CN106972263B

CN106972263B - Spatial three-dimensional phase shifter

Info

Publication number: CN106972263B
Application number: CN201710291587.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 维克托·亚历山德罗维奇·斯莱德科夫; 李梓萌
Original assignee: Guangzhou Sinan Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Guangzhou Sinan Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2017-04-28
Filing date: 2017-04-28
Publication date: 2023-07-14
Anticipated expiration: 2037-04-28
Also published as: CN106972263A

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of communication devices, in particular to a spatial three-dimensional phase shifter. The space three-dimensional phase shifter comprises a conductor shell internally provided with an upper layer of conductor cavity and a lower layer of conductor cavity, and a feed network component arranged in each layer of conductor cavity, wherein a lower layer feed network arranged in the lower layer feed network component comprises a first input port and N first output ports; the upper feed network provided in the upper feed network assembly includes N seven-port networks, each including six second output ports and one second input port connected to one first output port through a transmission line. The upper layer feed network adopts a seven-port network, only two transmission lines are needed for connecting the upper layer feed network and the lower layer feed network, the welding points are correspondingly reduced, the unstable factors of welding are correspondingly reduced, and the maintenance cost is reduced.

Description

Spatial three-dimensional phase shifter

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of communication devices, in particular to a spatial three-dimensional phase shifter.

Background

At present, the base station electrically-tunable antenna realizes the beam downtilt adjustment of the base station antenna through a phase shifter in a beam forming network, and has the advantages of large downtilt angle adjustable range, high precision, good directional diagram control, strong anti-interference capability, easy control and the like. Thus, the phase shifter is an essential component of the base station antenna, which device enables adjusting the declination angle of the antenna beam by changing the relative phase between the antenna elements, thereby facilitating the optimization of the communication network.

The beam forming network design of the existing base station antenna uses cables to connect all sub phase shifter units or uses the cables as a part of a power divider, so that the whole feed network contains cables with various lengths, the length of each cable must be ensured to be accurate during processing, workers must weld carefully as required during welding, otherwise, the consistency of antenna patterns cannot be ensured; secondly, the lengths of different cables are processed, classified and managed, the cables are installed abnormally and complicated during production, welding spots are particularly many, each welding spot is an unstable factor to the whole machine, the influence factors of third-order intermodulation of the antenna are greatly increased by too many welding spots, the repair cost is increased, and the production cost is increased; in addition, the cables used by the existing antenna are 141 cables, the loss of the cables is large, and especially in a high frequency band, the gain of the antenna is greatly reduced, so that the antenna with longer length and larger size is required to be designed to improve the gain, and the cost is increased; moreover, when a cable is in a problem, all results are not right, the damage probability is high, and the maintenance cost is high.

In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to design a highly integrated, cable-free phase shifter, particularly for existing multi-frequency base station antennas such as 610-960MHz, 1420-2690MHz, and 3300-3900 MHz.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the technical problems, the invention provides the spatial three-dimensional phase shifter which has high reliability, high repeatability, low insertion loss and high gain, and because the design does not use a cable, the loss of the cable is reduced, the production of the antenna is not dependent on large-scale manpower any more, the production efficiency is improved by times, the production automation of the antenna is truly realized, and the production mode of a large amount of manpower required by the traditional antenna enterprises in the industry is changed. The antenna efficiency using such a network will reach over 90%; compared with the traditional antenna, the gain is improved by 1-2dBi.

In order to realize the technical effects of the invention, the following technical scheme is adopted:

the space three-dimensional phase shifter comprises a conductor shell internally provided with an upper layer of conductor cavity and a lower layer of conductor cavity, and a feed network component arranged in each layer of conductor cavity, wherein a lower layer feed network arranged in the lower layer feed network component comprises a first input port and N first output ports; the upper feed network provided in the upper feed network assembly includes N seven-port networks, each including six second output ports and one second input port connected to one first output port through a transmission line.

As a further improvement, the feed network component comprises a sub-phase shifter component for adjusting the beam direction of the base station antenna and an insulating component for supporting the sub-phase shifter component; the sub-phase shifter assembly comprises a feed network connected with the transmission line and a dielectric element assembly slidingly connected with the feed network; the transmission line is arranged in the conductor shell; the feed network is a metal conductor strip line or a printed circuit board provided with a microstrip line.

As a further improvement, each layer of conductor cavity is integrally formed, two ends of each layer of conductor cavity are provided with cavity openings for moving in or out the feed network component, and the conductor shell is formed by overlapping and combining multiple layers of conductor cavities or integrally formed by metal conductor profiles.

As a further improvement, the insulating component is an insulating dielectric substrate, the insulating dielectric substrate arranged in each layer of conductor cavity consists of an insulating dielectric substrate A and an insulating dielectric substrate B which are arranged in the layer of conductor cavity, and the insulating dielectric substrate A and the insulating dielectric substrate B which are arranged in the layer of conductor cavity are respectively arranged above and below a feed network arranged in the layer of conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, the dielectric element assembly arranged in the conductor cavity is also fixedly connected with a pull rod, the insulating assembly arranged in the conductor cavity is fixedly connected with the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity, and the insulating assembly arranged in the conductor cavity is fixedly connected with the conductor shell.

As a further improvement, the feed network provided in each layer of conductor cavities comprises a metal conductor sheet and a plurality of ports connected to the metal conductor sheet.

As a further improvement, each first output port is connected to a second input port by a transmission line. Acting as

For further improvement, a window communicated with the upper conductor cavity is formed in the top of the conductor shell, the window comprises a window A and N windows B, each window B comprises a first window arranged right above each second output port of a seven-port network and a second window arranged right above each second input port of the seven-port network; the second window of each window B is also arranged right above a transmission line connected with the second input port of the seven-port network and a first output port connected with the transmission line; the conductor shell further comprises conductor partition plates which are arranged in each layer of conductor cavity and are provided with openings, and the conductor partition plates arranged in each layer of conductor cavity divide the layer of conductor cavity into a left conductor cavity and a right conductor cavity which are communicated with each other; a boss is fixedly arranged on one side of the insulating medium substrate in each layer of conductor cavity, and is clamped in an opening of the conductor partition plate in the layer of conductor cavity; the metal conductor sheet of the feed network in each layer of conductor cavity is arranged in the left conductor cavity, and a port connected with the metal conductor sheet in the layer of conductor cavity penetrates through the left conductor cavity and stretches into the right conductor cavity. As a further improvement, the conductor separator comprises a conductor cavity arranged on the upper layer

Upper conductor separator and lower conductor separator in body

The lower conductor clapboard separates the upper conductor cavity into a left upper conductor cavity and a right upper conductor cavity, and the lower conductor clapboard separates the lower conductor cavity into a left lower conductor cavity and a right lower conductor cavity; the top of the right lower layer conductor cavity is provided with a through hole, one end of the transmission line is arranged in the right lower layer conductor cavity, and the other end of the transmission line penetrates through the through hole and stretches into the right upper layer conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, the lower conductor clapboard is provided with a first opening and N second openings, the upper conductor clapboard is provided with 6N third openings and N fourth openings, the first input port extends into the right lower conductor cavity from the left lower conductor cavity through the first openings, and each first output port extends into the right lower conductor cavity from the left lower conductor cavity through one second opening; a second output port of each seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity through a third opening into the upper right conductor cavity, and a second input port of the seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity through a fourth opening into the upper right conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, N is 2. As a further improvement, a transmission line is connected to

A first output port and a second input port

The projections in the horizontal direction are staggered, and the transmission line is respectively connected with the first output port and the second input port. As feed in

The conductor shell further comprises a guide boss fixedly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity, and a guide groove matched with the guide boss is formed by enclosing a pull rod arranged in the conductor cavity and a dielectric element assembly arranged in the conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, the number of the guide bosses arranged in each layer of conductor cavity is two, and the pull rod arranged in the layer of conductor cavity is clamped in the groove body formed by the two guide bosses and the left side wall, the top wall and the bottom plate of the conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, the conductor shell is also provided with a strip window, the pull rod in the conductor cavity is also fixedly connected with an anchor, the anchor arranged in the conductor cavity penetrates through the strip window and can move back and forth along the strip window, the anchor is arranged in the upper conductor cavity, and then the anchor arranged in the upper conductor cavity is connected with the pull rod arranged in the lower conductor cavity through a first connecting part; or the anchor is arranged in the lower conductor cavity, and the anchor arranged in the lower conductor cavity is connected with the pull rod arranged in the upper conductor cavity through a first connecting part; or the upper layer conductor cavity and the lower layer conductor cavity are respectively provided with an anchor, and the anchors arranged in the upper layer conductor cavity and the lower layer conductor cavity are connected through a first connecting part.

As a further improvement, the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity comprises at least one dielectric element, each dielectric element arranged in the layer of conductor cavity is fixedly connected with a pull rod arranged in the layer of conductor cavity, and each dielectric element is provided with at least two notches for adjusting the contact area between a feed network arranged in the layer of conductor cavity and the dielectric element; each dielectric element is made by injection molding in one piece.

As a further improvement, the dielectric constant value of the dielectric element assembly provided in each layer of cavities is set such that the phase of the feed network provided in each layer of cavities can be changed synchronously when the dielectric element assembly provided in each layer of conductor cavities is moved synchronously.

As a further improvement, a dielectric element assembly provided in each layer of conductor cavities is provided on the left side of the feed network assembly, and an insulating dielectric substrate and a dielectric element assembly provided in each layer of conductor cavities are provided in the left conductor cavity.

As a further improvement, the insulating medium substrate is made of one or more materials selected from polypropylene, polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene and poly 4-methylpentene-1.

As a further improvement, the insulating dielectric substrate is made of a foamed material. As a further improvement, the upper and lower feed network components can be mutually exchanged. The invention also provides a space three-dimensional phase shifter assembly, which comprises the two space three-dimensional phase shifters which are connected with each other and are arranged in a left-right mirror image way. As a further improvement, the phase shifter assembly further comprises second connection portions fixedly connected to the upper portions of the two spatial stereoscopic phase shifters, respectively. Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

1) The invention puts the feed network component into each layer of conductor cavity, connects the feed network components in two adjacent layers of conductor cavities by using the transmission line to form a space three-dimensional feed network. When the space three-dimensional phase shifter is used for a base station antenna, because double space exists, cables in a space integrated feed network can be provided, and a strip line and the like are used for replacing the cables, a highly integrated beam forming network without the cables is designed, so that the antenna has minimum welding spots, namely, the production efficiency and consistency of the antenna are improved, the volume of the antenna is reduced by approximately 50 percent, materials are saved, the cost is reduced, and the space three-dimensional phase shifter is convenient to transport and flexible to use.

2) When the highly integrated metal strip line feed network manufactured as a whole is used in the design of the base station antenna, the oscillator and the phase shifter of the antenna are not connected by the cable, so the antenna designed by the highly integrated metal strip line (or the printed circuit board provided with the microstrip line) feed network has small insertion loss and higher gain than the antenna connected by the cable. This design allows us to develop the antenna with the best gain.

3) As a highly integrated metal strip line (or printed circuit board with microstrip line) feed network manufactured integrally, when applied to a base station antenna, only the main feed line and the input port and the connecting port of the vibrator and the feed network are needed to be welded, therefore, the number of welding spots of the antenna using the technology is far smaller than that of welding spots of a competitor antenna, the probability of intermodulation generation is reduced during production, the intermodulation rate during production of the antenna is improved, and the consistency of standing waves is also good.

