Diversity antenna on a dielectric surface in a motor vehicle body

• US 6,603,434 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2002
• Issued: 08/05/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Delphi Delco Electronics Europe GmbH (Aptiv PLC)
• Original Assignee: FURA Automotive GmbH & Company KG
• Inventors: Hopf, Jochen, Lindenmeier, Heinz, Reiter, Leopold
• Primary Examiner(s): Wimer, Michael C.
• Application Number:
  US10/041,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20020126055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 343/713, 343/711, 343/712
• US Class Current: 343/713
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/32 Adaptation for use in or on road or rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/3275 mounted on a horizontal surface of the vehicle, e.g. on roof, hood, trunk
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/28 Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems multiple beam H01Q25/00

Abstract

A diversity antenna for the meter and decimeter wave ranges installed on a conductively framed dielectric surface in the body of a motor vehicle and substantially assembled from rectangular part surfaces, for example in a roof cutout or trunk with a dielectric trunk lid. A substantially wire-shaped antenna conductor is installed parallel with the conductive frame and spaced from a part thereof of the dielectric surface less than one fourth of the width of the dielectric surface. The wire-shaped antenna conductor has an interruption site which define a pair of antenna connection terminals. A two-pole, electronically controllable impedance network is incorporated in series in at least one additional interruption site. The position of the interruption site with the pair of antenna connection terminals, and the position of the additional interruption site are selected so that the antenna signals available at the different settings of the controllable impedance network are adequately decoupled in terms of diversity.

Claims

1. A diversity antenna for connection to a receiver located on a conductively framed dielectric surface substantially assembled from rectangular partial surfaces in a body of a motor vehicle, comprising:

an antenna conductor in a form of a wire disposed parallel to at least a portion of the conductive frame of the dielectric surface with a spacing of less than one fourth of the width of the existing dielectric surface, wherein said antenna conductor includes at least one interruption site defining a pair of antenna connection terminals and forming at least two antennas; and

at least one two-pole electronically controllable impedance network serially integrated in said at least one additional interruption site, wherein a position of said at least one interruption site with said pair of antenna connection terminals and a position of said at least one additional interruption site are selected so that a plurality of antenna signals available at different adjustments of said controllable impedance network are adequately decoupled to select a most suitable signal selected from said plurality of antenna signals.

2. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, wherein said antenna conductor is installed parallel to at least a part of the conductive frame of the dielectric surface, with a spacing from the conductive frame that is small compared to a length of said antenna conductor and as compared to the wavelength, said antenna conductor being adapted at each of its ends to form adequately low-resistant connections in terms of diversity with the conductive frame, and wherein a high-frequency loop is formed jointly by said antenna conductor and the conductive frame.

3. The diversity antenna according to claim 2, wherein said two-pole, electronically controllable impedance network is adapted as an electronic switch, and said pair of antenna connector terminals are adapted as impedances Z1, and respectively, Z2, to said impedances having impedance values so that antenna signals available on said pair of antenna connection terminals in a plurality of different switching conditions of said electronic switch are sufficiently decoupled in terms of diversity, with good average signal quality.

4. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, wherein said pair of antenna connection terminals is serially integrated in said at least one interruption site of said antenna conductor, so that the antenna signals are tapped ground-free, without a high frequency-conductive connection to the conductive frame.

5. The diversity antenna according to claim 2, wherein said pair of antenna connection terminals is serially integrated in a substantially electrically short connection of one of the two ends of said antenna conductor with the conductive frame, said short connection being effective at high frequency.

6. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, comprising a first additional antenna conductor connected to one of the two ends of said antenna conductor, said first additional antenna conductor being designed to match the impedance of the load of the suitably effective impedance Z2 associated with a high-frequency connection.

7. The diversity antenna according to claim 6, further comprising a second additional antenna conductor connected to said antenna conductor, said second additional antenna conductor being adapted so that a high-frequency load associated therewith at both ends in each case matched with a suitably effective respective impedance Z1 and Z2.

8. The diversity antenna according to claim 7, wherein said additional antenna conductors are formed from wires and are at least partly installed as an extension of said antenna conductor with a similar electrically small spacing from the conductive frame.

9. The diversity antenna according to claim 8, further comprising a plurality of additional interruption sites formed in said additional antenna conductors having an adequately large spacing from each other, and said electronically controllable impedance network designed as an electronic switch, and serially integrated in each of said at least one interruption site and said at least one additional interruption site.

10. The diversity antenna according to claim 9, wherein said spacing between said at least one interruption site and said plurality of additional interruption sites is larger than λ

/4.

11. The diversity antenna according to claim 5, wherein said pair of antenna connection terminals is formed in the longitudinal train of said wire-shaped antenna conductor, and said antenna further comprises an additional pair of antenna connection terminals in the same site in the electrically short, high-frequency-effective connection on one of the two ends of said antenna conductor with the conductive frame, so that both the antenna signal existing between the antenna conductor and the conductive frame and the antenna signal present on said additional pair of antenna connection terminals are available in one site in the longitudinal train of said antenna conductor.

12. The diversity antenna according to claim 11, comprising an electronic change-over switch coupled to said antenna connection terminals, wherein one of the two available antenna signals is alternatively supplied for further processing in the network components of an antenna diversity system.

13. The diversity antenna according to claim 12, wherein said antenna conductor is installed in the form of a ring structure near the conductive frame and comprises at least one two-pole electronically controllable impedance network disposed within the dielectric area, wherein both the ground-based antenna signal between said ring structure and the conductive framing and the ground-free antenna signal in the longitudinal train of said antenna conductor are available for coupling to the network components of an antenna diversity system for further processing.

14. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, wherein at least one input control signal is provided to said electronically controllable impedance network for adjusting the effective impedance value between said first HF-connection site and said second HF-connection site, so that antenna signals that are different in terms of diversity are formed on said pair of antenna connection terminals by applying different control signals.

15. The diversity antenna according to claim 14, comprising at least one digitally adjustable electronic switching element having discrete switching conditions disposed in said electronically controllable impedance network, said switching element having reactances for adjusting discrete impedance values in response to said at least one control signal.

16. The diversity antenna according to claim 15, wherein said electronically controllable impedance network includes an electronic switching element in the form of a switching diode, wherein said diode is put in the open or closed condition in terms of high frequency in response to said control signal, so that either a connection that is effective in terms of high frequency, or an interruption in terms of high frequency exists between the connection terminals of the additional interruption site of said wire antenna conductor.

17. The diversity antenna according to claim 16, wherein feeding said control signal in the form of the passing current of said diode or its blocking voltage, a two-wire line is realized as a control line, so that the two-wire line is formed as a single wire antenna conductor in terms of high frequency by capacitive and inductive coupling of the conductors of the two-wire line, and said control signal is transmitted between the two conductors of the two-wire line.

18. The diversity antenna according to claim 17, wherein said impedance network comprises a coupling capacitance with only low impedance in the high frequency range, and an inductance with only high impedance in the high-frequency range to separate the high-frequency antenna signals and said control signals.

19. The diversity antenna according to claim 18, wherein said impedance network comprises passing on control signals across a first electronically controllable impedance network to an additional electronically controllable impedance network with the help of an additional wire antenna conductor in the form of a two-wire or multi-wire line located in the first controllable impedance network, switching elements blocking high-frequency signals including inductors are present for bridging said electronic switching element.

20. The diversity antenna according to claim 16, wherein said impedance network comprises for addressably controlling the electronic switching element with the help of coded control signals in the electronically controllable impedance network, for providing correspondingly coded signals to an additional controllable impedance network via an additional wire-shaped antenna conductor designed in the form of a two- or multi-wire line.

21. The diversity antenna according to claim 16, wherein said electronically controllable impedance network includes at least one impedance network for the frequency-selective passage or blockage of high-frequency signals of different radio areas, and coupled between the connection terminals of said additional interruption site of the wire-shaped antenna conductor.

22. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, comprising

at least one connection network connected to said pair of antenna connection terminals and having network components, and wherein ground-free and/or ground-based antenna signals each are adapted to the receiver via said network components;

a switching processor for generating control signals and disposed in said connection network; and

said control signals being further transmitted to at least one of said electronically controllable impedance network via a control line connected to said connection network.

23. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, comprising a diversity processor having a switching processor and electronic change-over switches, so that in the presence of a disturbed received signal in the receiver, a control signal for controlling said least one electronically controllable impedance network is generated in said switching processor, on the one hand, and, if need be, control signals of said switching processor are additionally generated for selecting ground-free or ground-based antenna signals with the help said electronic change-over switches, on the other hand, so that a multitude of switching possibilities and thus different received signals are available in any reception situation.

24. The diversity antenna according to claim 22, wherein the dielectric surface is formed by the plastic trunk lid surrounded by the electrically conductive body of the motor vehicle as the conductive frame, and said connection network is mounted in the proximity of the trunk lid fastening connected to the ground of the vehicle, and that the ground point forms the high-frequency ground of the connection network, and is electrically connected to the trunk lid fastening.

25. The diversity antenna according to claim 24, wherein for further diversifying the received signals or for forming two simultaneously available received signals, for diversity receivers with two inputs for in-phase superpositioning of the signals in the receiver in conjunction with a scanning diversity system, a first connection network is present in the proximity of the trunk lid fastening on the one side of the plastic trunk lid, and a second connection network is available in the proximity of the trunk lid fastening on the other side of the plastic trunk lid.

26. The diversity antenna according to claim 25, wherein for providing a scanning diversity system, for the UHF frequency range, intermediate-frequency (IF) signals of the receiver are supplied to said first connection network via the HF/IF frequency switch and to the diversity processor for testing the received signals for disturbances, wherein electronic change-over switches present in said second connection network are controlled via an antenna connection cable connecting said first connection network with said second connection network by control signals of said switching processor with switching address feed, and the received signal selected via the switching address signal evaluation and electronic change-over switches is supplied to said electronic change-over switch in said first connection network for further selection via an antenna connection cable leading to the receiver.

27. The diversity antenna according to claim 26, comprising television amplifiers for terrestrial television reception each comprising a connection to said wire antenna conductor are present in said antenna connection networks;

said electronically controllable impedance networks being suitably distributed within the ring structure and include said impedance networks so that a strong UHF diversity reception in the UHF-range is provided.

28. The diversity antenna according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric surface is inserted in a cutout of the metallic roof of the motor vehicle, and is preferably square shaped, and extends over a substantial major part of the width of the roof.