Planar antenna for a wireless mesh network

• US 7,053,853 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2003
• Issued: 05/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trilliant Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SkyPilot Networks Incorporated (Trilliant Networks Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rich, Mark J., Merenda, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Shih-Chao
• Assistant Examiner(s): A, MINH D
• Application Number:
  US10/607,405
• Publication Number:
  US 20040263390A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,069 Days
• Field of Search: 343/820, 343/821, 343/822, 343/823, 343/876, 343/879, 343/777, 343/778, 343/897, 343/893, 455/273, 455/103
• US Class Current: 343/820
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/241 used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM H01Q1/247, H01Q1/248 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/065 Patch antenna array

Abstract

A planar antenna that facilitates directional communication to a mesh network. The antenna is housed in a relatively small, planar package that can easily be attached to a window pane to enable the antenna to communicate with a neighboring rooftop mounted node of the mesh network. The package contains an M by N element phased array, where M and N are integers greater than one. The array is driven by microwave signals supplied from a P-angle phase shifting circuit, where P is an integer greater than one. Thus, the antenna synthesizes a single main beam and the antenna'"'"'s main beam can be electrically “pointed” in one of P directions. In one embodiment of the invention, the array comprises 40 physical elements (8×5 elements) and has three selectable directions (i.e., the phase shifters provide +90, 0 and −90 degree shifts that move the beam left 45 degrees, center and right 45 degrees).

Claims

1. An antenna for communicating with a mesh network comprising:

a multi-layer circuit board having a first side and a second side, with a ground plane formed within the multi-layer circuit board;

an antenna array, affixed to the first side of the multi-layer circuit board, having M×

N array of antenna elements, where M and N are integers greater than 1, said antenna array adapted to selectively synthesize one or more radiation patterns for communicating with neighboring nodes of said mesh network;

a driver circuit, affixed to the second side of the multi-layer circuit board, having a power divider that divides an input microwave signal into M signal paths, a plurality of phase shift circuits are coupled to M−

1 paths and the output of each phase shift circuit is coupled to an antenna element, one of the M signal paths is coupled directly to an antenna element.

2. The antenna of claim 1 wherein M is 5 and N is 8.

3. The antenna of claim 1 wherein the phase shift circuits comprise switched hybrid couplers that, in response to a control signal, phase shift the signals on the M−

1 paths by a discrete phase amount.

4. The antenna of claim 3 wherein the discrete phase shift is at least one of −

90 degrees, 0 degrees and +90 degrees.

5. The antenna of claim 4 wherein the discrete phase shifts cause a main beam of a radiation pattern formed by the array to be directed 0 degrees, +45 degrees and −

45 degrees.

6. The antenna of claim 1 further comprising a modem circuit and a transceiver circuit.