CN117199801A - Miniaturized reconfigurable antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

The application relates to a miniaturized reconfigurable antenna comprising: the substrate integrated waveguide unit is formed by a first dielectric substrate, a first top metal patch and a first bottom metal floor which are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the first dielectric substrate, and metal electric walls symmetrically distributed on two sides of the first dielectric substrate; the first top-layer metal patch has a first reconfigurable unit formed thereon, the first reconfigurable unit including: two first long grooves symmetrically distributed on two sides of the central line of the first top metal patch, wherein each first long groove is bridged with a first electronic switch, the first electronic switch is connected with a corresponding direct current control circuit, and the connection and disconnection of the corresponding first long groove are controlled by the on-off of the first electronic switch; and the feed unit is used for feeding excitation to the antenna. The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna has the advantages of compact size, low cost, simple control structure, high radiation regulation and control degree of freedom, flexible beam switching and the like, and can be applied to miniaturized communication equipment, indoor space and other space limited scenes.

Description

Miniaturized reconfigurable antenna

Technical field

The present invention relates to the technical field of wireless communication antennas, in particular to a miniaturized reconfigurable antenna.

Background technique

Beam-steering antennas have flexible beam scanning and beam-forming capabilities and can be widely used in modern wireless communications and radar systems. In radar applications, beam steering/beam scanning capabilities facilitate spatial search and target location. For 5G/6G and smart IoT systems, beam-steering antennas can effectively improve multipath effects and improve channel quality. Therefore, various beam-steering antennas/arrays have been developed over the past decade. Unlike high-precision radar applications, beam steering in wireless communication systems usually requires the use of low-cost antennas to achieve large-scale deployment.

Currently, common beam steerable antennas/arrays are divided into three different categories, namely phased arrays, pattern reconfigurable antennas, and programmable metasurfaces. By utilizing T/R components (transceiver components), phased arrays can achieve flexible beam scanning and beam forming, so they are widely used in wireless systems. However, phased arrays not only require a large number of elements, but also require expensive T/R components. The pattern reconfigurable antenna switches the radiation state by introducing electronic switching elements (PIN diodes and varactor diodes). These reconfigurable designs are usually implemented on a single antenna, which suffers from low gain and few beam states due to aperture limitations. Therefore, conventional reconfigurable antennas cannot meet high-gain long-distance wireless communication applications. By regulating the phase distribution of the aperture surface, the multi-beam control function is realized in the programmable metasurface. However, since these programmable reflection or transmission type metasurfaces are driven by spatial feeds (such as horn antennas), their profiles are very high (large size) and the control circuits are complex, making them unsuitable for space-constrained scenarios. Applications.

In summary, it is of great significance to design a phase and amplitude reconfigurable antenna with low cost, small size, simple structure, and flexible beam control/forming capabilities.

Contents of the invention

In order to solve the above existing technical problems, the present invention provides a miniaturized reconfigurable antenna with low cost, small size, streamlined and simple control structure, and flexible beam control/forming capability with reconfigurable phase and amplitude.

The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna provided by the present invention includes: a first dielectric substrate, a first top metal patch disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the first dielectric substrate and a first bottom metal floor, symmetrically distributed on the first dielectric substrate. The first metal resistors on both sides jointly form a substrate integrated waveguide unit;

Feeding unit, used to realize feed excitation to the antenna;

A first reconfigurable unit is formed on the first top metal patch. The first reconfigurable unit includes: symmetrically distributed on both sides of the center line of the first top metal patch parallel to the arrangement direction of the first metal resistor. There are two first long slots, and a first electronic switch is connected across each first long slot. The first electronic switch is connected to the corresponding DC control circuit. The DC control circuit drives the first electronic switch on and off to control the corresponding first The long slots are connected and disconnected to selectively control the radiation phase and amplitude state of each first reconfigurable unit.

Preferably, a plurality of the first reconfigurable units are formed on the first top metal patch, and the plurality of first reconfigurable units are arranged in an array along the center line of the first top metal patch.

Preferably, a phase reconfigurable metasurface structure is provided above the first dielectric substrate for phase delay control of radiation waves from the substrate integrated waveguide unit.

Preferably, the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure includes a second dielectric substrate and a second reconfigurable unit. The second reconfigurable unit includes: a metasurface metal patch disposed on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate. The surface metal patch is divided into two small-sized symmetrical metal patches by a gap in the middle. A second electronic switch is connected across the gap. The two small-sized metal patches are controlled by the opening and closing state of the second electronic switch. Symmetrical metal patch connection and disconnection.

