BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to antennas, and more specifically to small antenna structures possessing diversity characteristics.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

A multipath environment is created when radio frequency (RF) signals propagate over more than one path from the transmitter to the receiver. Alternate paths with different propagation times are created when the RF signal reflects from objects that are displaced from the direct path. The direct and alternate path signals sum at the receiver antenna to cause constructive and destructive interference, which have peaks and nulls. When the receiver antenna is positioned in a null, received signal strength drops and the communication channel is degraded or lost. The reflected signals may experience a change in polarization relative to the direct path signal. This multipath environment is typical of indoor and in-office wireless local area networks (WLAN).

An approach to addressing the multipath problem is to employ multiple receiver antenna elements in order to selectively receive a signal from more than one direction. This approach, known as diversity, is achieved when receiving signals at different points in space or receiving signals with different polarization. Performance is further enhanced by isolating the separate antennas. Wireless communication link bit error rate (BER) performance is improved in a multipath environment if receive and/or transmit diversity is used.

Conventional antenna structures that employ diversity techniques tend to be expensive and physically large structures that utilize bulky connectors, such as coaxial cable connectors. Such antenna structures are not suitable for residential and office use where low-cost and small physical size are highly desirable characteristics. Thus, there is a need for an antenna structure capable of employing diversity techniques that overcomes these and other disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention advantageously addresses the needs above as well as other needs by providing a diversity antenna structure that includes a dome having a plurality of facets and a plurality of antenna elements. At least one facet has located thereon at least one antenna element.

In one embodiment, the invention can be characterized as an antenna structure that includes a dome having at least two non-coplanar facets, at least two antenna elements, and active circuitry attached to a first inner surface of the dome and coupled to the antenna elements. Each facet has located thereon one of the antenna elements.

In another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a method of making an antenna structure. The method includes the steps of: forming a dome having a plurality of facets; mounting separate antenna elements on at least two of the facets; attaching active circuitry to a first inner surface of the dome; and coupling the active circuitry to the antenna elements.

In another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a method of receiving a signal in a multi-path environment. The method includes the steps of: placing a dome having a plurality of facets in the multi-path environment; receiving the signal from a first direction in the multi-path environment with a first antenna element located on one of the facets of the dome; and receiving the signal from a second direction in the multi-path environment with a second antenna element located on another of the facets of the dome.

In another embodiment, the invention can be characterized as a method of transmitting a signal in a multi-path environment. The method includes the steps of: placing a dome having a plurality of facets in the multi-path environment; transmitting the signal along a first direction in the multi-path environment with a first antenna element located on one of the facets of the dome; and transmitting the signal along a second direction in the multi-path environment with a second antenna element located on another of the facets of the dome.

A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the invention and accompanying drawings which set forth an illustrative embodiment in which the principles of the invention are utilized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects featured and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following more particular description thereof presented in conjunction with the following drawings herein;

FIGS. 1A and 1B are perspective and top views, respectively, illustrating a multi-antenna element structure made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1C is a perspective view illustrating an alternative multi-antenna element structure made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view illustrating an antenna element located on a single facet of the multi-antenna element structure shown in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 33 in FIG. 1B illustrating the active circuitry on the inside of the multi-antenna element structure;

FIG. 4 is a partial bottom view further illustrating the active circuitry on the inside of the multi-antenna element structure shown in FIG. 1A and connections to same;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are cross-sectional diagrams illustrating exemplary transmission line techniques that may be used with the multi-antenna element structure shown in FIG. 1A;

FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D are schematic diagrams illustrating representative half-wave antenna elements suitable for use with the multi-antenna element structure shown in FIG. 1A; and

FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D and 7E are schematic diagrams illustrating representative quarter-wave antenna elements suitable for use with the multi-antenna element structure shown in FIG. 1A.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout several views of the drawing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The following description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made for the purpose of describing the general principles of the invention. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, there is illustrated a multi-antenna element structure 100 made in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The multi-antenna element structure 100 is ideal for use as a diversity antenna and overcomes the disadvantages described above. It can be manufactured for very low cost and is extremely well suited to small form-factor applications that are to be used at high frequencies, including the 5 to 6 GHz frequency band. The antennas, receiver, and transmitter circuitry can be combined in a small integrated enclosure.

For example, the multi-antenna element structure 100 is particularly suited for use in small base stations in wireless local area networks (WLAN). In a WLAN, the position of a device at the other end of a link is normally not known. The multi-antenna element structure 100 has good uniformity in signal strength in all directions, which makes it ideal for communicating with the numerous devices in a WLAN. In other words, the multi-antenna element structure 100 has uniform gain not in just one plane but over a hemispherical region.

The multi-antenna element structure 100 preferably comprises a dome structure 102. The dome structure 102 preferably takes the form of a polyhedron having two or more facets (or surfaces) 120. Each facet 120 preferably includes an antenna element 130. Arrows 135 show the primary axis of gain for each antenna element. The dome structure 102 can be easily constructed using metalized plastic or other substrate materials, or similarly low-cost construction techniques.

