CN210006920U

CN210006920U - Parasitic element for radiator of base station antenna

Info

Publication number: CN210006920U
Application number: CN201921096822.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 范红蕾; 肖鹏; 叶洪; 傅小安; 闻杭生; 程菲菲; 邵殷勤; 钱红君
Original assignee: Tyco Electronics Corp
Current assignee: TE Connectivity Corp
Priority date: 2019-07-12
Filing date: 2019-07-12
Publication date: 2020-01-31
Anticipated expiration: 2029-07-12

Abstract

The utility model relates to an parasitic element for radiator of base station antenna, characterized in that, parasitic element includes the parasitic element main part, the parasitic element main part includes the substrate of being made by the dielectric material and bonds to the metal foil on the surface of substrate.

Description

Parasitic element for radiator of base station antenna

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of antennas, and more particularly, to parasitic elements for radiators of base station antennas and methods of making the same.

Background

Base station antennas in radio communication systems are used to transmit and receive radio frequency ("RF") signals to and from fixed and/or mobile users. A base station antenna typically has multiple arrays of radiators. The arrays of radiators can be, for example, linear arrays of radiators or two-dimensional arrays of radiators.

By proper placement of the parasitic elements, the effect of increasing the amount of radiation in the desired direction (i.e., increasing the amount of radiation in cell sectors in a cellular communication system) and attenuating radiation in the undesired direction (i.e., decreasing the amount of radiation entering radiating adjacent sectors and/or cells) can be achieved.

As the number of radiator arrays mounted on a base station antenna increases, the distance between the radiators of adjacent arrays decreases significantly, which results in stronger coupling interference between the radiating arrays. The coupling interference becomes stronger and reduces the isolation performance of the radiators, which negatively affects the radiation pattern of the radiating array. In order to improve the isolation performance, a parasitic element is disposed between adjacent radiators to increase the isolation between the radiators, thereby improving the radiation pattern of the radiation array.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

, an object of the present disclosure, is to provide parasitic elements for radiators.

The subject technology of the present disclosure is illustrated in accordance with aspects described below. For convenience, various embodiments of aspects of the subject technology are described as clauses (1, 2, 3, etc.) of the numerals. These terms are provided as examples and do not limit the subject technology of the present disclosure.

1, A parasitic element for a radiator of a base station antenna, wherein the parasitic element comprises a parasitic element body comprising a base material made of a dielectric material and a metal foil adhered to a surface of the base material, it being understood that "adhered" means that the metal foil is attached to the surface of the base material by means of an adhesive, i.e. there is an adhesive layer between the metal foil and the base material.

2. The parasitic element according to clause 1, wherein the metal foil can be adhered to or detached from the surface of the base material manually or with the aid of an operating tool.

3. The parasitic element according to clause 2, wherein the metal foil can be additionally added or partially removed manually or by means of a handling tool.

4 the parasitic element according to clause 3, wherein the adhesion or detachment or additional addition or partial removal of the metal foil can be achieved during commissioning.

5. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the metal foil is bonded to the surface of the substrate by hot pressing.

6. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the metal foil has a thickness of less than 1 mm.

7. The parasitic element of clause 6, wherein the metal foil has a thickness of 0.1-0.3 mm.

8. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the metal foil is aluminum.

9. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the material of the substrate is plastic.

10. The parasitic element of clause 9, wherein the material of the substrate is polypropylene or polycarbonate.

11. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the parasitic element further comprises a support member configured for mechanical connection with a reflector, and the parasitic element body further comprises at least joints, the at least joints configured to mount the parasitic element body to a reflector.

12. The parasitic element of clause 11, wherein the support member comprises a sheet having a segment and a second segment angled from each other.

13. The parasitic element of clause 12, wherein the th and second segments are 90 ° with respect to each other.

14. The parasitic element of clause 11, wherein the support member is made of metal.

15. The parasitic element of clause 14, wherein the support member is made of aluminum.

16. The parasitic element of clause 11, wherein the support member comprises at least projections configured to be received in mounting holes on a reflector to mechanically couple the support member to the reflector.

17. The parasitic element of any of clause 16, wherein the at least protrusions comprise snaps.

18. The parasitic element of clause 1, wherein the parasitic element body further comprises at least joints, the at least joints configured to mechanically mount the parasitic element body to a reflector.

19. The parasitic element of clause 18, wherein the at least joints comprise a sheet having body-formed and second sections at an angle of with respect to each other, wherein the section is in the same plane as the metal foil on the parasitic element body and the second section is at an angle of with respect to the section.

20. The parasitic element of clause 19, wherein the second segment has a via thereon.

21. The parasitic element of clause 19, wherein at least of the engagement portions have a catch portion thereon, the catch portion extending from the second section toward the reflector, the catch portion configured to catch the parasitic element into a mounting hole on the reflector.

22. The parasitic element of clause 19, wherein the angle is 90 °.

23. The parasitic element of any of clauses 11-22, wherein the at least junctions are two in number.

24. The parasitic element of any of clauses 11-22, wherein the at least junctions are integrally formed with the substrate as .

25. The parasitic element of any of clauses 1-22, wherein the metal foil is constructed as a plurality of segments of conductive metal foil.

26, a parasitic element for a radiator of a base station antenna, wherein the parasitic element comprises a body-formed dielectric support having at least joints for mounting the parasitic element to a reflector and an electrically floating metal foil adhered to a surface of the dielectric support.

27. The parasitic element of clause 26, wherein the joint comprises a segment extending in the same plane as the metal foil and a second segment extending substantially perpendicular to the segment.

28. The parasitic element of clause 27, wherein the second section of the joint further comprises a clasp extending from the second section toward the reflector.

29. The parasitic element of clause 27, wherein the second section of the joint further comprises a through-hole extending through the second section.

30. The parasitic element of any of clauses 26-29, wherein the dielectric support is made of plastic.

31. The parasitic element of clause 30, wherein the plastic is polypropylene or polycarbonate.

The parasitic element of any of clauses 26-29 or , wherein the metal foil is aluminum foil.

Drawings

Various aspects of the disclosure will be better understood upon reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings in which:

fig. 1 shows a partial schematic perspective view of embodiments of a base station antenna according to the present disclosure;

fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a parasitic element according to an th embodiment of the invention;

fig. 3 shows a perspective view of a parasitic element body alone, in accordance with an th embodiment of the invention;

fig. 4 shows a perspective view of a parasitic element according to a second embodiment of the invention;

fig. 5 shows a flow diagram of a method for manufacturing a parasitic element according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate several embodiments of the disclosure. It should be understood, however, that the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, the embodiments described below are intended to provide a more complete disclosure of the present disclosure, and to fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in various ways to provide further additional embodiments.

It should be understood that like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the several views. In the drawings, the size of some of the features may be varied for clarity.

It is to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. All terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in the specification have the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise defined. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.

The use of the terms "", "said", and "the" in the specification is to be construed as including the plural unless expressly stated otherwise, the use of the terms "including", "comprising", and "containing" in the specification is meant to indicate the presence of the stated feature but does not preclude the presence or more other features.

In the description, where elements are said to be "on", "attached" to another element, "connected" to another element, "coupled" to another 2 element, or "in contact" with another element, etc., that element may be directly on another element, attached to another element, connected to another element, connected to another element or in contact with another element, or intervening elements may be present, it is to be contrasted that elements are said to be "directly" on "another element," directly attached "to another element," directly connected "to another element," directly coupled "to another element, or" directly in contact "with another element, there will be no intervening elements.

In the description, spatial relationships such as "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "front", "rear", "high", "low", etc., may describe the relationship of features to another feature in the drawings.

Specifically, parts of the parasitic elements may be configured to adjust, for example, the beam width of the antenna beam generated by the radiator array, while parts of the parasitic elements may be configured to improve isolation between adjacent radiators.

However, such parasitic elements may be costly and require complex manufacturing processes, and furthermore, once such parasitic elements are manufactured, it is often difficult to change the shape (such as length, etc.) of the copper pattern during commissioning to achieve finer and more flexible commissioning.

Next, specific configurations of exemplary parasitic elements according to embodiments of the present disclosure are explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings, fig. 1 schematically illustrates a schematic perspective view of a base station antenna including a parasitic element according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, the base station antenna includes a reflector 1 and a radiator array 2 mounted on the reflector 1. Also mounted on the reflector 1 are parasitic elements 3 for the respective radiator arrays 2. Such parasitic elements 3 may be arranged around the radiator array 2 or between adjacent radiators for, for example, shaping the antenna beam generated by the radiator array 2.

In the present embodiment radiator arrays 2 of 2x2 are exemplarily mounted on the reflector 1, but it is understood that in other embodiments the number of radiator arrays 2, the number of radiators 20 comprised by the radiator arrays 2 and their arrangement may be varied according to actual needs, there may be radiator arrays 2 having a greater number of radiators 20 (e.g. 8x8 radiator arrays 2), furthermore, a plurality of radiator arrays 2 may be mounted on the reflector 1, and these radiator arrays 2 may operate at the same or different operating frequency bands, respectively, for example, the radiator array 2 may include low-band radiators operating in all or part of the 617MHz to 960MHz band, the second radiator array 2 may include mid-band radiators operating in all or part of the 1710MHz to 2690MHz band, the third radiator array 2 may include high-band radiators operating in the 3GHz and/or 5GHz band, these radiators 20 may transmit radio frequency signals to the outside as transmitting elements, and may also receive signals from the outside as receiving elements.

