JPH0548328A - Receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize the receiver with small size, light weight and high accuracy. CONSTITUTION:A plane antenna section 2 and a reception circuit section 3 are formed respectively to a front and a rear side of the same semi-insulation chemical compound semiconductor substrate 1 opposite to each other. Both of the sections are interconnected by using microstrip lines 9a, 9b and a via hole 5a made to the semi-insulation chemical compound semiconductor substrate 1. Thus, the receiver is made small in size and light in weight entirely. Furthermore, since the reception circuit section 3 is located opposite to the plane antenna section 2, the effect of a radio wave made incident on the plane antenna section 2 is almost immune to the reception circuit section 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plane antenna for receiving a microwave signal from a communication satellite, a broadcasting satellite or the like on the ground.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the rapid development of information network systems, the demand for satellite communication systems is rapidly increasing, and the frequency band is becoming higher. A Schottky barrier type field effect transistor (MESFET) using a compound semiconductor such as GaAs as the high frequency field effect transistor.
Has been put into practical use, and more recently, for the downsizing, price reduction, and high performance of a system, integration of a down-converter first-stage amplifier section for converting a high-frequency signal to a low frequency (MMI
C-type: Microwave MonolithicIn
The integrated circuit) is under way.

On the other hand, planar antennas have begun to be put into practical use as antennas for receiving microwave signals from communication satellites and broadcasting satellites on the ground. A planar antenna is a device in which a large number of antenna elements are arranged in a plane and the signal power received by each element is collected by a conductor. At first, the planar antenna for microwave reception was far behind the parabolic antenna in terms of both performance and cost. However, due to the increase in research on microstrip antennas from the latter half of the 1970s and the improvement in performance of microwave printed circuit boards, they have reached a practical level at present.

[0004]

However, sufficient research has not necessarily been conducted on the method of connecting the MMIC type reception system and the planar antenna. For example, if a waveguide, which is a general microwave transmission means, is used as a means for connecting the two, it is difficult to achieve a reduction in size and weight as a whole. Is not fully utilized. An object of the present invention is to eliminate such a problem.

[0005]

The receiving apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
Alternatively, a planar antenna section composed of two or more antenna elements and a receiving circuit section connected to the planar antenna section are formed on the front and back surfaces of the same semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate so as to be opposite to each other, and both of them are formed. Are connected by a VIA hole and a planar transmission line formed in a semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate.

[0006]

Since the planar antenna section and the receiving circuit section are formed on the same semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate so that they are on the opposite sides, they are connected by a planar transmission line such as a microstrip line and a VIA hole. You can
The overall size and weight of the receiving device can be reduced. In this case, the planar antenna part, the receiving circuit part, the VIA hole and the planar transmission line can all be integrated by a normal IC process.

[0007]

1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.
A receiving circuit portion 3 is monolithically formed on a semi-insulating semiconductor substrate 1 made of, for example, GaAs, on the surface of which a semiconductor layer formed by epitaxial growth is formed, and a portion of the back surface corresponding to the planar antenna portion 2 is a ground pattern. 6a is formed. On the other hand, the flat antenna portion 2 is formed on the back surface, and the portion on the front surface corresponding to the receiving circuit portion 3 is the ground pattern 6b. The planar antenna section 2 and the receiving circuit section 3 are electrically connected to each other by a VIA hole 5a formed in the semi-insulating semiconductor substrate 1 and microstrip lines 9a and 9b which are planar transmission lines. The planar antenna unit 2 is composed of four antenna elements 4, and each antenna element 4 is of a two-point feeding type which is well known as a microstrip patch antenna. The feeder lines of each antenna element 4 are combined into one, and the microstrip line 9a,
It is connected to the receiving circuit section 3 as described above via 9b and the VIA hole 5a. The receiving circuit unit 3 is a low noise amplifier and is configured by integrating MESFETs and the like using an epitaxial semiconductor layer on a semiconductor substrate. Since the receiving circuit section 2 and the antenna section 3 are thus formed on the front and back surfaces of the single substrate 1, the receiving apparatus is small and lightweight and easy to handle.

