Luneberg lens antenna

Abstract

The invention relates to a Luneberg lens antenna which is provided with a plurality of mutually stacked plane stacking layers, and each plane stacking layer comprises a plurality of stacking units which are periodically arranged. Each stacking unit comprises a light supporting body and a PCB arranged on the surface of the light supporting body, and metal patterns are arranged on the PCBs. The metal patterns in all the stacking units in the plane stacking layer are located on the same plane and form a plane metal distribution layer. According to the invention, the light support body is combined with the metal pattern of the PCB to carry out periodic arrangement, so that the planar stacking layer and the planar metal distribution layer thereof are formed; and then the planar stacking layers are stacked, so that the Luneberg lens antenna which is light in weight, low in cost and easy to support is designed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of antenna technology, and in particular to a Luneburg lens antenna. Background Art

[0002] The focus of the Luneburg lens antenna is on the surface and has a wide-angle scanning function. It can effectively reduce the volume overhead caused by the extra focal length. Compared with the traditional phased array antenna, it is more compact and smaller. At the same time, the Luneburg lens antenna does not have the additional loss caused by the traditional complex feeding network, and the problem of additional power consumption caused by the introduction of power dividers and phase shifters, and can achieve high gain. Therefore, the Luneburg lens antenna has become the main force of the new generation of base station antennas that are developing in the direction of high gain and wide coverage.

[0003] However, traditional Luneburg lens antennas are heavy, expensive, and difficult to support, making them unsuitable for large-scale deployment. Summary of the invention

[0004] The object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight and low-cost Luneburg lens antenna.

[0005] The present invention provides a Luneburg lens antenna, which has a plurality of mutually stacked planar stacking layers, each planar stacking layer comprising a plurality of periodically arranged stacking units; the stacking units comprising a lightweight support body and a PCB board arranged on the surface of the lightweight support body, the PCB board being provided with a metal pattern; the metal patterns in all the stacking units in the planar stacking layer are in the same plane and form a planar metal distribution layer.

[0006] Furthermore, the stacking unit includes two lightweight support bodies arranged vertically and a PCB board arranged between the two lightweight support bodies.

[0007] Preferably, the lightweight support body is a one-piece integral cube formed of foam material.

[0008] Furthermore, the shape of the periodic arrangement of the stacking units includes a square arrangement, a rectangular arrangement, a triangular arrangement, a hexagonal arrangement or an octagonal arrangement.

[0009] Furthermore, the planar stacked layer has a dielectric constant region; the lightweight support body of the stacked unit located in different dielectric constant regions has different material densities, and the metal patterns on the surface of the PCB board have different shapes and / or different sizes and / or different arrangement densities.

[0010] Further, the shape of the metal pattern includes a regular pattern shape or an irregular pattern shape.

[0011] Furthermore, the dielectric constant region of the planar stacked layer is an annular region extending radially outward from the center.

[0012] Furthermore, each of the annular regions with the same dielectric constant overlaps with each other.

[0013] Furthermore, the planar stacking layers are symmetrically stacked from the central layer of the Luneburg lens antenna to the outermost layers on both sides.

[0014] Furthermore, the shape of the Luneburg lens antenna includes a sphere, a cylinder, a cube, a cuboid or a polyhedron.

[0015] The present invention arranges a light support body in combination with a metal pattern of a PCB board in a periodic manner to form a planar stacking layer and a planar metal distribution layer thereof; the planar stacking layers are then stacked to design a lightweight, low-cost and easy-to-support Luneburg lens antenna. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a Luneburg lens antenna provided by the present invention; Figure 2 for Figure 1 A partial enlarged schematic diagram of the planar stacked layers of the Luneburg lens antenna shown; Figure 3 for Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a stacking unit of a planar stacking layer of a Luneburg lens antenna shown; Figure 4 for Figure 1 A planar schematic diagram of one of the planar stacked layers and its planar metal distribution layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown; Figure 5 for Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the regional distribution of the dielectric constant of one of the planar stacked layers of the Luneburg lens antenna shown; Figure 6 for Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the corresponding dielectric constant values ​​of the dielectric constant area distribution of the planar stacked layers of the Luneburg lens antenna shown; Figure 7 for Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a PCB board and a cross-shaped metal pattern of one of the stacking units of the Luneburg lens antenna, and a schematic diagram of different dielectric constants displayed by different sizes of the cross-shaped metal pattern; Figure 8 for Figure 1 The Luneburg lens antenna shown has a schematic diagram of a wide-angle scanning function from -180° to 180°; Fig. 9 Loading a half-wave oscillator Figure 1 Schematic diagram of gain optimization for different wide-angle scanning angles behind the Luneburg lens antenna. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0018] The present invention provides a Luneburg lens antenna, and the shape of the Luneburg lens antenna includes a sphere, a cylinder, a cube, a cuboid or a polyhedron. The following is an example of a spherical Luneburg lens antenna. Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 , the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has a plurality of planar stacked layers 1 stacked on top of each other.

[0019] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 and Figure 4 Specifically, the planar stacking layer 1 includes a plurality of stacking units 11 arranged in a periodic manner. The stacking unit 11 includes a lightweight support body 111 and a PCB board 112 disposed in the lightweight support body 111. The PCB board 112 is provided with a metal pattern; the metal patterns in all stacking units 11 in the planar stacking layer 1 are in the same plane, and form a planar metal distribution layer 1a. In this way, a lightweight Luneburg lens antenna 100 is formed.

[0020] Preferably, the lightweight support body 111 is a one-piece integral cube formed of a foam material; the cube structure of the lightweight support body 111 can realize the planar arrangement of the planar stacking layer 1. At the same time, the cube-shaped lightweight support body 111 can stably support the PCB board 112, so that the PCB board 112 is in a horizontal state. In this way, the Luneburg lens antenna 100 is lightweight, low-cost and easy to support.

[0021] In this embodiment, the surface of the PCB board 112 is a plane, and the metal patterns are all etched on the surface of the PCB board 112 facing the same direction. Figure 2 and Figure 3 The stacking unit 11 includes two lightweight support bodies 111 arranged vertically and a PCB board 112 arranged between the two lightweight support bodies 111 arranged vertically, thereby forming a planar stacking layer 1.

[0022] The shapes of the periodic arrangement of the stacking units 11 include square arrangement, rectangular arrangement, triangular arrangement, hexagonal arrangement or octagonal arrangement. Figure 2 The periodic arrangement of the stacking units 11 is in an octagonal arrangement.

[0023] For further information, please refer to Figure 4 and Figure 5, the planar stacked layer 1 has a dielectric constant region. The lightweight support 111 of the stacked unit 11 located in different dielectric constant regions has different material densities, and the metal patterns on the surface of its PCB board 112 have different sizes. In this way, the dielectric constants of the planar metal distribution layer 112a and the lightweight support 111 can be controlled, and the planar metal distribution layer 112a can meet the distribution requirements of the equivalent dielectric constant of the Luneburg lens antenna 100.

[0024] Please refer to Figure 5 In this embodiment, the dielectric constant region of the planar stacking layer 1 is an annular region extending radially outward from the center. The annular regions of the same dielectric constant in each planar stacking layer 1 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 overlap each other. Preferably, the planar stacking layer 1 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 includes a central layer, an outermost layer, and an intermediate layer arranged between the central layer and the outermost layer. When the planar stacking layers 1 are symmetrically stacked, they are symmetrically stacked from the central layer to the outermost layers on both sides. In this way, the planar stacking layers 1 are stacked flat, and it can be ensured that each layer of the planar stacking layers 1 is tightly air-free, so as to ensure the stability of the dielectric constant index and achieve the high gain of the Luneburg lens antenna 100. Preferably, the dielectric constant region of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has five annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5, respectively. Figure 5 The dielectric constant region of the central layer of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 is shown to be annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5 extending radially outward from the center.

[0025] Furthermore, the metal pattern shape and arrangement density of the planar metal distribution layer 112a can also change the dielectric constant. The metal pattern shape includes a regular pattern shape or an irregular pattern shape. The regular pattern shape of the metal pattern shape includes a circle, a cabinet, a triangle, a polygon, a cross (such as Figures 1 to 4 For example, Figure 6 The dielectric constant values ​​of the five annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 are shown, wherein the dielectric constant value of the annular region L1 is the largest, and the dielectric constant values ​​of L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5 decrease in sequence from the center to the outside. At the same time, the color depth of the annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5 is used to indicate the material density of the lightweight support body 111 of the laminated unit 11 of the annular region, and the density of the metal pattern arranged in the planar metal distribution layer 112a; the darker the color of the annular region, the denser the material density of the lightweight support body 111 of the laminated unit 11 of the annular region, and the denser the density of the metal pattern arranged in the planar metal distribution layer 112a. Figure 7 It is shown that by changing the length ML of the metal pattern of the PCB board 112, the dielectric constant changes. Figure 71 is a cross-shaped metal pattern, showing different lengths ML of the cross-shaped metal pattern, and the equivalent dielectric constant of the stacking unit 11 changes from 1 to 2.

[0026] Please refer to Figure 8 and Fig. 9 , the gain of the half-wave dipole at 0° is 2.15dBi. When the half-wave dipole is loaded with the Luneburg lens antenna 100, its gain is increased to 12.8dBi. This shows that the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has the characteristics of low loss and high gain, and can increase the gain of the half-wave dipole by 10.1dB. For example, Fig. 9 The result of placing the half-wave dipole at the -60° and +60° positions of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 is shown in FIG. After the energy radiated by the half-wave dipole passes through the Luneburg lens antenna 100, the directivity pattern reaches the maximum gain at -60° and +60°. At the same time, Figure 8 and Fig. 9 It also shows that the Luneburg lens antenna 100 can change its angle from -180° to 180°, indicating that the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has the capability of wide angle scanning.

[0027] The above embodiments only express the preferred implementation modes of the present invention, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the present invention. It should be pointed out that, for those skilled in the art, several modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, such as combining different features in various embodiments, etc., which all belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A Luneburg lens antenna having a plurality of planar stacked layers stacked on top of each other, characterized in that: Each planar stacking layer includes a plurality of stacking units arranged in a periodic pattern; the stacking unit includes a lightweight support body and a PCB board arranged on the surface of the lightweight support body, and the PCB board is provided with a metal pattern; the metal patterns in all the stacking units in the planar stacking layer are in the same plane and form a planar metal distribution layer.

2. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The stacking unit includes two light supporting bodies arranged up and down and a PCB board arranged between the two light supporting bodies.

3. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The lightweight support body is a one-piece integral cube formed of foam material.

4. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shape of the periodic arrangement of the stacking units includes a square arrangement, a rectangular arrangement, a triangle arrangement, a hexagonal arrangement or an octagonal arrangement.

5. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The planar stacked layer has a dielectric constant region; the lightweight support body of the stacked unit located in different dielectric constant regions has different material densities, and the metal patterns on the surface of the PCB board have different shapes and / or different sizes and / or different arrangement densities.

6. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 5, characterized in that: The shape of the metal pattern includes a regular pattern shape or an irregular pattern shape.

7. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 5, characterized in that: The dielectric constant region of the planar stacked layer is an annular region extending radially outward from the center.

8. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 7, characterized in that: Each annular region with the same dielectric constant overlaps with each other.

9. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The planar stacking layers are symmetrically stacked from the central layer of the Luneburg lens antenna to the outermost layers on both sides.

10. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shape of the Luneburg lens antenna includes a sphere, a cylinder, a cube, a cuboid or a polyhedron.

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