Antennas employing U-dipole elements
First Claim
1. An antenna, including an array of U-dipole elements, comprising:
- a back reflector;
a printed circuit board spaced in front of said reflector and bearing a feed network to couple signals between an input/output port and feed points contiguous to U-dipole element mounting locations on said board; and
a plurality of U-dipole elements mounted at said mounting locations, each said U-dipole element including;
a first linear conductor segment spaced from and nominally parallel to said back reflector;
a second linear conductor segment spaced from and nominally parallel to and coextensive with said first segment, said second segment having one end connected to a first end of said first segment to form a U configuration; and
a feed conductor segment connected at a point along said first segment spaced from said first end thereof, said feed segment connected to one of said contiguous feed points to provide a sole signal feed path to said U-dipole element.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A low cost array antenna (10) employs U-dipole elements (30) inserted into slots in a printed circuit board (18). Board (18), supported in spaced relation directly by back reflector (12), bears a feed network (22) connected to an input/output port (24). The dipole element (30) is a dual-dipole single-feed element, including parallel coextensive dipole segments (32, 34) attached at one end, with a sole signal feed path via feed segment (36). Feed segment (36) is inserted into board (18) and soldered to a feed point of feed network (22). One or more mounting tabs (38) are also inserted into slots in board (18) and may be fixed in place by soldering to an isolated conductor portion provided on board (18) for this purpose. A dual array antenna (50) includes dipoles (51-54) for left slant polarization reception and dipoles (61-64) for right slant polarization reception. Receive diversity is thus provided for cellular communications, with vertical polarization for transmission via parallel use of both arrays (51-54, 61-64).
19 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An antenna, including an array of U-dipole elements, comprising:
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a back reflector; a printed circuit board spaced in front of said reflector and bearing a feed network to couple signals between an input/output port and feed points contiguous to U-dipole element mounting locations on said board; and a plurality of U-dipole elements mounted at said mounting locations, each said U-dipole element including; a first linear conductor segment spaced from and nominally parallel to said back reflector; a second linear conductor segment spaced from and nominally parallel to and coextensive with said first segment, said second segment having one end connected to a first end of said first segment to form a U configuration; and a feed conductor segment connected at a point along said first segment spaced from said first end thereof, said feed segment connected to one of said contiguous feed points to provide a sole signal feed path to said U-dipole element. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An antenna, including an array of U-dipole elements, comprising:
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a metallic back reflector; a printed circuit board mounted in spaced parallel relation to said back reflector, said circuit board bearing a feed network to couple signals between an input/output port and feed points contiguous to mounting holes piercing said board; and a plurality of U-dipole elements each cut in one piece from a conductive sheet and including first and second dipole segments in nominally coextensive alignment parallel to said back reflector and interconnected at one end, said first dipole segment having a single attached feed segment inserted into one of said mounting holes and connected to a contiguous feed point, and said second dipole segment conductively connected only to said first dipole segment at said one end. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An antenna, including a dual array of U-dipole elements, comprising:
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a metallic back reflector; a printed circuit board mounted in spaced parallel relation to said back reflector, said circuit board bearing a first feed network to couple signals between a first input/output port and a first plurality of feed points contiguous to mounting holes piercing said board and a second feed network to couple signals between a second input/output port and a second plurality of feed points contiguous to mounting holes piercing said board; and a plurality of U-dipole elements each cut in one piece from a conductive sheet and including first and second dipole segments in nominally coextensive alignment parallel to said back reflector and interconnected at one end, said first dipole segment having a single attached feed segment inserted into one of said mounting holes and connected to a contiguous feed point, and said second dipole segment conductively connected only to said first dipole segment at said one end; said plurality of U-dipole elements including a first group of U-dipole elements, each having a first angular alignment and connected to a respective feed point of said first feed network, and a second group of U-dipole elements, each having a second angular alignment and connected to a respective feed point of said second feed network. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An antenna, including a dual array of dipole elements, comprising:
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a metallic back reflector; a first linear array of dipole elements, each aligned to operate with linear polarization rotated nominally 45 degrees left of vertical; a first feed network coupling each dipole element of said first array to a first input/output port; a second linear array of dipole elements, each aligned to operate with linear polarization rotated nominally 45 degrees right of vertical; a second feed network coupling each dipole element of said second array to a second input/output port; and a diplexer unit coupled to said first and second input/output ports and arranged to provide access to at least one of said first linear array, said second linear array, and both of said linear arrays in parallel. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification