Phase shifting network and antenna and method
First Claim
1. A phase shift network for phase shifting signals between an antenna and a radio comprising:
- signal transmission paths extending between a terminal for connection to a radio and each of a plurality of terminals for connection to each of four antenna elements;
the transmission paths each having progressively equally different effective electrical lengths to provide a predetermined equal phase shift of the signal progressively through the transmission paths;
the transmission paths commencing separately from the point of connection at each antenna element, the transmission paths having combiner line segments and having adjacent path pairs being progressively joined at combiner nodes of equal power division by shunt connection of said combiner line segments such that the power at each antenna terminal is equal to the power at the radio connector terminal divided by the number of antenna terminals and absent any isolation resistor between said combiner line segments;
the transmission paths being impedance matched between the antenna element connection points and the radio connection point; and
wherein there are four of said transmission paths and a first set of said combiner line segments in each of adjacent pairs of transmission paths joined at two first combiner nodes, one of said transmission paths of each of said pair of transmission paths having a 90°
phase shift segment, and a second set of combiner line segments one from each of the two first combiner nodes of the first set with a 180°
second phase shift segment between one of said second combiner line segments and the associated first combiner node whereby each transmission path is 90°
phase shifted relative to its adjacent transmission paths.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of and apparatus for transmitting or receiving circularly polarized signals is disclosed. The technique employs a phase shifting network for connection between an antenna and a radio transmitter or receiver to produce a phase shift when transmitting or eliminate a phase shift when receiving. In one preferred embodiment, a dielectric substrate has a phase shifting network or printed circuit lines defining a signal transmission paths between a radio connection terminal and a plurality of antenna element connection terminals for coupling a multi-element antenna and a radio. Each transmission path is phase shifted relative to an adjacent path by a predetermined amount by each path having progressively equally different electrical length to provide equal phase shift of a radio frequency signal progressively through the transmission paths. Adjacent path pairs are progressively joined at combiner nodes of equal power division by shunt connection line segments to that the power at each antenna connection terminal is equal to the power at the radio connection terminal divided by the number (typically four) of antenna terminals.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A phase shift network for phase shifting signals between an antenna and a radio comprising:
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signal transmission paths extending between a terminal for connection to a radio and each of a plurality of terminals for connection to each of four antenna elements; the transmission paths each having progressively equally different effective electrical lengths to provide a predetermined equal phase shift of the signal progressively through the transmission paths; the transmission paths commencing separately from the point of connection at each antenna element, the transmission paths having combiner line segments and having adjacent path pairs being progressively joined at combiner nodes of equal power division by shunt connection of said combiner line segments such that the power at each antenna terminal is equal to the power at the radio connector terminal divided by the number of antenna terminals and absent any isolation resistor between said combiner line segments; the transmission paths being impedance matched between the antenna element connection points and the radio connection point; and wherein there are four of said transmission paths and a first set of said combiner line segments in each of adjacent pairs of transmission paths joined at two first combiner nodes, one of said transmission paths of each of said pair of transmission paths having a 90°
phase shift segment, and a second set of combiner line segments one from each of the two first combiner nodes of the first set with a 180°
second phase shift segment between one of said second combiner line segments and the associated first combiner node whereby each transmission path is 90°
phase shifted relative to its adjacent transmission paths. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A phase shift device for use between a multi-element antenna and a radio comprising:
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a dielectric substrate having first and second surfaces, a phase shifting network of circuit lines made by a printed circuit method on the first surface of the substrate and defining signal transmission paths between a radio connection terminal and each of a plurality of antenna element connection terminals each path being phase shifted relative to an adjacent transmission path by a predetermined amount by each path having progressively equally different effective electrical length to provide a predetermined equal phase shift of the signal progressively through the transmission paths; and wherein the transmission paths commence separately from the point of connection at each antenna element, the transmission paths having combiner line segments and adjacent path pairs being progressively joined at combiner nodes of equal power division by shunt connection of said combiner line segments such that the power at each antenna terminal is equal to the power at the radio connector terminal divided by the number of antenna terminals, the transmission paths being impedance matched between the antenna element connection points and the radio connection point and absent any isolation resistor between said combiner line segments; and wherein there are four of said transmission paths and a first set of said combiner line segments in each of adjacent pairs of transmission paths joined at two first combiner nodes, one of said transmission paths of each said first pair of transmission paths having a 90°
first phase shift segment, and a second set of combiner line segments one from each of the first combiner nodes of the first set with a 180°
