Edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit, end-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit and phased array antenna

Abstract

The application discloses an edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit, an end-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit and a phased array antenna. The phased array antenna is composed of 1x n single linear polarization magnetic electric dipole antenna units. M edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna units are located at the center of the phased array and are arranged at equal intervals. In addition, n-m end-shooting millimeter wave antenna units are located at two ends of the phased array. The array adds the end-shooting millimeter wave antenna units on both sides of the edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit array, generates radiation at a low elevation angle and a direction, and thus compensates for the defect of insufficient radiation energy of the edge-shooting array at a low elevation angle, and improves the scanning range.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication devices, in particular to an edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit, an end-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit and a phased array antenna. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the development of modern communication, the demand for the fifth generation communication system (5G) has also emerged. The 5G communication system currently in use generally uses sub-6G frequency bands. However, with the explosive growth of future communication data and the generation and improvement of various communication protocols, the frequency band resources of the sub-6G frequency band will gradually be exhausted, and the 5G mobile communication system using the relatively abundant millimeter wave band has become a future development trend. Because the millimeter wave frequency band has large attenuation and high processing cost, the industry generally hopes that the antenna coverage range is wide and the blind area is small. To solve the above problems, the current mainstream solution is to use a millimeter wave wide-angle scanning phased array. The beam pointing of the wide-angle scanning phased array is controllable and has a large coverage range, and the electrical scanning is realized through a phase shifter, which has a faster switching speed than mechanical scanning and can meet the demand for low-latency multi-user time-division communication; at the same time, the millimeter wave signal transmission loss is large, and the millimeter wave phased array uses integrated technology and can be directly connected with the radio frequency chip to reduce the path loss. The main indicators of the millimeter wave wide-angle scanning phased array include bandwidth, beam width, scanning angle, and efficiency, and the antenna unit is usually required to have a wide gain beam width to achieve a large scanning angle, and a low port coupling degree to achieve higher efficiency.

[0003] In order to improve the wide-angle scanning performance of the phased array, many advanced technical solutions have appeared in recent years. In the existing solutions, document [1] F.-L. Jin, X. Ding, Y.-F. Cheng, B.-Z. Wang and W. Shao, "Impedance Matching Design of a Low-Profile Wide-Angle Scanning Phased Array," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 67, no. 10, pp. 6401-6409, Oct. 2019. A wide-beam antenna unit based on a magnetic dipole, which is composed of a gap between two opposite ground patches, uses a coaxial probe to directly contact the feed, and uses the omnidirectional radiation characteristics of the magnetic dipole formed by the gap to improve the beam width of the antenna unit. The 10dB relative impedance bandwidth of the infinite antenna is 6.9%, the E-plane 3dB beam width is 180°, and the H-plane is 85°. After forming a 1x9 array, it realizes E-plane ±74° and H-plane ±64° scanning, but it does not consider the coupling problem. And document

[0004] The size of the antenna in the prior art is too large, resulting in no space to load decoupling structures in the array, leading to poor port coupling of the array and low efficiency of the antenna. In addition, the antenna unit is designed in an infinite manner, and in the actual finite case, the unit E-plane wave width is lower than that in the infinite case, resulting in a decline in scanning performance.

[0005] Document [2] C. Liu, S. Xiao, H. Tu and Z. Ding, "Wide-Angle Scanning Low Profile Phased Array Antenna Based on a Novel Magnetic Dipole," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 1151-1162, March 2017. proposes a wide-beam antenna unit using surface waves, which radiates a main body of a patch and a long slot below, and Jerusalem-type metasurface structures are placed on both sides of the unit. After forming a 1x10 array, through the joint action of the spatial radiation of the unit and the diffraction of the surface waves generated by the metasurface, wide-angle scanning performance is achieved. The 10dB relative impedance bandwidth of the array is 3.66%, the E-plane scanning capability reaches 81°, and decoupling is achieved by reasonably designing the coupling amount of the patch and the slot. However, the wide-beam unit requires surface waves to be diffracted to both ends of the array, resulting in a large array structure and the need for a large number of metasurface structures. At the same time, due to the need for the unit to be in a specific coupling state for decoupling, the overall operating bandwidth of the array is narrow.

