JP2008263265A - Transparent antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transparent antenna which has low visibility and has superior transmission and reception characteristics. <P>SOLUTION: The transparent antenna which has a plurality of linear conductors 3 sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films 2 having transmissivity to visible light and is provided with a feed portion 5 on the insulating films 2 is characterized in that a conductive member 4 which connects the linear conductors 3 to one another is provided between the two insulating films 2 so as to come into direct contact with the linear conductors 3 and the conductive member 4 and feed portion 5 are electrostatically coupled with each other through the insulating films 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an antenna for wireless communication that receives a VHF band, a UHF band, and the like, and more particularly to a transparent antenna with reduced visibility of the antenna.

  A half-wave dipole antenna is used as an antenna element that transmits and receives a VHF band (30 to 300 MHz) and a UHF band (300 MHz to 3 GHz). As shown in FIG. 12, the half-wave dipole antenna (model) 80 includes a pair of conductors (conductor plates) 81 and a power feeding unit 82 connected to the conductors 81.

  As the antenna element, there is a film antenna in which the conductor 81 is formed by printing with a conductive paste or a linear conductor.

  The conductive length L is the half-wavelength in the most fundamental one, and for example, in an antenna that transmits and receives 500 MHz radio waves, the wavelength is 600 mm, so L = about 300 mm. In this case, as a practical dimension of the width W of the conductor 81, when using a copper wire having a low resistivity as the conductor 11, it is several mm or more to reduce the resistance in order to match the impedance with the power supply portion 82. It is common.

As a conventional antenna manufacturing method, there are the following methods.
(1) A conductive thin wire is passed through a dedicated tool (nozzle), and the track of the dedicated tool is moved while discharging the thin wire, and the thin wire is pasted on the adhesive sheet to form an antenna (drawing method, for example, patent document) 1).
(2) Prepare a base material, screen-print conductive ink using a mesh plate, and dry and harden this to form an antenna (paint method, for example, see Patent Document 2).
(3) Using a metal foil as a conductor, masking a portion to be left as an antenna, and removing a portion other than the portion to be left by etching to form a coil (etching method, for example, see Patent Document 3).

  In addition, there is a transparent antenna in which a linear conductor is embedded in a transparent film from the viewpoint of safety and harmony of the overall design due to reduced visibility of the appearance from the inside of the vehicle window, inside the car, around the TV receiver, etc. .

  As shown in FIG. 13, the transparent antenna 90 has a structure in which a plurality of linear conductors 92 are sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films 91 as an antenna element, and a metal is formed on the insulating film 91. The plate 93 is attached, and the metal plate 93 is connected to the cable 94 as a power feeding unit.

JP 2000-76398 A JP 2001-102745 A JP 2001-101371 A

  However, although the transparent antenna 90 of FIG. 13 is excellent in invisibility of the antenna, the portion where the linear conductor 2 and the metal plate 93 are electrostatically coupled because the extremely thin linear conductor 92 is used as the conductor. The area of is small. For this reason, the electrostatic coupling is weakened, and the impedance of the electrostatically coupled power feeding unit is large and the loss is increased. There is a problem that the level of transmission / reception of the antenna is lowered due to the large loss and sufficient transmission / reception becomes difficult.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a transparent antenna that solves the above-described problems, has difficulty in visibility, and has excellent transmission / reception characteristics.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that a plurality of linear conductors are sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films having visible light transmittance, and a power feeding portion is provided on the insulating film. In the provided transparent antenna, a conductive member for connecting the linear conductors is provided between the two insulating films so as to be in direct contact with the linear conductor, and the conductive member and the power feeding portion are statically interposed via the insulating film. It is a transparent antenna that is electrically coupled.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of holes are formed in the metal foil or metal plate for electrostatic coupling, and two insulating films are bonded through the holes.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the transparent antenna according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the conductive member is a metal foil or a metal plate.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the conductive member is one or a plurality of metal wires provided so as to intersect with the plurality of linear conductors on one side of the surface formed by the plurality of linear conductors. It is a transparent antenna of description.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the conductive member is one or a plurality of metal wires provided so as to intersect with the plurality of linear conductors, and the plurality of linear conductors and the metal wires form a braided structure. 2. The transparent antenna according to 2.