4) When the space three-dimensional phase shifter is used for a base station antenna, the assembly of the antenna is very simple due to the fact that the components are modularized, fewer assembly workers are needed compared with the antenna in the prior art, cables are not needed compared with the prior art, cables with various different lengths do not need to be cut, the length of each cable is not needed to be ensured to be accurate, and supervision workers are not needed to weld the cables at the correct positions during production, so that the quality of welding inspection by QCs is reduced.

5) During mass production, the feed network can be manufactured through a metal stamping process, so that the production efficiency is improved, and the production cost is thoroughly reduced.

6) The traditional array antenna adjustable phase shifting device is characterized in that an independent conductor cavity is supported by a support column on the back surface of a reflecting plate, the phase shifting device is installed in the conductor cavity, and all elements of the traditional array antenna are connected by cables. The U-shaped reflecting plate and the phase shifter cavity are integrally formed, the reflecting plate (the surface of the conductor shell) and the phase shifter conductor cavity share one surface, the reflecting plate and the phase shifter are not mutually independent, in the existing design, the reflecting plate and the phase shifter are mutually independent components, the phase shifter is supported on the reflecting plate, and the transmission mechanism of the phase shifter is higher than the cavity of the phase shifter, so that the height of the antenna is increased. The phase shifting device and the strip line are directly arranged in the conductor cavity, the transmission mechanism is buried in the reflecting plate (the surface of the conductor shell) and the phase shifter cavity, so that the thickness of the whole antenna can be well reduced.

7) The new design enables us to design antennas with different vertical plane patterns according to the needs of customers, and only the structure of the metal conductor strip line needs to be changed. For example, the first layer of feed network provides the best gain and the second layer of feed network provides low sidelobe suppression and zero padding.

8) Because the feed network of the electrically tunable antenna is very complex, a large number of coaxial cables are used for antenna design of the base station antenna enterprise at present, so that the welding points of the antenna are too many, and wiring is very complex, therefore, a large number of workers are required in the production process of the base station antenna, and automation is very difficult to realize. Because the design has the characteristic of high integration, the product designed by the technology can completely realize automatic production in the production process, all welding and assembly are completely realized by robots, and as a result, the production efficiency of the antenna is 5-8 times that of a traditional antenna enterprise, and the consistency of the produced antenna is greatly improved and the reject ratio is reduced due to the characteristic of high integration. The phase shifter has simple structure and easy installation and maintenance, and can obviously improve the production efficiency.

9) The lower layer feed network comprises a first input port and two first output ports; the upper feed network comprises two seven-port networks, each comprising six second output ports and one second input port connected with one first output port through a transmission line. The number of the transmission lines connected with the upper and lower feed networks is two, and after the upper and lower feed networks are connected into a whole, the whole network forms a one-to-twelve network, namely an input port and twelve output ports. Because there are only two transmission lines, correspondingly, there are only two windows for accommodating the transmission lines processed on the cavity, thus CNC processing amount can be reduced, and processing cost is reduced.

10 Because the top layer strip line adopts a one-to-six scheme (namely, a seven-port network is divided into six second output ports and one second input port connected with one first output port through a transmission line), the number of parts is correspondingly reduced, and the length of the bottom layer strip line is correspondingly reduced. For example, a base station antenna designed based on a feed network with one input and twelve output ports has twelve radiators, with the top strip line having only two separate seven-port networks and one lower feed network. For a base station antenna with twelve radiators, the length of the base station antenna is at least more than 2.5 meters, if the top strip line is in a one-to-six scheme, compared with the prior art, the length of the bottom strip line is reduced, so that the processing difficulty is reduced, and the manufacturing cost of the strip line is reduced; the welding points are correspondingly reduced, and the unstable factors of welding are correspondingly reduced, so that the maintenance cost is reduced.

11 Compared with the prior art, the one-to-six scheme is beneficial to reducing the leakage of electromagnetic waves, reducing coupling, improving S parameters and improving performance due to the reduction of the number of transmission lines in operation.

Drawings

FIG. 1-1 is a schematic view of a partial perspective structure of a spatial stereoscopic phase shifter;

FIG. 1-2 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of the structure of FIG. 1-1;

FIG. 2-1 is a schematic view of a partial structure of a spatial three-dimensional phase shifter;

FIG. 2-2 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of the structure of FIG. 2-1;

FIG. 3-1 is a schematic illustration of a dielectric element assembly and a pull rod disposed within an upper conductor cavity;

FIG. 3-2 is a schematic diagram of a dielectric element assembly disposed within an underlying conductor cavity;

fig. 4-1 is a schematic diagram of a feed network component structure;

FIG. 4-2 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of the structure of FIG. 4-1;

FIG. 5-1 is a schematic diagram of a phase shifter assembly of the present invention;

FIG. 5-2 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion of the structure of FIG. 5-1.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Example 1

As shown in the figure, the spatial three-dimensional phase shifter comprises a conductor housing 100 with two layers of conductor cavities inside, and a feed network component arranged in each layer of conductor cavities, wherein the feed network component comprises a sub-phase shifter component for adjusting the beam direction of a base station antenna and an insulating component for supporting the sub-phase shifter component; the space three-dimensional phase shifter further comprises transmission lines which are respectively connected with sub-phase shifter components arranged in the adjacent two layers of conductor cavities; the sub-phase shifter assembly comprises a feed network connected with the sub-phase shifter assembly and a dielectric element assembly connected with the feed network in a sliding manner, and the dielectric element assembly arranged in a layer of conductor cavity changes the contact area of the dielectric element assembly and the feed network by sliding back and forth relative to the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity; the two layers of conductor cavities are an upper layer conductor cavity 109 and a lower layer conductor cavity 110 respectively, a feed network arranged in the upper layer conductor cavity 109 is an upper layer feed network, a feed network arranged in the lower layer conductor cavity 110 is a lower layer feed network, and the lower layer feed network comprises a first input port 208 and N first output ports 209; the upper feed network comprises N seven-port networks 410, each comprising six second output ports (201, 202, 203, 205,206, 207) and one second input port 204, N, optionally two, connected to one first output port 209 via a transmission line 210.

