A high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on micro-metal wire structure

Abstract

The present invention discloses a high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure, comprising: a plurality of phase shift units having the same transmission phase; each phase shift unit comprising: a first transparent substrate, a second transparent substrate arranged on one side of the first transparent substrate, and a third transparent substrate arranged on a side of the second transparent substrate away from the first transparent substrate; a transparent dielectric layer is arranged between the first transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate, and the second transparent substrate; the first transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate comprise strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures, the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures of the first transparent substrate and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures of the third transparent substrate being orthogonal to each other; the second transparent substrate comprises a semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure, and a closed ring micro-metal wire structure arranged within a semi-closed region formed by the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure; the length of the arc in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure is used to control the transmission phase of the phase shift unit.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of antennas, and in particular relates to a high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure. Background Art

[0002] Antennas are a critical component in every terminal communication system. Many communication devices often feature optical viewing windows. Installing traditional antennas in these windows significantly obstructs vision. Installing high-transmittance antennas in optically transparent windows, such as car windows, significantly reduces the area occupied by the antennas in other components, thereby improving overall integration. Therefore, with the future trend toward higher integration and multifunctionality in terminal communication devices, research on transparent antennas is imperative.

[0003] Currently, there are two common technologies for implementing transparent antennas. One relies on transparent conductive materials, such as indium tin oxide, to design the antenna to achieve a certain degree of transmittance. The other approach uses a metal grid structure instead of traditional metal. The lower the metal duty cycle, the greater the antenna transmittance. However, there are currently few methods for achieving high transmittance with transmission array antennas, and these methods also introduce significant losses. In other words, traditional solutions are still a long way from achieving transparent applications.

[0004] That is to say, whether it is based on transparent conductive materials or metal grid structures, the achievable transmittance is low, usually less than 60%. Moreover, for the method of designing antennas based on transparent conductive materials, to achieve higher transmittance, it is necessary to sacrifice conductivity, but it will result in greater losses. Therefore, the transparent antenna designed by this method has large losses and the radiation efficiency is much lower than that of pure metal structures. In addition, transmission array antennas usually require multiple layers to be superimposed to achieve a wide phase shift range (more than 360 degrees), but the superposition of layers will further lead to a decrease in the transmittance and radiation efficiency of the antenna. Therefore, there is currently no transmission array antenna that can achieve high transmittance and maintain high radiation efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0005] To address the aforementioned issues in related technologies, the present invention provides a high-transmittance, broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure. The technical issues addressed by the present invention are achieved through the following technical solutions:

[0006] The present invention provides a high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure, comprising:

[0007] A plurality of phase shift units; each phase shift unit comprises: a first transparent substrate, a second transparent substrate, and a third transparent substrate; the second transparent substrate is disposed on one side of the first transparent substrate, and the third transparent substrate is disposed on a side of the second transparent substrate away from the first transparent substrate; a transparent dielectric layer of a first preset thickness is disposed between the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate, and between the second transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate;

[0008] The top surfaces of the first transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate each include a strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal, and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure on the first transparent substrate and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure on the third transparent substrate are orthogonal to each other;

[0009] The top surface of the second transparent substrate includes a closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure and a semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal; the closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure is arranged in a semi-closed area formed by the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure; the length of the arc in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure is used to control the transmission phase of the phase shift unit for the received transmitted wave; wherein the transmission phases of the multiple phase shift units are the same.

[0010] The present invention has the following beneficial technical effects:

[0011] The phase shift units of a transmission array antenna are realized by using a transparent substrate as the substrate for the phase shift units and a transparent dielectric layer as the dielectric between the substrates. A micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal is used to implement the phase shift units of the transmission array antenna. Because both the substrate and the dielectric are transparent, the transmission array antenna can achieve high light transmittance. Furthermore, because the micro-metal wires are small in size, they have little impact on the light transmittance of the transparent substrate. This results in a high light transmittance for each layer in the phase shift units of the transmission array antenna. Furthermore, by arranging the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures on the first and second transparent substrates to be orthogonal to each other, and by configuring the micro-metal wire structures on the second transparent substrate to be semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures and closed loop micro-metal wire structures disposed within the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures, the transmission phase of the corresponding phase shift units can be varied by varying the length of the arcs in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures. Ultimately, the transmission phases of multiple phase shift units are made uniform, thereby maintaining the radiation efficiency of the transmission array antenna within a relatively high range. Therefore, the transmission array antenna provided by the present invention can both improve the light transmittance of the transmission array antenna and maintain the antenna's radiation efficiency within a relatively high range.