[0006] Chinese Patent Publication No. CN113097712A, entitled "Wide-angle scanning electric dipole phased array antenna unit and phased array antenna", proposes a phased array unit based on an electric dipole, which radiates electromagnetic waves by printing a petal-shaped electric dipole on a horizontal printed board. The vertical printed board is printed with metal decoupling structures to achieve wide-angle scanning of the phased array. This design uses air medium to achieve a 10dB relative impedance bandwidth of 25%, and an 8x8 phased array composed of this unit can achieve E-plane and H-plane wide-angle scanning performance of ±60°, while maintaining an active standing wave of 2 or less at the maximum angle of scanning. The unit integrates the decoupling structure into the phased array unit design, resulting in an excessively large overall unit size, which makes it difficult to consider wide-angle scanning performance for the array, resulting in an array that is large in size but has insufficient scanning performance, and limiting the possibility of further widening the scanning angle of the design. SUMMARY

[0007] In order to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art, the purpose of the present application is to provide a single-wire polarized magnetic electric dipole antenna unit, in particular, an end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit.

[0008] Another purpose of the present application is to provide a single-wire polarized magnetic electric dipole antenna unit, in particular, an edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit.

[0009] Still another purpose of the present application is to provide a phased array antenna.

[0010] The last purpose of the present application is to provide a mobile terminal.

[0011] The purpose of the present application is achieved by the following technical solutions:

[0012] An end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit comprises two parts:

[0013] An end-fire antenna feed structure comprises an end-fire L-shaped probe, an asymmetric strip line and a reflector plate, the asymmetric strip line passes through the reflector plate and is connected with the end-fire L-shaped probe, and the asymmetric strip line is arranged between an upper metal floor and a lower metal floor; the end-fire L-shaped probe comprises two rectangular patches, and the two rectangular patches are connected by a second metal via hole at the end thereof.

[0014] An end-fire antenna radiation structure comprises an end-fire magnetic electric dipole, the end-fire magnetic electric dipole comprises two parallel equal-width patches extending from the upper metal floor and the lower metal floor, and a first metallized via hole is arranged at the end of the two parallel equal-width patches; the coupling end-fire L-shaped probe couples and transmits energy to the end-fire magnetic electric dipole, wherein the gap formed by the two parallel equal-width patches at the end thereof constitutes a magnetic dipole, and the first metallized via hole and the metal strip constitute an electric dipole.

[0015] Further, the first metallized via hole arranged at each layer is connected by a metal strip, and the first metallized via hole and the metal strip form a mesh structure to simulate a metal plane.

[0016] Further, it comprises

[0017] The two rectangular patches are arranged between the two parallel equal-width patches and are respectively arranged in parallel close to the two parallel equal-width patches.

[0018] Further, the reflector plate comprises a third metallized via hole and a reflective rectangular patch, the third metallized via hole passes through the upper metal floor and the lower metal floor and is respectively connected with the reflective rectangular patches arranged at both ends, and the reflective rectangular patches are arranged on the upper and lower surfaces of the medium substrate layer.

[0019] Further, by controlling the sum of the height of the third metallized via hole and the width of the reflective rectangular patch, the function of replacing the plane floor can be realized.

[0020] Further, the first metallized via is arranged at the end of the two parallel and equal-width patches and extends perpendicularly to the two ends of the medium substrate layer.

[0021] A broadside millimeter wave antenna unit comprises two parts:

[0022] A broadside antenna feed structure comprises a broadside ground plate, a broadside L-shaped probe, a T-shaped branch, and a coaxial feed line, the coaxial feed line passes through the broadside ground plate and is connected with the broadside L-shaped probe, the broadside L-shaped probe is connected with the T-shaped branch, and the T-shaped branch is used for feeding the antenna.

[0023] A broadside antenna radiation structure comprises a broadside magnetic electric dipole, the broadside magnetic electric dipole is a symmetrical structure comprising an upper metal patch and a lower metal patch, the upper metal patch and the lower metal patch are connected through a fourth metallized via, the end of the lower metal patch is connected with a fifth metallized via, and a sixth metallized via is arranged at equal intervals between the upper metal patch and the broadside ground plate.

[0024] The gap formed between the sixth metallized via and the upper metal patch constitutes a magnetic dipole, and the upper metal patch, the lower metal patch, the fourth metallized via, and the fifth metallized via constitute an electric dipole.

[0025] Further, the total length of the electric dipole is one-quarter of the wavelength of the working frequency, and the electric dipole is elongated downward in the vertical dimension through the fourth metallized via and the fifth metallized via, so that the size of the upper metal patch and the lower metal patch is shortened in the horizontal dimension, thereby realizing the miniaturization of the antenna.

[0026] Further, the upper metal patch and the lower metal patch are arranged in a staggered manner.