The feed network components in two adjacent layers of conductor cavities are connected to form a complete space three-dimensional feed network.

According to the invention, the feed network component is placed in each layer of conductor cavity, and the feed network components in two adjacent layers of conductor cavities are connected by the transmission line, so that a spatial three-dimensional feed network is formed, the volume of the feed network is greatly reduced, and therefore, the volume of the phase shifter is greatly reduced.

The sub-phase shifter assembly comprises a feed network connected with the transmission line and a dielectric element assembly connected with the feed network in a sliding manner, and the contact area between the dielectric element assembly and the feed network is changed by sliding the dielectric element assembly arranged in a layer of conductor cavity back and forth relative to the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity. When the space three-dimensional phase shifter is used for the base station antenna, the contact area between the dielectric element assembly and the feed network assembly is changed by sliding the dielectric element assembly back and forth relative to the feed network arranged in the cavity, so that the beam direction of the base station antenna is adjusted.

Preferably, the feed network is a metal conductor strip line or a printed circuit board provided with microstrip lines.

The setting like this, can be thorough avoid using the cable, compare in prior art use cable need guarantee every cable length accuracy, cable management difficulty, install the cable to the shifter complicacy, reprocess with high costs, loss is high, raw materials cost is high scheduling problem, this application not only raw materials is with low costs, production simple to operate, can reduce the cost of reprocessing moreover, and then thoroughly reduce manufacturing cost.

In addition, the phase shifting mechanism has simple structure and easy installation, and can obviously improve the production efficiency.

Preferably, the feeding network arranged in the conductor housing is connected with the feeding network arranged in the adjacent two layers of conductor cavities, so that the feeding network between the adjacent layers and the transmission line form an integral space three-dimensional feeding network. The transmission line 210 is not directly contacted with the conductor housing 100, i.e. a gap exists between the transmission line 210 and the conductor housing 100, insulation is realized, and no short circuit phenomenon exists. One end of the transmission line 210 may be disposed in one layer of conductor cavity, and the other end extends through the layer of conductor cavity into another layer of conductor cavity adjacent to the layer of conductor cavity. The transmission line 210 is disposed in the conductor housing 100, avoiding leakage of electromagnetic waves. The signal can be more transferred to the antenna element.

Preferably, each layer of conductor cavity is integrally formed, and two ends of each layer of conductor cavity are provided with cavity openings for moving in or out the feed network component, and the conductor housing 100 is formed by stacking and combining multiple layers of conductor cavities or integrally forming metal conductor profiles. During installation, various components of the feed network assembly can be assembled, and then the feed network assembly is inserted into the conductor cavity from the cavity opening, so that the installation time is greatly saved. Compared with the prior art, each cable needs to be welded to the phase shifter, the problem of multiple welding spots (the number of the welding spots is hundreds to thousands) is solved, and the installation time is greatly saved.

Meanwhile, when the feed network component is damaged, the feed network component can be maintained only by moving out of the cavity opening, and the maintenance is very convenient.

Preferably, the insulating component is an insulating dielectric substrate, the insulating dielectric substrate arranged in each layer of conductor cavity is composed of an insulating dielectric substrate A and an insulating dielectric substrate B arranged in the layer of conductor cavity, and the insulating dielectric substrate A and the insulating dielectric substrate B arranged in the layer of conductor cavity are respectively arranged above and below a feed network arranged in the layer of conductor cavity. Namely, an insulating medium substrate A is arranged on a feed network arranged in the conductor cavity, and an insulating medium substrate B is arranged under the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity.

Preferably, the dielectric element assembly disposed in the one-layer conductor cavity is also fixedly connected with a pull rod 213, and the insulating assembly disposed in the one-layer conductor cavity is fixedly connected with the feed network disposed in the one-layer conductor cavity, and the insulating assembly disposed in the one-layer conductor cavity is fixedly connected with the conductor housing. Pulling the pull rod 213 can move the dielectric element assembly back and forth relative to the feed network, facilitating phase shifting.

Preferably, the feed network provided in each layer of conductor cavities comprises a metal conductor sheet and a plurality of ports connected to the metal conductor sheet. The metal conductor plate and the plurality of ports connected with the metal conductor plate of each feed network assembly may be integrally formed. The metal conductor strip line may be composed of a metal conductor sheet and a plurality of ports connected to the metal conductor sheet.

Preferably, each first output port is connected to a second input port by a transmission line.

Preferably, a window which is communicated with the upper conductor cavity 109 is formed at the top of the conductor housing 100, and includes a window a108 and two windows B, each window B includes a first window which is arranged right above each second output port of a seven-port network and a second window 104 which is arranged right above the second input port 204 of the seven-port network; the second window 104 of each window B is further disposed directly above a transmission line 210 connected to the second input port 204 of the four-port network and a first output port 209 connected to the transmission line 210; the conductor housing 100 further comprises a conductor partition 114 provided with an opening and arranged in each layer of conductor cavity 100, and the conductor partition 114 arranged in each layer of conductor cavity divides the layer of conductor cavity into a left conductor cavity and a right conductor cavity which are communicated with each other; a boss 411 is fixedly arranged on one side of the insulating medium substrate in each layer of conductor cavity, and the boss 411 is clamped in an opening of the conductor partition 114 in the layer of conductor cavity; the metal conductor sheet of the feed network in each layer of conductor cavity is arranged in the left conductor cavity, and a port connected with the metal conductor sheet in the layer of conductor cavity penetrates through the left conductor cavity and stretches into the right conductor cavity. This facilitates connection of the antenna element to each port through the window, and preferably the projection of the window located directly above each port in the horizontal direction is greater than the projection of the port in the horizontal direction, thereby enabling easier mounting of the antenna element and port together. The first window provided in a seven-port network includes a first window 101, a first window 102, a first window 103, a first window 105, a first window 106, and a first window 107.

Preferably, the conductor spacers include an upper conductor spacer disposed in the upper conductor cavity and a lower conductor spacer disposed in the lower conductor cavity, the upper conductor spacer dividing the upper conductor cavity into a left upper conductor cavity 116 and a right upper conductor cavity 113, the lower conductor spacer dividing the lower conductor cavity into a left lower conductor cavity 115 and a right lower conductor cavity 112; the top of the lower right conductor cavity is provided with a through hole, one end of each transmission line 210 is arranged in the lower right conductor cavity, and the other end of each transmission line penetrates through the through hole and stretches into the upper right conductor cavity.

Preferably, the lower conductor separator is provided with a first opening and two second openings, the upper conductor separator is provided with twelve third openings and two fourth openings, the first input port 208 extends from the left lower conductor cavity into the right lower conductor cavity 112 through the first openings, and each first output port extends from the left lower conductor cavity 115 into the right lower conductor cavity 112 through one second opening; a second output port of each seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity 116 through a third opening into the upper right conductor cavity 113, and a second input port of the seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity 116 through a fourth opening into the upper right conductor cavity 113.

Preferably, a first output port and a second input port connected by a transmission line are offset in projection in the horizontal direction, the transmission line being connected, preferably welded, to the first output port and the second input port, respectively. Namely, the first output line and the second input line which are arranged under one window are staggered through projection in the horizontal direction, so that welding is facilitated.

Preferably, the conductor housing 100 further includes a guide boss 117 fixedly disposed in each layer of the conductor cavity, and a guide groove 212 matched with the guide boss 117 is defined by a tie rod 213 disposed in the conductor cavity and a dielectric element assembly disposed in the conductor cavity. The guide boss 117 and the guide groove 212 are matched, namely, the guide groove 212 just can be sleeved outside the guide boss 117, the pull rod 213 and the dielectric element assembly can slide back and forth along the guide boss 117 through the guide groove 212, and then the pull rod arranged in the cavity is pulled, so that the pull rod 213 arranged in the cavity and the dielectric element arranged in the cavity can move back and forth along the guide boss 117, and the back and forth movement is easier. Further, the pull rod can only move back and forth along the guide boss 117 and cannot move left and right, so that the beam direction of the base station antenna can be adjusted more accurately.

Preferably, the number of the guide bosses 117 arranged in each layer of conductor cavity is two, namely an upper guide boss and a lower guide boss, and the pull rod 213 arranged in the layer of conductor cavity is clamped in the groove 118 formed by the two guide bosses and the left side wall, the top wall and the bottom plate of the conductor cavity. Further, the pull rod can only move back and forth along the guide boss 117 and cannot move left and right, so that the beam direction of the base station antenna can be adjusted more accurately.

Preferably, the conductor housing 100 is further provided with a bar window 111, and an anchor 211 is fixedly connected to a pull rod 213 disposed in the upper conductor cavity, and the anchor 211 disposed in the upper conductor cavity is disposed through (or passes through) the bar window and can move back and forth along the bar window; the anchor arranged in the upper conductor cavity is connected with the pull rod arranged in the lower conductor cavity through a first connecting part.

Applying a forward or rearward force to the anchor 211 causes the anchor 211 to move back and forth along the strip window 111, causing the upper and lower

dielectric element assemblies

320 and 310 to move back and forth, thereby changing the contact area of the dielectric element assemblies with the feed network. The tie rod disposed in the lower conductor cavity 110 may also be provided with an anchor, and the first connecting member is fixedly connected with the anchor disposed in the lower cavity and the anchor disposed in the upper cavity, respectively.

Preferably, the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity comprises at least one dielectric element, each dielectric element arranged in the layer of conductor cavity is fixedly connected with the pull rod arranged in the layer of conductor cavity, and each dielectric element is provided with at least two notches for adjusting the contact area between the feed network arranged in the layer of conductor cavity and the dielectric element; each dielectric element is made by injection molding in one piece. This can widen the bandwidth.

Preferably, the dielectric element is fixedly connected with the pull rod in a heat riveting or tight fit mode, and the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity comprises a plurality of dielectric elements respectively connected with the pull rod arranged in the conductor cavity; the pull rod is a glass fiber reinforced plastic pull rod. The upper dielectric element assembly includes six short dielectric elements 303 and two long dielectric elements 304. Both the dielectric element and the anchor are provided with elongated slots.

Preferably, each feed network and the insulation assembly (the insulation assembly also serves to insulate the feed network from the conductor cavity), preferably by means of an insulating dielectric rod passing through the insulation assembly and the feed network. Fig. 4-1 shows a schematic diagram of a spatial three-dimensional phase shifter of the present application, in which an upper feed network, a lower feed network, an upper dielectric element assembly 320, a lower dielectric element assembly 310, and two transmission lines 210 are contained in a conductor housing.

Wherein the insulating

medium substrates

404, 403 provided above and below the upper feed network are made of plastic foam material, and the upper feed network and the insulating

medium substrates

404, 403 are fixedly connected by at least one insulating medium rod (rod body made of insulating material) passing through the upper feed network and the insulating

medium substrates

404, 403. The insulating

medium substrates

404 and 403 may be provided with bosses 411, each boss 411 is provided with a positioning hole 412, each boss 411 is clamped in an opening, the bosses 411 are mutually matched with the conductor housing 100 to fix the upper layer feeding network, through holes are arranged near each port of the upper layer feeding network, each insulating medium rod 405 passes through one positioning hole and one through hole arranged under the positioning hole (preferably right under) to fix the upper layer feeding network and the insulating

medium substrates

404 and 403 to each other, then the insulating medium rods 405 are tightly connected with the insulating

medium substrates

404, 403 and the upper layer feeding network respectively through a thermoplastic riveting process, so that the insulating

medium substrates

404, 403 and the upper layer feeding network are tightly fixed together, that is, the two seven-port network 410 are fixedly connected with the insulating

medium substrates

404 and 403 respectively, and the insulating medium rods 405 may be plastic rods. The sub-phase shifter assembly disposed in the upper conductor cavity includes two sub-phase shifters.

The lower feed network comprises a three-port feed network, the three-port feed network 420 and the

dielectric substrates

401, 402 being fixedly connected by at least one dielectric rod passing through the three-port feed network 420 and the

dielectric substrates

401, 402. The insulating medium substrate 401 and the insulating medium substrate 402 may be provided with a boss 411, each boss 411 is provided with a positioning hole 412, each boss 411 is clamped in an opening of the lower layer conductor cavity, the boss 411 is mutually matched with the conductor housing 100 to play a role of fixing the lower layer feed network, a through hole is arranged near each port of the lower layer feed network, each insulating medium rod 405 arranged in the lower layer conductor cavity passes through one positioning hole 412 and one through hole arranged below (preferably right below) the positioning hole 412 to fix the three-port feed network 420 and the insulating

medium substrates

401 and 402 to each other, and then the insulating medium rods 405 are respectively and tightly connected with the insulating medium substrate 401, the insulating medium substrate 402 and the lower layer feed network through a thermoplastic riveting process, so that the insulating medium substrate 401, the insulating medium substrate 402 and the lower layer feed network are tightly fixed together, even if the three-port feed network 420 is fixedly connected with the insulating

medium substrates

401 and 402, and the insulating medium rods 405 are also made of plastic rods.

The underlying dielectric element assembly includes a support block 301 and an elongated dielectric element 302. The long dielectric element 302 and the feed network form a bidirectional phase shifter, and the supporting block 301 functions as a supporting strip line, so that the phase shifter assembly disposed in the lower conductor cavity includes two sub-phase shifters. The transmission line 210 is used to connect upper and lower layer feed networks, such as: the pin 407 of one transmission line 210 is inserted into the hole 409 of one second input port of the upper layer feed network, and the pin 408 of the transmission line is inserted into the hole 406 of one first output port of the lower layer feed network, i.e. it is achieved that one second input port and one first output port are connected by one transmission line 210. Similarly, another transmission line 210 is correspondingly connected to the upper and lower feed networks, so that the second input ports of the two seven-port networks on the upper layer are connected to the two first output ports on the lower layer to form an integral network. The feed network comprises a main input port, twelve second output ports, ten sub-phase shifters are arranged in the upper layer conductor cavity, two sub-phase shifters are arranged in the lower layer conductor cavity, and the total number of the space three-dimensional phase shifters is twelve.

Preferably, the dielectric constant value of the dielectric element assembly disposed within each layer of cavities is set such that the phase of the feed network disposed within each layer of cavities can be synchronously changed when the dielectric element assemblies disposed within each layer of conductor cavities are synchronously moved. The anchors 211 provided in the upper conductor cavities and the anchors 211 provided in the lower conductor cavities are connected by a first connection portion, which may be a rod-shaped member. The dielectric element assembly disposed in the upper conductor cavity and the dielectric element assembly disposed in the lower conductor cavity can be moved back and forth in synchronization by applying a back and forth force to the rod-like member or anchor 211. Therefore, only one transmission device is needed to realize the synchronous movement of the upper dielectric element assembly and the lower dielectric element assembly, so that the phase of the sub-phase shifter assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity is synchronously changed, and the transmission system is greatly simplified. Twelve second outputs may be connected to twelve antenna elements.

Preferably, each dielectric element in each layer of conductor cavity is made of the same dielectric material, the dielectric constants of the dielectric element assemblies in the upper layer of conductor cavity are the same, the dielectric constant value of the material used in the dielectric element assemblies in the upper layer of conductor cavity is 2.0-2.8 (such as polypropylene or polystyrene plastic or polytetrafluoroethylene or TPX (poly 4-methylpentene-1) or PPE), the dielectric constant value of the material used in the dielectric element assemblies in the lower layer of conductor cavity is 3.0-5.0 (such as ceramic material and modified PPE material), the dielectric constants of the dielectric element materials in the layers of different conductor cavities are different, and a difference delta is formed between the dielectric constants, so that when the dielectric element assemblies in the conductor cavities in the layers are synchronously moved, the phase of the network provided in the conductor cavities can be synchronously changed, and the transmission system of the electric tuning antenna is simplified.

Preferably, a dielectric element assembly disposed within each layer of conductor cavities is disposed on the left side of the feed network assembly, and an insulating dielectric substrate and a dielectric element assembly disposed within each layer of conductor cavities are disposed within the left conductor cavity.

Preferably, a part of the feed network arranged in any one of the conductor cavities extends into the insulating medium substrate, and the other part of the feed network is exposed outside the insulating medium substrate.

Preferably, the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity is arranged at the left side of the feed network, the insulating dielectric substrate and the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity are arranged in the left conductor cavity, and the leftmost sides of the pull rod, the dielectric element assembly and the insulating dielectric substrate arranged in the layer of conductor cavity are sequentially arranged from left to right.

Preferably, the insulating dielectric substrate is made of a low dielectric constant, low loss material. The low dielectric constant, low loss material may be, for example, one or more of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), TPX (poly 4-methylpentene-1). Thereby improving the gain of the antenna.

Preferably, the insulating medium substrate is made of a foaming material. The adoption of the foaming material is convenient for transportation and can also improve the gain of the antenna.

Preferably, each layer of the conductor cavity is a cuboid-shaped conductor cavity with cavity openings arranged at two ends, each seven-port network is sequentially arranged from front to back, and the pull rod and the guide boss are parallel to the long sides of the cuboid-shaped conductor cavity. Of course, all ports of the feed network arranged in the lower cavity are also arranged in sequence from front to back, and preferably, the first input port is arranged in the middle of each second input port, so that the arrangement of strip lines of the feed network assembly is facilitated, and raw materials can be saved more. Of course, the first output port and the second input port connected by a transmission line 210 are preferably located in close proximity for ease of installation. The tie rods 213 are parallel to the guide bosses 117, thereby moving the insulating medium substrate back and forth relative to the feed network assembly.

Preferably, the insulating medium substrate and the conductor housing are fixedly connected by means of rivets. For example by rivets passing through the dielectric substrate and the conductor housing.

During installation, the feed network components can be assembled firstly, then each feed network component is inserted into a cavity from the cavity opening of a layer of cavity, then each first output port is connected with each second input port through a transmission line, finally the insulating medium substrate is fixedly connected with the conductor shell 100 through rivets, the installation is very convenient, the installation can be completed within 10 minutes, and the production efficiency is greatly improved. Two cavity openings are arranged, so that raw materials are saved.

The feeding network assembly can be inserted into the left cavity from the cavity opening of the left cavity of each layer of cavity, then the feeding network assembly is moved rightwards, each port penetrates through the opening and stretches into the right cavity of the layer of cavity, the boss 411 is clamped in the opening, then the insulating medium substrate is fixedly connected with the conductor shell 100 through rivets, and finally each first output port is connected with each second input port through a transmission line.

Preferably, the upper and lower feed network components can be interchanged.

In summary, the feeding network is divided into upper and lower layers, and the upper and lower layers of feeding networks are combined into a whole through the transmission line, so that a spatial three-dimensional phase shifter is formed, the spatial three-dimensional phase shifter comprises a main input port, twelve output ports and twelve sub-phase shifters, and dielectric elements made of materials with different dielectric constants are used for the upper and lower layers, so that the transmission system is simplified, and the best phase shifter can be designed.

When the phase shifter is used for an antenna, signals are input to each first output port from the first input ports, signals transmitted from each first output port are transmitted to one second input port connected with the transmission line through the transmission line connected with the first output port, then the signals are respectively transmitted to six second output ports which belong to a seven-port feed network together with the second input ports, and then the signals are transmitted to an antenna element connected with each second output port.

Example 2

The invention also provides a spatial stereoscopic phase shifter assembly comprising two spatial stereoscopic shifter assemblies connected to each other as described in example 1, and arranged in mirror image on the left and right of the two shifter assemblies. The phase shifter consists of a left spatial phase shifter 527 and a right spatial phase shifter 528 arranged on the right side of the left spatial phase shifter, and the left spatial phase shifter 527 and the right spatial phase shifter 528 are flush in front, back, upper and lower directions.

Preferably, the conductor housings of the two spatial cube-movers are integrally connected to form the housing 529 of the phase shifter assembly.

Preferably, the phase shifter assembly further includes second connection parts 530 fixedly connected to the anchors of the upper portions of the two spatial stereoscopic phase shifters, respectively. The second connection portion 530 may be disposed on the conductor housing 529, where the second connection portion 530 is a pulling carriage or a pulling rod. The housing 529 may be provided with a guiding groove 533, the second connecting portion 530 may be provided with a guiding protrusion matching the guiding groove 533, the guiding protrusion is disposed in the guiding groove 533, and when a forward or backward force is applied to the second connecting portion 530, the second connecting portion 530 can be moved forward or backward along the guiding groove 533, and of course, the guiding groove, the pull rod and the guiding protrusion are preferably disposed in parallel. The tie rod is also preferably parallel to the elongated slots of each dielectric element of the dielectric element assembly for ease of pulling.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic structural diagram of a phase shifter of the present application, which includes an integrally formed conductor housing 529, in which 8

conductor cavities

501, 502, 504, 505, 507, 508, 509, 510 are disposed in the conductor housing 529, wherein a pair of left 501 and 510

conductor cavities

501 and 502 form a lower conductor cavity of the left spatial three-dimensional phase shifter, and a conductor cavity 510 and a conductor cavity 509 form an upper conductor cavity of the left spatial three-dimensional phase shifter; the conductor cavity 504 and the conductor cavity 505 form a lower conductor cavity of the right space three-dimensional phase shifter together, and the conductor cavity 508 and the conductor cavity 507 form an upper conductor cavity of the right space three-dimensional phase shifter together; the longitudinal metal walls 503 separate the feed network placed in the left spatial stereoscopic phase shifter from the feed network placed in the right spatial stereoscopic phase shifter, which design effectively improves the isolation of the system, and the lateral metal walls 506 isolate the upper feed network components from the lower feed network components. The

small windows

511, 512, 513, 515, 516 and 517 are six windows arranged right above a seven-port network of the left spatial three-dimensional phase shifter, the

windows

518, 519, 520, 522, 523 and 524 are six windows arranged right above a seven-port network of the right spatial three-dimensional phase shifter, and twelve output ports are respectively arranged at the left side and the right side of the phase shifter. The insulating medium substrate provided in the upper conductor cavity may be fixed to the housing by explosion rivets penetrating through the holes in the fixing holes, and the lower insulating medium substrate may be fixed to the metal housing 529 by the same method. The long window 514 and the long window 521 are respectively a second window of the left spatial phase shifter and a second window of the right spatial phase shifter, the window 525 and the window 526 are respectively a window a of the left spatial phase shifter and a window a of the right spatial phase shifter, the main input port is positioned in the middle of the upper part of the shell, and the push-pull carriage can slide back and forth along the elongated strip-shaped

windows

531, 532 and the guide groove 533, so as to drive the dielectric element assembly arranged in each conductor cavity to slide back and forth relative to the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity, change the contact area of the dielectric element assembly and the feed network, and further adjust the beam direction.

The metal casing 529 is provided with a round hole, the insulating medium substrate is provided with a fixing hole corresponding to the round hole, and the insulating medium substrate and the conductor casing are fixed together by penetrating the round hole and the fixing hole through an explosion rivet. The number of the round holes can be multiple, and the number of the fixing holes corresponding to each round hole can also be multiple.

In summary, the present invention sets the phase shifter feed network in two metal conductor cavities, connects the two metal conductor cavities into a whole through the transmission line, and uses dielectric elements with different dielectric constants in different conductor cavity layers, so that one transmission system is used to drive the upper and lower dielectric element assemblies to move together, thereby simplifying the transmission system, otherwise, two transmission systems are needed to drive the upper and lower dielectric elements respectively.

Therefore, the invention expands the phase shifter to a three-dimensional structure to form a space three-dimensional phase shifter, the phase shifter can reduce the width of the original plane phase shifter by 50%, as a result, the invention enables us to design smaller-sized electrically tunable antennas, the antennas do not use cables any more, and if the antenna has M radiators, the beam forming network has M-1 sub-phase shifters, so we can design high-quality antenna patterns.

A second output port of the left spatial three-dimensional phase shifter and a second output port of the right spatial three-dimensional phase shifter are respectively connected with an antenna element.

The housing and shell are preferably not provided with openings except for the cavity openings, so that electromagnetic wave leakage is prevented. The lateral metal wall 506 and the longitudinal metal wall 503 are also preferably not provided with openings to prevent leakage of electromagnetic waves.

The phase shifter is suitable for all frequency bands, and is particularly suitable for fourth-generation mobile base station antennas at 610-960MHz, 1420-2690MHz and 3300-3900MHz, as well as future fifth-generation mobile communication antennas.

The conductor can be made of metal aluminum, aluminum alloy and other materials. Plural refers to two or more.

However, the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, i.e., the invention is defined by the appended claims and their description with the full scope of equivalents to which they are entitled. Furthermore, the abstract sections and headings are provided solely for the purpose of aiding in the search of the patent document and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. The space three-dimensional phase shifter is characterized by comprising a conductor shell internally provided with an upper layer of conductor cavity and a lower layer of conductor cavity, and a feed network component arranged in each layer of conductor cavity, wherein a lower layer feed network arranged in the lower layer feed network component comprises a first input port and N first output ports; the upper layer feed network arranged on the upper layer feed network assembly comprises N seven-port networks, each seven-port network comprises six second output ports and one second input port connected with one first output port through a transmission line, and the feed network assembly comprises a sub-phase shifter assembly for adjusting the beam direction of a base station antenna and an insulating assembly for supporting the sub-phase shifter assembly; the sub phase shifter assembly comprises a feed network connected with the transmission line and a dielectric element assembly connected with the feed network in a sliding manner, the dielectric element assembly arranged in the conductor cavity of one layer is fixedly connected with a pull rod, the insulating assembly arranged in the conductor cavity of the layer is fixedly connected with the feed network arranged in the conductor cavity of the layer, and the insulating assembly arranged in the conductor cavity of the layer is fixedly connected with the conductor shell; the dielectric element assembly arranged in each layer of conductor cavity comprises at least one dielectric element, each dielectric element arranged in the layer of conductor cavity is fixedly connected with a pull rod arranged in the layer of conductor cavity, each dielectric element is manufactured through injection molding and integral forming, a window communicated with the upper layer of conductor cavity is formed in the top of the conductor shell, the window comprises a window A and N windows B, and each window B comprises a first window arranged right above each second output port of a seven-port network and a second window arranged right above the second input port of the seven-port network; the second window of each window B is also arranged right above a transmission line connected with the second input port of the seven-port network and a first output port connected with the transmission line; the conductor shell further comprises conductor partition plates which are arranged in each layer of conductor cavity and are provided with openings, and the conductor partition plates arranged in each layer of conductor cavity divide the layer of conductor cavity into a left conductor cavity and a right conductor cavity which are communicated with each other; a boss is fixedly arranged on one side of the insulating medium substrate in each layer of conductor cavity, and is clamped in an opening of the conductor partition plate in the layer of conductor cavity; the metal conductor sheet of the feed network in each layer of conductor cavity is arranged in the left conductor cavity, a port connected with the metal conductor sheet in the layer of conductor cavity penetrates through the left conductor cavity to extend into the right conductor cavity, the insulating medium substrates arranged on and under the upper layer of feed network are made of plastic foaming materials, and the upper layer of feed network and the two insulating medium substrates are fixedly connected through at least one insulating medium rod penetrating through the upper layer of feed network and the two insulating medium substrates.

2. The spatial stereoscopic phase shifter according to claim 1, wherein the conductor spacer comprises an upper conductor spacer disposed in the upper conductor cavity and a lower conductor spacer disposed in the lower conductor cavity, the upper conductor spacer dividing the upper conductor cavity into an upper left conductor cavity and an upper right conductor cavity, the lower conductor spacer dividing the lower conductor cavity into an lower left conductor cavity and a lower right conductor cavity; the top of the right lower layer conductor cavity is provided with a through hole, one end of the transmission line is arranged in the right lower layer conductor cavity, and the other end of the transmission line penetrates through the through hole and stretches into the right upper layer conductor cavity.

3. The spatial stereo phase shifter according to claim 2, wherein the lower conductor spacer is provided with a first opening and N second openings, the upper conductor spacer is provided with 6N third openings and N fourth openings, the first input ports extend from the lower left conductor cavity through the first openings into the lower right conductor cavity, and each first output port extends from the lower left conductor cavity through one of the second openings into the lower right conductor cavity; a second output port of each seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity through a third opening into the upper right conductor cavity, and a second input port of the seven-port network extends from the upper left conductor cavity through a fourth opening into the upper right conductor cavity.

4. A spatial stereoscopic phase shifter according to claim 1 or 3, wherein N is two.

5. A phase shifter assembly for a base station antenna, characterized in that the phase shifter assembly comprises two interconnected spatial stereo phase shifters as claimed in any one of claims 1-4, and that the two spatial stereo phase shifters are arranged in a left-right mirror image.