Individual antenna element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10862200-B2
Application number	US-201414584806-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2014
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

An individual antenna element is described. In one embodiment, the individual antenna element is a patch antenna which has an electrically small radiating element with a U-shaped slot on an antenna substrate, with a gain greater than 2 dBi with +/−45 degree coverage.

First claim

We claim:

1. A patch antenna comprising:
an antenna substrate comprising a front side and a back side;
an electrically small radiating element with a U-shaped slot on the front side of the antenna substrate, with a gain greater than 2 dB with +/−45 degree coverage; and
a feeding network coupled to the back side of the antenna substrate, the feeding network comprising a track and a movable feeding structure coupled to the track to move a feeding point of the radiating element for beam steering, wherein the beam steering is performed by moving the feeding structure along the track.

2. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the gain is greater than 3 dBi.

3. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein coverage of the radiating element is +/−50 degrees.

4. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein an outer dimension of the U-shaped slot is within 0.16λ×0.16λ.

5. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein an outer dimension of the U-shaped slot is within 0.155λ×0.118λ.

6. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the width of the U-shaped slot is at least 0.5 mm.

7. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the patch provides greater than 100 MHz bandwidth at the −10 dB level.

8. The patch antenna defined in claim 1 wherein the radiating element is tuned to 2.4-2.5 GHz.

9. The patch antenna apparatus defined in claim 1 further comprising: a ground plane covering a back side of the radiating element; and a feeding network coupled to the radiating element.

10. A sensor node for use in a sensor network, the sensor comprising:
one or more sensors for sensing and logging data;
a transmitter to transmit information wirelessly;
a patch antenna comprising
an antenna substrate comprising a front side and a back side;
an electrically small radiating element with a U-shaped slot on the front side of the antenna substrate, with a gain greater than 2 dBi with +/−45 degree coverage; and
a feeding network coupled to the back side of the antenna substrate, the feeding network comprising a track and a movable feeding structure coupled to the track to move a feeding point of the radiating element for beam steering, wherein the beam steering is performed by moving the feeding structure along the track;

an energy harvesting unit coupled to the antenna apparatus and operable to convert incident energy received by the antenna apparatus to direct current (DC); and
a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting unit, the one or more sensors and the transmitter, the microcontroller operable to cause the transmitter to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

11. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein the gain is greater than 3 dBi.

12. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein coverage of the radiating element is +/−50 degrees.

13. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein an outer dimension of the U-shaped slot is within 0.16λ×0.16λ.

14. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein width of the U-shaped slot is at least 0.5 mm.

15. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein the patch provides greater than 100 MHz bandwidth at the −10 dB level.

16. The sensor node defined in claim 10 wherein the radiating element is tuned to 2.4-2.5 GHz.

17. A Wi-Fi communication system comprising:
an access point coupled to provide access to a network;
a sensor node comprising one or more sensors for sensing and logging data;
a transmitter to transmit information wirelessly;
a patch antenna comprising
an antenna substrate comprising a front side and a back side;
an electrically small radiating element with a U-shaped slot on the front side of the antenna substrate, with a gain greater than 2 dBi with +/−45 degree coverage; and
a feeding network coupled to the back side of the antenna substrate, the feeding network comprising a track and a movable feeding structure coupled to the track to move a feeding point of the radiating element for beam steering, wherein the beam steering is performed by moving the feeding structure along the track;

an energy harvesting unit coupled to the antenna and operable to convert incident energy received by the antenna apparatus to direct current (DC); and
a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting unit, the one or more sensors and the transmitter, the microcontroller operable to cause the transmitter to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors to the access point while powered by energy previously harvested by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

18. The communication system defined in claim 17 wherein the gain is greater than 3 dBi.

19. The communication system defined in claim 17 wherein coverage of the radiating element is +/−50 degrees.

20. The communication system defined in claim 17 wherein an outer dimension of the U-shaped slot is within 0.16λ×0.16λ.

Assignees

• Shao Shuai
• Gudan Ken
• Hull Jonathan J
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shao Shuai
• Gudan Ken
• Hull Jonathan J

Classifications

• H01Q21/065

  Patch antenna array · CPC title

• H01Q9/0407 Primary

  Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna (dipole H01Q9/285; monopole H01Q9/40) · CPC title

• H02J50/402

  the two or more transmitting or the two or more receiving devices being integrated in the same unit, e.g. power mats with several coils or antennas with several sub-antennas · CPC title

• H02J50/27

  characterised by the type of receiving antennas, e.g. rectennas · CPC title

• H02J50/005

  Mechanical details of housing or structure aiming to accommodate the power transfer means, e.g. mechanical integration of coils, antennas or transducers into emitting or receiving devices · CPC title