Antenna device and radar apparatus

• US 9,097,797 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2012
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Elesys Co., Ltd. (Nidec Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Honda Elesys Co., Ltd. (Nidec Corporation)
• Inventors: Abe, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): Dawkins, Collin
• Application Number:
  US13/343,497
• Publication Number:
  US 20120229362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,308 Days
• Field of Search: 343/893, 343/753, 343/754
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/345 using triangular modulation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/0245 Radar with phased array antenna
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/2813 Means providing a modification of the radiation pattern for cancelling noise, clutter or interfering signals, e.g. side lobe suppression, side lobe blanking, null-steering arrays specially adapted to secondary radar systems G01S13/762; aerials or aerials systems H01Q21/29, H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/061 Two dimensional planar arrays

Abstract

An antenna device includes transmitting units each of which includes elements arranged parallel to a baseline, wherein the transmitting units are arranged side-by-side in a first direction and stepwisedly with steps in a second direction in a first region and a second region, the first direction being perpendicular to the baseline, the second direction being parallel to the baseline, the first region and the second region being partitioned by the baseline, and transmitting units positioned more remotely from the baseline being positioned further in the second direction.

Claims

1. An antenna device comprising:

transmitters, each of which includes transmitter elements arranged parallel to a baseline, and

receivers, each of which includes receiver elements arranged parallel to the baseline, wherein;

the transmitters are arranged side-by-side in a first direction and stepwise with steps in a second direction in a first region and a second region, the first direction being perpendicular to the baseline, the second direction being parallel to the baseline, the first region and the second region being partitioned by the baseline, and the transmitters positioned more remotely from the baseline being positioned further in the second direction;

a pitch by which the transmitter elements are arranged is equal to a pitch by which the receiver elements are arranged;

when a number of the transmitter elements is I, a pitch by which the transmitter elements are arranged is Q, a pitch of the steps is S, a number of the transmitters is 2L, and a number of receiver elements is J, where S is smaller than Q, J is greater or equal to 2, L is greater or equal to 2, and JQ/IQ or IQ/JQ is set to be a value other than an integer value,

any θ

ns defined by Formula 1 is not equal to any θ

nr defined by Formula 2, or any θ

ns defined by Formula 1 is not equal to any θ

nt defined by Formula 3;

θ

ns=lλ

/LS 

 

[Formula 1],

θ

nr=jλ

/JQ 

 

[Formula 2], and

θ

nt=iλ

/IQ 

 

[Formula 3],

where λ

is a wavelength of a transmitter frequency or a receiver frequency of the antenna device and l, j, and i are natural numbers from 1 to L-1, J-1 and I-1.

2. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the transmitters located in the first region and the transmitters located in the second region are in a mirror-image relationship in which an axis of symmetry is the baseline.

3. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the steps are equal to each other for the transmitters located in at least one of the first region and the second region.

4. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the steps are smaller than an interval between adjacent transmitter elements in the transmitters.

5. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the steps between adjacent ones of the transmitters, an interval between adjacent ones of the elements of the transmitters, a number of the receiver elements included in each of the receivers, a number of the transmitter elements included in each of the transmitters, and a stepwise arrangement number of the transmitters are determined so that an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by a stepwise arrangement of the transmitters is a middle value of an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the transmitters and an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the receivers.

6. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the steps between adjacent ones of the transmitters, an interval between adjacent ones of the elements in the transmitters, a number of the receiver elements included in each of the receivers, and a stepwise arrangement number of the transmitters are determined so that an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by a stepwise arrangement of the transmitters and an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the receiving units are not in an integer ratio relationship.

7. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein the steps between adjacent ones of the transmitters, an interval between adjacent ones of the elements in the transmitters, a number of the transmitter elements included in each of the transmitters, and a stepwise arrangement number of the transmitters are determined so that an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by a stepwise arrangement of the transmitters and an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the transmitters are not in an integer ratio relationship.

8. The antenna device according to claim 1, wherein an interval between adjacent ones of the transmitter elements of the transmitters, a number of the receiver elements included in each of the receivers, and a number of the elements included in each of the transmitters are determined so that an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the receivers and an angle corresponding to a first null point defined by the transmitters are not in an integer ratio relationship.

9. A radar apparatus comprising the antenna device according to claim 1.