HK1189099B - Universal device for energy concentration - Google Patents

Description

Multifunctional energy concentrator

Technical Field

The present invention relates to antenna designs that can be used in a variety of devices operating in a wide range of wavelengths, including visible, ultraviolet, infrared, short-wave, ultra-high frequency, and very-high frequency.

Background

There are many existing devices that can be used to harvest energy. In particular, the radiation concentrator described in patent SU1819488 published 5/20 in 1995 is designed as a paraboloid with a rear surface that reflects radiation in the direction of the axis of the device, a hemispherical lens disposed in a recess in the front surface of the device, and a transmitting crystal located at the common focus of the lens and the reflector. Another radiant energy concentrator described in inventor certificate SU945839 published on 23/7/1982 includes a linear source and a curved reflector.

These existing concentrators suffer from the disadvantage of being relatively inefficient.

The device of patent RU2206158, which is published 6/10/2003, is the closest prior art to the present invention, in view of a combination of important features. The apparatus includes a primary concentrator and a secondary concentrator and an energy converter. The prior device has the disadvantages of limited functions and low efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

It is generally known that in today's worldwide practice there is a trend to replace powerful, wasteful and short-lived light bulbs with distributed systems comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes in the visible, ultraviolet and infrared bands and a plurality of solid state uhf elements in radar communication systems in various electromagnetic and acoustic bands.

The object of the present invention is to develop a device that is multifunctional, compact, long-lived, economical and efficient, and that can illuminate, heat or listen simultaneously in two planes over a wide sector of up to 120 °.

The technical result of the implementation of the present invention is a small, multi-purpose and multi-functional device similar in size to existing headlamps, searchlights, bulbs, communication antennas, radar and other lighting, illuminating or receiving systems operating in sufficiently narrow patterns. The device emits light and radiation, or receives both light and radiation, in a wide pattern of up to 120 DEG plus 120 DEG with sufficiently high antenna amplification (antenna gain) in each direction.

The above technical result is achieved by a multifunctional energy concentrator comprising a reflector, which is at least a part of a rotating solid surface, and a radiation source or receiver, which is a distributed system of active or passive elements, which are located at the same distance from the reflector, respectively, between 0.3 and 0.5 credits of its radius of curvature. Further, the reflector may be a cylindrical surface or a portion thereof, or a spherical surface or a truncated portion thereof, or the cross-section of the reflector may be a circular arc in a first plane and it is a second order curve in a plane perpendicular to the first plane, or a spherical or parabolic offset portion is used in the perpendicular plane. Also, the reflector surface may be a rotating solid state which is represented in cross-section by two ellipses connected in such a way that one focus of each portion is on the axis of the rotating solid and the distributed system of active or passive elements is placed at the other focus of the ellipse.

The technical result described above can also be achieved in a distributed system with active elements of different power classes. A continuously operating transmitter or receiver may be employed as an active or passive component herein. Furthermore, a device having at least one reflector and at least one radiation source or receiver may further be provided; the radiation source or receiver is rotatable; and the reflector and the source or receiver may be rotated simultaneously.

Typically, the reflector or antenna is designed as a truncated spherical surface, or a complex surface that is a cylindrical surface on one face and a parabolic or elliptical surface on the other face. In some arrangements, a cylindrical reflector may be used. Other shapes may also be used on either of the two faces to produce the desired pattern.

A virtually continuous line of active or passive components (light-emitting diodes in the visible, ultraviolet, infrared band, solid-state uhf components, sources of infrared and ultrasonic radiation, microphones, etc.) can be used as radiation sources or receivers. A continuous line column with a single transmitter or receiver may be used to facilitate simultaneous operation in the uhf-band wide pattern. In the infrared band, a continuous radiation source may be used instead of a line of elements. The active or passive elements, having a specific size, are placed at a specific distance so that the distance from the antenna or reflector is slightly more than half the radius of the sphere or cylinder and at the focus of the parabola or ellipse to create an effective antenna aperture for each element.