  The invention of claim 6 is a transparent antenna in which a plurality of linear conductors are sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films having visible light transparency, and a feeding portion is provided on the insulating film. A metal foil or metal plate as a conductive member for connecting the linear conductors to each other is provided in direct contact with the linear conductor, and a part of the insulating film on one or both sides of the conductive member is removed. The transparent antenna has a conductive member exposed and the exposed portion serving as a power feeding unit.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, a low melting point metal such as solder is provided at a contact portion between the plurality of linear conductors and the conductive member, and the low melting point metal is melted and fixed, whereby the plurality of linear conductors and the upper conductive member are provided. It is a transparent antenna in any one of Claims 1-6 connected with the member.

  The invention according to claim 8 is the transparent antenna according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the linear conductor has a diameter of 0.04 mm or less.

  The invention according to claim 9 is the transparent antenna according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the wiring interval of the plurality of linear conductors is 10 times or more the diameter of the linear conductor.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an excellent effect of providing a transparent antenna that is difficult to view and has excellent transmission / reception characteristics.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a preferred first embodiment of a transparent antenna according to the present invention, FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 1 (b) is a sectional view thereof.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the transparent antenna 1 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of long linear lines arranged in parallel between two insulating films 2 having visible light transparency. The conductor 3 and the plurality of linear conductors 3 are connected to each other, and a conductive member 4 that directly contacts the linear conductor 3 is sandwiched therebetween.

  The plurality of linear conductors 3 are formed to have the same length, and the interval between the linear conductors 3 is constant.

  In the present embodiment, the conductive member 4 is made of a metal foil or a metal plate, is in contact with one side of the plurality of linear conductors 3 arranged in parallel, and is interposed between the two insulating films 2. The insulating film 2 is preferably a film that has visible light permeability and flexibility, and in this case, the conductive member 4 is a metal foil that does not hinder the flexibility of the insulating film 2. Is preferred.

  The conductive member 4 is provided in contact with a part (end portion in FIG. 1) of each linear conductor 3, and the power feeding unit 5 is provided on the insulating film 2 (surface) above the conductive member 4. The power feeding unit 5 has the same shape as the conductive member 4, and the power feeding unit 5 and the conductive member 4 overlap with each other via the insulating film 2.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the power feeding unit 5 is an electrode to which an electric wire such as a coaxial cable 6 is connected, and is made of a metal foil (metal film). In FIG. 2, the inner conductor 7 of the coaxial cable 6 is connected to the power feeding unit 5, and the connection destination of the outer conductor 8 of the coaxial cable 6 is not illustrated, but the outer conductor 8 is an antenna other than the transparent antenna 1, an electronic device, or the like Connected to.

  In the present embodiment, an example in which the outer conductor 8 is connected (or grounded) to another electronic device and the transparent antenna is used as a monopole antenna will be described. However, the linear conductor 3, the inner conductor 7, and the outer conductor 8 Depending on the connection form, other antennas such as a dipole antenna and a loop antenna may be used.

  The operation of the present embodiment will be described.

  Hereinafter, a case where radio waves are received using the transparent antenna of the present embodiment will be described. However, even when radio waves are transmitted, only the propagation direction of the radio waves is different, and the other functions and effects are the same.

  When current is induced in each of the linear conductors 3 (one by one) of the transparent antenna 1, these currents flow through the conductive member 4 connected to the end of the linear conductor 3. Since the conductive member 4 faces the power supply unit 5 with the insulating film 2 interposed therebetween, electrostatic coupling occurs between the conductive member 4 and the power supply unit 5, and received power is obtained through the power supply unit 5 (coaxial cable 6 Propagate to).

  In the transparent antenna 1 of the present embodiment, a conductive member 4 that connects the linear conductors 3 to each other is provided between the multiple linear conductors 3 and the power feeding portion 5 so as to be in direct contact with the linear conductors 3. Thus, the conductive member 4 and the power feeding unit 5 are electrostatically coupled. Therefore, compared with the conventional antenna (see FIG. 13) in which the linear conductor 92 and the power feeding portion 93 are electrostatically coupled, the area of the electrostatic coupling portion is increased, so that the loss due to electrostatic coupling is reduced (impedance And the reception level of the antenna can be increased (the impedance is matched with the connected coaxial cable).

