Antenna drive apparatus

• US 8,952,756 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2013
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: Tabata, Takehiro, Hagimoto, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Choe, Henry
• Application Number:
  US13/944,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20140022013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: 330/251, 330/207.A, 330/10, 330/146
• US Class Current: 330/251
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/3283 side-mounted antennas, e.g. bumper-mounted, door-mounted mounted on windscreens H01Q1/1271
• 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: H03F 3/2173 of the bridge type
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0458 Arrangements for matching and coupling between power amplifier and antenna or between amplifying stages matching circuits in general H03H

Abstract

An antenna drive apparatus applying an antenna drive voltage to an antenna from an H-bridge circuit including four switching elements to drive the antenna, includes: a switching mechanism to switch between a full-bridge state in which a differential voltage between a pulse voltage and a reverse pulse voltage reversed from the pulse voltage is applied to the antenna as the antenna drive voltage, and a half-bridge state in which the pulse voltage or the reverse pulse voltage is applied to the antenna as the antenna drive voltage; and a control mechanism to control the switching mechanism so that the frequency of the full-bridge state per unit time during an initial period of driving of the antenna in a transmission period for transmitting a transmission signal by the antenna becomes higher than that during the subsequent period in the transmission period.

Claims

1. An antenna drive apparatus configured to apply an antenna drive voltage to an antenna from an H-bridge circuit including four switching elements to drive the antenna, comprising:

a switching mechanism configured to switch between a full-bridge state in which a differential voltage between a pulse voltage and a reverse pulse voltage reversed from the pulse voltage is applied to the antenna as the antenna drive voltage by the H-bridge circuit, and a half-bridge state in which the pulse voltage or the reverse pulse voltage is applied to the antenna as the antenna drive voltage by the H-bridge circuit; and

a control mechanism configured to control the switching mechanism so that the frequency of the full-bridge state per unit time during an initial period of driving of the antenna in a transmission period for transmitting a transmission signal by the antenna becomes higher than that during the subsequent period subsequent to the initial period in the transmission period.

2. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sensing mechanism configured to sense an antenna current of the antenna during the transmission period, wherein

the control mechanism controls the switching mechanism so that the frequency of the full-bridge state per the unit time is relatively reduced in the subsequent period in the transmitting period at a time point when the antenna current exceeds a predetermined level.

3. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control mechanism controls the switching mechanism so as to combine the full-bridge state and the half-bridge state during the initial period of driving of the antenna and include only the half-bridge state during the subsequent period in the transmission period.

4. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the control mechanism controls the switching mechanism so as to include only the full-bridge state during the initial period of driving of the antenna and include only the half-bridge state during the subsequent period in the transmission period.

5. An antenna drive apparatus configured to drive an antenna by controlling a duty ratio of a pulsed drive signal which applies an antenna drive voltage to the antenna, comprising:

a control mechanism for controlling the duty ratio of the drive signal so that an average value of the duty ratio during a predetermined initial period of driving of the antenna in a transmission period for transmitting a transmission signal by the antenna is closer to 50% than a predetermined duty ratio set during the subsequent period subsequent to the predetermined initial period in the transmission period.

6. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the control mechanism sets the duty ratio of the drive signal to a predetermined initial duty ratio closer to 50% than the predetermined duty ratio during the predetermined initial period of the driving of the antenna.

7. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the control mechanism switches the duty ratio of the drive signal between a plurality of types of predetermined initial duty ratios during the predetermined initial period of driving of the antenna.

8. The antenna drive apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the control mechanism switches the duty ratio of the drive signal between two types of predetermined initial duty ratios during the predetermined initial period of driving of the antenna alternately.