Preferably, a plurality of second reconfigurable units are arranged in an array on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate, and the number and position of the second reconfigurable units correspond to the first reconfigurable units.

Preferably, the metasurface metal patch is surrounded by small metal patches distributed periodically at intervals.

Preferably, a second long slot is opened in the middle of the first bottom metal floor, and the feed unit excites the radiation of the substrate integrated waveguide unit through the second long slot.

Preferably, the feeding unit is configured to include:

a third dielectric substrate disposed below the first dielectric substrate, a second top metal patch and a second bottom metal floor disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the third dielectric substrate, and second metal electrical walls distributed on the third dielectric substrate. The third dielectric substrate serves as a carrier and together forms a feed cavity; a metal short-circuit post connecting the second top metal patch and the second bottom metal floor is provided in the feed cavity;

A feed slot formed on the second top metal patch is used to couple energy to the substrate integrated waveguide unit;

A feed port provided on one side of the third dielectric substrate is used to feed and excite the feed cavity.

Preferably, the DC control circuits corresponding to the first electronic switch and the second electronic switch are respectively connected to a dip switch. Optionally, the first electronic switch and the second electronic switch include but are not limited to using any one of PIN diodes, microelectromechanical switches, radio frequency switch chips or varactor tubes.

The present invention also provides a two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna, which includes the above-mentioned miniaturized reconfigurable antennas arranged in an array, arranged to form a planar array.

The beneficial effects of the present invention are at least reflected in:

The proposed miniaturized reconfigurable antenna has the advantages of compact size (low profile), low cost, simple structure, flexible beam switching, and high-bit and multi-digital modulation dimensions. It can meet the needs of miniaturized communication equipment and indoor and other space-limited scenarios. It is suitable for a variety of different wireless communication scenarios and smart wireless communication applications with digital direct modulation systems.

In addition, the two embodiments provided by the present invention, namely one-dimensional and two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable array antennas, realize one-dimensional digital beam modulation and two-dimensional plane wave modulation respectively for different application scenarios, solving the traditional problem of Reconfigurable antennas have limitations such as single performance or poor design freedom.

Description of the drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a first reconfigurable unit in an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a second reconfigurable unit in an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a feed unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a three-dimensional view of a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 5 is an impedance bandwidth diagram of a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 6 is a digital modulation radiation performance diagram of a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a three-dimensional view of a two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 8 is a digital modulation radiation performance diagram of a two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference signs:

1-The first reconfigurable unit, 2-The first top metal patch, 3-The first metal electric wall, 4-The first dielectric substrate, 5-The first bottom metal floor, 6-The second long slot, 7- The first long slot, 8-the first electronic switch, 9-one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna, 10-the second reconfigurable unit, 11-the second dielectric substrate, 12-metasurface metal patch, 13-slit , 14-Second electronic switch, 15-Small metal patch, 16-Feeding unit, 17-Third dielectric substrate, 18-Second top metal patch, 19-Feeding slot, 20-Metal short-circuit post, 21 -The second bottom metal floor, 22-the second metal electric wall, 23-feed port, 24-nylon screw, 25-DC control circuit, 26-dip switch.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

In order to solve or improve to a certain extent the problems of large overall size (high profile), high cost and complex structure of traditional beam steerable antennas, a new low-cost digital reconfigurable array is currently proposed. The radiation phase of each unit is discretized by introducing switching elements, and digital bit type phase shifters (such as 1 bit, 2 bit,...) replace the traditional adjustable phase shifter. Therefore, rich beam steering states can be obtained by encoding different digital sequences. Compared with the conventional 1-bit design, the 2-bit reconfigurable antenna can not only achieve single-beam scanning, but also can flexibly adjust its side lobe level (beam forming) because of its smaller phase error. Traditional 2-bit arrays can be divided into three types according to the implementation mechanism. The first method is to periodically select transmission lines with different lengths. This method is usually used in leaky wave antenna design and is therefore not suitable for wireless communication applications. The second approach is to achieve four digital phase states (2 bits) by combining a 1-bit unit and a switchable 90° phase shifter. But this method not only costs more switch chips, but also has greater losses and larger size. The third method is to form a compact 2-bit circularly polarized radiator by switching the feed position and polarization state of the circularly polarized antenna. However, due to the rotating phase mechanism, this method is only suitable for circularly polarized radiation, so there are limitations in linear polarization applications.

In addition, the inventor of the present application found that due to the problem of port impedance jump, it is difficult to achieve digital amplitude switching in these traditional bit array operations. As an important radiation control degree of freedom component, the amplitude component can be used to further optimize the lobe level and control the radiation beam shape. Currently, few digital amplitude controllable arrays have been studied.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the long-term limitations and challenges of existing reconfigurable antennas, which are difficult to achieve flexible multi-beam switching on the premise of miniaturization, low cost and streamlined structure. In order to achieve the purpose of the present invention, the following specific implementation modes are provided.

A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a first dielectric substrate, a first top metal patch disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the first dielectric substrate, and a first bottom metal floor, symmetrically distributed on the first medium The first metal resistors on both sides of the substrate jointly form a substrate integrated waveguide unit;

Feeding unit, used to realize feed excitation to the antenna;

A first reconfigurable unit is formed on the first top metal patch. As shown in Figure 1, the first reconfigurable unit 1 includes: first reconfigurable units symmetrically distributed parallel to the arrangement direction of the first metal resistors 3. There are two first long slots 7 on both sides of the center line of the top metal patch 2. Each first long slot 7 is connected with a first electronic switch 8. The first electronic switch 8 is connected to the corresponding DC control circuit 25. The DC control circuit The circuit 25 drives the first electronic switch 8 on and off to control the connection and disconnection of the corresponding first long slot 7, thereby selectively controlling the radiation phase and amplitude state of each first reconfigurable unit.

It can be understood that in this embodiment, the first dielectric substrate can be a low-loss dielectric plate, the first top metal patch 2 is formed on the upper surface of the first dielectric substrate, and the first bottom metal floor is formed on the first On the lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the first metal electric walls 3 symmetrically distributed on both sides of the first dielectric substrate are composed of a plurality of metal short-circuit pillar structures arranged laterally along the first dielectric substrate. The metal short-circuit pillar structures are usually arranged to penetrate and be embedded in the In the first dielectric substrate, the upper and lower ends of the metal short-circuit pillar structure are connected to the first top metal patch and the first bottom metal floor respectively. The structure form of the metal short-circuit pillars can be cylinders, square pillars, prisms, etc., and the arrangement can be uniform. and uneven arrangement, the number can be one column or multiple columns. In addition, the first long groove 7 can be configured as a closed groove structure such as a rectangular shape or an elliptical shape.

It can be further understood that during the operation of the antenna, a rectangular substrate integrated waveguide unit is formed by the first top metal patch, the first metal electric wall, the first dielectric substrate and the first bottom metal floor, which can be used for Excite high-order resonant transmission modes. The two first long grooves are symmetrically arranged on both sides along the central axis of the first top metal patch. The surface current of the high-order resonance mode can be cut through the first long grooves, allowing the substrate integrated waveguide unit to achieve good radiation. . Each first long slot 7 is connected across a first electronic switch 8 , and each first electronic switch 8 is connected to a DC control circuit 25 . The first electronic switch 8 is used to control the connection and disconnection of the corresponding first long slot 7, that is, the first electronic switch is connected to both sides of the first long slot. In the working state, when the first electronic switch is closed, the first long slot 7 is connected. The slot is short-circuited; the first electronic switch 8 can be a PIN diode, a microelectromechanical switch, a radio frequency switch chip, a varactor, etc. The DC control circuit corresponding to the first electronic switch is used to excite the closed and closed states of the first electronic switch. Optionally, the DC control circuit can be connected to the DIP switch to form a digital code control sequence in the form of 0 and 1 through the DIP switch to achieve electronic control selection of the closed and open states of the first electronic switch, achieving better results. digital modulation control. Specifically, according to the setting method of the above embodiment, when the first electronic switch is in the closed state driven by the DC control circuit, the corresponding first long slot is short-circuited; conversely, when the first electronic switch is in the off state, the corresponding first long slot The first long slot is activated. When one of the first long slots is excited and the other first long slot is short-circuited, the first long slot effectively cuts the electric field mode (higher-order resonance mode) in the substrate integrated waveguide, thereby achieving electromagnetic radiation. When the off-states of the two first electronic switches are reciprocal, the first long slot in the opposite direction radiates energy and realizes opposite-phase electric field radiation. Due to the symmetry of the field distribution of the high-order resonance mode, the first long slot at this time The direction of the electric field vector generated by long groove cutting is phase-inverted with the previous state, thereby achieving two phase states of 0° and 180° (i.e. 1-bit digital phase switching: 0° = "0", 180° = "1"). In addition, when the two first electronic switches are in different on-off states, one of the first long slots can form effective radiation, and the amplitude state is recorded as "1", and when both first electronic switches are in closed or In the conductive state, the first long slot cannot effectively cut the electric field distribution corresponding to the resonance mode, and thus cannot produce radiation. The radio frequency signal is directly transmitted in the substrate integrated waveguide structure, so the amplitude state is "0", thus Two different radiation amplitudes of "0" and "1" are realized, that is, 1-bit digital amplitude control.