  Further, in the transparent antenna 1 of FIG. 1, the lengths of the plurality of linear conductors 3 are the same, so that the received power from each linear conductor 3 is in phase in the conductive member 4 (feeding unit 5). Is synthesized. The linear conductor 3 has a high resistance because the conductor diameter is small. However, in the transparent antenna 1 in which the linear conductors 3 are connected to the conductive member 4 in parallel, if the number N of the linear conductors 3 is sufficiently large, the transparent antenna 1 The resistance value of 1 is 1 / N. Therefore, resistance loss can be reduced, and impedance matching can be easily achieved.

For example, based on FIG. 13, using a silver-plated copper alloy wire having a resistance value of 1.5 × 10 ⁻⁸ Ω having a diameter of 0.02 mm, L (= wavelength / 2) = 300 mm for 500 MHz (wavelength 600 mm) When considering a dipole antenna, the high-frequency resistance of the L portion (corresponding to the linear conductor 3) is about 150Ω for a single wire, and is much larger than the radiation resistance 73.13Ω of the antenna, so that the heat loss increases. However, if the number N of the linear conductors 3 is 50, the high-frequency resistance is as small as about 3Ω, and the heat loss is negligible.

  At this time, if the interval between the linear conductors is 0.2 mm, which is 10 times the conductor diameter, the width occupied by the portion where the linear conductors 3 are wired is about 10 mm, which is a general antenna size, and is invisible. Can be obtained.

  When viewing the linear conductor away from a distance of 250 mm, when the general visual acuity index (fractional visual acuity) is 2.0, the visual recognition ability with a general naked eye is about φ0.04 mm. If the diameter of the linear conductor is φ0.04 mm or less, preferably φ0.02 mm or less, it becomes difficult to see the linear conductor 3.

  If the distance between the adjacent linear conductors 3 is 10 times or more the conductor diameter, the area blocked by the linear conductors 3 is 10% or less of the entire antenna area, and the transparency of the transparent antenna is reduced. Therefore, the distance between the linear conductors 3 is desirably 10 times or more of the conductor diameter.

  In order to make the visibility of the linear conductor 3 difficult, it is desirable that the surface of the linear conductor 3 is light and dull in tin or silver rather than dark in color such as copper or brass.

  Further, the number of the linear conductors 3 is not particularly limited as long as the number is sufficient to obtain sufficient power supply. The interval between the linear conductors 3 is not limited to an equal interval, and each may be a different interval. An adhesive layer may be provided between the two insulating films 2. The thickness, type, and bonding method (for example, rolling bonding) of the two insulating films 2 are not particularly limited.

  3 (a) and 3 (b) show a modification of the transparent antenna of FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, in this modification, the conductive member 9 made of a metal foil is in contact with the linear conductor 3 on both sides thereof. That is, the conductive member 9 is provided so as to have a cross-sectional wave shape (FIG. 3B) passing between the adjacent linear conductors 3.

  Next, a second embodiment of the transparent antenna will be described.

  In the first embodiment, the conductive member 4 is made of a metal foil or a metal plate. However, in this embodiment, the conductive member is made of one or a plurality of metal wires.

  As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, in the transparent antenna 10 of the present embodiment, a plurality of metal wires 11 intersect the linear conductor 2 at an angle of approximately 90 °. However, each of the plurality of metal wires 11 is in contact with the linear conductor 3 on one side of the plurality of linear conductors 3. Here, the one side of the plurality of linear conductors 3 indicates a surface on one side of the surface formed by the plurality of linear conductors 3.

  The transparent antenna 10 of the present embodiment also has the same effect as the transparent antenna 1 of the previous embodiment because the area of the conductive member (11) that is electrostatically coupled to the power feeding unit 5 is increased.

  FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B show a modification of the transparent antenna of FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, in this modification, each metal wire 13 crosses the linear conductor 3 through the adjacent linear conductors 3. That is, in the transparent antenna 12, the end portion of the linear conductor 3 (below the feeding portion) and the metal wire 13 form a knitted structure, and the portion of the knitted structure corresponds to a conductive member.

  Next, a third embodiment of the transparent antenna will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, the transparent antenna 15 of the present embodiment is basically the same as the transparent antenna 1 of FIG. 1 described above except that a conductive member is used. The difference is that a plurality of holes (through holes) 17 are formed in the metal foil 16 to be formed.

  The transparent antenna 15 of the present embodiment has the same function and effect as the transparent antenna 1 of FIG. In addition, since a plurality of holes 17 are formed in the metal foil 16 in the transparent antenna 15, the two insulating films 2 are bonded through the holes 16, thereby strengthening the bonding of the insulating film 2. be able to.

  Next, a fourth embodiment of the transparent antenna will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the transparent antenna 20 of the present embodiment is
Although the basic structure is the same as that of the transparent antenna 1 of FIG. 1, a part 21 of the insulating film on one side or both sides (one side in the figure) of the conductive member 4 is removed to expose a part of the conductive member 4, A part of the exposed conductive member is used as the power feeding unit 22.

  As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the inner conductor 7 of the coaxial cable is connected to a power feeding portion 22 formed by a part of the conductive member 4.

  According to the transparent antenna 20 of the present embodiment, the impedance of the power feeding unit 22 can be reduced by directly connecting the inner conductor 7 of the coaxial cable 6 to the exposed conductive member 4 (power feeding unit 22).

  Next, a fifth embodiment of the transparent antenna will be described.

  As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the transparent antenna 30 of the present embodiment is similar to the transparent antenna 20 of FIG. 8 in the contact portion between the linear conductor 3 and the conductive member 4 such as solder. A low melting point metal 31 is provided. After the low melting point metal 31 is provided at the contact portion between the linear conductor 3 and the conductive member 4, the low melting point metal 31 is melted by applying heat to the conductive member 4, and the low melting point metal 31 is fixed. The conductor 3 and the conductive member 4 are in reliable contact (electrical connection) (preventing separation of the linear conductor 3 and the conductive member 4). Thereby, the resistance between the linear conductor 3 and the conductive member 4 can be reduced.

  In the figure, reference numeral 32 denotes solder for bonding the inner conductor 8 of the coaxial cable 6 and the power feeding portion 22.

  The transparent antenna 30 of the present embodiment has the same basic structure as the transparent antenna 20 of the fourth embodiment, but the low melting point metal 31 may be provided in the transparent antenna of the first to third embodiments described above. Good.

  Moreover, the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention can be applied as a transparent electromagnetic wave shielding film which is difficult to visually recognize by making a linear conductor into a grid | lattice form or a mesh. This makes it possible to block electromagnetic waves without impairing visibility by applying to a window glass or cathode ray tube surface of a house or a cover for protecting the face.

