Scanning antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11670852-B2
Application number	US-202217574344-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2022
Priority date	Oct 28, 2021
Publication date	Jun 6, 2023
Grant date	Jun 6, 2023

Abstract

A scanning antenna is provided in the present disclosure. The scanning antenna includes a first substrate and a second substrate which are arranged oppositely; a liquid crystal layer between the first substrate and the second substrate; and a feed signal access terminal and a plurality of phase shift units, where the plurality of phase shift units is connected with each other, each phase shift unit is connected to the feed signal access terminal, and electrical lengths between at least two phase shift units and the feed signal access terminal are different. The present disclosure not only realizes one-dimensional wave beam scanning, but also has desirable scanning effect. The bias voltage is not needed to be independently applied to each phase shift unit, which can greatly simplify the bias voltage line configuration and be beneficial for reducing production cost and wiring difficulty.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A scanning antenna, comprising:
a first substrate and a second substrate, which are arranged oppositely;
a liquid crystal layer, between the first substrate and the second substrate;
a feed signal access terminal and a plurality of phase shift units, wherein the plurality of phase shift units is connected with each other, each phase shift unit is connected to the feed signal access terminal, and at least two phase shift units of the plurality of phase shift units have different electrical lengths with the feed signal access terminal; and
a load, wherein one end of the plurality of phase shift units which are connected with each other is connected to the feed signal access terminal, and the other end of the plurality of phase shift units which are connected with each other is connected to the load, and the load is one of a matched wave absorbing structure or a matched wave absorbing circuit component configured to absorb microwaves reaching the other end of the plurality of phase shift units.

2. A scanning antenna, comprising:
a first substrate and a second substrate, which are arranged oppositely;
a liquid crystal layer, between the first substrate and the second substrate; and
a feed signal access terminal and a plurality of phase shift units, wherein the plurality of phase shift units is connected with each other, each phase shift unit is connected to the feed signal access terminal, and at least two phase shift units of the plurality of phase shift units have different electrical lengths with the feed signal access terminal, wherein:
each phase shift unit includes a first conductive portion disposed on a side of the first substrate facing the second substrate;
a second conductive portion is disposed on a side of the second substrate facing the first substrate; and the second conductive portion includes a plurality of through holes; and
a plurality of third conductive portions is disposed on a side of the second substrate away from the first substrate; an orthographic projection of a third conductive portion on the second substrate overlaps an orthographic projection of a through hole on the second substrate; wherein:
a feed signal received by the feed signal access terminal is transmitted to the first conductive portion, and the first conductive portion couples the feed signal to the third conductive portion through the through hole of the second conductive portion.

3. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
the second conductive portion is connected to a ground signal; and the third conductive portion is a block-shaped structure.

4. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
the first conductive portion has one of a linear line shape, a curved line shape, and a zigzag line shape.

5. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
along a direction in parallel with a plane of the first substrate, a plurality of first conductive portions is arranged sequentially along a same direction and connected with each other; and electrical lengths of two adjacent first conductive portions are equal to each other.

6. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
the scanning antenna includes a plurality of phase shift unit rows;
a plurality of first conductive portions is arranged sequentially along a first direction and connected with each other to form one phase shift unit row;
the plurality of phase shift unit rows is sequentially arranged along a second direction, wherein along a direction in parallel with a plane of the first substrate, the first direction intersects the second direction; and
one end of each phase shift unit row is connected to the feed signal access terminal.

7. The scanning antenna according to claim 6 , wherein:
a dielectric layer is further included between the first substrate and the second substrate;
an orthographic projection of the dielectric layer on the first substrate overlaps an orthographic projection of the feed signal access terminal on the first substrate; and the orthographic projection of the feed signal access terminal on the first substrate does not overlap an orthographic projection of the liquid crystal layer on the first substrate; and
the dielectric layer includes air and/or a solid dielectric.

8. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
the scanning antenna includes at least two first conductive portions; and a linear distance from one of two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal is equal to a linear distance from another one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal; and
an electrical length from one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal is different from an electrical length from another one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal.

9. The scanning antenna according to claim 8 , wherein:
a transmission path length from one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal is different from a transmission path length from another one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal.

10. The scanning antenna according to claim 8 , wherein:
a transmission path length from one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal is same as a transmission path length from another one of the two first conductive portions to the feed signal access terminal; and
and shapes of orthographic projections of the two first conductive portions on the first substrate are different.

11. The scanning antenna according to claim 2 , wherein:
at least two first branch structures are connected to the feed signal access terminal; at least two second branch structures are connected to each first branch structure; and at least two first conductive portions are connected to each second branch structure;
a plurality of first conductive portions is arranged in an array; and all first conductive portions have a same linear distance with the feed signal access terminal; and
the at least two first conductive portions have different electrical lengths with the feed signal access terminal.

12. A scanning antenna, comprising:
a first substrate and a second substrate, which are arranged oppositely;
a liquid crystal layer, between the first substrate and the second substrate; and
a feed signal access terminal and a plurality of phase shift units, wherein the plurality of phase shift units is connected with each other, each phase shift unit is connected to the feed signal access terminal, and at least two phase shift units of the plurality of phase shift units have different electrical lengths with the feed signal access terminal, wherein:
each phase shift unit includes a first conductive portion disposed on a side of the second substrate facing the first substrate;
a second conductive portion is disposed on a side of the first substrate facing the second substrate; and
the side of the second substrate facing the first substrate includes a third conductive portion connected to the first conductive portion, wherein:
a feed signal received by the feed signal access terminal is transmitted to the first conductive portion, and the first conductive portion transmits the feed signal to the third conductive portion, such that for the plurality of phase shift units, the feed signal is transmitted from first conductive portions to third conductive portions at different positions.

13. The scanning antenna according to claim 12 , wherein:
the second conductive portion is connected to a ground signal; and the third conductive portion is a block-shaped structure.

Assignees

• Shanghai Tianma Micro Elect Co

Inventors

• Lei Dengming
• Xi Kerui
• Jia Zhenyu
• Su Ping
• Jiang Huihui
• Wang Yi
• Li Wei
• Li Huan
• Qin Feng

Classifications

• H01Q3/30 Primary

  varying the {relative} phase {between the radiating elements of an array (H01Q3/2605, H01Q3/2658, H01Q3/2682, H01Q3/44 take precedence)} · CPC title

• H01Q3/36 Primary

  with variable phase-shifters · CPC title

• H01Q3/2658

  Phased-array fed focussing structure · CPC title

• H01Q21/0006

  Particular feeding systems · CPC title

• H01Q21/00

  Antenna arrays or systems (arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system H01Q3/00) · CPC title