Staggered Linear Base Station Arrays for Coupling and Phase Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Base station antennas with closely spaced beamforming arrays face increased mutual coupling and reduced performance due to phase center misalignment, which complicates the adjustment of antenna beams and increases design complexity and cost.
Innovation Solution
The design involves staggering the longitudinal positions of radiating elements in adjacent arrays to align their phase centers, allowing for reduced mutual coupling and improved RF performance by aligning sub-array phase centers across arrays, thereby minimizing phase center offset effects on the radiation pattern.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If arrays of radiating elements are closely spaced to enable wide beam scanning, then beam scanning capability is improved, but mutual coupling between adjacent arrays increases and co-polarization performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies staggering in the longitudinal dimension to resolve the transverse spacing conflict. By offsetting arrays along the longitudinal axis, the patent maintains close transverse spacing for wide beam scanning while achieving sufficient longitudinal separation to reduce mutual coupling and improve co-polarization performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different spacing strategies to different dimensions: close spacing in the transverse direction for beam scanning capability, and staggered spacing in the longitudinal direction to reduce mutual coupling. This local differentiation of spacing quality resolves the contradiction between the two performance requirements.
2Reliability
If arrays are staggered in the longitudinal direction to reduce mutual coupling, then isolation between radiating elements is improved, but phase center alignment between adjacent arrays deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary phase compensation by calculating and applying phase correction values to each sub-array before beamforming operations. This preliminary action compensates for the phase center offset introduced by staggering, ensuring accurate phase alignment without requiring physical repositioning of elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the phase parameter of signals fed to sub-arrays to compensate for stagger-induced phase center offsets. By adjusting phase parameters rather than physical positions, the patent maintains both the staggered configuration for isolation and the required phase alignment for beamforming accuracy.
3Device complexity
If phase centers of sub-arrays are aligned to simplify beamforming, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to scan beams to wide angles without large sidelobes is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the antenna array into multiple sub-arrays with different phase centers, each handled independently with its own phase compensation. This segmentation allows each sub-array to be optimized for wide-angle scanning while the overall system maintains manageable complexity through modular phase correction applied to each segment.
Data Source
AI summary
A base station antenna includes first and second arrays that include respective pluralities of first and second radiating elements arranged along the longitudinal direction of the base station antenna, the second array transversely adjacent the first array. A longitudinal position of each second radiating element is staggered from that of the corresponding first radiating element. The first array comprises first and second sub-arrays, each of which comprises one or a plurality of adjacent first radiating elements. A phase center of the combination of the first and second subarrays is basically aligned with a sub-phase center of the second array.