Each antenna element 130 provides gain while also having good isolation between itself and other antenna elements. The several separate antenna elements 130 achieve spatial and polarization diversity, which delivers good receive (or transmit) diversity performance. Again, the multi-antenna element structure 100 delivers very good uniform antenna gain over an entire hemisphere.

In other embodiments of the present invention the facets 120 do not have to explicitly be flat. For example, the facets 120 could instead be curvilinear/rounded. Referring to FIG. 1C, in this scenario the dome structure could take the form of a completely round hemisphere 103. Thus, it should be well understood that the dome structure of the present invention can have many different shapes and that the facets 120 do not have to be flat.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a detail of representative antenna element 130 located on facet 120. Again, each antenna element 130 is preferably positioned on the face or facet 120 of a polyhedron. In some embodiments, each facet 120 may contain more than one antenna element 130. Traditional patch antenna elements are a very cost-effective way to realize the individual antenna elements 130 for each facet 120. In a preferred embodiment, each antenna element 130 comprises a half-wave patch antenna. It should be well understood, however, that other types of patch antennas may be used, including wave and wave patch antennas. The detailed design process for an individual patch antenna is well-known in the industry. It should also be well understood that the antenna elements 130 can be comprised of multiple radiating elements or differing designs to provide different signal emphasis for different solid angle regions. Several representative patch antenna designs will be described below.

It was mentioned above that the polyhedron dome structure 102 includes two or more facets 120. Preferably, the polyhedron dome structure 102 includes six facets 120 and six antenna elements 130 to provide overlapping coverage of the complete hemisphere. It has been found herein that six facets is an optimum number. Specifically, in 3-dimensional space, there is a total of 4 steradians of solid angle. Assuming a uniformly illuminated aperture, the antenna gain for an aperture area Ae is given by: $\begin{matrix} G_{ant} = \frac{4 A_{e}}{^{2}} & (1) \end{matrix}$

where is the free-space wavelength. For an isotropic antenna, Gant1. The beam width of each antenna element determines the number of surfaces needed to provide full coverage over a hemispherical region. If it is assumed that each facet 120 has the same radiating aperture, and there are N facets involved (not counting the base), each facet should have a 3 dB beam width corresponding to 2/N steradians. Using this reasoning and equation (1), a simplistic first-order estimate for the desired antenna aperture area is approximately: $\begin{matrix} A_{e} = \frac{N^{2}}{4} & (2) \end{matrix}$

The 3 dB beam width for the microstrip half-wave patch antenna is approximately 35 degrees. In terms of solid angle, this equates to: $\begin{matrix} _{0}^{\frac{}{5}}_{0}^{2} \sin () = 1.14 steradians & (3) \end{matrix}$

which equates to approximately 0.18 of a hemisphere in terms of solid angle, somewhat less than th of the solid angle. If it is assumed that each facet-halfwave antenna covers th of the hemisphere (overlapping at the 3 dB beam width points), it is concluded herein that the polyhedron dome 102 should preferably contain six facets. This is a manageable number of diversity branches while also being large enough so as to provide potentially excellent diversity gain.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4some or all of the active circuitry 150 can be conveniently located on the underside of the top facet 110. Advantageously, this centralized location of the active circuitry 150 on the back-side of the top polyhedron facet 110 simplifies signal routing and eliminates the need for coaxial antenna connections. The active circuitry 150 may comprise power amplifiers for driving the antenna elements, low noise amplifiers (LNAs) for amplifying the received signals, RF switches for selecting signals routed to and from transmit and receive antenna elements, and/or digital baseband processing application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The active circuitry 150 may also comprise additional circuitry that processes the transmitted and received signals, for example frequency translation from/to an intermediate frequency (IF) to/from the final radio frequency (RF) frequency.

The multi-antenna element structure 100 allows for a cost-effective means of routing both the transmit and receive signal paths to and from each antenna element 130. This is at least partly because the outer surface 104 includes metal patterns that define the structure of the patch antennas 130, and the inner surface 106 is metalized to provide a ground plane. Thus, microstrip or other transmission line methods may be used for routing transmit and receive signals.

Referring to FIG. 5A, by way of example, a coplanar feed structure can be used to connect antenna elements 130 to the active circuitry 150 for generating and receiving antenna signals. In the context of a metalized plastic (or other substrate material) realization for the antenna structure 100, a coplanar feed structure is very attractive because it is low-cost to implement. A coplanar feed does not use a ground plane. Instead, the signals are propagated using a pair of conductors 160 on the wall 162 of the dome 102 with controlled geometry to maintain substantially constant transmission line impedance. The conductors 160 may comprises copper or other metal, and as mentioned above the wall 162 may comprise plastic or other dielectric. In one embodiment, coplanar signal conductors are routed from each patch element 130 along the outer surface 104 of the polyhedron dome 102 toward the top facet 110. The conductors pass through the plastic structure to the inner surface 106 and connect to the active circuitry 150 located on the underside of the top facet 100. Alternatively, the signal conductors can be routed along the inner surface 106 to the active circuitry 150.

