Millimeter (mm) wave switched beam antenna system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9692126-B2
Application number	US-201414291092-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A mm-wave antenna apparatus with beam steering function that includes: a Butler Matrix feeding network; a plurality of power combiners, each power combiner having one input and N outputs, configured to apply equal phase and power to a phase distributed output signal generated by the Butler Matrix feeding network and to generate N processed signals; and a plurality of millimeter wave switched beam planar antenna arrays having at least 1.5 GHz of bandwidth and located on a top low loss dielectric substrate, each antenna array of N elements, configured to obtain direct and narrow width beams from the N processed signals combined by each power combiner.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A mm-wave antenna apparatus with beam steering function comprising:
a Butler Matrix feeding network having a plurality of outputs;
a plurality of power combiners, each power combiner having N outputs and one input configured to receive a respective output from the Butler Matrix feeding network, wherein each power combiner is configured to apply equal phase and power to a phase distributed output signal generated by the Butler Matrix feeding network and generate N processed signals; and
a plurality of millimeter wave switched beam planar antenna arrays having at least 1.5 GHz of bandwidth and located on a top low loss dielectric substrate, wherein each antenna array has N elements configured to receive the N processed signals from the N outputs of each respective power combiner, and wherein each antenna array is configured to obtain direct and narrow width beams from the N processed signals combined by each of the power combiners,
wherein the apparatus is integrated in a multi-layer printed circuit board including:
a bottom dielectric substrate having the Butler Matrix feeding network, the plurality of power combiners, and a plurality of feeding microstrip lines, and
a middle layer dielectric substrate between the top low loss dielectric substrate and the bottom dielectric substrate and having a ground plane with a plurality of coupling slits,
wherein the top substrate extends beyond the size of the arrays to accommodate the Butler Matrix feeding network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the Butler Matrix feeding network includes one or more hybrid couplers, one or more crossovers and one or more phase shifters.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the Butler Matrix feeding network includes M input signals, wherein each of the M input signals is excited at a different time and generates a different phase distributed output signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus can be inserted in a handheld portable consumer electronic device for short range communication.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the amount of millimeter wave switched beam planar antenna arrays is based on the number of outputs of Butler Matrix feeding network.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the number of N elements of each antenna array is based on the total number of outputs of the power combiners.

Assignees

• Univ King Fahd Pet & Minerals

Inventors

• Sharawi Mohammad Said

Classifications

• H01Q3/40 Primary

  with phasing matrix · CPC title

• H01Q21/065

  Patch antenna array · CPC title

• H01Q9/0407

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

• H01Q21/0006

  Particular feeding systems · CPC title