Antenna with stacked resonant structures and a multi-frequency radiocommunications system including it

• US 6,304,220 B1
• Filed: 08/04/2000
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Herve, Pascal, Coupez, Jean-Philippe, Kouam, Charles Ngounou
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, THO GIA
• Application Number:
  US09/632,613
• Time in Patent Office: 438 Days
• Field of Search: H01/Q.138, 343/700.MS, 343/702, 343/767, 343/768, 343/770, 343/705, 343/708, 343/846
• US Class Current: 343/700.0MS
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/242 specially adapted for hand-held use
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 5/385 Two or more parasitic elements
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/0407 Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna dipole H01Q9/285; monopole H01Q9/40
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/0414 in a stacked or folded configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/0421 with a shorting wall or a shorting pin at one end of the element H01Q9/0414 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/045 with particular feeding means for circular polarisation H01Q9/0428

Abstract

An antenna with stacked resonant structures includes: a guide line for guiding electromagnetic waves formed in a conductive layer lying in a plane, and two resonant structures having different resonant frequencies, the two structures being formed on respective opposite sides of the plane so that both are coupled directly to the line and substantially decoupled from one another by the conductive layer. The guide line is preferably of the coplanar type and the two resonant structure are preferably of the quarter-wave type. The invention applies in particular to dual-band mobile telephones.

Claims

1. An antenna with stacked resonant structures, the antenna including:

two resonant structures facing each other on respective opposite sides of a plane occupied by a conductive layer constituting a coupling layer, the two structures having respective resonant frequencies with a defined frequency ratio, and

an internal coupling system including at least one slot formed in the coupling layer to enable coupling of the two resonant structures to a processor unit external to the antenna,

in which antenna said two resonant structures are sufficiently decoupled from one another by said coupling layer for the coupling of each of the two structures to said processor unit via said internal coupling system to be substantially independent of the other of the two structures, said frequency ratio departing significantly from a value imposed on that ratio by coupling between the two structures.

2. An antenna according to claim 1, wherein said internal coupling system is a coplanar line constituting a coupling line.

3. An antenna according to claim 2, wherein three mutually crossing axes constitute for the antenna respectively a longitudinal axis, a transverse axis and a vertical axis, the longitudinal and transverse axes constitute horizontal axes, the longitudinal axis has a forward direction and a retrograde direction opposite the forward direction, the antenna includes a plurality of layers forming a succession in the vertical direction, each of said layers having an area extending in said forward direction of the longitudinal axis from a rear edge to a front edge thereof, said area also extending along said transverse axis, each layer also having a thickness along said vertical axis, one of said layers constituting said coupling layer, two other layers comprising dielectric layers constituting a bottom dielectric layer and a top dielectric layer respectively below and above the coupling layer, said resonant structures constituting a bottom resonant structure and a top resonant structure, respectively, including said bottom dielectric layer and said top dielectric layer, wherein each of the structures enables traveling electromagnetic waves to propagate in both directions along the longitudinal axis, which waves are reflected in the structure to form therein at least one standing wave having a resonant frequency of the structure and by a propagation speed of traveling waves inherent to and defined by the structure, the standing wave exchanging energy with radiated waves in the space external to the antenna, said internal coupling system guiding traveling waves exchanging energy with respective standing waves formed in the bottom and top resonant structures so that electromagnetic energy can be exchanged between said external space and the coupling system via each of the resonant structures at the frequency of that structure, said coupling layer including two slots extending substantially along said longitudinal axis from said rear edge of the layer, the slots constituting coupling slots and delimiting in the layer a strip constituting a coupling strip, said strip being connected to a main part of the coupling layer inside said area of the coupling layer, and said strip co-operating with the slots and said main part to form said coupling line constituting the internal coupling system.

4. An antenna according to claim 3, wherein said layers of the antenna further include at least one external conductive layer, one of said two dielectric layers being disposed between the external conductive layer and said coupling layer, said external conductive layer co-operating with the dielectric layer and with the coupling layer to constitute one of said two resonant structures, either the external conductive layer or the coupling layer having horizontal and at least longitudinal dimensions smaller than a conductive structure including the other of those layers, and said external conductive layer and the conductive structure respectively constituting a patch and a ground plane of the structure such that said resonant frequency of the structure is essentially dependent on an electrical length of the patch and independent of said longitudinal dimensions of the ground plane.

5. An antenna according to claim 4, wherein said layers of the antenna include two of said external conductive layers respectively constituting a bottom conductive layer under said bottom dielectric layer to constitute said bottom resonant structure and a top conductive layer on top of said top dielectric layer to constitute said top resonant structure.

6. An antenna according to claim 5, wherein said bottom conductive layer has sufficiently large horizontal dimensions to constitute said ground plane of at least said bottom resonant structure, said coupling layer then constituting both said patch of the structure and at least an internal part of said ground plane of the top resonant structure, and said patch of the top resonant structure consists of said top conductive layer.

7. An antenna according to claim 6, further including at least one short-circuit conductor specific to at least one resonant structure of said two resonant structures, the conductor connecting said rear edge of said patch of the structure to said ground plane of the structure, whereby the structure has a quarter-wave type resonance and constitutes a quarter-wave structure, and the short-circuit conductor meets said rear edge of the coupling layer outside a coupling segment which is part of that edge and includes said coupling strip and said coupling slots.

8. An antenna according to claim 7, wherein each of said quarter-wave structures has two of said short-circuit conductors meeting said rear edge of the coupling layer on respective opposite sides of said coupling segment.

9. An antenna according to claim 8, wherein only said bottom resonant structure constitutes one of said quarter-wave structures and said coupling line extends from said edge of the coupling layer at least into a middle part of the length of said patch of the top resonant structure so as to cause a half-wave type resonance in the structure.

10. An antenna according to claim 8, wherein said bottom resonant structure and said top resonant structure each constitute one of said quarter-wave structures.

11. An antenna according to claim 10, wherein said patch of the top resonant structure takes the form of two resonant strips respectively connected to said two short-circuit strips and extending longitudinally therefrom on said top dielectric layer, and the two resonant strips are of respectively different lengths.

12. An antenna according to claim 10, wherein said propagation speed in the top resonant structure is greater than 150% of said propagation speed in the bottom resonant structure, the resonant frequency of the top resonant structure is 150% greater than the resonant frequency of the bottom resonant structure, and the propagation speeds are average speeds of longitudinal propagation in the structures of electromagnetic waves having a frequency of 1 GHz.

13. An antenna according to claim 12, wherein said two dielectric layers have substantially the same thickness.

14. A multifrequency radiocommunications system including:

a processor unit adapted to transmit and/or to receive a guided electromagnetic wave that can have two frequencies, and

an antenna connected to the processor unit to couple the guided wave to radiated waves,

in which system said antenna comprises;

two resonant structures facing each other on respective opposite sides of a plane occupied by a conductive layer constituting a coupling layer, the two structures having respective resonant frequencies with a defined frequency ratio, and

an internal coupling system including at least one slot formed in the coupling layer to enable coupling of the two resonant structures to said processor unit external to the antenna,

in which antenna said two resonant structures are sufficiently decoupled from one another by said coupling layer for the coupling of each of the two structures to said processor unit via said internal coupling system to be substantially independent of the other of the two structures, said frequency ratio departing significantly from a value imposed on that ratio by coupling between the two structures and said two resonant structures respectively resonate at said two frequencies of the guided electromagnetic wave.