In summary, by controlling the two first electronic switches to be in different switching states, the substrate integrated waveguide unit can realize 1-bit digital phase switching selection. Combined with the status when the two first electronic switches are turned off at the same time, the switching selection of 1-bit digital amplitude can be realized.

It should be noted that the reconfigurable antenna of this embodiment includes a newly designed digitally modulated phase and amplitude reconfigurable radiation structure, which is based on the mode distribution of the substrate integrated waveguide and uses polarization inversion to achieve 1-bit The phase and 1-bit amplitude are reconfigurable and have the advantages of low cost, compact size, streamlined structure and simple control. Furthermore, compared with the traditional digital bit array (which can only realize phase control and has not yet realized digital amplitude tuning), the reconfigurable antenna of this embodiment creatively introduces digital amplitude tuning and realizes digital phase and amplitude at the same time. The tuning function can realize dual-dimensional digital switching of amplitude and phase without introducing additional components and parasitic structures, which greatly improves the beam forming and switching capabilities and can meet the flexible beam control and beam forming requirements of mobile communications. functional requirements, and at the same time can achieve the miniaturization design goal of the antenna.

It should also be noted that the above embodiments only take digital tuning of phase and amplitude in a substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure as an example for application description. The amplitude-phase digital modulation mechanism proposed in this application is universal. Therefore, Those skilled in the art can easily extend this design scheme to other radiating structure designs, including but not limited to microstrip patches and coplanar waveguide structures, providing more flexible solutions for high-quality mobile communications.

In some embodiments, a plurality of the first reconfigurable units are formed on the first top metal patch, and the plurality of first reconfigurable units are arranged in an array along the center line of the first top metal patch, that is to say The arrangement of the plurality of first reconfigurable units can be expanded along the extension of the substrate integrated waveguide cavity, and specifically can be in the form of a linear array, annular array, a conformal array, etc. Optionally, the DC control circuits of the first long slot on one side of the center line of the first top metal patch can be jointly connected to a DIP switch, and the DC control circuits of the first long slot on the other side can be jointly connected. On another DIP switch, more efficient modulation control is achieved. In addition, the DC control of the first electronic switch on each first reconfigurable unit may be configured to use a DIP switch bus. Furthermore, the DIP switch can also be connected to MCU systems such as microcontrollers and FPGAs to achieve more intelligent control.

As a preferred embodiment, a phase reconfigurable metasurface structure is provided above the first dielectric substrate for phase delay control of the radiation wave from the substrate integrated waveguide unit. It can be understood that in this embodiment, the radiation wave from the substrate integrated waveguide unit can be controlled in two states of phase delay or no phase delay by controlling the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure. In this way, the switching state of the radiation phase can be further expanded. By combining the substrate integrated waveguide unit and the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure, the reconfigurable 2-bit digital phase can be achieved. It can be understood that the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure in this embodiment includes, but is not limited to, being constructed using a metal mesh format, a metal patch type, and a microstrip type.

In some embodiments, the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure is configured to include a second dielectric substrate and a second reconfigurable unit 10. Referring to FIG. 2, the second reconfigurable unit includes: The metasurface metal patch 12 on the upper surface of the substrate is divided into two smaller metal patches by a gap 13 in the middle. A second electronic switch 14 is connected across the gap 13. The electronic switch 14 is connected to the DC control circuit and controls the connection and disconnection of the above two smaller metal patches through the opening and closing state of the second electronic switch; as a specific setting, the second electronic switch is connected across the metasurface The two sides of the gap on the metal patch are in the middle, which means that the position of the gap can be set at the center of the metasurface metal patch 12 . The number of second electronic switches is not unique, and the number of second electronic switches and the position of the gaps can be specifically determined according to the phase response.

Optionally, the metasurface metal patch can be configured as a rectangular patch, a circular patch or a multi-layer periodic patch. As a specific setting method, for convenience of setting, as shown in FIG. 2 , the two ends of the second electronic switch 14 can be connected to the two metal patches of the metasurface metal patch 12 respectively, and the DC The control circuit is connected to one of the metal patches. The second electronic switch 14 includes, but is not limited to, any one of a PIN diode, a microelectromechanical switch, a radio frequency switch chip, or a varactor.

It can be understood that in this embodiment, when the second electronic switch is turned on, the two metal patches of the metasurface metal patch are connected. At this time, the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure is derived from the substrate integrated waveguide unit. The radiation wave excitation produces a 90° delayed phase shift. When the second electron is turned on and off, the two metal patches of the metasurface metal patch are disconnected, and the radiation wave can directly pass through the metasurface metal patch without generating additional phase delay, that is, a 0-degree phase shift. . Similarly, the second electronic switch can be connected to a DC control circuit, and the DC control circuit is then connected to a DIP switch to realize on-off control of the second electronic switch, so that the digital coding sequence can be used to achieve more efficient and flexible switching. Implement digital beam switching and beamforming.

It can be further understood that in the above embodiments, through the combined design of the substrate integrated waveguide unit and the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure, the reconfiguration of the 2-bit digital phase is cleverly realized (2-bit digital phase: 0° = "00", 90° = "01", 180° = "10", 270° = "11"). Therefore, the reconfigurable antenna designed based on the above structure can achieve 2-bit phase and 1-bit amplitude beam control. Compared with traditional reconfigurable antennas, it also has the advantages of low loss, compact size, streamlined structure and simple control.

In some embodiments, a plurality of second reconfigurable units are arranged in an array on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate, and the number and position of the second reconfigurable units correspond to the first reconfigurable units. Specifically, when the reconfigurable antenna is configured to include an array formed by multiple first reconfiguration units, a second reconfigurable unit is provided above each first reconfiguration unit. Similarly, when a plurality of second reconfigurable units are arranged in an array on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate, the DC control circuit corresponding to the second electronic switch of each second reconfigurable unit can be connected together in one On the DIP switch, digital coding sequences can be used to realize digital beam switching and beam forming more efficiently and flexibly.

In some embodiments, the metasurface metal patch 12 is surrounded by small metal patches 15 distributed periodically at intervals. By loading periodic small metal patches 15 around the metasurface metal patch 12, the surface electric field distribution can be effectively enhanced without affecting the radiation phase.

In some embodiments, a second long slot is opened in the middle of the first bottom metal floor, and the feed unit excites the radiation of the substrate integrated waveguide unit through the second long slot. In order to achieve better excitation, the length direction of the second long groove can be set perpendicular to the length direction of the first long groove.

As a preferred implementation, the feeding unit 16 is configured to include:

The third dielectric substrate 17 is disposed below the first dielectric substrate, the second top metal patch 18 and the second bottom metal floor 21 are disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the third dielectric substrate 17, and the second dielectric substrate 17 is distributed on the third dielectric substrate. The metal electric wall 22 uses the third dielectric substrate as a carrier to form a feed cavity; a metal short-circuit post 20 connecting the second top metal patch 18 and the second bottom metal floor 21 is provided in the feed cavity;

The feed slot 19 formed on the second top metal patch 18 is used to couple energy to the substrate integrated waveguide unit;

The feed port 23 provided on one side of the third dielectric substrate 17 is used to feed and excite the feed cavity.

It can be understood that in the above embodiment, the feed slot 19 formed on the second top metal patch 18 can cut off the surface current on the second top metal patch 18, and the internal electromagnetic field couples energy to the Substrate integrated waveguide unit. The feed port 23 provided on one side of the feed cavity can be connected to a radio frequency connection device and then connected to the communication system, and the feed cavity can be fed and excited through the feed port.

It can be further understood that the feed unit in the above embodiment forms a single-port high-order mode substrate-integrated waveguide feed cavity, and the substrate-integrated waveguide cavity is excited in the form of gap coupling, that is, the radio frequency signal Coupling from the second long slot 6 on the metal floor through the feed slot 19 realizes back-cavity coupling feed. Based on the multi-mode response of the substrate-integrated waveguide structure, only one coupling feed structure is used to realize the feed excitation of the entire array, that is, multiple substrate-integrated waveguide units can be excited simultaneously to form a series-fed array. Therefore, the feed scheme setting based on the above-mentioned feed unit can better support the flexible expansion of the length and resonance order of the substrate integrated waveguide structure, and can easily achieve large-scale operation without the need for additional multi-channel power division feed structures. Scale digital array expansion. That is to say, it avoids the multi-channel power division feed network required by traditional digital bit arrays and phased arrays, allowing the antenna to be greatly optimized in terms of loss reduction, design size and structure.

Based on the design concept of the miniaturized reconfigurable antenna provided in the above embodiments, two more specific application embodiments will be provided below.

Example 1

Referring to Figures 1-4 together, a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna 9 is provided, which includes a substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure, a phase reconfigurable metasurface structure and a feeding unit;

The substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure is used for reconfigurable phase and amplitude modulation of radiated energy and radiation beams. It includes: a first dielectric substrate 4 and a first top metal patch 3 disposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the first dielectric substrate 4 A substrate-integrated waveguide unit is formed together with the first underlying metal floor 5 and the first metal poles 3 symmetrically distributed on both sides of the first dielectric substrate 4. The first metal poles 3 are composed of a plurality of metal short-circuit posts. The arrangement forms a rectangle; a plurality of first reconfigurable units 1 are formed on the first top metal patch 2, and the first reconfigurable units 1 are located in the rectangular area formed by the first metal resistor 3. The first reconfigurable unit is arranged in an array along the center line of the first top metal patch 2. The first reconfigurable unit 1 includes: the first top metal patch symmetrically distributed parallel to the arrangement direction of the first metal resistor 3. There are two first long slots 7 on both sides of the center line. Each first long slot 7 is connected with a first electronic switch 8. The first electronic switch 8 is connected to the corresponding DC control circuit 25; the center of the first top metal patch The DC control circuits of the first long slot 7 on one side of the line are jointly connected to a DIP switch 26, and the DC control circuits of the first long slot 7 on the other side are jointly connected to another DIP switch 26; A second long groove 6 is opened in the middle of a bottom metal floor 5, and the length direction of the second long groove 6 is set perpendicular to the length direction of the first long groove 7;

The phase reconfigurable metasurface structure is arranged above the substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure and is used to phase delay the radiation waves generated by the substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure and further perform phase modulation; the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure includes : the second dielectric substrate 11 and a plurality of second reconfigurable units 10 arranged in an array on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate. The second reconfigurable units 10 are correspondingly arranged above the first reconfigurable unit 1, and the number of Corresponding to the first reconfigurable unit, the second reconfigurable unit 10 includes: a metasurface metal patch 12 disposed on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate 11 , the metasurface metal patch 12 is divided into two by a middle gap 13 A symmetrical metal patch, the metasurface metal patch 12 is surrounded by small metal patches 15 periodically distributed; a second electronic switch 14 is connected across the gap 13, and the second electronic switch is connected to the DC Control circuit connection; the DC control circuit corresponding to the second electronic switch of each second reconfigurable unit is jointly connected to a DIP switch 26;

The feed unit 16 is disposed below the substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure, specifically corresponding to the second long slot. The feed unit 16 includes: a third dielectric substrate 17 disposed below the first dielectric substrate 4, The second top metal patch 18 and the second bottom metal floor 21 provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the third dielectric substrate 17, as well as the second metal electrical wall 22 distributed on the third dielectric substrate 17, use the third dielectric substrate 17 as a carrier to form a joint structure. The feed cavity; a metal short-circuit post 20 connecting the second top metal patch 18 and the second bottom metal floor 21 is provided in the feed cavity; a feed slot 19 is formed on the second top metal patch 18 for The energy is coupled to the substrate integrated waveguide unit; a feed port 23 is provided on one side of the third dielectric substrate 17 for feeding and exciting the feed cavity.

In addition, the first dielectric substrate 4 , the second dielectric substrate 11 and the third dielectric substrate 17 can be connected and fixed through nylon screws 24 .

It can be understood that the one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of this embodiment has a more compact beam reconfigurable array and a more flexible radiation wave control function, which is essentially different from traditional reconfigurable antennas and digital bit arrays. the difference. Specifically, compared with the traditional digital bit array, it is a novel amplitude-phase adjustable digital reconfigurable array antenna that does not require a feed network or T/R component. By selecting the digital amplitude corresponding to each reconfigurable unit, Phase encoding sequence enables flexible beam control and beamforming functions. It solves the long-term problems of traditional design such as large size, complex structure, high loss and difficulty in large-scale array formation, and provides a new way for large-scale digital array design. In addition, the one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of this embodiment only uses three switch control elements (dip switch 26), which uses the least amount of switches compared to the existing technology, and better solves the problem of traditional radiation reconfigurable antennas. Due to the limitations of the method, problems such as many control components (high cost) and complex control circuits arise, which meet the low-cost requirements for large-scale base station deployment in wireless communications.

Figure 5 shows the port reflection coefficient of a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna with different states. On the premise of miniaturization, the antenna achieves wide-band radiation (impedance bandwidth is 9.52-10.27GHz) and can perform well. Meet the needs of wireless communication applications. Figure 6 shows the digital beam characteristics of a one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna under different radiation conditions at 10.0GHz (the pattern provided is mainly used to show different beam shapes to indicate the antenna's beam control capability); where, Figure 6(a) corresponds to state 1 of Figure 5, Figure 6(b) corresponds to state 2 of Figure 5, Figure 6(c) corresponds to state 3 of Figure 5, Figure 6(d) corresponds to state 4 of Figure 5, Figure 6 (e) corresponds to state 5 in Figure 5 . For states 1-3, the main lobe directions are 0°, -30°, and -50° respectively. Due to the symmetry of the antenna structure, this reconfigurable antenna can scan the main lobe of the beam from -50° to +50°. It can be regarded as a low-cost phased array, achieving flexible single-beam scanning, and is suitable for Smart wireless communications and low-cost beam steering applications. At the same time, state 4 and state 5 show dual-beam and triple-beam radiation by further controlling the phase and amplitude states, realizing the digital multi-beam switching function. This design can also be applied to new direct modulation communications and is a new multi-functional Smart antenna.

Example 2:

As shown in Figure 7, the two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna includes the one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna 9 of Embodiment 1 arranged in an array, and is composed of multiple one-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antennas 9 arranged to form a planar array. form. Figure 7(a) is a schematic diagram of the three-dimensional structure of a two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna, including the substrate integrated waveguide radiation structure sub-array A and the phase reconfigurable metasurface structure array B; Figure 7(b) is the unloaded phase Schematic diagram of reconfigurable metasurface structure array B.

Specifically, in the two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna design of this embodiment, in order to improve the radiation modulation capability of the aperture surface, multiple one-dimensional arrays are arranged to achieve expansion of the two-dimensional plane form. In the two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of the embodiment, the digital modulation array is in a two-dimensional form. By independently selecting the radiation phase and amplitude of each reconfigurable unit of the two-dimensional array, the radiation phase and amplitude of the planar array can be modified. Amplitudes are digitally encoded representations. By digitally controlling the amplitude and phase of the field surface, the field distribution on the entire plane is shaped, thereby achieving plane multi-beam switching and scanning. Under the premise of low cost and miniaturization, the array achieves intelligent digital phase and amplitude control, thus providing a new option for intelligent wireless communications. It can be seen that the array size (number of array elements) of the reconfigurable antenna can be easily expanded based on the integrated structure of high-order mode feed and radiation. In other words, this design is not limited by the complex multi-channel power divider feed network. By cascading more array units, the proposed reconfigurable antenna not only achieves high gain, but also obtains more powerful Beam control capability, very suitable for high-gain multi-beam systems and miniaturized equipment applications.

Figure 8 shows the radiation pattern corresponding to the proposed two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna under different excitation phases: Figure 8(a) corresponds to the in-phase state, Figure 8(b) corresponds to 0°/90°/180°/ 270° (x-direction distribution) state, Figure 8(c) corresponds to 0°/90°/180°/270° (y-direction distribution) state. Compared with a one-dimensional linear array, the radiation phase and amplitude distribution on the entire two-dimensional aperture surface are digitally controlled. The beam results in the above three states show that the radiation beam of the two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of the embodiment can be very It can scan the plane space well and achieve high gain and flexible spatial radiation wave modulation.

It can be seen from the above two application embodiments that the miniaturized reconfigurable antenna proposed in this application has the advantages of compact size (low profile), low cost, simple structure, flexible beam switching, and high bit and multiple digital modulation dimensions. It is suitable for a variety of different wireless communication scenarios and smart wireless communication applications with digital direct modulation systems. The reconfigurable antenna design scheme provided has flexible design freedom and can be expanded into various radiation modulation forms such as linear, planar and conformal; the proposed reconfigurable antenna achieves flexible beam control and beam forming Function. Therefore, this design is comparable to low-cost phased arrays. In addition, the proposed digital modulation array can also be expanded into various forms such as conformal arrays and circular arrays to meet applications in different scenarios.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings. This is only to facilitate the description of the present invention and to simplify the description, but does not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be construed as a limitation of the present invention.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, the terms "first", "second" and "third" are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the indicated technical features. quantity. Thus, features defined as "first", "second", and "third" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of these features. In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise clearly stated and limited, the terms "connected" and "connected" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, it can be a fixed connection or a detachable connection. , or integrally connected; it can be directly connected, or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, or it can be internal connection between two components. For those of ordinary skill in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood on a case-by-case basis.

In describing embodiments of the invention, specific features, structures, materials or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various changes, modifications, and substitutions can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention. and modifications, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims (10)

1. A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna, comprising:

the substrate integrated waveguide unit is formed by a first dielectric substrate, a first top metal patch and a first bottom metal floor which are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the first dielectric substrate, and first metal electric walls which are symmetrically distributed on two sides of the first dielectric substrate;

a feeding unit for realizing feeding excitation of the antenna;

the first top-layer metal patch is provided with a first reconfigurable unit, and the first reconfigurable unit comprises: the first electronic switches are connected with corresponding direct current control circuits, and the direct current control circuits drive the on-off of the first electronic switches so as to control the connection and disconnection of the corresponding first long grooves, and further selectively control the radiation phase and amplitude states of each first reconfigurable unit.

2. A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to claim 1, wherein: the first top-layer metal patch is provided with a plurality of first reconfigurable units, and the first reconfigurable units are arranged along the central line of the first top-layer metal patch in an array manner.

3. A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: and a phase reconfigurable super-surface structure is arranged above the first dielectric substrate and is used for generating phase delay control for the radiation wave from the substrate integrated waveguide unit.

4. A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to claim 3, wherein: the phase reconfigurable super surface structure comprises a second dielectric substrate and a second reconfigurable unit, and the second reconfigurable unit comprises: the super-surface metal patch is arranged on the upper surface of the second dielectric substrate, the super-surface metal patch is divided into two symmetrical metal patches by a middle gap, a second electronic switch is connected across the gap, and the connection and disconnection of the two symmetrical metal patches are controlled by the opening and closing state of the second electronic switch.

5. The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of claim 4, wherein: and a plurality of second reconfigurable units are arranged on the upper surface of the second medium substrate in an array manner, and the number and the positions of the second reconfigurable units correspond to those of the first reconfigurable units.

6. The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of claim 4, wherein: the periphery of the super-surface metal patch is provided with small metal patches which are periodically distributed at intervals.

7. The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of any of claims 1-6, wherein: and a second long groove is formed in the middle of the first sub-metal floor, and the feed unit excites radiation of the substrate integrated waveguide unit through the second long groove.

8. The miniaturized reconfigurable antenna of claim 7, wherein: the power feeding unit is configured to include:

the second top metal patch and the second bottom metal floor are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the third dielectric substrate, and the second metal electric wall distributed on the third dielectric substrate takes the third dielectric substrate as a carrier to jointly form a feed cavity; a metal short-circuit column which is connected with the second top metal patch and the second bottom metal floor is arranged in the feed cavity;

a feed slot formed on the second top-level metal patch for coupling energy to the substrate integrated waveguide unit;

and the feed port is arranged at one side of the third dielectric substrate and is used for carrying out feed excitation on the feed cavity.

9. A miniaturized reconfigurable antenna according to claim 3 or 4, wherein: the direct current control circuits corresponding to the first electronic switch and the second electronic switch are respectively connected with a dial switch.

10. Two-dimensional miniaturized reconfigurable antenna, its characterized in that: a planar array of array-arranged miniaturized reconfigurable antennas as set forth in claim 5.