Planar antenna array with parasitic elements providing multiple beams of varying widths

• US 6,317,100 B1
• Filed: 07/12/1999
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kathrein SE
• Original Assignee: Metawave Communications Corp.
• Inventors: Achilles, Todd, Reudink, Douglas O., Butler, Ray K., Elson, J. Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, THUY V
• Application Number:
  US09/351,276
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 343/853, 343/793, 343/818, 343/833, 343/834, 343/835, 343/815, 343/893, 343/817, 343/819
• US Class Current: 343/853
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/22 Antenna units of the array energised non-uniformly in amplitude or phase, e.g. tapered array or binomial array

Abstract

An antenna system adapted to provide antenna beams having various characteristics, such as various beam widths and/or different orientations, is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, the antenna system is adapted to provide forward link signals in wide antenna beams while providing reverse link signals in narrow antenna beams. In the preferred embodiment multiple forward link wide beams are provided to allow uniform radiation of forward link signals throughout a desired area, such as a sector of a cell, while multiple non-overlapping narrow antenna beams are provided in the reverse link. In the preferred embodiment passive or parasitic antenna elements are utilized in the antenna array to provide symmetric current distribution in the antenna array to provide multiple beams having uniform characteristics.

Claims

1. An antenna system comprising:

an array of antenna elements, said array of antenna elements comprise;

a plurality of active antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration, wherein said plurality of active antenna elements are said ones of said antenna elements coupled to said signal feed network; and

a plurality of passive antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration, wherein said predetermined configuration of the parasitic antenna elements corresponds to said predetermined configuration of the active antenna elements to thereby provide substantially symmetric current distribution in said array of antenna elements; and

a signal feed network coupled to ones of the antenna elements adapted to provide substantially different radiation patterns in the forward and reverse links.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said signal feed network comprises:

a beam forming network associated with one of said forward and reverse links; and

duplexer circuitry disposed between said coupled ones of said antenna elements and said beam forming network operable to arbitrate signals in said forward and reverse links.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a difference in said substantially different radiation patterns in the forward and reverse links is beam width.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein antenna beams of one of said forward and reverse links are relatively narrow with respect to antenna beams of the other one of said forward and reverse links.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a difference in said substantially different radiation patterns is an orientational configuration of antenna beams of said forward link and said reverse link.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein antenna beams of one of said forward and reverse links are provided in a same azimuthal orientation to provide communications within a substantially same area and antenna beams of the other one of said forward and reverse links are provided in different azimuthal orientations to provide communications within substantially non-overlapping areas.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of active antenna elements are disposed in a plurality of exclusively active antenna element columns and said passive antenna elements are disposed in a plurality of exclusively passive antenna element columns.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns are disposed as inner columns of said antenna array and said plurality of passive antenna element columns are disposed as outer columns of said antenna array.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns comprises four active antenna element columns.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said plurality of passive antenna element columns comprises four passive antenna element columns.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein a number of columns of both said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of passive antenna element columns is the same.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein spacing between each antenna element column of said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of passive antenna element columns is substantially the same.

13. An antenna system for providing multiple signals throughout a desired area comprising:

an array of antenna elements including a plurality of active antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration, and a plurality of parasitic antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration, wherein said predetermined configuration of the parasitic antenna elements corresponds to said predetermined configuration of the active antenna elements to thereby provide substantially symmetric current distribution in said array of antenna elements; and

a signal feed network coupled to said active antenna elements having at least one signal interface associated with a first antenna beam configuration and at least one signal interface associated with a second antenna beam configuration, wherein a beam width of said first beam configuration is different from that of said second antenna beam configuration.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said signal feed network is adapted to combine signals for radiation within antenna beams having said first antenna beam configuration and introducing a signal loss of less than 1 dB.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said signal feed network comprises:

a plurality of diplexers each coupled to a different interface of said at least one signal interface associated with the first antenna beam configuration to combine two signals for radiation within antenna beams having said first antenna beam configuration.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each antenna beam of said first antenna beam configuration is oriented substantially the same with respect to said antenna array.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein said first beam width is wider than 50 degrees and said second beam width is narrower than 50 degrees.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said first beam width is approximately 100 degrees.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein said second beam width is approximately 30 degrees.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein said signal feed network is adapted to provide antenna beams having said first beam configuration in a first communication link direction and to provide antenna beams having said second beam configuration is a second communication link direction.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said first communication link direction is a forward link and said second link direction is a reverse link.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a base transceiver station providing PCS communication services.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising a base transceiver station providing cellular telephone services.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein said signal feed network comprises:

duplexer circuitry coupled to said active antenna elements and operable to arbitrate signals between said at least one signal interface associated with the first antenna beam configuration and said at least one signal interface associated with the second antenna beam configuration.

