High gain and large bandwidth antenna incorporating a built-in differential feeding scheme

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11063344-B2
Application number	US-201916275215-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2019
Priority date	Feb 20, 2018
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

The present disclosure includes an antenna and a base station including an antenna. The antenna includes at least one unit cell that includes a flap layer, a feed network, and a patch. The flap layer includes a plurality of flaps. The feed network is positioned below the flap layer and includes a plurality of feed lines. Each of the plurality of feed lines includes an excitation port and a transmission line. The patch has a quadrilateral shape and is positioned above the flap layer such that an air gap is present between the patch and the flap layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An antenna comprising:
at least one unit cell, the at least one unit cell comprising:
a flap layer including a plurality of flaps that are formed as enclosed within the flap layer and extend inward from respective corners of the flap layer,
a feed network positioned below the flap layer, the feed network including a plurality of feed lines, each of the plurality of feed lines including an excitation port and a transmission line, and
a patch having a quadrilateral shape, the patch positioned above flap layer such that an air gap is present between the patch and the flap layer.

2. The antenna of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of slots positioned between the flap layer and the feed network,
wherein each of the transmission lines extends past one of the plurality of slots and has an end point between opposing ones of the plurality of slots.

3. The antenna of claim 2 , wherein:
a cavity is formed by the plurality of flaps in the flap layer above a layer for the feed network;
the flap layer is a layer of electromagnetic material with the plurality of flaps machined therefrom; and
the plurality of flaps include four flaps positioned around the cavity.

4. The antenna of claim 2 , further comprising:
an antenna panel,
wherein the at least one unit cell comprises a plurality of unit cells positioned adjacent to each other in the antenna panel at an approximately forty-five degree angle relative to a length of the antenna panel.

5. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein:
the flap layer is formed on one side of a substrate and the feed network is formed on the other side of the substrate; and
the plurality of flaps and the transmission lines are formed from one or more electromagnetic materials.

6. The antenna of claim 5 , further comprising an antenna panel,
wherein the at least one unit cell comprises a plurality of unit cells positioned adjacent to each other in the antenna panel.

7. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the patch includes a slit in each corner of the patch.

8. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the at least one unit cell comprises two unit cells forming a sub-array, the unit cells in the sub-array sharing a common feed network.

9. The antenna of claim 8 , wherein:
the sub-array includes an orthogonal polarization with a difference of +90 and −90 degrees; and
the difference is introduced via the common feed network.

10. The antenna of claim 1 , further comprising an antenna panel including a plurality of sub-arrays, each of the sub-arrays including two unit cells sharing a common feed network.

11. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the feed network is an asymmetric stripline feed network.

12. The antenna of claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of pins, each pin connected to the excitation port of one of the plurality of feed lines and connected to the asymmetric stripline feed network.

13. A base station comprising:
an antenna including at least one unit cell, the at least one unit cell comprising:
a flap layer including a plurality of flaps that are formed as enclosed within the flap layer and extend inward from respective corners of the flap layer,
a substrate layer including a feed network positioned below the flap layer, the feed network including a plurality of feed lines, each of the plurality of feed lines including an excitation port and a transmission line, and
a patch having a quadrilateral shape, the patch positioned above a void in the flap layer and separated from the flap layer such that an air gap is present between the patch and the flap layer,

a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals via the antenna; and
a controller configured to control the transceiver to transmit and receive the signals.

14. The base station of claim 13 , wherein the at least one unit cell further includes:
a plurality of slots in a plane, the plane including the slots positioned between the flap layer and the feed network in a first dimension,
wherein each of the transmission lines extends from the excitation port past one of the plurality of slots in a second dimension and has an end point between opposing ones of the plurality of slots in the second dimension.

15. The base station of claim 14 , wherein:
the flap layer is a layer of electromagnetic material with the plurality of flaps machined therefrom so as to form a cavity adjacent to and surrounded, in first and second dimensions, by the plurality of flaps,
the cavity is between the patch and the feed network in a third dimension; and
the plurality of flaps include four flaps positioned around the cavity in the first and second dimensions.

16. The base station of claim 13 , wherein:
the flap layer is formed on one side of a substrate and the feed network is formed on the other side of the substrate; and
the plurality of flaps and the transmission lines are formed from one or more electromagnetic materials.

17. The base station of claim 13 , wherein the patch includes a slit in each corner of the patch.

18. The base station of claim 13 , wherein the at least one unit cell comprises two unit cells forming a sub-array, the unit cells in the sub-array sharing a common feed network.

19. The base station of claim 18 , wherein:
the sub-array includes an orthogonal polarization with a difference of +90 and −90 degrees; and
the difference is introduced via the common feed network.

20. The base station of claim 13 , wherein the antenna further comprises a plurality of pins, each pin connected to the excitation port of one of the plurality of feed lines and connected to the feed network.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tehran Hamid Reza Memar Zadeh
• Xu Gary
• Choi Won Suk

Classifications

• H01Q21/0025

  Modular arrays · CPC title

• H01Q21/065

  Patch antenna array · CPC title

• H01Q9/0478

  with means for suppressing spurious modes, e.g. cross polarisation · CPC title

• H01Q9/045

  with particular feeding means (for circular polarisation H01Q9/0428) · CPC title

• H01Q9/0414

  in a stacked or folded configuration · CPC title