Plastic metallization Vivaldi antenna array

Abstract

The invention discloses a plastic metallization Vivaldi antenna array, which belongs to the technical field of array antennas, and comprises a vibrating arm and a substrate, the vibrating arm and the substrate maintain good electrical connection through welding, the mechanical strength is increased through screw fastening, and the welding quality is improved through optimizing the structure of a conductor welding position in a connector. Wherein both the vibrating arm and the substrate are made of injection molding materials, a plastic metallization process is adopted, and the injection molding materials are subjected to surface metallization treatment, so that the original all-metal material is replaced, the weight of the all-metal Vivaldi antenna array is effectively reduced, and the lightweight requirement of the phased-array antenna is met.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of array antennas, and in particular relates to a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array. Background Art

[0002] Vivaldi antennas have become a common antenna unit form in broadband phased array antennas due to their simple structure, wide impedance bandwidth, and stable radiation pattern. They are a research hotspot in the field of array antennas. Compared with traditional microstrip structure Vivaldi antennas, all-metal Vivaldi antennas have high structural strength, simple processing, and can avoid problems such as microstrip loss. However, large-scale phased array antennas require a large number of antenna units, and all-metal structures are heavy and do not meet the lightweight requirements. Plastic metallization is achieved by replacing traditional all-metal structures with surface metallization treatment on injection molding materials to achieve weight reduction. Plastic metallization methods have been applied to waveguide antennas, slot waveguide antennas, symmetrical oscillator antennas, etc. At present, there is no research on plastic metallization solutions for Vivaldi antennas. Therefore, how to design a plastic metallization processing solution to effectively reduce the weight of the Vivaldi antenna array is of great research significance. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array to solve the problem that the array antenna of the current Vivaldi antenna with a full metal structure is too heavy.

[0004] To achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:

[0005] In one aspect, the present specification provides a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array, comprising:

[0006] The vibrating arm and base plate are made of plastic material, which are welded and assembled after surface metallization treatment and fastened by 8 M1×3 metal screws.

[0007] Based on the above technical solution, this specification can achieve the following technical effects:

[0008] This antenna array uses plastic materials with surface metallization treatment to replace all-metal materials, effectively reducing the weight of the all-metal Vivaldi antenna array; through the reasonable design of the structure of the arm and the substrate and the welding assembly method, the electrical connection characteristics, mechanical strength and welding position accuracy are guaranteed; by optimizing the welding position of the conductor inside the connector, the welding quality of the connector can be improved, thereby solving the problem of the current Vivaldi antenna with an all-metal structure that the array antenna is too heavy. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of a disassembly solution of a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the structure of a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] Figure 3 It is a bottom schematic diagram of a swing arm in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] Figure 4 It is a partial schematic diagram of the installation and positioning of the jig in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] Figure 5 It is a partial schematic diagram of the connection welding position in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0014] Figure 6 This is a comparison diagram of the test standing wave of the plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array and the simulated standing wave of the all-metal Vivaldi antenna array in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] 1. Vibrating arm; 2. Base plate; 3. M1×3 metal screws; 4. M1×3 threaded holes; 5. Connector welding position; 6. Connection welding position DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] The present invention is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. The advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and claims. It should be noted that the drawings are all in very simplified form and are not in precise proportions, and are only used to conveniently and clearly assist in explaining the purpose of the embodiments of the present invention.

[0017] It should be noted that, in order to clearly explain the content of the present invention, the present invention specifically cites multiple embodiments to further illustrate different implementations of the present invention, wherein the multiple embodiments are enumerated rather than exhaustive. In addition, for the sake of brevity of explanation, the contents mentioned in the previous embodiments are often omitted in the subsequent embodiments. Therefore, the contents not mentioned in the subsequent embodiments can refer to the previous embodiments accordingly.

[0018] Example 1

[0019] Please refer to Figure 1-Figure 6 , is a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array provided in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the antenna array includes:

[0020] The vibrating arm and base plate are made of plastic material, which are welded and assembled after surface metallization treatment and fastened by 8 M1×3 metal screws.

[0021] Specifically, a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array can be split into two major parts, a vibration arm 1 and a substrate 2, which is convenient for CNC processing. The substrate and the vibration arm are both made of plastic material, which are welded and assembled after surface metallization treatment. Good electrical connection is maintained by welding, and the antenna is fastened by 8 M1×3 metal screws 3 to increase mechanical strength.

[0022] In this embodiment, Figure 2 As shown, the arm height H=32.4 mm, the arm thickness D=3 mm, the substrate thickness W=2 mm, and the Vivaldi antenna unit spacing L=10 mm.

[0023] In this embodiment, the plastic material is PEEK material with a density of about 1.5 g / cm3, which is about 40% lighter than aluminum alloy 2A12, has a stable surface metal process solution, and meets the high temperature resistance requirements of solder paste welding.