As shown in fig. 1, parts of the parasitic elements 3 may be arranged between adjacent radiators 20 to increase the isolation of the adjacent radiators 20, another parts of the parasitic elements 3 may be arranged around the radiator array 2 and may interact with the corresponding radiators 20 in the radiator array 2, e.g. in operation, the parasitic elements 3 may absorb radio waves from the corresponding radiators 20 and re-radiate the radio waves outwards with different phases, in order to shape the resulting antenna beam advantageously, e.g. by adjusting the beam width of the antenna beam.

Parasitic elements according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are explained in detail below with the aid of fig. 2 to 4.

Fig. 2 and 3 show a perspective view of a parasitic element 3 and a perspective view of a parasitic element body 33 alone, respectively, according to an th embodiment of the invention.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the parasitic element 3 includes a parasitic element main body 33 and a support member 34, and the parasitic element main body 33 is mechanically connected to the support member 34. Referring to fig. 1, the parasitic element 3 may be mounted to the reflector 1 by means of a support member 34. Thereby, the parasitic element 3, in particular the parasitic element body 33 of the parasitic element 3, may extend substantially forward from the reflector 1 and be mounted to the periphery of the respective radiator array 2 or between adjacent radiators 20.

In the current embodiment, the parasitic element body 33 includes a base material 31 and a metal foil 32 (e.g., aluminum foil) attached to the base material 31. The metal foil 32 may for example be attached, for example glued, to the surface of the base material 31 manually or by means of a handling tool. The metal foil 32 is configured to be "electrically floating", that is, the metal foil 32 on the parasitic element body 33 is not electrically connected to other conductive elements.

In the current embodiment, the base material 31 may include a metal foil receiving portion 311 and two engaging portions 312 extending from the metal foil receiving portion 311 toward the reflector 1. The metal foil receiving portion 311 may be configured as a substantially long strip-shaped sheet so as to receive the substantially long strip-shaped metal foil 32. The joint 312 may extend from a long side of the metal foil receiving portion 311 toward the reflector 1 to be mechanically connected with the support member 34 of the parasitic element 3. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the metal foil receiving portion 311 may take other shapes to receive metal foils 32 having other shapes than those shown in the figures.

In the current embodiment, the base material 31 may be composed of plastic, such as polypropylene (PP), Polycarbonate (PC), or the like. The metal foil 32 may be configured as a flat sheet foil and may have a thickness of less than 1mm, for example, the metal foil 32 may have a thickness of between 0.1mm and 0.3 mm. The metal foil may be made of aluminum or copper, which is advantageous when configured as an aluminum foil, because aluminum is less expensive and less dense, thereby enabling a reduction in manufacturing costs and the weight of the base station antenna, and thus a reduction in wind load.

As shown in fig. 2, the supporting member 34 of the parasitic element 3 includes an upper connection segment 341 and a lower connection segment 342, and an angle of about 90 degrees is formed between the upper connection segment 341 and the lower connection segment 342. As can be seen from fig. 1 and 2, the upper connection section 341 of the support part 34 may extend substantially forward from the reflector 1, while the lower connection section 342 may extend substantially parallel to the reflector 1 and may be mechanically connected to the upper surface of the reflector 1.

In the present embodiment, the upper connection section 341 has a penetrating -th hole portion 344 therein, the -th hole portion 344 corresponding to the second hole portion 345 in the coupling portion 312 of the parasitic element main body 33 so as to connect the parasitic element main body 33 with the upper connection section 341 of the supporting part 34 by a locking element 343 such as a screw nut or a rivet, and the lower connection section 342 also has a penetrating third hole portion 346 therein, the third hole portion 346 corresponding to a mounting hole (not shown here) of the reflector 1 so as to connect the lower connection section 342 of the supporting part 34 to the reflector 1 by a mechanical connection such as a screw nut or a rivet, thereby completing the mounting of the parasitic element 3 on the reflector 1.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the example of mounting the parasitic element 3 to the reflector 1 shown in fig. 2 is only an preferred embodiments of the present invention, and that any other configuration capable of achieving the objects of the present invention may be adopted.