Drawings

The invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a general view of the device;

FIG. 2 is a general view of an apparatus having a reflector or antenna with a truncated spherical surface shape and a radiation source or receiver in the form of a linear element;

FIG. 3 is a general view of the device using a spherical or parabolic offset section;

fig. 4 is a general view of a three antenna device including an omni-directional receiver, or an omni-directional device receiving and transmitting information, or a device having a circular pattern;

FIG. 5 is a full view of a device with a rotating vertical cylinder antenna and an active phase antenna line array;

FIG. 6 is a full view of a device with a fixed vertical cylindrical antenna and three rotating active phase antenna lines; and

fig. 7 illustrates the calculation of the focal distance of a concave spherical or cylindrical antenna.

Detailed Description

The device operates in the following manner:

the actual continuous line of active or passive elements, each transmitting energy to or receiving energy from a portion of the sphere or cylinder 1, is located at a minimum distance from each other at a distance equal to 0.3 to 0.5 radius of curvature of the antenna surface from the reflector or antenna, respectively.

The number of active or passive elements may be large enough, in which case, how many times a large enough portion of the spherical or cylindrical antenna is used.

When the device is used for concentrating X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, ultra high frequency, very high frequency, short wave, ultrasonic or acoustic radiation, it is better to use an antenna shaped as a truncated portion of a spherical surface, or as a cylinder on one face and a parabola or ellipse on the other face, or as a generally cylindrical shape with a radius of 20mm to several hundred meters. The antenna sectors on both faces may range from 20 ° to 360 °. Active or passive devices in the acoustic, ultrasonic, short-wave, very high-frequency, ultra-high-frequency, infrared, visible, ultraviolet or X-ray bands can be used as such lines. A single continuous element connected to an active or passive transmitter or receiver in any band may be replaced by a line of individual elements. Several lines of single elements or several consecutive linear elements or any other configuration may be used instead of a single line in a reflector and antenna of a certain size. Elements of different energy levels may be used to achieve a desired pattern in the horizontal plane, and other shape vectors between spherical, parabolic or elliptical and straight lines assuming cylindrical shapes may be used to achieve a desired pattern on either of the two faces.

Fig. 7 illustrates the calculation OF the focal distance FP OF a concave spherical or cylindrical antenna OF radius R, where the beam impinges on the antenna at a distance a in a direction parallel to its main optical axis.

The right triangle OBA gives:

in this case

Unknown focal distance from point F to P:

this is the equation for the focal area of a cylindrical or spherical antenna. The longer the distance a from the main optical axis to the parallel beam, the further the focal point moves towards the antenna. Where the active or passive elements define a geometry that, depending on the size of the radius and the geometry of the elements, may be placed closer to the antenna than calculated to half the radius. The above formula applies to a single main optical axis. In the case of a cylinder or circle, there may be multiple main optical axes from the center of the cylinder or circle to the surface within the pattern width of the antenna, as is the case today.

The radiation by each individual active or passive element in the line array to, or reception from, the area of the circular or cylindrical antenna with its own main optical axis allows the creation of a wide sector pattern in the face where each element operates within its sector, independently of the other elements in the area of the reflector or antenna at a radius approximately equal to the sphere or cylinder. Similar to a conventional radar with a single uhf radiator and a single antenna, for example, a claimed device with a cylinder radius of 250mm, a height of 250mm, and a frequency of 9GHz can measure 14mm with approximately 20 radiators, each responsible for a portion of a sphere or cylinder measuring approximately 250 x 250 mm. Thus, a 250 x 250mm antenna would be used at least 20 times. If 20 antennas are used, each measuring 250 x 250mm and having separate elements placed at their foci and each having a pattern of approximately 8 ° in the horizontal plane, overlapping synthetic 120 ° sectors will be illuminated. In this case the antenna will have the overall dimensions of 5 x 0.25m, whereas the antenna of the claimed device will be only as large as 0.5 x 0.25m, or as large as 10% of the original dimensions, and will exhibit approximately the same performance.

Concentrated lighting when the reflector is cylindrical surface shape (with an illumination aperture of up to 120 x 120), or for sufficiently narrow directivity patterns in sectors of up to 120 in the horizontal plane and in the vertical plane (for example in control systems, scanning floodlights, low-beam headlights of cars, sea and river buoys and lighthouses in the visible band, devices for disinfecting water, air, seeds and solarium using the ultraviolet band, systems for heating water using the infrared band, heaters and taillights, systems for mixing, cleaning, scalding and treating liquids using the ultrasonic band), when the reflector is in the shape of a spherical surface cutout, or cylindrical surface on one face and parabolic or elliptical surface on the other face, where light emitting diodes in the visible, ultraviolet and infrared bands are used, the claimed device can be effectively used in searchlights, street lights, industrial or household lights, lights for plant growth and other lighting or heating lighting devices where large area uniformity is desired.

When used in the ultraviolet band, the device allows concentrated radiation directed toward the target (human, flowing water, air flow, seeds, etc.) from three or four directions in unison, using the concentrated radiation of a distributed line array of economical and durable ultraviolet band light emitting diodes instead of powerful, uneconomical and unreliable ultraviolet lamps. A similar device with a distributed continuous infrared radiation source replacing the line array can be used to heat flowing water in the infrared band.

Several antennas may be replaced by a single circular antenna having a spherical shape with full or truncated portions, or a generally cylindrical shape, or a shape that is cylindrical on one face and elliptical on the other face. In this case a line of emitters or a succession of emitters will resemble a 360 deg. circle. Where a parabolic shape is used, the line column will be placed closer than half the radius of the cylinder, at the focus of the parabolic shape, and when an elliptical shape is used, it will be placed at one of the two foci of the elliptical shape, while the other focus is placed at the center of the cylinder. In this case, a high concentration of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, or radiation in other bands, is achieved at the central portion of the apparatus where the object to be treated is placed.

To further improve the radiation concentration of the same small size, three circular antennas with three linear columns of elements as described above may be used, as long as the elements are placed along the same axis on all three faces. As a result, a normal focal region will include three intersecting focal regions on three planes.

A device with a single antenna and a continuous infrared radiation source instead of a line array may be used in a heating system where it is a line array of infrared diodes of a desired wavelength, which may be used for infrared back lamps in a broad band up to 120 deg.. In which a line of photosensitive elements in the infrared, ultraviolet or X-ray band is placed in the above-mentioned antenna, a small-sized night vision device operating in a wide sector up to 120 deg. in the horizontal plane can be obtained.

In the acoustic band, a line of inductive microphones placed in the focal area of the line produces a wide range of acoustic sensors over a wide horizontal sector of up to 120 °, with the ability to detect the direction of the sound source with sufficient accuracy and to process each channel individually.

In the ultrasonic band, using a vibrator line in the focal area, its concentrated radiation can be used in systems for preparing homogeneous mixing, cleaning, washing and scalding, and liquid treatment, as well as in devices for repelling animals and insects, etc.

This technique is used in lamps for promoting plant growth, where three lines of leds, two red lines and one blue line, can be used to produce the most efficient mixed light for plant growth.

The claimed device, when used in a low beam headlight for an automobile, allows the driver to see in front, which is common for a one lamp system with a reflector used in most existing automobiles, and provides side lighting in a sector up to 120 ° in width. By selecting the power of the LEDs in the line, a preferred pattern in the horizontal plane can be obtained, with high power LEDs for illuminating the direct front, lower power diodes for illuminating the right side, and very low power LEDs for illuminating the left side (in right-side traffic). The technology can obviously improve the traffic safety of roads in darkness. Similar devices may be used in radar systems mounted on automobiles or other moving objects to automatically monitor traffic safety. In this case, the desired radar pattern can also be obtained by selecting the power of the solid-state uhf element.

The device is used in ocean and river buoys and lighthouses and can use three reflectors to create a circular pattern in the horizontal plane and a sufficiently narrow pattern in the vertical plane. Since the light output of this design is higher than that of the individual leds, the overall desired power is low, which is an important advantage since most buoys and lighthouses are fully self-contained.

The claimed arrangement has important advantages when used in a radar system, as the radar can continue to illuminate in a pattern as wide as 120 ° providing an opportunity to illuminate the target in the pattern. In turn, the doppler component of the signal reflected from the target and the information collected over a considerable period of time can be more thoroughly processed. With rotating and scanning radars with narrow patterns, especially radars with pencil-shaped patterns such as phased arrays, the radar beam locks on the target for very limited times, which are not always sufficient for collecting information and processing the doppler component of the signal. The radar of the aforementioned design is very effective in detecting moving objects, particularly low-speed moving objects. In this case there is sufficient time to adequately process the doppler component of the signal from the target, for example to detect individual details (e.g. differences between man and woman's steps). This full processing cannot be done by fast scanning beams. The energy potential of the previously designed radar is good compared to a scanning radar of the same power, because the target exposure time is proportional to the radiated power and the effective total area of the antenna system is relatively large. The radar system may use parabolic and spherical offset sections to eliminate the transmitter in the antenna aperture.

Existing antennas of cellular network base stations are large enough in the vertical direction and small enough in the horizontal direction because they have to provide a pattern that is as wide as 120 ° in the horizontal plane and narrow enough about 10 ° in the vertical plane. The antenna gain in this case is very low, about 30. A device comprising three antennas with spherical surface cut-outs, or in the form of a cylinder in the horizontal plane and a parabola in the vertical plane 1, is used for circular scanning in cellular network base stations, the antenna gain will increase many times up to 350. This gain, in turn, will significantly improve the transmit and receive range. The antenna may have dimensions of about 1 x 2 meters with a 120 ° sector. The antenna then has a conventional pattern of 120 deg. × 10 deg. similar to existing antennas, but the active antenna aperture in each direction is about 1 × 1 meter large and has a pattern of about 10 × 10 degrees. Longer communication ranges may reduce the number of base stations required and reduce cellular network configuration costs.

The claimed apparatus may be used for receiving satellite television signals and in satellite communications where precise positioning of the antenna is not required. A satellite antenna with a pattern of up to 120 ° x 120 ° may be of cylindrical form. In this case, the need for very expensive gyro stabilizers for use in antennas mounted to moving objects is not needed at all or is significantly reduced. This type of antenna is also very effective in low orbit communications or internet satellites. For both omnidirectional reception of satellite television programs and omnidirectional satellite communications, including satellite internet, which is independent of the satellite and only requires a change in the reception frequency, it is sufficient to use three antennas of this type in a single receiver or transmitter with a continuous reception or reception-transmission line. This type of device with a continuously changing line of sight is particularly effective when the satellite internet uses low-orbit fast satellites, provided on stationary or moving objects.

The claimed apparatus may also be used on fixed or mobile objects in terrestrial broadband communication systems, such as Wi-Max, terrestrial digital television and other systems.

Such antenna arrangements, even those comprising three antennas, would be very cheap if mass produced.

In another application in radar, the device is used in a generally cylindrical shape in a vertical plane 1, the vertical plane 1 being located at a distance of 0.3 to 0.5 radius of its active phase antenna array (APAL)2, which APAL2 comprises a single solid state uhf receive-transmit module (RTM) placed at a distance of about half a wavelength from another module RTM. They allow electronic scanning of the pattern in the vertical plane to control the RTM phase and the system as a whole can rotate in the horizontal plane. In this case, three coordinate radars are generated.

In another embodiment, the system has a fixed cylinder 1 and an APAL2 that moves along a path that is greater than half the radius of the cylinder. The cylinder has a geometry that allows 120 in the horizontal plane, and three APALs 2 may be arranged around its circumference at 120 angles, which provide a continuous field of view in space within the 120 sector in front of the system when the system is obtained to rotate slowly in one direction. This design is most advantageous in decimeter wavelength radar (wavelengths of 30cm or more), especially in the meter band. To achieve good resolution and high antenna gain within these wavelengths, a large number of RTMs are required to set up the Active Phase Antenna Array (APAA), which leads to high cost, cooling requirements and other problems. The claimed apparatus can achieve high antenna gain and good resolution at relatively low cost using a small number of RTMs. Furthermore, no special cooling means are required, even if the RTM has several times the APAA power. RTM is only 7% of the time in operation in the switching rate 5 state because one of the one third APALs is only operating for one third of the time and is not operating at other times (240 °).