[0012] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] Figure 1AA schematic structural diagram of a phase shift unit of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0014] Figure 1B A schematic structural diagram of a second transparent substrate of an exemplary phase shift unit provided by an embodiment of the present invention and a closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure and a semi-closed arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure on the second transparent substrate;

[0015] Figure 2A An exemplary array phase distribution diagram of a transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0016] Figure 2B An orthographic projection diagram of a top layer of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0017] Figure 2C An orthographic projection diagram of a middle layer of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0018] Figure 2D An orthographic projection diagram of the bottom layer of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0019] Figure 3A A schematic diagram of the orientation of a micro-metal wire structure provided on a second transparent substrate of an exemplary phase shift unit with a phase shift of Φ provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 3B A schematic diagram of the orientation of a micro-metal wire structure provided on a second transparent substrate of a phase shift unit having a phase shift of Φ-180° provided in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 4A A schematic diagram illustrating changes in the reflection amplitude of a transmission array antenna caused by changes in the structural parameters of each phase shift unit of the transmission array antenna provided in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 4B A schematic diagram of phase changes of a transmission array antenna caused by changes in structural parameters of each phase shift unit of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 5A The E-plane radiation pattern of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 5B The H-plane radiation pattern of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 6 A diagram showing the relationship between achievable gain and efficiency of an exemplary transmission array antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to specific examples, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

[0027] In the description of the present invention, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood to indicate or imply relative importance or implicitly specify the number of the technical features indicated. Therefore, a feature specified as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present invention, "plurality" means two or more, unless otherwise specifically defined.

[0028] In the description of this specification, the reference terms "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "example", "specific example", or "some examples" mean that the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described can be combined in any appropriate manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. In addition, those skilled in the art can combine and combine different embodiments or examples described in this specification.

[0029] Although the present invention is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed invention, those skilled in the art can understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit can implement several functions listed in the claims. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

[0030] The present invention provides a high-transmittance, broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure. The transmission array antenna comprises: multiple phase shift units; each phase shift unit comprises: a first transparent substrate 1, a second transparent substrate 2, and a third transparent substrate 3; the second transparent substrate 2 is disposed on one side of the first transparent substrate 1, and the third transparent substrate 3 is disposed on a side of the second transparent substrate 2 away from the first transparent substrate 1; a transparent dielectric layer 4 of a first preset thickness is disposed between the first transparent substrate 1 and the second transparent substrate 2, and between the second transparent substrate 2 and the third transparent substrate 3. For example, the first preset thickness may be 3 mm.

[0031] The top surfaces of the first transparent substrate 1 and the third transparent substrate 3 both include strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures formed of micro-metal. The strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures 11 on the first transparent substrate 1 and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures 31 on the third transparent substrate 3 are orthogonal to each other. The top surface of the second transparent substrate 2 includes a closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure 21 and a semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure 22 formed of micro-metal. The closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure 21 is arranged within a semi-closed region formed by the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure 22. The length of the arc in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure 22 is used to control the transmission phase of the phase shift unit for the received transmitted wave. The transmission phases of multiple phase shift units are the same.

[0032] Here, by changing the length of the arc, the path length of the coupling current can be changed, thereby changing the transmission phase of the received transmission wave by the phase shift unit.

[0033] Here, the micro metal wire structure may be fabricated using a photolithography process, thereby enabling precise control of the thickness and width of the micro metal wire structure.

[0034] In some embodiments, the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures 11 and 31 on the first transparent substrate 1 and the third transparent substrate 3 are arranged at preset intervals, and any two strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures 11 or 31 on the first transparent substrate 1 or the third transparent substrate 3 are parallel to each other.

[0035] For example, the preset interval may be 1.6 mm, so that the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure 11 on the first transparent substrate 1 and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure 31 on the third transparent substrate 3 may both be arranged at a spacing of 1.6 mm.

[0036] In some embodiments, the orthographic projections of the first transparent substrate 1 , the second transparent substrate 2 , and the third transparent substrate 3 are all squares. For example, the side length of the square is 8 mm. Thus, the period of each phase shift unit in the plurality of phase shift units is 8 mm.

[0037] In some embodiments, the thickness of the first transparent substrate 1, the second transparent substrate 2, and the third transparent substrate 3 are all a second preset thickness. For example, the second preset thickness may be 0.1 mm.