In other embodiments, the parasitic element body 33 may have another number of joints 312, for example, , three, etc., in embodiments, at least of the 1 th extensions may be disposed on the joints 312 of the parasitic element body 33, the upper connection portion 341 of the supporting member 34 may have a th through hole corresponding to the th extension, and the parasitic element body 33 may be connected to the supporting member 34 by snapping the third extensions into the th through holes, for example, at least of the second extensions may be disposed in the upper connection portion 341 of the supporting member 34, the joints 312 of the parasitic element body 33 may have a second through hole corresponding to the second extension , and the parasitic element body 33 may be connected to the supporting member 34 by snapping the second extensions into the second through holes, in embodiments, the lower connection portion 342 of the supporting member 34 may also have at least third extensions, which may be connected to the mounting positions of the multiple mounting positions of the reflectors via the third extensions 631, or mounting positions of the third extensions, and the mounting positions of the third extensions may be connected to the supporting member 34 via the snapping extensions 632 or .

It will be appreciated that other configurations of the support member 34 are possible, as long as the portion of the support member 34 is mechanically connectable to the reflector 1 and the portion is mechanically connectable to the parasitic element body 33, thereby enabling connection of the parasitic element body 33 to the reflector 1.

In the present embodiment the support member 34 may be made of a metallic material, whereby the support member 34 also has an adjustment effect on the radio frequency properties of the radiator 1, thereby assisting the adjustment effect of the parasitic element body 33 to a certain extent at in other embodiments the support member 34 may also be made of plastic, thereby reducing the manufacturing costs and the weight of the base station antenna, thereby reducing the wind load.

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of a parasitic element 4 according to a second embodiment of the invention, as shown, the parasitic element 4 likewise comprises a base material 41 and a metal foil 42 attached to this base material 41, and the base material 41 comprises a metal foil receiving portion 411 and two engaging portions 412, the two engaging portions 412 extending from the metal foil receiving portion 411 towards the reflector, it being understood that other numbers of engaging portions 412 are possible, each engaging portion 412 comprises an th section 412-1 and a second section 412-2, the th and second sections 412-1 and 412-2 being configured as L-shaped folds with each other, the th section 412-1 extending directly from the metal foil receiving portion 411 towards the reflector, the second section 412-2 extending at an angle to the th section 412-1, in the embodiments the second section 412-2 is substantially perpendicular to the th section 412-1 and substantially parallel to the reflector, in the embodiments the engaging portions 412-2 are configured as 411 with the metal foil receiving portion 411.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, each joint 412 further includes a snap 412-3, the snap 412-3 extending from the second section 412-2 of the joint 412 toward the reflector, the snap 412-3 is used to mount the parasitic element 4 to the reflector, and may be secured to the joint 412 in any known manner, in embodiments, the snap 412-3 may be formed with the remainder of the joint 412. in this embodiment, during mounting of the parasitic element 4 to the reflector, no support member as described in the embodiment is required, but rather, installation may be accomplished by directly snapping the snap 412-3 on the parasitic element 4 into a corresponding hole in the reflector.

Parasitic elements according to embodiments of the present invention are advantageous: after the manufacture of the parasitic element, the metal foil can be flexibly adapted to the specific application scenario. Since the metal foil can be attached to or detached from the surface of the substrate manually or by means of a handling tool, it is possible to partially remove the metal foil and/or to add an additional (or larger) metal foil in a cost-effective and simple manner. This is particularly advantageous during commissioning, since conventionally used parasitic elements, which are usually mass produced, are not designed for a radiator array of a specific frequency band, and therefore overshoot or undershoot phenomena often occur during commissioning, which may affect the shaping of the antenna beam generated by the radiating array 2. According to the parasitic element of the embodiments of the present invention, in the case of overshoot or undershoot, the shape of the metal foil can be adapted to the radiator array of the specific frequency band, so as to perform tuning more finely, thereby better meeting the predetermined design requirement.

In embodiments, the metal foil may be partially cut away using a tool such as a blade to reduce the length or width of the metal foil, or additional metal foils may be attached to increase the length or width of the metal foil so that the radio frequency performance of the radiator array corresponding to the particular frequency band is more targeted across the metal foil.

Fig. 5 illustrates exemplary methods for manufacturing parasitic elements according to embodiments of the invention, as shown in fig. 5, the method may include the steps of:

providing a base material for the metal foil, which may for example be performed at a base material supply station on the work line, which may for example be a roll of aluminium foil or the like.

-applying adhesive on surfaces of said base material for metal foil, which step may for example be performed at an adhesive application station on a work line.

-cutting said base material for metal foil into metal foils having desired dimensions, which are selected according to the radio frequency properties of the radiators, which can be performed, for example, at a cutting station on a work line.