For example, for a wavelength of 30cm, a resolution of 2 ° × 2 ° to be achieved, 64 RTMs have to be provided in a single APAL, or 192 RTMs in three APALs. This configuration gives a 2 x 2 pencil pattern rotated in the horizontal plane and provides electronic phase scanning in the vertical plane. In this case, the radius of the cylindrical vertical antenna is about 10m, the height is about 15m, the APAL is 10m high, and the APAL rotation radius is slightly over 5 m. In contrast, 3500 RTMs would be required for APAA to obtain such resolution and antenna gain.

To obtain a resolution of 1 ° × 1 °, a single APAL requires 128 RTMs over a length of 20m (three APALs for a total of 384 RTMs), the radius of the cylindrical antenna is increased to 20m, its height is 30m, and the radius of rotation of the APAL exceeds 10 m. APAA of this size would require almost 14000 RTMs, which would require the use of too much material, resulting in low performance.

The claimed device is lower than APAA in total peak power and it is also known that an increase in antenna gain effectively doubles the total energy potential of the radar as a power increase.

The cylinder may have a radius of up to 100 meters in the meter band. The antennas used in such bands may be designed as nets. A device with three APALs may be placed around a circular pen.

Industrial applications

The invention can be used in different visible band devices, such as searchlights, headlights, street lights, household lights and lights for promoting plant growth; or for disinfecting water, seeds and in a sunbath using the ultraviolet band; used in heating and drying systems utilizing infrared bands, water heaters, and infrared rear light systems; in the ultra-high and very-high frequency bands, for radar and communication technologies, in particular for satellite television and internet technologies, in base stations for cellular communication systems, in terrestrial broadband communication systems of the Wi-Max type, in terrestrial digital television broadcasting; in the ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray bands, in night vision devices; in the acoustic wave band, in remote acoustic sensors; in the ultrasonic wave band in the homogeneous mixing preparation, cleaning, washing and ironing and liquid treatment system; in devices for repelling animals and insects, and in many other devices in any of the electromagnetic, ultrasonic and sonic bands. The small size device of the present invention can be used for illumination over a wide sector of up to 120 deg. in both vertical and horizontal directions with sufficient gain in each direction.

Claims (11)

1. A multifunctional energy concentrator comprising a reflector in the form of at least part of the surface of a rotating solid, a plurality of radiation sources or receivers of a distributed system as active and/or passive elements, respectively located at the same distance from the reflector between 0.3 and 0.5 credits of the radius of curvature of the reflector in a direction perpendicular to the plane of a portion of the inner surface of the rotating solid.

2. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein the reflector is a cylindrical surface or a portion thereof.

3. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein the reflector is a spherical surface or a truncated portion thereof.

4. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1 wherein the cross-section of the reflector is a circular arc in a first plane and a second order curve in a plane perpendicular to the first plane.

5. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein a spherical or parabolic offset section is used in its vertical plane.

6. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1 wherein the reflector surface is a rotating solid body comprising two connected ellipses in cross-section such that each ellipse has one focus on the axis of the rotating solid body and the other focus of the ellipse is for a distributed system of active or passive elements to be placed therein.

7. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein the active elements in the distributed system have different power levels.

8. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein a continuously operating transmitter or receiver is employed as an active or passive element.

9. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, further having at least one reflector.

10. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein the radiation source or receiver is rotatable, during rotation, at least one point the radiation source or receiver is located at the same distance from the reflector between 0.3 and 0.5 times the radius of curvature of the reflector.

11. The multifunctional energy concentrator of claim 1, wherein the reflector and the radiation source or receiver are rotatable simultaneously.