel, and in some embodiments a resistive component in series with the inductive component.

Claims

1. An antenna element for a multiband antenna, said multiband antenna configured to operate in at least two frequency bands, said antenna element being configured to resonate in a higher frequency band of said at least two frequency bands; said antenna element being configured to receive a signal from an unbalanced signal feed and comprising: a stalk mounted on an intermediate ground plane; at least one radiating element extending from said stalk; a balun mounted on said stalk and configured to receive and convert an unbalanced signal from an unbalanced signal feed to a balanced signal and to supply said balanced signal to said at least one radiating element; and at least one resonance suppression filter, said at least one resonance suppression filter comprising an inductive component and a capacitive component arranged in parallel, said at least one resonance suppression filter being configured to suppress signals in a frequency band that is lower than said higher frequency band; wherein said at least one resonance suppression filter is positioned to decouple said stalk from a ground plane at frequencies within said lower frequency band, said at least one resonance suppression filter being mounted such that said intermediate ground plane is coupled to said ground plane at the higher frequency band and is decoupled from said ground plane at the lower frequency band.

2. An antenna element according to claim 1, said intermediate ground plane comprising a baseboard.

3. An antenna element according to claim 1, wherein said resonance suppression filter is positioned between said intermediate ground plane and said ground plane.

4. An antenna element according to claim 1, said antenna element comprises a high band signal circuit comprising a high band signal feed element, said balun and said balanced signal feed, said resonance suppression filter being outside of said high band signal circuit.

5. An antenna element according to claim 4, wherein said high band signal feed element comprises a coaxial cable, said outer conductor of said coaxial cable connecting to said intermediate ground plane.

6. An antenna element according to claim 5, wherein said outer conductor of said coaxial cable forms at least a portion of said inductive component of said resonance suppression filter.

7. An antenna element according to claim 5, wherein said coaxial cable is configured to lie on an opposite side of said ground plane and intermediate ground plane to said stalk, such that said coaxial cable is shielded from said at least one radiating element.

8. An antenna element according to claim 1, wherein said capacitive component of said resonance suppression filter comprises a gap between said intermediate ground plane and said ground plane.

9. An antenna element according to claim 1; wherein said balun comprises: a feed node configured to receive said unbalanced feed signal; and a balancing component extending from said feed node to said intermediate ground plane; and said stalk comprises said balun and a balanced signal feed component extending from said feed point to said radiating element arm.

10. An antenna element for a multiband antenna, said multiband antenna configured to operate in at least two frequency bands, said antenna element being configured to resonate in a higher frequency band of said at least two frequency bands; said antenna element being configured to receive a signal from an unbalanced signal feed and comprising: a stalk configured to be mounted on a ground plane; at least one radiating element extending from said stalk; a balun configured to receive and convert an unbalanced signal from said unbalanced signal feed to a balanced signal feed and to supply said balanced signal to said at least one radiating element; and at least one resonance suppression filter, said at least one resonance suppression filter comprising an inductive component and with a capacitive component arranged in parallel with said series arranged inductive component, said at least one resonance suppression filter being configured to suppress signals in a lower frequency band than said higher frequency band; wherein said stalk comprises said balun and said at least one resonance suppression filter is within said balun.

11. An antenna element according to claim 10, wherein said at least one resonance suppression filter is positioned to provide decoupling of said stalk from said ground plane at frequencies within said lower frequency band.

12. An antenna element according to claim 10, wherein said stalk comprises said balun and said balanced feed component said balun and said balanced feed component being formed on different layers of a printed circuit board.

13. An antenna element according to claim 12, wherein said capacitive component of said at least one resonance suppression filter is formed within said balun on one layer of said printed circuit board.

14. An antenna element according to claim 10; wherein said balun comprises: a feed node configured to receive said unbalanced feed signal; and a balancing component extending from said feed node to said ground plane; and said stalk comprises said balun and: a balanced signal feed component extending from said feed point to said radiating element arm.