[0027] Further, the sixth metallized via in each row is odd, and the sixth metallized via located in the middle of each row and the coaxial probe constitute a broadside L-shaped probe.

[0028] A phased array antenna is composed of 1×n single linearly polarized magnetic electric dipole antenna units, the single linearly polarized magnetic electric dipole antenna unit is a broadside millimeter wave antenna or an end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit, wherein m broadside millimeter wave antenna units are arranged at the center of the phased array at equal intervals; and n-m end-fire millimeter wave antenna units are arranged at the two ends of the phased array, the array adds end-fire millimeter wave antenna units on both sides of the broadside millimeter wave antenna unit array, generates radiation at a low elevation angle and in a direction, and thus compensates for the defect of insufficient radiation energy at a low elevation angle of the broadside array and improves the scanning range.

[0029] Further, a decoupling structure is arranged between two broadside millimeter wave antenna units, the decoupling structure comprises a π-shaped branch and a metallized via.

[0030] Further, the phase centers of the edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit located at the center of the phased array and the end-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit located at the two ends of the phased array are not in the same plane, and the phased array antenna controls the scanning angle of the antenna by calculating the far-field phase pattern of each magneto-electric dipole antenna unit, obtaining the far-field phase of each unit at the desired scanning angle θ azimuth, and using the opposite phase as the unit excitation phase, so as to control the far-field phase of each unit at the scanning angle to be consistent, thereby controlling the scanning angle of the antenna.

[0031] A mobile terminal comprising the phased array antenna.

[0032] Compared with the prior art, the present application has the following advantages and beneficial effects:

[0033] (1) The general design idea of the homogeneous phased array is to design a wide-beam unit first, and then design the phased array. This method usually faces many problems, such as difficulty in maintaining the wide-beam characteristics of the unit in a wide band, or sacrificing the bandwidth in order to widen the beam width of the unit, etc. The present application proposes a novel wide-angle scanning phased array antenna, which constructs a common edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit and an end-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit respectively, and integrates the two antenna units on a substrate, and the radiation energy of the two antenna units is complementary in the upper half space, thereby realizing the performance of wide-angle scanning. The 1x8 preferred array proposed in the present example uses 6 edge-shooting units and 2 end-shooting units to form an array, which can realize the performance of wide-angle scanning of ±75°. Compared with the traditional wide-angle scanning phased array, this design idea greatly improves the design freedom of the unit, and can design wideband units, filter units, etc. according to the own needs, without affecting other design needs due to the wide-beam structure. The present application uses the design of the magneto-electric dipole wideband unit, and the impedance bandwidths of the end-shooting and edge-shooting units can cover 24GHz-31GHz, and the in-band main radiation direction gains are 5.6dBi-6.3dBi and 3.35dBi-5.3dBi, respectively.

[0034] (2) The antenna unit in document [1] is specially designed to need a wide beam, which leads to a too large unit structure size, and the antenna units are close together after arraying, without enough space to load the decoupling structure, resulting in poor port isolation of the phased array. Document [2] expands the beam width by guiding the surface wave through a large number of super surface units. However, this structure occupies a large space, so that the decoupling structure can only be designed together with the radiation structure, resulting in a very narrow bandwidth. The patent application mentioned in the background technology regards the radiation unit and the decoupling structure as a phased array unit together, and the radiation unit is designed as a wideband unit, which can realize a very wide impedance bandwidth, but leads to a too large size of the overall phased array unit, which is not conducive to adding a wide beam structure, and also leads to a large array spacing, which suppresses the improvement of the scanning performance. The present application realizes the bending of the electric dipole arm through parallel staggered patches and metallized vias, thereby reducing the size of the antenna unit and overcoming the technical problem of too large unit size in the prior art.

[0035] (3) The wide-angle scanning phased array antenna of the present application can work in the 5G millimeter wave communication frequency band and is suitable for base station or terminal phased array systems. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0036] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art description will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can also be obtained from the structures shown in these drawings without creative labor for those skilled in the art.