second phase shift segment between one of said second combiner line segments and the associated first combiner node wherein each transmission path is 90°
phase shifted relative to its adjacent transmission paths. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A network for connecting signals between an antenna having 2n antenna elements, n being an integer greater than 1 and the radio network providing a predetermined phase shift between signals related sequentially to successive antenna elements the network comprising:
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(1) 2n-1 phase sequencer subnetworks each subnetwork defining a bifilar module comprising; (a) a first combiner line segment of φ
c degrees effective electrical line length having first and second ends,(b) a second combiner line segment of φ
c degrees effective electrical line length having first and second ends, the second end defining a signal port P1,(c) the first and second combiner line segments each having equal impedance and equal effective electrical length φ
c degrees and being shunt connected at their first ends defining a combiner node whereby the power through each of them is equal and is 1/2 the power at the combiner node,(d) a phase shift line segment of φ
s degrees effective electrical length and having a first end connected to the second end of the first combiner line segment and a second end defining a signal port P2,(e) the line segments being impedance matched so that the impedance at the signal ports equals the impedance at the combiner node, (2) a first tier of at least two of said bifilar modules for connection at their signal ports to antenna element, (3) at least one further successive tier each bifilar module in said successive tiers being connected at its signal ports to the combiner node of a pair of bifilar modules of the prior tier and the phase shift segment φ
t of each successive tier is given φ
t =2A-1 φ
s where φ
s is the phase shift in the first tier and A is the tier rank number whereby power at a final combiner node will be equally divided at each of the antenna elements and each antenna elements will be phase shifted by the predetermined amount φ
s relative to adjacent antenna elements and the - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A phase shift network for phase shifting signals between an antenna having a plurality of antenna elements and a radio, said phase shift being of a predetermined amount φ
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s between successive antenna elements the network comprising;
a bifilar module of circuit lines for phase shifting signals between an antenna having two antenna elements and a radio said bifilar module comprising; a first combiner line segment of φ
c effective electrical line length having first and second ends;a second combiner line segment of φ
c effective electrical line length having first and second ends, the second end defining a signal port P1 for connection to a first one of said antenna elements;the first and second combiner line segments being of equal impedance and being shunt connected their at first ends defining a combiner node whereby the power through them is equal and is one half the power at the combiner node. a phase shift line segment of φ
s degrees effective electrical length and having a first end connected to the second end of the first combiner line segment and a second end defining a signal port P2 for connection to and for phase shifting a signal at a second one of said antenna elements; andsaid network having a plurality of said bifilar modules for use with an antenna having four antenna elements the network defining a quadrifilar phase shift module comprising; a first of said bifilar modules connectable to two of said four antenna elements and a second bifilar module connectable to the other two of said antenna elements and a third bifilar module in which the phase shift line segment has an effective electrical length of 2φ
s and is connected to the combiner node of the first bifilar module and its second combiner line segment is connected to the combiner node of the second bifilar module and having a combiner node connectable to a radio. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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s between successive antenna elements the network comprising;
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33. A method of phase shifting signals between an antenna and a radio comprising:
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providing a quadrifilar module for establishing signal transmission paths from a point of connection at the radio and points of connection at each of four antenna elements, and for phase shifting by an equal predetermined amount the signal associated with the transmission path in the quadrifilar module for each antenna element in comparison to the phase of the adjacent transmission paths wherein the signal in each transmission path starting from one path being arbitrarily defined as at a zero degree reference phase is phase shifted in the amount of 90°
of wavecycle to provide a 90°
relative phase shift between adjacent transmission paths;and for equally power dividing the signal in each transmission path at each antenna element; and for impedance matching the transmission path between each antenna element connection point and the radio connection point. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35)
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36. A phase shift stripline device for use between a multi-element antenna and a radio comprising:
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a plurality of dielectric substrates each substrate having first and second faces formed into a multi-layer structure; a phase shifting network of circuit lines made by a printed circuit method having portions thereof on at least some of the surfaces of the dielectric substrates defining signal transmission paths between a radio connection terminal and each of a plurality of antenna element connection terminals each transmission path being phase shifted relative to an adjacent transmission path by a predetermined amount by each path having progressively equally different effective electrical length to provide a predetermined equal phase shift of the signal progressively through the transmission paths; wherein said transmission paths define a quadrifilar module having three bifilar modules and each bifilar module is on a separate one of the layers and the layers are stacked and the bifilar modules are connected together to form the quadrifilar module. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification