Array antenna and base station

• US 9,653,817 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Issued: 05/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Telecom Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: China Telecom Corporation Limited
• Inventors: Yang, Tao, Bi, Qi, Xie, Weiliang
• Primary Examiner(s): MANCUSO, HUEDUNG XUAN CAO
• Application Number:
  US14/431,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20150255881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,691 Days
• Field of Search: 343853, 343844, 343702, 343700 MS, 343797, 455561
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/246 specially adapted for base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/061 Two dimensional planar arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/26 Turnstile or like antennas comprising arrangements of three or more elongated elements disposed radially and symmetrically in a horizontal plane about a common centre
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

An array antenna and a base station are provided. The array antenna comprises a plurality of linear arrays, uplink-downlink duplexers, and beam-forming networks. Each linear array is a dual-polarized linear array. An input end of the beam-forming network is coupled with a downlink signal output end of a RF (Radio Frequency) unit, and two output ends of the beam-forming network are respectively coupled with downlink signal transmitting ends of two uplink-downlink duplexers; transceiving ends shared by two uplink-downlink duplexers are respectively coupled with arrays having the same polarization direction of two adjacent linear arrays, and the two arrays having the same polarization direction form a beam with 65-degree beamwidth on the downlink through the beam-forming network; uplink signal output ends of the two uplink-downlink duplexers are coupled with uplink signal input ends of the RF unit; linear arrays uncoupled with uplink-downlink duplexers in the plurality of linear arrays are all coupled with the uplink signal input ends of the RF unit respectively. Thereby, a beam with 65-degree beamwidth may be formed by a transmitting antenna on a downlink.

Claims

1. An array antenna, comprising a plurality of linear arrays, uplink-downlink duplexers, and beam-forming networks, wherein,

each of said linear arrays is a dual-polarized linear array including a positive-polarized array and a negative-polarized array;

an input end of said beam-forming networks is coupled with a downlink signal output end of a radio frequency unit, and two output ends of said beam-forming networks are respectively coupled with downlink signal transmitting ends of two uplink-downlink duplexers configured to separate uplink and downlink output ends;

shared transceiving ends of said two uplink-downlink duplexers are respectively coupled with arrays having the same polarization direction of two adjacent linear arrays, and the two adjacent linear arrays having the same polarization direction form a beam with 65-degree beamwidth on a downlink through the said beam-forming networks;

uplink signal output ends of said two uplink-downlink duplexers are coupled with uplink signal input ends of said radio frequency unit; and

arrays uncoupled with said uplink-downlink duplexers in the plurality of said linear arrays are all coupled with uplink signal input ends of said radio frequency unit respectively.

2. The array antenna according to claim 1, wherein the space between said two adjacent linear arrays for transmitting downlink signals is in a range of [0.35λ

, 0.7λ

], and the space between said two adjacent linear arrays for receiving uplink signals is in a range of [λ

/2, λ

], wherein the λ

is a wavelength corresponding to a center operational frequency of the array antenna.

3. The array antenna according to claim 1, wherein the array antenna comprises four of said linear arrays, wherein at least one pair of adjacent linear arrays are multiplexed as transceiving antennas.

4. The array antenna according to claim 3, wherein said linear arrays multiplexed as transceiving antennas are positioned in the center of the array antenna.

5. The array antenna according to claim 3, wherein two beams of downlink data are transmitted through two linear arrays.

6. The array antenna according to claim 3, wherein four beams of downlink data are transmitted through four linear arrays.

7. The array antenna according to claim 1, wherein each of the positive-polarized arrays and the negative-polarized arrays comprises at least two antenna elements.

8. A base station, comprising the array antenna according to claim 1.