[0037] Fig. 1(a) is a three-dimensional structure schematic diagram of an end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 of the present application;

[0038] Fig. 1(b) is a side view of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 of the present application;

[0039] Fig. 1(c) is a top view of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 of the present application;

[0040] Fig. 2(a) is a three-dimensional structure schematic diagram of an edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0041] Fig. 2(b) is a side view of the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0042] Fig. 2(c) is a top view of the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0043] Figure 3 is a structure schematic diagram of a phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0044] Figure 4(a) is a side view of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0045] Figure 4(b) is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the decoupling structure of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0046] Figure 5(a) is a schematic diagram of the energy transmission and radiation principle of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 of the present application;

[0047] Figure 5(b) is a schematic diagram of the energy transmission and radiation principle of the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0048] Figure 5(c) is a schematic diagram of the scanning phase excitation of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0049] Figure 6 Figure 5(d) is a schematic diagram of the scanning range expansion of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0050] Figure 7 Figure 6(a) is a schematic diagram of the S parameter of the millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 and embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0051] Figure 8 Figure 6(b) is a schematic diagram of the gain of the millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 and embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0052] Figure 9 Figure 6(c) is a schematic diagram of the gain pattern of the millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 1 and embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0053] Figure 10 Figure 7(a) is a schematic diagram of the port S parameter of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application (array symmetry, only half of the parameters are shown);

[0054] Figure 11(a) and Figure 11(b) are schematic diagrams of the scanning performance of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application at 24 GHz and 26 GHz, respectively;

[0055] Figure 11(c) and Figure 11(d) are schematic diagrams of the scanning performance of the homogeneous phased array antenna at 24 GHz and 26 GHz, respectively;

[0056] Figures 12(a) to 12(c) Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the port active S parameter of the phased array antenna in embodiment 3 of the present application during the scanning process at scanning angles of 0 degrees, 37 degrees and 75 degrees. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0057] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0058] Example 1

[0059] An end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element relates to a single-line polarized magnetoelectric dipole antenna element, such as... Figures 1(a) to 1(c) As shown, it includes two parts:

[0060] The first part is the end-fire antenna feeding structure, including an end-fire L-shaped probe 18, an asymmetric stripline 12, a reflector, an upper metal ground plane 13, and a lower metal ground plane 14. The asymmetric stripline 12 is positioned between the upper metal ground plane 13 and the lower metal ground plane 14. The asymmetric stripline 12 passes through the reflector and connects to the end-fire L-shaped probe 18. The width of the upper and lower metal ground planes 13 and 14, and the position of the asymmetric stripline 12 between them, are not unique and depend on the form of the connection port and the characteristic impedance required by the asymmetric stripline, which is typically 50 ohms.

[0061] In this embodiment, metallized vias 11 are uniformly loaded on both sides of the asymmetric strip 12. The metallized vias 11 are located between the upper metal floor 13 and the lower metal floor 14. Their shape can be square, hexagonal or circular, etc. The number of metallized vias depends on the length of the asymmetric strip 12.

[0062] In this embodiment, the end-fire L-shaped probe 18 includes two rectangular patches and a second metallized via. The second metallized via is used to connect the ends of the two rectangular patches, and its shape can be square, hexagonal, or circular, etc. Generally, the two rectangular patches have different lengths, and their specific lengths and widths are not unique and need to be adjusted according to the antenna's operating frequency band and impedance matching characteristics. The two rectangular patches are parallel and close to two parallel equal-width patches 17 and 112, and the energy is coupled and transmitted to the end-fire magnetoelectric dipole through the coupling end-fire L-shaped probe 18.

[0063] Specifically, in this embodiment, the two rectangular patches are elongated strips and are placed between the upper and lower metal floor layers.

[0064] The second part is an end-fire antenna radiation structure, symmetric about the middle layer of the upper metal floor 13 and the lower metal floor 14, including an end-fire magnetic electric dipole, the end-fire magnetic electric dipole including two parallel and equal-width patches 17, 112 respectively extended from the upper metal floor 13 and the lower metal floor 14, the ends of the two parallel and equal-width patches 17, 112 being provided with first metallized vias 110, the first metallized vias 110 respectively extending to the upper end and the lower end of the medium substrate layer, and the first metallized vias 110 in each medium substrate layer being connected by a metal strip 19.

[0065] Further, the width and length of the two parallel and equal-width patches 17, 112 depend on the working frequency of the antenna, and are generally set to be one-quarter of the center working frequency. The spacing of the two parallel and equal-width patches 17, 112 is not unique, and in the embodiment, the spacing is selected to be the same as that of the upper and lower metal floors, i.e., the parallel and equal-width patch 17 is located in the same medium substrate layer as the upper metal floor 13, and the parallel and equal-width patch 112 is located in the same medium layer as the lower metal floor 14. The number of the first metallized vias 110 depends on the width of the two parallel and equal-width patches 17, 112, the height of the first metallized via 110 depends on the working frequency of the antenna, and is generally set to be one-quarter of the center working frequency, the number of the metal strip 19 is consistent with the number of the medium substrate layers 111 occupied by the first metallized via 110. The reflector is placed behind the first metallized via 110 of the magnetic electric dipole, and the distance between them is one-quarter of the center working frequency.

[0066] In the embodiment, the reflector includes a third metallized via 16 and a reflective rectangular patch 15,

[0067] The third metallized via 16 passes through the upper metal floor and the lower metal floor, and is connected with the reflective rectangular patch arranged at both ends, respectively, the reflective rectangular patch being arranged on the upper and lower surfaces of the medium substrate layer, and the number of the third metallized via 16 depending on the length of the upper and lower metal floors.

[0068] Further, in the embodiment, the reflective rectangular patch is a long strip, and is arranged at both ends of the medium substrate.

[0069] The principle of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna is as follows:

[0070] As shown in Fig. 5(a), the signal is transmitted from the asymmetric stripline 12, transmitted to the end-fire L-shaped probe 18 through the hole between the third metallized via hole 16 of the reflector plate, and the two rectangular patches of the end-fire L-shaped probe 18 are parallel to the upper and lower parallel equal-width patches 17, 112 of the end-fire magnetic-electric dipole, and the energy is transmitted to the end-fire magnetic-electric dipole through coupling. The parallel equal-width patches 17, 112 of the end-fire magnetic-electric dipole are arranged in parallel, and the gap formed at the end of the parallel equal-width patches 17, 112 constitutes a magnetic dipole, and the first metallized via hole 110 forms an electric dipole.

[0071] The end-fire millimeter wave antenna of the present application is processed by LTCC, the dielectric substrate is Ferro A6M, the dielectric constant is 5.5, the thickness of each layer of the dielectric substrate is 0.094 mm, and the metal thickness of the dielectric substrate 111 is 0.008 mm.

[0072] In this embodiment, the single-side magnetic-electric dipole and the metallized via hole of the single-side reflector plate jointly occupy 12 layers of dielectric substrates.

[0073] The end-fire millimeter wave antenna occupies 28 layers of dielectric substrates, and the overall size is 5 mm x 4.4 mm x 2.632 mm. The asymmetric stripline 12 and the end-fire L-shaped probe 18 jointly occupy 4 layers of dielectric substrates, and the asymmetric stripline 12 is separated from the upper metal floor 13 and the lower metal floor 14 by 3 layers and 1 layer of dielectric substrates, respectively. The end-fire L-shaped probe 18 itself occupies 2 layers of dielectric substrates, and is separated from the parallel equal-width patches 17, 112 of the two side antennas by 1 layer of dielectric substrates.

[0074] Embodiment 2

[0075] A kind of edge millimeter wave antenna unit, specifically relates to a single line polarized magnetic-electric dipole antenna unit, as shown in Fig. 2(a)~as shown in Fig. 2(c), including two parts:

[0076] The first part is an edge antenna feed structure, including an edge floor 29, an edge L-shaped probe 28, a T-shaped branch 25 and a coaxial feed line 210, the coaxial feed line 210 passes through the edge floor 29 and is connected with the edge L-shaped probe 28, the edge L-shaped probe 28 is connected with the T-shaped branch 25, for feeding the antenna. The size of the T-shaped branch is not unique, which depends on the working frequency and impedance matching characteristics of the antenna.

[0077] The second part is a broadside antenna radiation structure, which comprises a broadside magnetic electric dipole, the broadside magnetic electric dipole is a left-right symmetrical structure, and each comprises an upper metal patch 21 and a lower metal patch 23, the upper metal patch 21 and the lower metal patch 23 are connected through a fourth metalized via hole 22, the upper metal patch 21 and the lower metal patch 23 are placed in a staggered manner, and the staggered distance depends on the width of the upper patch 21, the fifth metalized via hole 24 is connected at the end of the lower metal patch 23, the length of the upper and lower metal patches 21 and 23 depends on the working frequency of the antenna, and is generally set to be one quarter of the center working frequency. The total length of the width of the upper and lower metal patches 21 and 23 and the height of the fourth metalized via hole 22 and the fifth metalized via hole 24 depends on the working frequency of the antenna, and is generally set to be one quarter of the center working frequency. The number of the fourth metalized via hole 22 and the fifth metalized via hole 24 depends on the length of the upper and lower metal patches 21 and 23.