Providing a dielectric substrate, which step may be performed, for example, at a substrate supply station on a work line.

Bonding the metal foil and the dielectric substrate, which may be done, for example, at a bonding station on a work line, wherein the metal foil may also be manually bonded to the dielectric substrate in embodiments, the metal foil and substrate may be hot pressed for attachment during the bonding process.

In the embodiments, the adhesive application station, cutting station, and bonding station may be integrated into the same apparatus in the embodiments, the adhesive can be washed away to facilitate the release of the metal foil bonded to the substrate from the substrate.

The parasitic element according to the present disclosure is low in cost, simple in manufacturing method, and easy to add or partially remove a metal foil at a debugging site, etc., compared to a conventional parasitic element made of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure without substantially departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, all changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims. The disclosure is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.

Claims

A parasitic element for a radiator of a base station antenna, characterized in that the parasitic element comprises a parasitic element body including a base material made of a dielectric material and a metal foil bonded to a surface of the base material.
2. Parasitic element according to claim 1, characterized in that the metal foil can be glued to or detached from the surface of the substrate manually or with the aid of a handling tool.
3. Parasitic element according to claim 2, characterized in that the metal foil can be additionally added or partly removed manually or by means of a handling tool.
4. Parasitic element according to claim 3, characterized in that the adhesion or detachment or additional addition or partial removal of the metal foil can be achieved during commissioning.
5. The parasitic element of claim 1 wherein said metal foil is bonded to a surface of said substrate by hot pressing.
6. The parasitic element of claim 1 wherein said metal foil has a thickness of less than 1 mm.
7. Parasitic element as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that the thickness of the metal foil is 0.1-0.3 mm.
8. Parasitic element as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the material of the metal foil is aluminium.
9. Parasitic element according to claim 1, characterized in that the material of said substrate is plastic.
10. The parasitic element according to claim 9, wherein the material of said substrate is polypropylene or polycarbonate.
11. The parasitic element of claim 1 further comprising a support member configured for mechanical connection to a reflector, and wherein said parasitic element body further comprises at least joints, said at least joints configured to mount said parasitic element body to a reflector.
12. The parasitic element of claim 11 wherein said support member comprises a sheet having a section and a second section angled from each other.
13. The parasitic element of claim 12 wherein said th and second segments are 90 ° with respect to each other.
14. The parasitic element of claim 11 wherein said support member is made of metal.
15. The parasitic element of claim 14 wherein said support member is made of aluminum.
16. The parasitic element of claim 11 wherein said support member includes at least extensions configured to be received in mounting holes in a reflector to mechanically couple said support member to said reflector.
17. The parasitic element of claim 16 wherein said at least protrusions comprise snaps.
18. The parasitic element of claim 1 wherein said parasitic element body further comprises at least joints, said at least joints configured to mechanically mount the parasitic element body to a reflector.
19. The parasitic element of claim 18 wherein said at least junctions comprise a sheet having body-formed and second sections at an angle of with respect to each other, wherein said section is in the same plane as the foil on the body of the parasitic element and said second section is at an angle of with respect to said section.
20. The parasitic element of claim 19 wherein said second section has a through hole therein.
21. The parasitic element of claim 19 wherein at least of the engagement portions have a snap-fit portion thereon, the snap-fit portion extending from the second section toward the reflector, the snap-fit portion configured to snap-fit the parasitic element into a mounting hole on the reflector.
22. The parasitic element of claim 19 wherein said is angled at 90 °.
23. The parasitic element of any of claims 11-22 wherein said at least junctions are two in number.
24. The parasitic element of any wherein said at least junctions are formed in pieces from said substrate.
25. The parasitic element of any of wherein said metal foil is configured as a plurality of segments of conductive metal foil.
26, a parasitic element for a radiator of a base station antenna, characterized in that the parasitic element comprises a body-formed dielectric support having at least joints for mounting the parasitic element to a reflector, and an electrically floating metal foil adhered to a surface of the dielectric support.
27. The parasitic element of claim 26 wherein said junction comprises a segment extending in the same plane as said foil and a second segment extending substantially perpendicular to said segment.
28. The parasitic element of claim 27 wherein said second section of said junction further comprises a catch extending from said second section toward the reflector.
29. The parasitic element of claim 27 wherein said second segment of said junction further comprises a through-hole extending through said second segment.
30. The parasitic element of any of claims 26-29 wherein said dielectric support is made of plastic.
31. The parasitic element of claim 30 wherein said plastic is polypropylene or polycarbonate.
32. The parasitic element of any of wherein said metal foil is aluminum foil.