15. An antenna element according to claim 10, wherein said at least one resonance suppression filter is configured to suppress signals at a common mode resonant frequency of said antenna element.

16. A multiband antenna configured to operate in at least two frequency bands, said multiband antenna comprising: a plurality of antenna elements configured to operate in a lower frequency band of said at least two frequency bands; and a further plurality of antenna elements according to any preceding claim; wherein said at least one resonance suppression filter is configured to suppress signals in said lower frequency band.

17. A multiband antenna according to claim 16, wherein a common mode of said further plurality of antenna elements is within said lower frequency band, said at least one resonance suppression filter being configured to suppress signals at said common mode frequency.

18. An antenna element according to claim 2, wherein said resonance suppression filter is positioned between said intermediate ground plane and said ground plane.

19. An antenna element according to claim 6, wherein said coaxial cable is configured to lie on an opposite side of said ground plane and intermediate ground plane to said stalk, such that said coaxial cable is shielded from said at least one radiating element.

20. An antenna element according to claim 11, wherein said stalk comprises said balun and said balanced feed component said balun and said balanced feed component being formed on different layers of a printed circuit board.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described further, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0050] FIG. 1A schematically shows a typical arrangement of low band and high band radiator elements on a multiband antenna;

[0051] FIG. 1B schematically shows the different components of a high band antenna element;

[0052] FIGS. 2A and 2B schematically show a high band antenna element according to a related example where the resonance suppression filter is in the radiating arm of the antenna element;

[0053] FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C schematically shows a high band antenna element with the resonance suppression filter incorporated in the balun;

[0054] FIGS. 4A and B schematically show a high band radiator element with the resonance suppression filter incorporated in the base board of the antenna element;

[0055] FIG. 4C-4E show a view of different implementations of the resonance suppression filter associated with the baseboard;

[0056] FIGS. 5A and 5B show a comparison of the low band azimuth 3 dB beamwidths for a low band antenna array on its own, surrounded by conventional high band radiators and surrounded by high band radiators according to an embodiment;

[0057] FIG. 6 shows the normalized low band azimuth radiation pattern where there is no high band radiator;

[0058] FIG. 7 shows the normalized low band azimuth radiation pattern in the presence of high band radiators according to an embodiment; and

[0059] FIG. 8 shows the normalized low band azimuth radiation pattern in the presence of conventional high band radiators.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0060] Before discussing the embodiments in any more detail, first an overview will be provided.

[0061] FIG. 1B schematically shows the different elements of a high band antenna according to the prior art with the radiating elements in the form of the dipole arms, a stalk mounted on a ground plane and a feeding element in the form of a coaxial cable. The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is attached to a transmission line that feeds a balun feed point, the upper portion of the stalk comprises the balanced transmission line that feeds the dipole. The lower section comprises the balun section that provides the balancing of the feed line. The stalk comprises twin balanced conductors that electrically connect the dipole with the ground plane.

[0062] Embodiments provide an antenna element having a resonance suppression filter having in some embodiments, a capacitive component and an inductive component arranged in parallel and in other embodiments series mounted resistive and inductive components mounted in parallel with a capacitive component. This resonance suppression filter may be located either in the balun or associated with the baseboard. In still other embodiments the resonance suppression filter comprises a capacitive component arranged in parallel with series arranged capacitive, resistive and inductive components.

[0063] The antenna element comprises a higher frequency band radiating element for use in a multiband antenna. The multiband antenna comprising a low frequency band antenna array and at least one higher frequency band antenna array of radiating element antennas, that in some embodiments comprise: [0064] Radiating element arms that are resonant at the higher band and radiate the higher band signal; [0065] A radiating element stalk that supports the arms above a reflector. The stalk comprises an unbalanced feed line and balun that converts the unbalanced feed signal to a balanced configuration suitable for the radiating element arms; [0066] The antenna element may be configured to be mounted on a baseboard that capacitively couples the radiating element stalk to the reflector or ground plane, or in some embodiments the stalk of the antenna element may be mounted directly to the ground plane; [0067] One or more resonance suppression filters disposed in the balun, or on the baseboard.

[0068] A particular embodiment of the resonance suppression filter when included in the balun is the use of an interdigital capacitive component for the capacitive component in the filter. In this case, the capacitive component is arranged on one 2-dimensional surface.

[0069] In embodiments where the high band antenna element is configured to resonate at a half wavelength, such as where it comprises a dipole, then the resonance suppression filter acts as a common mode tuning circuit or common mode suppression filter to impede the antenna element from resonating in the common mode as a quarter-wave resonator at the lower frequency band.

[0070] Embodiments provide two approaches to implementing the resonance suppression filter on the high band radiating element.

[0071] A related example (see FIGS. 2A and 2B) breaks the radiating element arm in one place and replaces the broken link with a series capacitive component bypassed with a high-inductance component. The parallel combination of the capacitive component and inductance forms a filter tuned to block signal at the low band. There is a problem with putting the resonance suppression filter on the radiating element arm because its introduction upsets the impedance matching of the high band radiating element in its own frequency band, and this may be challenging to overcome. Basically, the resonance suppression filter detunes the radiating element by upsetting the resonant length of the radiating element arms, and in embodiments this is compensated for by adjusting the length of the radiating arms.

[0072] Although the resonance suppression filter may be just a capacitive and inductive component mounted in parallel in other embodiments the inductive component may have a resistive component in series with it, and in still other embodiments there may also be a capacitive component on this path.

[0073] One embodiment (see FIG. 3A to 3C) involves putting the resonance suppression filter 40A, 40B on the balun of the radiating element by breaking the balanced grounding component on both branches and inserting a capacitive component/inductive component in a similar way to having this on the radiating element arm. However, here the resonance suppression filter has less effect on the performance of the high band radiating element at its own frequency band than is the case in the examples of FIG. 2.

[0074] In the PCB implementation of the resonance suppression filter radiating element, it is convenient to create the capacitive component on a single layer of the PCB because the radiating element feed track is on the other side, so we provide an interdigital capacitive component which works by providing edge-capacitance over a winding edge length on a single layer. The ground layer for the feed track is broken to insert the capacitive component on the balun, which presents a problem for the feed track transmission line, but this can be overcome by careful tuning of the capacitive component. This is shown in FIG. 3C.

[0075] Another embodiment (see FIG. 4) comprises putting the resonance suppression filter associated with or on the baseboard of the antenna element between the stalk and the ground plane to decouple the antenna element from the ground plane at lower frequencies, the baseboard acting as an intermediate ground plane.

[0076] FIG. 2A schematically shows an antenna element 10 according to the related example comprising a ground plane 12 from which a stalk 20 extends. There is an unbalanced feed line 22 that extends up one side of the stalk and crosses to the other side of the stalk at a feed node 24. This forms part of the balun 25 which acts to convert the unbalanced feed to a balanced feed. The cross over point from the unbalanced feed line 22 acts as a feed node 24 from which the balanced transmission feed extends towards the dipole arms 30A and 30B on either side of the stalk. In this example there are two resonance suppression filters 40A and 40B one on each arm 30A, 30B of the dipole 30. The resonance suppression filters 40A and 40B in this example comprise a capacitive element 42, an inductive element 46 and a resistive element 44. The resistive element is optional but may improve performance by providing additional damping of the low frequency signal.

[0077] In the example shown in FIG. 2B there is an additional optional capacitive element C2 which is arranged in series with the resistive and inductive elements and in parallel with the other capacitive element C1.

[0078] There are challenges with putting the resonance suppression filter on the dipole arms because its introduction upsets the impedance matching of the high band dipole in its own frequency band and upsets its resonance frequency by upsetting the tuned length of dipole arms. Thus, in these examples the dipole arms 30A, 30B are adjusted in length to compensate for the presence of filters 40A and 40B.

[0079] FIG. 3A shows an embodiment where two resonance suppression filters 40A, 40B are part of the balun 25 on the stalk. These two resonance suppression filters break the balanced grounding component on both branches by inserting a capacitor/inductive component into the grounded component of the balanced feed, decoupling the stalk from the ground plane 12 at the lower frequencies and inhibiting the antenna element from resonating at a quarter-wavelength in the lower frequency band of interest. In the embodiment of FIG. 3A the two resonance suppression filters comprise a capacitor arranged in parallel with a resistor and inductor that are in series. FIG. 3B shows an alternative embodiment where the two resonance suppression filters do not have the resistor and are simply an inductor and capacitor arranged in series.

[0080] In both of these embodiments by providing the resonance suppression filter 40 on the balun the capacitor is still part of the matching network however, the advantage is that the deleterious effect on matching is slightly less than were the filter to be on the radiating arms or in the balanced transmission line.

[0081] In some embodiments the resonance suppression filter is formed within a PCB, and the capacitive element 42 may be formed over a winding length on a single layer of the PCB because the dipole feed track is on the other side. The ground layer for the feed track is broken to insert the capacitor on the balun, which presents a problem for the feed track transmission line, but this can be overcome by careful tuning of the capacitor. This arrangement is shown in FIG. 3C that shows the interdigital capacitor 42 as a track on a single layer of the PCB within the balun 25 portion of the stalk.

[0082] In the embodiment of FIG. 3A the resonance suppression filter comprises an inductive and resistive element arranged in parallel with a capacitive element. However, as can be seen from the embodiment of FIG. 3B, the resistive element is optional and may not be present, in other embodiments there may be an additional capacitive element arranged in series with the resistive and inductive elements as is shown in the resonance suppression filters of FIG. 2B.

[0083] FIG. 4A shows an alternative embodiment where the suppression filters 40A, 40B are placed on the baseboard between the stalk 20 and the ground plane 12 on which the stalk 20 is mounted. Again these resonance suppression filters 40A, 40B act to decouple the ground plane 12 from the stalk 20 at the lower frequencies. In effect the resonance suppression filter 40A, 40B acts like a short circuit to the higher frequencies and an open circuit to the lower band frequencies of interest in an ideal state, in effect it acts like a band stop filter in the band of interest. The resonance suppression filter could be viewed as tuning the quarter wave resonator outside of the band of interest.

[0084] FIG. 4B shows a further embodiment where the suppression filter 40 is attached to the baseboard which acts as an intermediate ground plane and lies between the stalk 20 and the ground plane 12. It should be noted that this is a schematic figure and is drawn this way to make it easier to distinguish the features of the design.

[0085] FIG. 4B shows a coaxial feed cable 60 arranged with the outer conductor connected to the intermediate ground plane or intermediate grounding plate 14 at the base of the stalk 20. The inner conductor of the feed cable directly connects to the feed line on the balun, which is in turn grounded to the intermediate grounding plate 14. This allows the matching circuit for the high band to be completed at this intermediate grounding platea full forward and return path is implemented from cable inner conductor back to the outer conductor. The bandstop common mode resonance CMR filter (parallel LC) is then added between this intermediate plate 14 and the main ground plane 12 of the antenna. The filter therefore has no or very limited effect on the matching of the dipole and we are free to independently set the Land C to optimise the bandwidth of the filter for the low band.

[0086] At the high band, the capacitor in the filter acts as a low impedance between the intermediate grounding plate 14 and the main ground plane 12, which is required for proper formation of radiation patterns. The inductor L provides a path for any residual low band signal on the outer conductor to be shunted to the ground plane 12, preventing or at least reducing spurious radiation from the cable.

[0087] FIG. 4C shows a physical implementation of the embodiment of FIG. 4B with the intermediate grounding plate 14 and the main ground plane 12 on the same copper layer of a PCB, separated by a slot or ring in the copper 17. The capacitance is an edge capacitance across this slot 17 coupling across the gap. The inductance is provided partly by the outer conductor of the cable that bridges the gap and then also a conductive element 41 that connects down to the main ground plane 12. This conductive element 41 can be anything that provides sufficient series inductance that, along with the cable outer conductor, tunes the common-mode resonance out of the lower frequency band of interest.

[0088] In this embodiment the conductive element 41 is a metallic strip, but it could be a discrete inductor, length of wire or any other metallic conductor.

[0089] In some embodiments the outer conductor of the cable could be used alone and then directly connected to the main ground plane by any technique that provides a low impedance at the low banddirect connection or high-admittance capacitive connection.

[0090] In a further embodiment, not shown, an inductive component may be provided directly across the slot and the cable not used for this purpose at all. Challenges with this approach are that the cable is floating from main ground and able to radiate any signal that it picks up off the high band dipole structure. Arranging the cable at the opposite side of the ground plane to the radiating elements helps to address this issue.

[0091] FIG. 4D shows another embodiment where short lengths of coaxial cable are used between the coaxial feed cable and the main ground plane 12. These short lengths of coaxial cable have their outer jacket removed leaving the cable dielectric and inner conductor behind. The inner conductor is the inductive element and the dielectric acts as an insulator between the inner conductor and the cable and ground plane, preventing undesired connection between these elements.

[0092] The inductor and capacitor could be implemented in various different ways as would be understood by a skilled person in order to provide the CMR filter between the intermediate grounding plate 14 and main ground plane 12. By providing an intermediate grounding plate the high band feed circuit is independent of the CMR filter, allowing independent control of high band impedance matching and CMR filtering at the low band. In another embodiment FIG. 4E, the inductive strip can be quite short in length (equivalent to direct grounding of the high band feed cable outer conductor to the main antenna ground).

[0093] FIGS. 5A and 5B show how the 3 dB beamwidth within the lower frequency band increases at certain frequencies where there are conventional high band radiators in the vicinity to disturb the radiation pattern, and these high band radiators have a natural quarter-wave common-mode resonance in the lower frequency band. FIG. 5B shows the performance for the embodiment of FIG. 4, while FIG. 5A shows the performance of embodiments of FIG. 3. Both plots show how without the high band radiators, the beamwidth is restricted across the entire frequency range of the lower frequency band, while with the high band radiators there are increases in the beamwidth at certain frequencies. When resonance suppression filters according to an embodiment are provided, the beamwidth is again restricted across the desired frequency band despite the presence of the high band radiators. The effect is improved for the embodiments of the antenna of FIG. 4 (see FIG. 5B) as these embodiments allow for greater flexibility in the tuning of the CMR filter as the filter is independent of the signal feed circuit. In this regard FIGS. 5A and B shows a significant increase in the beamwidth of the low band with ordinary high band radiators at 0.8 GHz which is due to the quarter wave resonance of the antenna element and this falls off significantly after this frequency. Embodiments use a CMR filter that moves this quarter wave resonance to a lower frequency and takes the increased beamwidth out of the region of interest and provides a decreased beamwidth at the desired frequencies.

[0094] FIG. 6 shows the low band azimuth pattern in the absence of high band radiators and as can be seen the beamwidth is restricted. FIG. 7 shows how this beamwidth increases slightly in the presence of high band radiators with resonance suppression filters according to the embodiment of FIG. 4, while FIG. 8 shows the much larger increase in beamwidth in the presence of conventional high band radiators lacking resonance suppression filters.

[0095] In summary embodiments suppress lower band resonance at the lower frequency band of interest within higher band antenna elements thereby reducing distortion of the lower band radiation pattern and corresponding increase in beamwidth that such resonances may cause.

[0096] Although illustrative embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail herein, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is understood that the invention is not limited to the precise embodiment and that various changes and modifications can be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.