[0078] In the embodiment, a row of sixth metalized via holes 26 are arranged at equal intervals between the upper metal patch 21 and the broadside floor 29, since the broadside magnetic electric dipole is a symmetrical structure, there are two rows of sixth metalized via holes 26, since the middle hole of one row of sixth metalized via holes 26 is part of the L-shaped probe 28, each row of sixth metalized via holes 26 adopts an odd number to facilitate left-right symmetry, and the number depends on the length of the upper metal patch 21. The height of the sixth metalized via hole depends on the working frequency of the antenna, and is generally set to be one quarter of the center working frequency.

[0079] In the embodiment, the broadside magnetic electric dipole is symmetrical about the middle line of the medium substrate.

[0080] In the embodiment, the sixth metalized via hole 26 is arranged at one end of the upper metal patch 21, the fourth metalized via hole 23 is arranged at the other end of the upper metal patch 21, and the sixth metalized via hole 26 is spaced apart from the lower metal patch 23 by a certain distance.

[0081] In the embodiment, the broadside L-shaped probe 28 comprises the middle hole of one row of sixth non-metalized via holes 26 and the coaxial feed line 210.

[0082] Preferably, a circular hole is dug in the upper metal patch 21 close to the broadside L-shaped probe 28 to avoid direct contact with the broadside L-shaped probe 28.

[0083] In the embodiment, the metalized via holes are multiple, and the shapes can be square, hexagonal or circular.

[0084] The edge-shooting millimeter wave antennas in this embodiment are all processed by LTCC, and the dielectric substrate 27 is Ferro A6M with a dielectric constant of 5.5 and a thickness of 0.094 mm per layer. The thickness of the metal on the dielectric substrate 27 is 0.008 mm.

[0085] The edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna occupies 12 layers of dielectric substrates, and the overall size is 5 mm x 5 mm x 1.128 mm. The sixth metallized via hole 26 occupies 12 layers of dielectric substrates, and the fourth metallized via hole 22 and the fifth metallized via hole 24 each occupy 2 layers of dielectric substrates together with the sixth metallized via hole 26.

[0086] The feeding principle of the edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna in this embodiment is as follows:

[0087] As shown in FIG. 5(b), the signal is transmitted through the coaxial feeder 210, transmitted to the edge-shooting L-shaped probe 28 through the round hole on the edge-shooting floor 29, and the energy is transmitted to the T-shaped stub 25 on the upper surface by the edge-shooting L-shaped probe 28. The T-shaped stub 25 is close to but not in contact with the upper metal patch 21, and the energy is transmitted to the edge-shooting magnetic electric dipole through coupling. The gap formed between the sixth metallized via hole 26 and the upper metal patch 21 constitutes a magnetic dipole, and the upper and lower metal patches 21 and 23 and the fourth metallized via hole 22 connecting them and the fifth metallized via hole 24 arranged at the end of the lower metal patch together form an electric dipole.

[0088] Embodiment 3

[0089] A millimeter wave wide-angle scanning phased array antenna based on heterogeneous units is composed of the end-shooting millimeter wave antenna in embodiment 1 and the edge-shooting millimeter wave antenna unit in embodiment 2.

[0090] The preferred array in this embodiment is a 1x8 phased array composed of 6 edge-shooting millimeter wave antennas and 2 end-shooting millimeter wave antennas, as shown in FIG. 4(a). Figure 3 Among them, the 6 edge-shooting millimeter wave antennas in the middle of the array are placed at equal intervals as the central units.

[0091] The 2 end-shooting millimeter wave antenna units are placed on both sides of the array as edge units. The spacing between the central units is 5 mm, and the spacing between the port surface of the edge unit and the port surface of its adjacent central unit is 5.1 mm, both of which meet the grating lobe suppression condition (the design spacing is less than the half wavelength of the highest frequency 26 GHz, which is 5.77 mm) when scanning at a large angle. A decoupling structure is added between the central units to improve the isolation. The decoupling structure is placed between the two central units and is symmetrical along the scanning surface, and one side is composed of a π-shaped stub 31 and two metallized via holes 32.

[0092] In the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4(b), two π-type branches 31 are symmetrically arranged between two center units, and each π-type branch 31 is provided with two metallized vias 32 arranged at the ends towards the center point between the two center units.