25. The system of claim 13, wherein said signal feed network is adapted to provide antenna beams having said first beam configuration to a first communication service and to provide antenna beams having said second beam configuration to a second communication service.

26. The system of claim 13, wherein said plurality of active antenna elements are disposed in a plurality of exclusively active antenna element columns and said parasitic antenna elements are disposed in a plurality of exclusively parasitic antenna element columns.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns are disposed as inner columns of said antenna array and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns are disposed as outer columns of said antenna array.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns comprises four active antenna element columns.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns comprises four parasitic antenna element columns.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein a number of columns of both said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns is the same.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein spacing between each antenna element column of said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns is substantially the same.

32. The system of claim 13, wherein said signal feed network comprises:

a beam forming network coupled to said at least one signal interface associated with the second antenna beam configuration.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein said beam forming network is adapted to provide multiple fixed narrow beams.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein said beam forming network is a Butler matrix.

35. The system of claim 32, wherein said beam forming network is an adaptive beam forming network.

36. An antenna method for providing radiation patterns having different characteristics in the forward and reverse wireless links, said method comprising the steps of:

deploying an array of antenna elements including a plurality of active antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration, and a plurality of parasitic antenna elements disposed in a predetermined configuration;

coupling a signal feed network to said active antenna elements of said array of antenna elements, wherein said signal feed network includes a beam forming matrix having a plurality of signal interfaces each associated with a reverse link antenna beam signal, and wherein said signal feed network includes a plurality of signal interfaces each associated with a forward link antenna beam signal; and

operating said signal feed network to pass said reverse link signals through said beam forming matrix and to bypass said beam forming matrix with said forward link signals.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said predetermined configuration of the parasitic antenna elements corresponds to said predetermined configuration of the active antenna elements to thereby provide substantially symmetric current distribution in said array of antenna elements.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising the step of:

radiating all forward link signals of said antenna array within a substantially same service area.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising the steps of:

combining ones of said forward link signals to thereby form a forward link antenna beam signal including a plurality of forward link signals; and

coupling said forward link antenna beam signal including a plurality of forward link signals to a same signal interface of said plurality of signal interfaces associated with forward link antenna beam signals.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said combining step comprises the use of a diplexer to combine two forward link signals.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein a characteristic of radiation patterns of said forward link is a beam width of approximately 100 degrees.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein a characteristic of radiation patterns of said reverse link is a beam width of approximately 30 degrees.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein a characteristic of radiation patterns of said reverse link is each of said reverse link beams having a substantially non-overlapping azimuthal orientation.

44. The method of claim 36, wherein a characteristic of radiation patterns of said forward link is each of said forward link beams having substantially a same azimuthal orientation.

45. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of deploying an array of antenna elements comprises the steps of:

disposing said plurality of active antenna elements in a plurality of exclusively active antenna element columns; and

disposing said parasitic antenna elements in a plurality of exclusively parasitic antenna element columns.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns are disposed as inner columns of said antenna array and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns are disposed as outer columns of said antenna array.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein said plurality of active antenna element columns comprises four active antenna element columns.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns comprises four parasitic antenna element columns.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein a number of columns of both said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns is the same.

50. The method of claim 45, wherein spacing between each antenna element column of said plurality of active antenna element columns and said plurality of parasitic antenna element columns is substantially the same.

51. The method of claim 36, wherein said beam forming matrix is adapted to provide multiple fixed narrow beams.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein said beam forming matrix is a Butler matrix.

53. The method of claim 36, wherein said beam forming matrix is an adaptive beam forming network.