A Luneburg lens antenna

Abstract

The present invention relates to a Luneburg lens antenna, which has a plurality of mutually stacked planar stacked layers, and each planar stacked layer includes a plurality of stacked units arranged periodically; the stacked unit includes a lightweight support and a PCB board disposed on the surface of the lightweight support, and a metal pattern is provided on the PCB board; the metal patterns in all the stacked units within the planar stacked layer are in the same plane and form a planar metal distribution layer. The present invention arranges the metal patterns of the PCB board in combination with the lightweight support periodically to form a planar stacked layer and its planar metal distribution layer; then the planar stacked layers are stacked, thereby designing a lightweight, low-cost and easy-to-support Luneburg lens antenna.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] The focus of a Luneburg lens antenna is located on the surface and has a wide-angle scanning function; it can effectively reduce the volume overhead caused by the additional focal length; it has a more compact and smaller volume compared to traditional phased array antennas. At the same time, the Luneburg lens antenna does not have the additional loss brought by the traditional complex feeding network, and the problems 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 developing towards high gain and wide coverage.

[0003] However, the traditional Luneburg lens antenna is heavy in mass and high in cost, and at the same time it is difficult to support, which is not conducive to large-scale deployment. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The purpose 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, and each planar stacking layer includes a plurality of stacking units arranged in a periodic pattern; the stacking unit includes a lightweight support and a PCB board disposed on the surface of the lightweight support, and a metal pattern is disposed on the PCB board; the metal patterns in all the stacking units within the planar stacking layer are in the same plane and form a planar metal distribution layer.

[0006] Further, the stacking unit includes two lightweight supports arranged one above the other and a PCB board disposed between the two lightweight supports.

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

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

[0009] Further, the planar stacking layer has a dielectric constant region; the lightweight supports of the stacking units located in different dielectric constant regions have different material densities, and the metal patterns on the surfaces of their PCB boards have different shapes and / or different size dimensions and / or different arrangement densities.

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

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

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

[0013] Furthermore, the planar stacked layer is 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 spherical body, a cylindrical body, a cubic body, a cuboid body, or a polyhedral body.

[0015] In the present invention, a lightweight support body is combined with the metal pattern of a PCB board for periodic arrangement to form a planar stacked layer and its planar metal distribution layer; then the planar stacked layers are stacked, thereby designing a lightweight, low-cost, and easily supported Luneburg lens antenna. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a Luneburg lens antenna provided by the present invention;

[0017] Figure 2 is Figure 1 a partially enlarged schematic diagram of the planar stacked layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown;

[0018] Figure 3 is Figure 2 a schematic diagram of a stacking unit of the planar stacked layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown;

[0019] Figure 4 is Figure 1 a planar schematic diagram of one layer of the planar stacked layer and its planar metal distribution layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown;

[0020] Figure 5 is Figure 1 a schematic diagram of the dielectric constant region distribution of one layer of the planar stacked layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown;

[0021] Figure 6 is Figure 5 a schematic diagram of the corresponding dielectric constant values of the dielectric constant region distribution of the planar stacked layer of the Luneburg lens antenna shown;

[0022] Figure 7 is Figure 1 a schematic diagram of the PCB board and the cross-shaped metal pattern of one stacking unit of the Luneburg lens antenna shown, as well as a schematic diagram of different dielectric constants shown by different sizes of the cross-shaped metal pattern;

[0023] Figure 8 is Figure 1 a schematic diagram of the Luneburg lens antenna shown having a wide-angle scanning function from -180° to 180°;

[0024] Figure 9Loading for half-wave dipole Figure 1 Schematic diagram of gain optimization at different wide-angle scanning angles behind the Luneburg lens antenna shown Specific implementation manner

[0025] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments

[0026] The present invention provides a Luneburg lens antenna, and the shape of the Luneburg lens antenna includes a spherical body, a cylinder, a cube, a cuboid or a polyhedron. Taking the accompanying drawings of the spherical Luneburg lens antenna as an example below, please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 , the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has a plurality of mutually stacked planar stacking layers 1

[0027] 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 periodically. Among them, the stacking unit 11 includes a lightweight support 111 and a PCB board 112 disposed in the lightweight support 111. A metal pattern is provided on the PCB board 112; the metal patterns in all the stacking units 11 within 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

[0028] Preferably, the lightweight support 111 is a one-piece integral cube formed of foam material; the cube structure of the lightweight support 111 can realize the planar arrangement of the planar stacking layer 1. At the same time, the cube-shaped lightweight support 111 can stably support the PCB board 112, making the PCB board 112 in a horizontal state. In this way, the lightweight, low-cost and easy support of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 are realized

[0029] 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 same orientation of the PCB board 112. Please refer to Figure 2 and Figure 3 , the stacking unit 11 includes two lightweight supports 111 arranged up and down and a PCB board 112 disposed between the two lightweight supports 111 arranged up and down; thus forming the planar stacking layer 1

[0030] The shape of the periodic arrangement of the stacking units 11 includes square arrangement, rectangular arrangement, triangular arrangement, hexagonal arrangement or octagonal arrangement. Please refer to Figure 2 , the shape of the periodic arrangement of the stacking unit 11 is octagonal arrangement

[0031] Furthermore, please refer to Figure 4 and Figure 5, the planar stacked layer 1 has dielectric constant regions. The lightweight supports 111 of the stacked units 11 located in different dielectric constant regions have different material densities, and the metal patterns on the surface of its PCB board 112 have different sizes. Thus, the dielectric constants of both the planar metal distribution layer 112a and the lightweight support 111 can be controlled, and at the same time, the planar metal distribution layer 112a can meet the distribution requirements of the equivalent dielectric constant for the Luneburg lens antenna 100.

[0032] Please refer to Figure 5 , in this embodiment, the dielectric constant regions of the planar stacked layer 1 are annular regions extending radially outward from the center. The annular regions with the same dielectric constant in each planar stacked layer 1 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 overlap each other. Preferably, the planar stacked layer 1 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 includes a central layer, an outermost layer, and intermediate layers disposed between the central layer and the outermost layer. When symmetrically stacking the planar stacked layer 1, it is symmetrically stacked from the central layer to the outermost layers on both sides. Thus, the planar stacked layer 1 is stacked flatly, which can ensure that there is no air gap between each layer of the planar stacked layer 1, ensure the stability of the dielectric constant index, and achieve high gain of the Luneburg lens antenna 100. Preferably, the dielectric constant regions of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 respectively have five annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, L5. Figure 5 It shows that the dielectric constant regions of the central layer of the Luneburg lens antenna 100 are the annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 extending radially outward from the center.

[0033] Furthermore, the shape and arrangement density of the metal patterns of the planar metal distribution layer 112a can also change the dielectric constant. The shape of the metal pattern includes regular graphic shapes or irregular graphic shapes. The regular graphic shapes of the metal pattern shape include circular, rectangular, triangular, polygonal, cross-shaped (such as Figures 1 to 4 shown), etc. For example, Figure 6 It shows the dielectric constant values of the five annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 of the Luneburg lens antenna 100, where the dielectric constant value of the annular region L1 is the largest, and the dielectric constant values of L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 decrease in order from the center to the outside. At the same time, the color depth of the annular regions L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 is used to represent the material density of the lightweight support 111 of the stacked unit 11 in this annular region, and the density of the metal patterns arranged on the planar metal distribution layer 112a; the darker the color of this annular region, the denser the material density of the lightweight support 111 of the stacked unit 11 in this annular region, and the density of the metal patterns arranged on the planar metal distribution layer 112a. Figure 7 It shows that by changing the length ML of the metal pattern of the PCB board 112, the dielectric constant has changed. Figure 7It is a cross-shaped metal pattern. When showing different lengths ML of the cross-shaped metal pattern, the equivalent dielectric constant of the stacking unit 11 changes from 1 to 2.

[0034] Please refer to Figure 8 and Figure 9 , the gain of the half-wave dipole at 0° is 2.15 dBi. When the half-wave dipole is loaded with the Luneburg lens antenna 100, its gain is increased to 12.8 dBi. This shows that it can be clearly seen 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 10.1 dB. For example, Figure 9 shows the results of the half-wave dipole placed at the -60° and +60° positions of the Luneburg lens antenna 100. After the energy radiated by the half-wave dipole passes through the Luneburg lens antenna 100, the radiation pattern reaches the maximum gain at -60° and +60°. At the same time, Figure 8 and Figure 9 also show that the Luneburg lens antenna 100 can have a transition angle from -180° to 180°, indicating that the Luneburg lens antenna 100 has the ability of wide-angle scanning.

[0035] The above embodiments only represent the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and their descriptions are relatively specific and detailed, but they should not be construed as limiting the scope of the patent of the present invention. It should be noted that for those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the concept of the present invention, several deformations and improvements can be made, such as combining different features in each embodiment, etc., and these 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 manner; the stacking unit includes two lightweight support bodies arranged up and down and a PCB board arranged between the two lightweight support bodies; the lightweight support body is a one-piece integral cube formed of a foam material; The PCB is provided with a metal pattern; the metal patterns in all stacking units in the planar stacking layer are in the same plane and form a planar metal distribution layer; the surface of the PCB is a plane, and the metal patterns are all etched on the surface of the PCB facing the same direction, thereby forming a planar metal distribution layer; The planar stacked layer has a dielectric constant region; the lightweight support bodies of the stacked units located in different dielectric constant regions have 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; The dielectric constant region of the planar stacked layer is an annular region extending radially outward from the center; the planar stacked layer includes a central layer, an outermost layer and an intermediate layer arranged between the central layer and the outermost layer; the planar stacked layer is symmetrically stacked from the central layer to the outermost layers on both sides; each annular region with the same dielectric constant overlaps with each other.

2. 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.

3. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shape of the metal pattern includes a regular pattern shape or an irregular pattern shape.

4. 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 or a cuboid.

5. The Luneburg lens antenna according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shape of the Luneburg lens antenna includes a polyhedron.

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