[0038] For example, Figure 1A This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a phase shift unit of a transmission array antenna. Figure 1B Schematic diagram of the structure of the second transparent substrate 2 of a phase shift unit and the closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure 21 and the semi-closed arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure 22 on the second transparent substrate 2. Figure 1A For oblique views, Figure 1AAs shown, the material of each transparent substrate can be PET material, and the micro metal used to form the micro metal wire structure on each transparent substrate in the phase shift unit can be copper, and the transparent medium layer 4 can be an air layer, thereby forming Figure 1A A phase shift unit is shown. And, as Figure 1A As shown, the electromagnetic waves radiated by the feed horn can be expressed as E inc Polarization is incident vertically along the -z direction to the transmission array antenna and is measured with E trans The polarization is vertically transmitted out of the transmission array antenna along the -z direction. Figure 1B As shown, the width g of the micro-metal wire structure can be 20 microns. Thus, the transmission array antenna design can be realized by using a micro-metal wire structure with a line width of only 20 microns that is invisible to the human eye, which can greatly improve the transmittance of the antenna. The thickness of the micro-metal wire structure can be 0.34 microns. The semi-closed arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure 22 includes two arcs 221a and 221b corresponding to the same center. The center angles of the arcs 221a and 221b are both θ arc ; The closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure 21 is an irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure, and the two relative acute angles of the irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure are correspondingly arranged at the midpoints of the arcs 221a and 221b, and the irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure includes two long sides parallel to each other, and the vertical distance between the two long sides parallel to each other is D.

[0039] In some embodiments, the micrometal may be copper, and the sheet resistance of the micrometal line structure may be 0.05 ohm / sq.

[0040] In some embodiments, 50°≤θ arc ≤170°. The radius of the circle corresponding to the arcs 221a and 221b may be 7 mm; and, in some embodiments, D may be 5 mm.

[0041] For example, when the required distribution of the array phase of the transmission array antenna is as follows Figure 2A As shown in FIG, the corresponding layers of the transmission array antenna (except the dielectric layer) can be as follows Figure 2B 、 2C and 2D shown. Figure 2B is an orthographic projection of the top layer of the transmission array antenna, wherein the top layer is composed of a first transparent substrate having a plurality of phase shift units and a strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure; Figure 2C This is an orthographic projection of the middle layer of the transmission array antenna. The middle layer is composed of a second transparent substrate in which multiple phase shift units are provided with closed loop micro-metal wire structures and semi-closed circular arc micro-metal wire structures. The semi-closed circular arc micro-metal wire structures of some phase shift units have different arc lengths and phase shifts. Figure 2DThis is an orthographic projection diagram of the bottom layer of the transmission array antenna. The bottom layer is composed of a third transparent substrate in which the multiple phase shift units are provided with a strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure.

[0042] Here, when designing some phase shift units with different phase shifts, for example, Figure 2C When there are some phase shift units with different phase shifts, the mirror method can be used to control the orientation of the metal wire structure provided on the second transparent substrate of the phase shift unit to achieve a 180° phase shift change of the phase shift unit. Figure 3A and Figure 3B As shown, when the orientation of the micro-metal wire structure provided on the second transparent substrate of a phase shift unit is as shown in FIG. Figure 3A As shown in FIG. 1 , when the phase shift of the phase shift unit is Φ, another phase shift unit with a phase shift of Φ-180° can be designed by the mirror method, and the orientation of the micro-metal wire structure provided on the second transparent substrate of the designed phase shift unit is as follows: Figure 3B shown.

[0043] The effects brought about by the structure of the transmission array antenna provided by the present invention are further described below through simulation experiments.

[0044] Figure 4A This is a schematic diagram of the change in reflection amplitude of the transmission array antenna caused by the change in the structural parameters of each phase shift unit of the transmission array antenna. Figure 4B It is a schematic diagram of the phase change of the transmission array antenna caused by the change of the structural parameters of each phase shift unit of the transmission array antenna. Figure 4A The horizontal axis is the θ of each phase shift unit that makes up the transmission array antenna. arc , the horizontal axis is the insertion loss value. Figure 4A As shown, the peak insertion loss value of the antenna at the center frequency is lower than 2.7dB, and the bandwidth within which the insertion loss value is within 3.5dB is 9.5-16GHz. Figure 4B The horizontal axis is the θ of each phase shift unit that makes up the transmission array antenna. arc , the horizontal axis is the phase value, such as Figure 4B As shown, the transmission array antenna can achieve a phase shift range of about 400 degrees.

[0045] Figure 5A and Figure 5B is the radiation pattern of the transmission array antenna, where Figure 5A is the E-plane radiation pattern of the transmission array antenna, Figure 5B is the H-plane radiation pattern of the transmission array antenna. Figure 5A and Figure 5B As shown in FIG, the half-power beamwidth of the transmission array antenna is 9.3° and the sidelobe level is lower than 20.7 dB.

[0046] Figure 6This is the relationship between the achievable gain (Realized Gain) and efficiency (Efficiency) of the transmission array antenna, such as Figure 6 As shown in Figure 3, at 12 GHz, the total efficiency of the transmission array antenna can reach 51%.

[0047] In the embodiment of the present invention, a reasonable array arrangement can be designed by using the phase shift unit of the above structure to compensate for the phase difference of the electromagnetic waves radiated by the feed horn reaching each unit, thereby obtaining the desired transmission array antenna.

[0048] In an embodiment of the present invention, a micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal is used to implement the phase shift units of a transmission array antenna, based on the use of a transparent substrate as the substrate for the phase shift units of the transmission array antenna and a transparent dielectric layer as the dielectric between the substrates. Because both the substrate and the dielectric are transparent, the transmission array antenna can achieve high light transmittance. Furthermore, because the micro-metal wires are small in size, they have little impact on the light transmittance of the transparent substrate. This results in high light transmittance for each layer in the phase shift units of the transmission array antenna. Furthermore, by arranging the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures on the first and second transparent substrates to be orthogonal to each other, and by configuring the micro-metal wire structures on the second transparent substrate to be semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures and closed loop micro-metal wire structures disposed within the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures, the transmission phase of the corresponding phase shift units can be varied by varying the length of the arcs in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structures. Ultimately, the transmission phases of multiple phase shift units are made uniform, thereby maintaining the radiation efficiency of the transmission array antenna within a relatively high range. Therefore, the transmission array antenna provided by the present invention can both improve the light transmittance of the transmission array antenna and maintain the antenna's radiation efficiency within a relatively high range.

[0049] The embodiments of the present invention greatly improve the transmittance of the transmission array antenna while ensuring the radiation efficiency of the antenna. Since multiple layers of stacking are required to achieve a phase shift range of 360 degrees, it is difficult to realize the design of a transparent transmission array with traditional structures. Even if a transparent conductive material such as ITO is used, the transmittance will be greatly reduced after multiple layers of stacking, and the insertion loss will be greater than 3dB, which will greatly reduce the efficiency of the antenna. The micro-metal wire structure proposed in the present invention greatly improves the transmittance of each layer. The theoretical transmittance of the metal layer is greater than 98%. Therefore, the actual transmittance of each layer depends only on the transmittance of the transparent substrate. Ultimately, the transmittance of the transmission array antenna can exceed 70%, and if anti-reflection film technology is used, the transmittance of the antenna can be increased to 80%.

[0050] The above is a further detailed description of the present invention in conjunction with specific preferred embodiments, and the specific implementation of the present invention should not be considered to be limited to these descriptions. For those skilled in the art of the present invention, without departing from the concept of the present invention, several simple deductions or substitutions can be made, which should be considered to fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure, characterized in that: include: multiple phase shift units; Each phase shift unit includes: a first transparent substrate, a second transparent substrate, and a third transparent substrate; the second transparent substrate is arranged on one side of the first transparent substrate, and the third transparent substrate is arranged on a side of the second transparent substrate away from the first transparent substrate; a transparent dielectric layer of a first preset thickness is arranged between the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate, and between the second transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate; The top surfaces of the first transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate each include a strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal, and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure on the first transparent substrate and the strip-shaped micro-metal wire structure on the third transparent substrate are orthogonal to each other; The top surface of the second transparent substrate includes a closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure and a semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure formed of micro-metal; the closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure is arranged in a semi-closed area formed by the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure; the length of the arc in the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure is used to control the transmission phase of the phase shift unit for the received transmitted wave; wherein the transmission phases of the multiple phase shift units are the same; the semi-closed circular arc-shaped micro-metal wire structure includes two arcs corresponding to the same center; the central angle corresponding to each arc is θ arc , where 50°≤θ arc ≤170°; the closed ring-shaped micro-metal wire structure is an irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure, and the two relative acute angles of the irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure are correspondingly arranged at the midpoints of the two arcs.

2. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures on the first transparent substrate and the third transparent substrate are arranged at preset intervals, and any two strip-shaped micro-metal wire structures on the first transparent substrate or the third transparent substrate are parallel to each other.

3. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The irregular hexagonal micro-metal wire structure includes two long sides parallel to each other, and a vertical distance between the two long sides parallel to each other is a preset distance.

4. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The width of the micro-metal wire structure is 20 microns.

5. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1 or 4, characterized in that: The micrometal is copper, and the sheet resistance of the micrometal wire structure is 0.05 ohms per square.

6. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The orthographic projections of the first transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate, and the third transparent substrate are all squares, and the side length of the square is 8 mm.

7. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The medium layer is an air medium layer, and the first preset thickness is 3 mm.

8. The high-transmittance broadband transmission array antenna based on a micro-metal wire structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The thicknesses of the first transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate, and the third transparent substrate are all second preset thicknesses.

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