[0024] In this embodiment, the surface metallization treatment includes: plating three layers on the surface of the vibration arm and the substrate, plating high-phosphorus nickel on the bottom, copper on the middle layer, and tin on the surface; the thickness of the high-phosphorus nickel is 0.3~0.5um, the thickness of the copper is 8~10um, and the thickness of the tin is 2~3um.

[0025] In this embodiment, the vibration arm includes 8 M1×3 threaded holes; the base plate includes screw mounting holes and mounting fixture positioning holes corresponding to the threaded holes, refer to Figure 4 , use a special fixture to position the vibration arm through the installation fixture positioning hole, and then pre-tighten it with M1×3 metal screws.

[0026] In this embodiment, the vibration arm includes 8 connection welding positions 6; the substrate includes grooves corresponding to the connection welding positions.

[0027] Preferably, during soldering assembly, the substrate and the vibrating arm are brushed with medium-temperature solder paste, and a gap of 0.1 mm is left between the vibrating arm and the side wall of the substrate, and a gap of 0.05 mm is left between the vibrating arm and the surface of the substrate for tin filling, such as Figure 5 shown.

[0028] Preferably, in the welding assembly process, the connector, the vibration arm and the substrate are welded together to avoid unstable factors caused by secondary welding.

[0029] Preferably, the arm structure includes 8 connector welding positions 5, and 1mm×1.5mm connector welding positions are used to replace the fine blind holes with an aperture of 0.6mm. By optimizing the welding holes of the conductors in the connectors, plating leakage and false welding can be avoided, and welding operation is convenient. Figure 3 shown.

[0030] like Figure 6As shown, the test standing wave of the plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array is substantially consistent with the simulated standing wave of the all-metal Vivaldi antenna array, meeting the broadband requirement.

[0031] As shown in Table 1, the plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array reduces weight by about 44% compared with a full metal structure.

[0032] Table 1 Weight comparison of plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array and all-metal structure

[0033] #1 #2 #3 All-metal Vivaldi antenna 12.1g 12.2g 12.1g Plastic Metallized Vivaldi Antenna 6.8g 7g 6.9g

[0034] Among them, #1, #2, and #3 in Table 1 represent the first, second, and third sets of samples of the fully metallized Vivaldi antenna array and the plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array, respectively. Therefore, what is compared in Table 1 are the actual measured weights of the three sets of samples.

[0035] This embodiment adopts the plastic metallization process to reduce the weight by about 44% while meeting the broadband performance; at the same time, by optimizing the assembly and welding method, the electrical connection characteristics, mechanical strength and welding quality are guaranteed.

[0036] It should be noted here that the 2×2 antenna array of Example 1 can be expanded to 2×4, 4×4 or even larger according to usage requirements, which can also achieve significant weight reduction while meeting broadband performance.

[0037] In summary, this specification proposes a plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array, which replaces the all-metal material by metallizing the surface of the injection molding material, thereby greatly reducing the weight of the all-metal Vivaldi antenna array; at the same time, by optimizing the structure of the vibration arm and the substrate and the welding assembly method, the electrical connection characteristics, mechanical strength and welding position accuracy can be guaranteed, and the welding quality can also be improved.

[0038] The above is only an embodiment of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application. For those skilled in the art, the present application may have various changes and variations. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the scope of the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. A plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array, characterized in that: include: The vibrating arm and base plate are made of plastic material, which are welded and assembled after surface metallization treatment and fastened by 8 M1×3 metal screws.

2. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The plastic material is PEEK material with a density of about 1.5g / cm 3 .

3. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The surface metallization treatment includes: plating three layers on the surface of the vibration arm and the substrate, plating high-phosphorus nickel on the bottom, copper on the middle layer, and tin on the surface; the thickness of the high-phosphorus nickel is 0.3-0.5um, the thickness of the copper is 8-10um, and the thickness of the tin is 2-3um.

4. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The vibration arm includes 8 M1×3 threaded holes; the base plate includes screw mounting holes corresponding to the threaded holes and mounting fixture positioning holes. The vibration arm is positioned using a special fixture through the mounting fixture positioning holes and then pre-tightened using M1×3 metal screws.

5. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The vibration arm includes 8 connection welding positions; the base plate includes grooves corresponding to the connection welding positions.

6. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: A gap is reserved between the vibration arm and the side wall and surface of the substrate, and is filled with tin material.

7. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 6, characterized in that: The gap between the vibrating arm and the side wall of the substrate is 0.1 mm, and the gap between the vibrating arm and the surface of the substrate is 0.05 mm.

8. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The vibration arm includes 8 connector welding positions for welding the connector to the vibration arm; the size of the connector welding position is 1mm×1.5mm.

9. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: When soldering the vibrator arm and the substrate, brush medium-temperature solder paste on the substrate and the vibrator arm.

10. The plastic metallized Vivaldi antenna array according to claim 1, characterized in that: The height H of the vibration arm is 32.4 mm, and the thickness D of the vibration arm is 3 mm; the thickness W of the substrate is 2 mm; and the unit spacing L of the Vivaldi antenna array is 10 mm.

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