[0093] As shown in FIG. 10, the S parameters of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 1 and the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 2 are both less than -13 dB in the working frequency band (24 GHz-26 GHz). Figure 7 As shown in FIG. 11, the gain of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 1 and the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 2 are both greater than 4.5 dBi. Figure 8 As shown in FIG. 11, the gain of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 1 and the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 2 are both greater than 4.5 dBi. Figure 9 The unit directional patterns of the end-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 1 and the edge-fire millimeter wave antenna unit in Embodiment 2 are given.

[0094] The present application realizes the bending of the electric dipole arm through the parallel staggered patch and the fourth and fifth metallized vias, thereby reducing the size of the antenna unit. After being arranged in groups of 5 mm, there is still a space of 2.9 mm between the two edge-fire units. The π-type decoupling structure is loaded in the space, so that the phased array has a reflection coefficient less than -12 dB and a coupling degree between adjacent ports less than -22 dB in the working frequency band (24 GHz-26 GHz), as shown in FIG. 10. Figure 10 FIGS. 11(a) and 11(b) give the scanning directional patterns of the heterogeneous wide-angle scanning phased array antenna of the present application at 24 GHz and 26 GHz, and the results are as follows: at 24 GHz, the gain without scanning is 11.77 dBi, the scanning range is ±75°, and the gain decreases by 3 dB when scanning to the maximum angle; at 26 GHz, the gain without scanning is 11.79 dBi, the scanning range is -76°-74°, and the gain decreases by 3 dB when scanning to the maximum angle. FIGS. 11(c) and 11(d) give the scanning directional patterns of the homogeneous phased array antenna at 24 GHz and 26 GHz, and the results are as follows: at 24 GHz, the scanning range is ±70°, and the gain decreases by 3 dB when scanning to the maximum angle; at 26 GHz, the scanning range is -68°-70°, and the gain decreases by 3 dB when scanning to the maximum angle. By comparison, the scanning performance of the phased array in Embodiment 3 of the present application is improved by 5° on one side than that of the homogeneous phased array. Finally Figures 12(a) to 12(c)The active S parameters when scanning to the maximum angle are given, and the active S parameters of each port are less than -9.6dB in the whole scanning process, which indicates that the array has a high energy utilization rate. In a conventional phased array, the phase centers of the array elements are located on the same plane and have the same interval, so the phase difference between adjacent array elements is equal in the scanning process. However, for the proposed phased array, the phase center of the end-fire antenna element and the phase center of the edge-fire antenna element are not in the same plane, so the equal phase difference cannot be simply used to control the phased array to perform beam scanning. As shown in Fig. 5(c), the proposed method controls the far-field phase to be the same, that is, by calculating the far-field phase pattern of each element, the far-field phase of each element at the desired scanning angle θ is obtained, and the opposite phase is used as the element excitation phase, so as to control the far-field phase of each element at the scanning angle to be consistent, thereby forming a maximum value by in-phase superposition.

[0095] As shown in Fig. 5(c), the antenna 1, the antenna 2, and the antenna 7 are antenna numbers in the phased array antenna.

[0096] As shown in Fig. 5(c), the antenna 1, the antenna 2, and the antenna 7 are antenna numbers in the phased array antenna. Figure 6 As shown in Fig. 5(c), the scanning range of the conventional edge-fire homogeneous array is affected by the beam width of the element, and the 3dB gain roll-off point of the scanning is generally directly related to the 3dB beam width of the element, so the reason for the limited scanning range is that the element has insufficient radiation energy at a low elevation angle, thereby causing a serious gain drop. The present application directly adds end-fire elements on both sides of the edge-fire array, directly generates radiation at a low elevation angle by the end-fire elements, thereby compensating for the defect of insufficient radiation energy of the edge-fire array at a low elevation angle, and directly improving the scanning range.

[0097] Embodiment 4

[0098] A mobile terminal includes the phased array antenna as described in Embodiment 3.

[0099] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined in any manner. To make the description concise, all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are not described, but as long as the combinations of the technical features do not contradict, they should be considered as within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0100] The above embodiments are preferred embodiments of the present application, but the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the above embodiments, and any changes, modifications, substitutions, combinations, simplifications made without departing from the spirit and principles of the present application should be equivalent replacement methods and should be within the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element, characterized in that, It consists of two parts: An end-fire antenna feeding structure includes an end-fire L-shaped probe, an asymmetric stripline, and a reflector. The asymmetric stripline passes through the reflector and connects to the end-fire L-shaped probe. The asymmetric stripline is disposed between an upper metal ground plane and a lower metal ground plane. The end-fire L-shaped probe includes two rectangular patches, the ends of which are connected through a second metal via. An end-fire antenna radiating structure includes an end-fire magnetoelectric dipole, wherein the end-fire magnetoelectric dipole comprises two parallel patches of equal width extending from an upper metal ground plane and a lower metal ground plane, and a first metallized via is provided at the end of the two parallel patches of equal width; the end-fire L-shaped probe couples and transmits energy to the end-fire magnetoelectric dipole, wherein the gap formed at the end of the two parallel patches of equal width constitutes a magnetic dipole, and the first metallized via and the metal strip constitute an electric dipole; The two rectangular patches are positioned between the two parallel patches of equal width, and are respectively parallel and close to the two parallel patches of equal width.

