Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – Including magnetic material
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-23
2004-02-17
Clinger, James (Department: 2821)
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
Including magnetic material
C343S895000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06693601
ABSTRACT:
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STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a method for making ceramic-embedded micro-electromagnetic devices such as ceramic-embedded micro-antennas, and the devices made therewith. The present invention is further directed to making a ceramic-embedded helical micro-antenna which is particularly advantageous for use in the upper MHz and THz frequency range.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
The current wireless revolution is spawning a plethora of new wireless communication and data processing devices making information and voice data instantly available virtually anywhere in the world.
A common feature of such devices is the need for reduced physical size and increased functionality. For example, there is a growing trend to incorporate GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and Bluetooth (TM) technology in consumer electronics devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), notebook computers, digital cameras and wireless phones. Bluetooth (TM) is a specification for a small form-factor, low-cost, short-range, cable-replacement radio technology used to link notebook computers, mobile phones and other portable handheld devices, as well as for connectivity to the Internet.
The large number of passives needed for filtering and impedance matching elements associated with these technologies can quickly add up to a significant amount of space and integrating them either on the main printed circuit board (PCB) or on the substrate at a module level can realize important cost and size advantages.
A particularly difficult function to integrate is the antenna. Bluetooth (TM) designers have identified embedded antennas as the most viable alternative. Of all compact antenna configurations, the ceramic embedded helical antenna offers the greatest potential for small size with respectable gain. Embedded antennas are also a rugged and durable solution for compact mobile phones, providing exceptional clarity and being suitable for multi-band reception. They can be unobtrusively hidden within the handset.
Another important issue is the effect of antenna design on SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) levels. Measurements suggest that 40% of the RF power from a mobile phone in either the 800-MHz or 1900-MHz band is absorbed by the user's head when an omni-directional antenna is used. Hence, antennas must be designed so that field emissions in the direction of the user will be below the regulatory limits for maximum SAR. Ceramic embedded antennas can be installed very close to electronic circuits, mechanical objects and human tissue. Their near field is enclosed within the ceramic core of the antenna. This antenna technology also reduces the need for filters and for a large ground plane, thereby lowering component costs and handset interaction. Another notable advantage for handheld mobile telephones is that the ceramic core largely voids detuning when the antenna is brought close to the head of the user.
Portable communicators, such as cell phones, frequently utilize helical or helix antennas. Helical windings permit a relatively long effective antenna length by reducing the helical pitch. This is convenient in cell phones and other portable communicators since small physical size is beneficial and since a certain antenna length is necessary to achieve particular broadcast and reception frequencies.
Helical antennas are usually formed from a thin and delicate conductive wire. Thin wires help preserve the small size and low weight desirable in portable communicators while facilitating low power transmission and reception. This requires the helical conductor to be encased in a protective material, since cell phone antennas are often subjected to forces, which could permanently deform the delicate helical windings.
Based upon the radio frequency response requirements of each individual application, the dimensions of the wire diameter, overall length, outside coil diameter, pitch angle, etc. can be altered.
Helical antennas typically comprise a coil wound around a central core. The process of winding the core is a complicated and expensive process, generally requiring production and assembly of multiple parts and precision winding of a fine wire.
Where circular polarization is desired, the helical antenna has been typically configured as a multi-winding structure comprised of a plurality of concentrically arranged helical windings, each having a fractional number of turns, and terminating the respective windings to a multi-quadrature port hybrid interface.
However, as operational frequencies have reached into the multidigit GHz range, achieving dimensional tolerances in large numbers of identical components has become a major challenge to system designers and manufacturers. For example, in a relatively large number element phased array antenna operating at frequency in a range of 15-35 GHz, and containing several hundred to a thousand or more antenna elements, each antenna element may have on the order of twenty turns helically wound within a length of only several inches and a diameter of less than a quarter of an inch.
While conventional fabrication techniques may be sufficient to form helical windings for relatively large sized applications, they are inadequate for very small sized (multi-GHz applications) where minute parametric variations are reflected as substantial percentage of the dimensions of each element. As a consequence, unless each element is identically configured to conform with a given specification, there is no assurance that the antenna will perform as intended. This lack of predictability is often fatal to the successful manufacture and deployment of a high numbered multi-element antenna structure, especially one that may have up to a thousand elements.
An impressive number of recent inventions cover the design of helical antennas. Simple helical antenna designs are disclosed in Saito, U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,341; Fahlberg, U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,966; Tassoudji et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,977; Chenoweth et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,696.
Nevermann et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0005183 and Richter et al., PCT Patent No. WO 01/56111, all describe helical structures composed of strip-shaped flat antenna elements while Filipovic, U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,414 discloses a bent-segment helical antenna.
A dual helical switchable antenna system is taught by Lee et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,262, while Barts et al., U.
Billiet Romain Louis
Nguyen Hanh Thi
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