Referring to FIG. 5B, in an alternative embodiment, the feed structure can use microstrip techniques. A microstrip feed uses a single conductor 170 with a ground plane 172. The single conductor 170 is located on one side of the wall 162, and the ground plane 172 is located on the other side of the wall 162. The single conductor 170 and the ground plane 172 may comprise copper or other metal.

By way of example, FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate one scenario where a coplanar feed structure is used to connect an antenna element 130 to the active circuitry 150 by routing the signal conductors along the inner surface 106. Specifically, a ground plane 180 is located on the inside surface of the housing. By way of example, the ground plane 180 may comprise copper plating. The ground paths 182 may be connected to the ground plane 180 with via connections 184. The center conductor 186 may be connected to the top-side microstrip of the antenna element 130 with a via connection 188 and the appropriate coplanar-to-microstrip impedance transition. The ground paths 182 and the center conductor 186 may be routed along the inside wall and the back-side of the top polyhedron facet 110 to the active circuitry 150. It should be well understood that this is just one exemplary manner of coupling the antenna elements 130 to the active circuitry 150 and that many other types of connections may be used in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D, there is illustrated several representative half-wave patch antenna designs. The illustrated designs are for operation centered at 5.25 GHz, but it should be well understood that operation in this frequency band is not a requirement of the present invention. Antenna 210 is a design with a 110% ratio of vertical to horizontal dimension that has a feed point from a ground plane layer beneath the patch. Antenna 220 is a 125% half-wave design with ground plane feed. Antenna 230 is 110% half-wave design with an inset feed. Antenna 240 is a 125% half-wave design with an inset feed. By way of example, all of these antenna designs can be fabricated using Rogers 4003 material of 0.060 thickness with double-sided or 1 ounce tinned copper clad.

In an alternative embodiment, the antenna elements 130 can be wave microstrip antennas or other wavelength ratios. Referring to FIGS. 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D and 7E, there is illustrated several representative quarter-wave patch antenna designs. The illustrated designs are for operation centered at 5.25 GHz, but again it should be well understood that operation in this frequency band is not required. Antenna 310 is a design with a 105% ratio of vertical to horizontal dimension that has a feed point from a ground plane layer beneath the patch. Antenna 320 is a 110% quarter-wave design with ground plane feed. Antenna 330 is a 125% quarter-wave design with ground plane feed. Antenna 340 is 110% quarter-wave design with an inset feed. Antenna 350 is a 125% quarter-wave design with an inset feed.

In general, patch antenna elements can be fabricated according to a microstrip technique, where etched copper patterns lie above a ground plane. Microstrip antennas are discussed generally in CAD of Microstrip Antennas for Wireless Applications, Artech House Antenna and Propagation Library, by Robert A. Sainati, 1996; Advances in Microstrip and Printed Antennas by Kai Fong Lee and Wei Chen, 1997; and Microstrip Antennas: The Analysis and Design of Microstrip Antennas and Arrays by David Pozar and Daniel Schaubert, 1995, each incorporated herein by reference.

The multi-antenna element structure 100 is capable of achieving diversity. Specifically, when receiving a signal in a multi-path environment, the signal is received from one direction with one antenna element, another direction with another antenna element, etc. Similarly, when transmitting a signal in a multi-path environment, the signal is transmitted along one direction with one antenna element, along another direction with another antenna element, etc.

The multi-antenna element structure 100 can be easily manufactured. Specifically, a polyhedron dome is formed that includes at least two facets and preferably six facets. Separate antenna elements are mounted on at least two of the facets, preferably all six facets. Active circuitry is attached to the inner surface of the polyhedron dome, preferably the upper surface. The active circuitry is coupled to the antenna elements, preferably by using a coplanar feed structure or microstrip techniques.

Thus, the multi-antenna element structure 100 is a low-cost three-dimensional antenna structure which can deliver fairly uniform gain over an entire hemisphere while also providing diversity gain. It provides a high number of independent antenna elements per unit volume, and its unique geometric orientation provides a high number of beams per unit volume. In one embodiment, the use of the polyhedron structure is based upon using the same half-wave patch antenna design for each facet of the polyhedron, tying together a relationship between the 3 dB beam width of the individual patch antennas with the number of polyhedron facets utilized. The design can be implemented using low-cost metalized plastic. The centralized and convenient location of the RF IC on the back-side of the top polyhedron facet simplifies signal routing and eliminates the need for any coaxial antenna connections. Advantageously, the low-cost interconnections afforded by microstrip, coplanar connection, or the like, may be used. Arbitrary patch antenna designs could be used for each facet if desired, or more emphasis can be placed for different solid angle regions if desired.

While the invention herein disclosed has been described by the specific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.