In this embodiment, the receiving circuit section 3 is a low noise amplifier. However, in addition to the low noise amplifier, a frequency conversion circuit for down converting the frequency of the output signal and an output signal of this frequency conversion circuit are amplified. It is also possible to integrate the circuits and so on together.

Further, when the receiving device is applied to a mobile body such as an automobile, means for electronically tracking the direction of the satellite in order to receive a microwave signal from a communication satellite or a broadcasting satellite, that is, reception It is desirable to incorporate a phase shifter circuit that shifts the phase of the microwave signal in the receiving circuit unit 3. Further, in the example of the present invention, the patch antenna is used as the antenna element 4, but it is also possible to replace it with another printed antenna such as a line type or a spiral type.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the present invention, in which the antenna element 4 is further integrated.
As shown in the figure, the microwave signal output from each planar antenna unit 2 is collected by the microstrip line 9d and received by the receiving circuit unit 3 via the VIA hole 5b and the microstrip line 9c. It will be. In this way, the number of antenna elements 4 can be increased as much as space permits, and the receiving capability and accuracy are improved by the increased number of antenna elements 4.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing still another embodiment of the present invention. In this receiving device, one antenna array element is composed of four antenna elements 4, and four sets of antenna array elements 10a to 10d are arranged in an array on the semiconductor substrate 1. For example, low noise amplifiers 3a to 3d, which serve as a receiving circuit unit, are connected to the antenna array elements 10a to 10d, respectively, and output terminals of the low noise amplifiers 3a to 3d are commonly connected by a microstrip line 9e. .. Generally, the reason why it is difficult to increase the efficiency of the planar antenna is that the loss of the power feeding system is large. However, the noise figure can be greatly improved by adding the low noise amplifiers 3a to 3d to the antenna array elements 10a to 10d as in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the antenna array elements 10a-10d and the low noise amplifiers 3a-
3d are all arranged on one semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate 1 and monolithically integrated.

However, it is also possible to construct a receiver having an equivalent structure by hybrid integration. That is, one antenna array element and one low noise amplifier are monolithically formed on one semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate as in the embodiment shown in FIG. It may be mounted on a substrate such as expanded polyethylene having a low dielectric constant and small tan δ suitable for a planar antenna, and each low noise amplifier may be connected by a microstrip line. In this case, since the dielectric constant is low, the propagation speed of microwaves is high.

Although each of the above embodiments is a receiver for directly receiving microwaves from a communication satellite or the like, these receivers can also be used as a primary radiator of a parabolic antenna. ..

[0014]

As described above, according to the receiving device of the present invention, since the planar antenna section and the receiving circuit section are formed on the opposite surfaces of the same semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate,
Both can be connected with a microstrip line,
The overall size and weight of the receiving device can be reduced. In particular,
Since the receiving circuit section is on the back side of the flat antenna section, when it is used as the primary radiator of the parabolic antenna, the receiving circuit section is less likely to be affected by the radio waves collected by the parabolic antenna. The degree of freedom of is increased. Moreover, since the planar antenna, the receiving circuit, and the microstrip line can all be integrated by a normal IC process, the manufacturing cost can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a receiving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a receiving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a receiving device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate 2 ... Planar antenna part 3, 3a-3d ... Receiving circuit part 4 ... Antenna element 5a-5f ... VIA hole 6a-6g ... Ground pattern 7 ... Parabolic antenna 8 ... Receiving device 9a-9i ... Microstrip lines 10a to 10d ... Antenna array element

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flat antenna section including one or more antenna elements and a receiving circuit section connected to the flat antenna section are different surfaces on the front and back surfaces of the same semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate. The receiving device is formed in such a manner that the planar antenna section and the receiving circuit section are connected via a planar transmission line and a VIA hole formed in the semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrate.