Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – With vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-12
2001-09-18
Wong, Don (Department: 2821)
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
With vehicle
C343S711000, C343S767000, C343S770000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292149
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an all-around vehicle antenna apparatus mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile and, more particularly, to an improvement in an antenna apparatus constituted mainly of a slot antenna provided on a vehicle window.
In a conventional windowpane antenna apparatus provided on a vehicle window, a long, narrow thin-film conductor having a predetermined pattern, which is to be formed on the window surface, is used as an antenna element. This antenna element is connected to a transmitter/receiver set via a feeder.
Since, in the windowpane antenna apparatus, a metal window frame serves as a grounding conductor, its shape has influence upon antenna characteristics. Usually the shape of a metal window frame greatly varies from vehicle to vehicle; therefore, even though an antenna element is formed with great precision so as to have a given size and a given shape, the antenna characteristics are greatly varied with the type of a vehicle on which the antenna element is to be mounted, with the result that a desired antenna characteristic cannot be obtained appropriately. To mount the above windowpane antenna apparatus on a vehicle, it is necessary to form a pattern for each antenna element in order to match the shape of a window frame of every vehicle, thus causing a drawback of making it difficult to manufacture the antenna element, and increasing in manufacturing costs.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an all-around vehicle antenna apparatus, which is capable of always stably fulfilling a desired antenna characteristic without exerting no influence upon the shape of a window frame though it has a fixed size and a fixed shape and is provided on a vehicle window.
To attain the above object, the all-around vehicle antenna apparatus according to the present invention has the following structures. The other characteristic structures will be clarified later in the embodiment of the present invention.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an all-around vehicle antenna apparatus, which includes a first means for forming a slot antenna element in a vehicle window having a window frame in which a translucent member is fitted and a second means for forming a plural-wave-receivable antenna element having a specific relationship with the slot antenna element in the vehicle window,
the first means comprising means for making the window frame of the vehicle window of metal, means for providing a thin-film conductor on the translucent member of the vehicle window to form a predetermined slot between the window frame and the thin-film conductor, and means for causing the slot to function as the slot antenna element, and
the second means comprising means for arranging a plurality of thin-film conductor pieces such that at least part of the thin-film conductor pieces is inserted in the slot so as to have a specific relationship with the slot antenna element, and means for causing the plurality of thin-film conductor pieces to function as the plural-wave-receivable antenna element adapted to a specific frequency.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5646637 (1997-07-01), Miller
patent: 5739794 (1998-04-01), Nagy et al.
patent: 5831580 (1998-11-01), Taniguchi et al.
patent: 5898407 (1999-04-01), Paulus et al.
patent: 6002373 (1999-12-01), Taniguchi et al.
patent: 0375415 (1990-06-01), None
patent: 0643437 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 0760537 (1997-03-01), None
Endo Hiroshi
Saito Masatoshi
Tachihara Hiroyuki
Chen Shih-Chao
Harada Industry Co. Ltd.
Volpe and Koenig P.C.
Wong Don
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