Huawei Technologies Co., Limited

Wenyao Zhai

Vahid Miraftab

Halim Boutayeb

Morris Repeta

Wen Tong

Ming Jian

Houssam Kanj

Taiwen Tang

Xin Feng

Fayez Hyjazie

Hari Krishna Pothula

The disclosed structures and methods are directed to antenna systems configured to transmit and receive a wireless signal in and from different directions. A switchable lens antenna has excitation ports radiating radio-frequency (RF) wave into a parallel-plate waveguide structure, and a frequency selective structure (FSS). The antenna presented herein is configured to operate in two modes depending on an initial steering angle of the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the initial steering angle is about or less than a threshold steering angle, FSS is OFF due to its stubs being electrically disconnected from the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the initial steering angle is higher than the threshold, FSS is ON with stubs being electrically connected to the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When ON, FSS provides phase variance to the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure and increases steering angle of the RF wave.

Switchable lens antenna with integrated frequency selective structure

The disclosed structures and methods are directed to transmission and reception of a radio-frequency (RF) wave. An antenna comprises a stack-up structure having a first control layer, a second control layer, a first and a second parallel-plate waveguides, and a plurality of through vias. The antenna further comprises a first central port and a second central port being configured to radiate RF wave into the two parallel-plate waveguides independently; vertical-polarization peripheral radiating elements integrated with the first control layer and configured to radiate RF wave in vertical polarization; and horizontal-polarization peripheral radiating elements integrated with the second control layer and configured to radiate RF wave in horizontal polarization. A central port for transmission of RF wave into the stack-up structure of the antenna is also provided. Each vertical-polarization peripheral radiating element is collocated with one of the horizontal-polarization peripheral radiating element such that they cross each other, and that a RF wave radiation beam may be steered at an angle of 0 to 360 degrees in the plane of the stack-up structure, around the central port.

Dual-polarized substrate-integrated 360&#xb0; beam steering antenna

The disclosed systems, structures, and methods are directed to a mm-Wave communication structure employing a first transmission structure employing a first ring transition structure followed by a first ground structure and a second ground structure configured to carry a ground signal, a second transmission structure employing a second ring transition structure followed by a third ground structure and a fourth ground structure configured to carry the ground signal, a third transmission structure configured to carry a mm-Wave signal, wherein the third transmission structure begins at the center of the first ring transition structure and the second ring transition structure and the third transmission structure is coplanar with the second transmission structure, and a fourth transmission structure configured to operatively couple an IC and the first transmission layer, the second transmission layer, and the third transmission structure.

Fan-out transition structure for transmission of mm-Wave signals from IC to PCB via chip-scale packaging

The disclosed structures and methods are directed to antenna systems configured to transmit and receive a wireless signal in and from different directions. A switchable lens antenna has excitation ports radiating radio-frequency (RF) wave into a parallel-plate waveguide structure, and a frequency selective structure (FSS). The antenna presented herein is configured to operate in two modes depending on a steering angle of the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the steering angle is about or less than a threshold steering angle, FSS is OFF due to its stubs being electrically disconnected from the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When the steering angle is higher than the threshold, FSS is ON with stubs being electrically connected to the parallel-plate waveguide structure. When ON, FSS provides phase variance to the RF wave propagating in the parallel-plate waveguide structure and increases steering angle of the RF wave.

An antenna for a phased array comprises a plurality of rectangular sub-arrays of individual array elements. The rectangular sub-arrays in the plurality are tiled to reduce periodicity of phase centers of the sub-arrays. The antenna utilizes a phase shifter for each sub-array as opposed to using a phase shifter with each individual array element.

Phased array antenna having sub-arrays

An embodiment antenna having first dimension and second planar arrays. The first array has a first element spacing in an x- and a y-dimension and is operable in a first frequency band. The second array has a second element spacing in the x-dimension and the y-dimension, and is operable in a second frequency band. The second planar array is displaced from the first planar array in a z-dimension for co-aperture operation of the arrays, and is disposed parallel to and in a near-field of the first planar array. Elements of the second planar array are disposed and steerable, in a u-v plane for interleaving a first plurality of grating lobes generated by the first planar array with a second plurality of grating lobes generated by the second planar array.

High coverage antenna array and method using grating lobe layers

A phased array antenna is described that groups radiating elements into rows and columns. The radiating elements in a row are fed by a common phase shifted signal and the radiating elements in a column are fed by a common phase shifted signal. As such, each radiating element is fed by two different phase shifters. The overlapping groupings of rows and columns allows the antenna to be electronically steered by varying the phase shift applied to the rows and columns. The overlapped sub-arrays of the phased array antenna reduces the number of required phase shifters for the antenna array.

Overlapping linear sub-array for phased array antennas

A combination antenna element is provided. A first antenna element, for example a waveguide antenna, may be coupled to a waveguide feed such as a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW). The waveguide antenna may be formed as an aperture at a terminus of the SIW and disposed within a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) internal layer. A second antenna element, for example a microstrip patch antenna (MPA), may be provided on an outer PCB layer, the MPA defining an interior region, the interior region being positioned in line with the first antenna element. Also in some embodiments, the second antenna element is coupled to another antenna feed such as a transmission line feed which propagates signals in a different electromagnetic propagation mode than the waveguide. The transmission line feed may be a stripline located within the waveguide. An antenna array incorporating the combination antenna element is also provided.

Combination antenna element and antenna array

Signals are received from antenna elements in an antenna array, and respective phase shifts are applied to the received signals. The respective phase shifts are relative to a channel phase shift associated with each antenna element, and correspond to side angles from a current antenna beam direction of the antenna array. Control signals based on the phase shifted signals are generated to control the channel phase shifts, to provide beamforming tracking.

Apparatus and methods for beamforming tracking

A vertical combiner for an overlapping linear phased array is provided. The vertical vector combiner enables two strip-line signals from different layers to be combined, or divided, by vertical transitions between substrate layers and produce a desired output signal phase. The combiner can terminate in a short to act as an antenna. In an antenna application, the antenna provides multiple substrate layers for each strip-line signal, each having a metal ground plane. The ground planes are be coupled by vertical transitions access enabling a stepped ground within the structure which increases bandwidth. The multi-layer combiner architecture enables integration with phased array feed networks for millimeter wave phased array antennas.

Vertical combiner for overlapped linear phased array

A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) comprising various integral components and method of manufacture are provided. The PCB includes a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW), integrated waveguide antennas disposed above the SIW, apertures formed in SIW for coupling with the waveguide antennas, a transmission line routed above the SIW and using the SIW as a ground plane thereof, and further antennas, integrated into the PCB and disposed above and coupled to the transmission line. The SIW and the transmission line may be branched structures for feeding corresponding arrays of waveguide antennas and further antennas. Coplanar waveguides may also be integrated into the PCB and coupled to the SIW and the transmission line via integral impedance matching structures. PCB feature re-use and component interleaving may provide for a desirable and manufacturable PCB structure.

Printed circuit board for antenna system

An embodiment millimeter wave diplexer includes a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) high pass filter (HPF), a microstrip line low pass filter (LPF), and a T-junction. The SIW HPF is coupled to a first port, and the microstrip line LPF is coupled to a second port. The SIW HPF is operable in a first frequency band, and the microstrip line LPF is operable in a second frequency band. The T-junction is coupled between the SIW HPF and the microstrip line LPF. The T-junction is also coupled to a common port.

Millimeter wave dual-mode diplexer and method

Systems for a dual-band transceiver that re-uses a lower frequency transmitter to drive a local oscillator (LO) for high frequency circuits are disclosed herein. The need for a LO lineup requiring high frequency and high power is eliminated. The output of a lower frequency band is modified to be used as a LO drive for the higher frequency band transceiver. Using a carrier recovery loop, the system is operable to simultaneously operate in both bands. The result is a solution that eliminate the design of a high performance LO circuits for a higher band of a mmW dual-band system. This significantly reduces the overall complexity of the system. Furthermore, the inventive architecture reduces the design complexity and overall cost to implement dual-band circuit.

Single local oscillator architecture for dual-band microwave/millimeter-wave transceiver

A dual-mode feed network for an antenna array or combination antenna is provided. Two transmission line structures propagate signals according to two different electromagnetic propagation modes, such as TE, TM, TEM and quasi TEM modes. The two transmission line structures are operatively coupled to different components of the antenna array. One transmission line structure may be a stripline or microstrip, and the other transmission line structure may be a waveguide such as a Substrate Integrated Waveguide. Both transmission line structures may branch to reach multiple elements of the antenna array. The transmission lines may share common features, for example by embedding the stripline within the waveguide.

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Kanata, Canada

Wenyao Zhai