MULTI-SECTOR DIRECTIVE ANTENNA

• US 20150022413A1
• Filed: 07/15/2014
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magnolia Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: LOUZIR, Ali, BELLEC, Mathilde
• Granted Patent: US 9,912,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 343/833
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/30 the primary active element being centre-fed and substantially straight, e.g. Yagi antenna
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 19/32 the primary active element being end-fed and elongated
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/205 providing an omnidirectional coverage turnstile aerials H01Q21/26
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/005 providing two patterns of opposite direction; back to back antennas H01Q25/004 takes precedence

Abstract

The present invention relates to an antenna able to cover two opposite angular sectors comprising:

• • first and second excited elements (10,11) each able to radiate a signal beam at a predetermined frequency,
  • at least two reflector elements (20,21,22,23), called first and second reflector elements, able to reflect said beams in opposite directions.

According to the invention, said first and second excited elements (10,11) and said at least two reflector elements (20,21,22,23) are aligned, said reflector elements being disposed between said first and second excited elements. At least two reflector elements from among said at least two reflector elements (20,21,22,23) are connected together electrically by a first transmission line (30) of predetermined length so that the reflector elements connected together participate jointly in reflecting the beams in the two opposite directions.

Claims

1. Antenna for radiating in two different angular sectors, the antenna comprising:

first and second active elements each active element being arranged to radiate a signal beam towards a respective angular sector, the angular sectors being in different directions from the antenna with respect to one another and,

a plurality of reflector elements, each reflector being configured to reflect signal beams radiated from at least one of the active elements outwards from the antenna towards one of the angular sectors, wherein

said plurality of reflector elements are disposed between said first and second active elements, and

at least two reflector elements, from among said plurality of reflector elements, reflecting in different directions to one another being electrically coupled by a first transmission line of a length such that their reflected radiation is in phase.

2. Antenna according to claim 1, wherein the two different angular sectors are in opposite directions to one another.

3. Antenna according to claim 1, wherein the distance between adjacent reflector elements is determined so that the radiation reflected by said at least two coupled reflector elements in each of the different directions is in phase.

4. Antenna according to claim 1, wherein the distance between each of the active elements and the respective nearest reflector element of the plurality of reflector elements is determined such that the radiation reflected by said at least two coupled reflector elements in each of the different directions is in phase.

5. Antenna according to claim 4, wherein the distance between each of the active elements and the respective nearest reflector element of the plurality of reflector elements is a distance d₁ respectively, d₁ being less than λ

/5, λ

being the wavelength corresponding to the frequency of the signal beam emitted by the first and second active elements.

6. Antenna according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of reflector elements comprises at least two pairs of reflector elements, the reflector elements of a pair radiating in different angular sectors to one another and being coupled together by a respective transmission line of length determined such that the radiation of the coupled reflector elements is in phase

7. Antenna according to claim 6, wherein a reflector element of a first pair of the reflector elements is disposed between the reflector elements of the second pair.

8. Antenna according to claim 7, wherein a reflector element of the second pair is disposed between the reflector elements of the first pair of reflector elements

9. Antenna according to claim 6 wherein a reflector element of a first pair of the reflector elements is disposed between one of the active elements and a reflector of the second pair of reflector elements.

10. Antenna according to claim 6 wherein reflector elements of at least one of the pairs of reflector elements are disposed adjacent to one another.

11. Antenna according to claim 10 wherein reflector elements of each pair of reflector elements are disposed adjacent to one another.

12. Antenna according to claim 10, wherein one of the pairs of the reflector elements is disposed between another pair of the reflector elements.

13. Antenna according to claim 10, wherein one of the pairs of reflector elements is disposed between said a reflector element of another pair of the reflector elements and one of the active elements.

14. Antenna according to claim 6 wherein the distance between two adjacent reflector elements of different pairs of the reflector elements is less than λ

/5.

15. Antenna according to claim 1, wherein the reflector elements are disposed at regular intervals between said first and second active elements.

16. Antenna according to claim 1, comprising at least one director element to direct at least one of the beams in one of said different directions.

17. Antenna according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of reflector elements and the active elements are aligned.

18. Antenna system comprising at least two antennas according to claim 1, said antennas being angularly offset so as to radiate beams in at least four different directions.