2. The end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first metallized vias in each layer are connected by metal strips, and the first metallized vias and metal strips form a mesh structure to simulate a metal plane.

3. The end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to any one of claims 1-2, characterized in that, The reflector includes a third metallized via and a reflective rectangular patch. The third metallized via passes through the upper metal floor and the lower metal floor and is connected to the reflective rectangular patches disposed at both ends. The reflective rectangular patches are disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the dielectric substrate layer.

4. The end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 3, characterized in that, By controlling the sum of the height of the third metallized via and the width of the reflective rectangular patch, it can replace the function of the planar floor.

5. The end-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first metallized via is disposed at the ends of two parallel, equally wide patches, extending perpendicularly to both ends of the dielectric substrate layer.

6. A side-fire millimeter-wave antenna element, characterized in that, It consists of two parts: A side-fire antenna feeding structure includes a side-fire ground plane, a side-fire L-shaped probe, a T-shaped stub, and a coaxial feed line. The coaxial feed line passes through the side-fire ground plane and connects to the side-fire L-shaped probe. The side-fire L-shaped probe is connected to the T-shaped stub and is used to feed the antenna. A side-fire antenna radiating structure includes a side-fire magnetoelectric dipole. The side-fire magnetoelectric dipole has a symmetrical structure, including an upper metal patch and a lower metal patch. The upper metal patch and the lower metal patch are connected through a fourth metallized via. The end of the lower metal patch is connected to a fifth metallized via. A sixth metallized via is arranged at equal intervals between the upper metal patch and the side-fire ground plane. The gap formed between the sixth metallized via and the upper metal patch constitutes a magnetic dipole, while the upper metal patch, the lower metal patch, the fourth metallized via, and the fifth metallized via constitute an electric dipole.

7. The side-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 6, characterized in that, The total length of the electric dipole is one-quarter of the operating frequency wavelength. It extends downward in the vertical dimension through the fourth and fifth metallized vias, thereby shortening the size of the upper and lower metal patches in the horizontal dimension, thus achieving antenna miniaturization.

8. The side-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 6, characterized in that, The upper metal patch and the lower metal patch are staggered.

9. The side-fire millimeter-wave antenna element according to claim 6, characterized in that, There are an odd number of sixth metallized vias in each row, and the sixth metallized via located in the middle of each row, together with the coaxial probe, forms a side-firing L-shaped probe.

10. A phased array antenna, characterized in that, It is composed of 1×n single-line polarized magnetoelectric dipole antenna elements, wherein the single-line polarized magnetoelectric dipole antenna elements are either side-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements or end-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements, wherein m side-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements as described in any one of claims 6-9 are located at the center of the phased array and are equally spaced; and nm end-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements as described in any one of claims 1-5 are located at both ends of the phased array. The phased array adds end-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements to both sides of the side-fired millimeter-wave antenna element array, thereby generating radiation at low elevation angles through the end-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements, thus compensating for the deficiency of insufficient radiation energy in the low elevation angle of the side-fired array and improving the scanning range.

11. The phased array antenna according to claim 10, characterized in that, A decoupling structure is provided between the two side-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements, the decoupling structure including a π-shaped stub and a metallized via.

12. The phased array antenna according to claim 10, characterized in that, The phase centers of the side-fired millimeter-wave antenna element located at the center of the phased array and the end-fired millimeter-wave antenna elements located at both ends of the phased array are not on the same plane. This phased array antenna calculates the far-field phase pattern of each magnetoelectric dipole antenna element to obtain the far-field phase φ of each element at the desired scanning angle θ, and uses the opposite of this phase as the excitation phase of the element, thereby controlling the consistency of the far-field phase of each element at the scanning angle, and thus controlling the scanning angle of the antenna.

13. A mobile terminal, characterized in that, Including the phased array antenna as described in any one of claims 10-12.

Images