Communications: radio wave antennas – Antennas – Microstrip
Patent
1996-03-28
1998-01-13
Le, Hoanganh T.
Communications: radio wave antennas
Antennas
Microstrip
343829, 343846, H01Q 138
Patent
active
057084440
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a multipatch antenna comprising an array of at least substantially equal radiators, positioned on one side of a dielectric sheet, a conductive ground plane positioned on the other side of the dielectric sheet, feeding means positioned near the ground plane on a side facing away from the dielectric sheet and capacitive coupling means incorporated between the feeding means and the radiators for energizing the radiators.
2. Discussion of the Background
A multipatch antenna of this kind is known from EP-A0.449.492. In this known multipatch antenna every patch consists of two disc-shaped radiators, disposed parallel and spaced apart, and the capacitive coupling is provided with a feed and a disc-shaped top capacity. Moreover a capacitive block is located near the radiator as an additional reactance element. Compound patches of this type are expensive and do not lend themselves for the production of large arrays.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has for its object to realise a multipatch antenna that is easy to be constructed and has a large bandwidth. The antenna is characterised in that the radiators each consist of one single radiating patch, positioned on an outer surface of the dielectric sheet and that the capacitive coupling means comprise constant diameter conducting probes, on one side connected to the feeding means and on the other side ending in the dielectric sheet near a radiating patch, such that these probe ends are completely embedded in the dielectric sheet.
In addition the inventive multipatch antenna can also be excellently modelled due to the simple structure and the predictable behaviour of the radiating patches. This makes the antenna very suitable for applications where the selection of the polarization direction of the radiation pattern is desirable. Selection of the polarization is known per se, for example from the IEE PROCEEDINGS-H, vol 139, no. 5, October 1992, pages 465-471, P. S. Hall, "Dual polarization antenna arrays with sequentially rotated feeding".
According to a first embodiment of the present invention, the antenna is characterised in that the probes end near selected edges of the radiating patches for generating a radiation pattern with a selected polarization direction. The feeding means will mostly be implemented as a transmission-line network, for instance a microstrip network mounted to a second dielectric sheet, which second dielectric sheet is mounted to the ground plane, the microstrip network being mounted on the side facing away from the ground plane.
According to a second very favourable embodiment, the antenna is characterised in that two probes per radiating patch are provided, both ending near two opposed edges of the radiating patch. Energizing the two probes in opposite phases via the transmission line network results in a radiation pattern with a selected polarization direction and a very low cross-polarization.
On account of its uncomplicated construction and the predictable behaviour of the radiating patches, the multipath antenna according to the invention can be conveniently used as a conformal array, for instance as a skin section of an aircraft. In this application, the patches are situated on a curved dielectric sheet which forms an integral part of the fuselage, the feeding means being mounted in the aircraft interior. As known in the art, the feeding means shall be arranged such as to allow for phase differences caused by the curvature of the antenna plane. Also the polarization behaviour of the antenna thus obtained can be excellently modelled due to the predictable behaviour of the radiating patches.
According to a third embodiment, the feeding means comprise a second, separately feedable transmission line network.
In a first application of this embodiment, the multipatch antenna is characterised in that for each radiating patch a first probe is provided for generating a radiation pattern with a first polarization direction and a second probe for gener
REFERENCES:
patent: 5006859 (1991-04-01), Wong et al.
patent: 5497164 (1996-03-01), Croq
Pouwels Arthur Johannes Hendrikus
Smolders Adrianus Bernardus
Hollandse Signaalapparaten B.V.
Le Hoanganh T.
Stichting Voor De Technische Wetenschappen
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