Planar loop antenna system

• US 8,436,780 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2010
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Q-Track Corporation
• Original Assignee: Q-Track Corporation
• Inventors: Schantz, Hans Gregory, Richards, Eric, Compston, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): CRAWFORD, JASON
• Application Number:
  US12/857,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20120007787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 995 Days
• Field of Search: 343/788, 343/866
• US Class Current: 343/788
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/273 Adaptation for carrying or wearing by persons or animals
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/276 for mounting on helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/24 Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/08 Ferrite rod or like elongated core

Abstract

An inexpensive planar antenna fabricated as a plurality of parallel layers of multi turn spiral loops co-located with conductive material at the center of the loops, there being an exclusion zone free of conductive material between the innermost loop and the conductive material at the center. The conductive material may comprise circuit elements, for example batteries, amplifiers, antenna drivers or other functional elements as well as passive elements. In one embodiment, the loop traces may be staggered. In another embodiment, the loop traces are varied in width as a function of position within the loop cross section. In further embodiments, the planar form is integrated with additional orthogonal planar antennas substantially coplanar with the first planar antenna and having axes orthogonal to the first planar antenna and to one another. In further embodiments the exclusion zone is extended by design rules and confining routes in a circuit section. The antenna system may be configured as a three dimensional omnidirectional antenna and is well adapted for small form factor hand held and portable wireless applications.

Claims

1. A planar loop antenna system comprising:

a planar loop antenna comprising;

a plurality of mutually coupled loops supported by a planar substrate and connected in series, said plurality of mutually coupled loops being arranged in a common rotation orientation;

said planar substrate comprising one or more parallel layers;

an exclusion zone interior to said planar loop antenna on said planar substrate, and said exclusion zone extending normal to a plane of said planar substrate through and including all said parallel layers of said planar substrate and circuitry mounted thereon;

said exclusion zone being free of conducting structure; and

at least one conducting structure interior to an inner boundary of said exclusion zone as determined by a projection of said at least one conducting structure and said exclusion zone on a plane parallel to said planar substrate, said at least one conducting structure mounted on or in proximity to said planar substrate.

2. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said planar substrate is a multilayer substrate.

3. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said exclusion zone includes a ferrite material.

4. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of mutually coupled loops comprise a plurality of metallic traces characterized by a width of each trace, a thickness of each trace, and a horizontal spacing between adjacent traces.

5. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of metallic traces form at least part of said plurality of mutually coupled loops on at least one layer of said substrate and a width characteristic of at least one loop of said plurality of mutually coupled loops is varied as a function of horizontal position of said at least one loop on said substrate.

6. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of metallic traces form at least part of said plurality of mutually coupled loops on at least one layer of said substrate and a spacing characteristic from at least one loop of said plurality of mutually coupled loops to a subsequent loop is varied as a function of horizontal position on said planar substrate of said at least one loop.

7. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of metallic traces form multiple loops of said plurality of loops on each of at least two layers of said planar substrate and said multiple loops on a first layer of said at least two layers are offset horizontally from corresponding loops on a second layer of said at least two layers.

8. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of metallic traces form multiple loops on each of at least two layers of said substrate and at least one loop of a first layer is varied in width as a function of layer from a corresponding loop of a second layer.

9. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of metallic traces form multiple loops on each of at least two layers of said substrate and at least one loop is varied in width as a function of position within a cross section of said planar loop antenna.

10. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, further including a second magnetic antenna, said second magnetic antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna;

said second magnetic antenna coupled to at least one circuit on said planar substrate, said second magnetic antenna having a second length and second width dimension forming a second plane parallel to a plane of said planar antenna and having a second thickness dimension less than said second length dimension and less than said second width dimension, said second thickness dimension perpendicular to said plane of said planar antenna.

11. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 10, further including an electric field antenna, said electric field antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna and said second magnetic antenna.

12. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 10, further including a third magnetic antenna, said third magnetic antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna and to said second magnetic antenna;

said third magnetic antenna coupled to at least one circuit on said planar substrate, said third magnetic antenna having a third length and third width dimension forming a third plane parallel to a plane of said planar antenna and having a third thickness dimension less than said third length dimension and less than said third width dimension, said third thickness dimension perpendicular to said plane of said planar antenna.

13. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one conducting structure comprises a circuit or a battery.

14. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 13, wherein the circuit includes a ground plane.

15. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 13, wherein the circuit is without a ground plane or a direct current power plane, said circuit implementing ground and direct current power as respective nets.

16. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 13, wherein the circuit is routed according to a bundle tree structure.

17. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 16, wherein said bundle tree structure characterized by one or more of the following:

1) routes occupying a subset of the available board space,

2) unrelated nets parallel routed in a tree formation,

3) nets with longer paths along the tree formation than would be routed by direct point to point if additional existing board space were made available for routing, or

4) additional vias used to create the compact tree pattern vs. the vias that would be used for direct point to point routing if additional existing board space were made available for routing.

18. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 16, wherein the circuit is routed using peripheral routing keep out zones to confine routing to said bundle tree structure.

19. A planar loop antenna system comprising:

a planar loop antenna comprising;

a plurality of mutually coupled loops supported by a planar substrate and connected in series, said plurality of mutually coupled loops being arranged in a common rotation orientation;

said planar substrate having at least two layers;

wherein said plurality of mutually coupled loops comprise a plurality of metallic traces characterized by a width of each trace, a thickness of each trace, and a horizontal spacing between adjacent traces;

said metallic traces forming multiple loops on each of at least two layers of said substrate and at least one loop is varied in width as a function of position within a cross section of said planar loop antenna.

20. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 19, further including a second magnetic antenna, said second magnetic antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna;

said second magnetic antenna coupled to at least one circuit on said planar substrate, said second magnetic antenna having a second length and second width dimension forming a second plane parallel to a plane of said planar antenna and having a second thickness dimension less than said second length dimension and less than said second width dimension, said second thickness dimension perpendicular to said plane of said planar antenna.

21. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 20, further including an electric field antenna, said electric field antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna and said second magnetic antenna.

22. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 20, further including a third magnetic antenna, said third magnetic antenna mutually orthogonal in directional response to said planar loop antenna and to said second magnetic antenna;

said third magnetic antenna coupled to at least one circuit on said planar substrate, said third magnetic antenna having a third length and third width dimension forming a third plane parallel to a plane of said planar antenna and having a third thickness dimension less than said third length dimension and less than said third width dimension, said third thickness dimension perpendicular to said plane of said planar antenna.

23. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 19, wherein said loops are arranged about an exclusion zone on said planar substrate, said exclusion zone being free of any conducting structure.

24. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 19, wherein said exclusion zone includes a ferrite material.

25. The planar loop antenna system as recited in claim 19, wherein said exclusion zone is surrounding at least one conducting structure mounted on or in proximity to said planar substrate.