  As described above, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to these examples.
Example 1
Ten matte silver-plated copper alloy conductors with a diameter of 0.02 mm are arranged in parallel at equal intervals of 1.5 mm, and two insulating films having visible light transparency and self-bonding properties (for example, acrylic and poly A transparent conductor was formed by sandwiching a linear conductor with vinyl chloride), applying heat at 120 ° C., and crimping. The length of the transparent antenna was set to 140 mm. Moreover, as a conductive member, a copper foil having a width of 16 mm and a height of 5 mm and a thickness of 0.05 mm was sandwiched so as to be in contact with all ten linear conductors. From the top of the insulating film, a copper plate of the same size was pasted so as to overlap with the place where the copper foil was sandwiched, and electrostatically coupled with the copper foil to obtain a power feeding part. Thereafter, a copper plate and a coaxial cable were connected to produce a monopole antenna, and its return loss characteristics were evaluated.
(Example 2)
Thickness of two insulating films (for example, polyethylene terephthalate and polycarbonate) in which 10 matte silver-plated copper alloy conductors 10 having a diameter of 0.02 mm are arranged in parallel at an equal interval of 1.5 mm and have visible light transmittance A transparent antenna was formed by sandwiching a linear conductor with a thickness of 0.012 mm and an adhesive layer thickness of 0.015 mm, and applying heat at 120 ° C. and pressing. The length of the transparent antenna was set to 140 mm. Moreover, as a conductive member, a copper foil having a width of 16 mm and a height of 5 mm and a thickness of 0.05 mm was sandwiched so as to be in contact with all ten linear conductors. From the top of the insulating film, a copper plate of the same size was pasted and electrostatically coupled with the copper foil so that it overlapped with the location where the copper foil was sandwiched to form a power feeding part. After that, a monopole antenna was manufactured by connecting a copper plate and a cable, and its return loss characteristic was evaluated.
(Comparative Example 1)
Ten matte silver-plated copper alloy conductors with a diameter of 0.02 mm are arranged in parallel at equal intervals of 1.5 mm, and two sheets of insulating film (for example, acrylic) having visible light permeability and self-bonding properties. A transparent antenna was formed by sandwiching a linear conductor and applying heat at 120 ° C. for pressure bonding. The length of the transparent antenna was set to 140 mm. A copper plate having a width of 16 mm and a height of 5 mm was electrostatically coupled to the attached conductor from above the insulating film to form a power feeding unit. After that, a monopole antenna was manufactured by connecting a copper plate and a cable, and its return loss characteristic was evaluated.
(Comparative Example 2)
10 matte silver-plated copper alloy conductors with a diameter of 0.02 mm are arranged in parallel at equal intervals of 1.5 mm, and the thickness of two insulating films (for example, polyethylene terephthalate and polycarbonate) having visible light transmission properties. A transparent antenna was formed by sandwiching a linear conductor with a thickness of 0.012 mm and an adhesive layer thickness of 0.015 mm, and applying heat at 120 ° C. for pressure bonding. The length of the transparent antenna was set to 140 mm. A copper plate having a width of 16 mm and a height of 5 mm was electrostatically coupled to the attached conductor from above the insulating film to form a power feeding unit. After that, a monopole antenna was manufactured by connecting a copper plate and a cable, and its return loss characteristic was evaluated.

  Here, FIG. 10 shows the antenna characteristics (return loss characteristics) of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, and FIG. 11 shows the antenna characteristics of Example 2 and Comparative Example 2, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the return loss is improved over the peak frequency (600 MHz) and the entire frequency range of the characteristics of Example 1 (Example 2) compared to the characteristics of Comparative Example 1 (Comparative Example 2). I understand that.

It is a figure which shows 1st Embodiment of the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows the example which connected the coaxial cable to the transparent antenna of FIG. 1, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows the modification of the transparent antenna of FIG. 1, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows 2nd Embodiment of the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows the modification of the transparent antenna of FIG. 4, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows 3rd Embodiment of the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows 4th Embodiment of the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows the example which connected the coaxial cable to the transparent antenna of FIG. 7, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. It is a figure which shows 5th Embodiment of the transparent antenna which concerns on this invention, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing. 5 is a graph showing return loss characteristics of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1. It is a graph which shows the return loss characteristic of Example 2 and Comparative Example 2. It is a circuit diagram which shows the structure of a dipole antenna. It is a figure which shows 3rd Embodiment of the conventional transparent antenna, (a) is the top view, (b) is the sectional drawing.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transparent antenna 2 Insulating film 3 Linear conductor 4 Conductive member 5 Feeding part 6 Coaxial cable 7 Inner conductor 8 Outer conductor 11 Metal wire 17 Hole 31 Low melting point metal

Claims (9)

In a transparent antenna in which a plurality of linear conductors are sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films having visible light transparency, and a feeding portion is provided on the insulating film,
Between the two insulating films, a conductive member for connecting the linear conductors is provided so as to be in direct contact with the linear conductor, and the conductive member and the feeding portion are electrostatically coupled via the insulating film. A transparent antenna characterized in that   2. The transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of holes are formed in the metal foil or metal plate for electrostatic coupling, and two insulating films are bonded through the holes.   The transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein the conductive member is a metal foil or a metal plate.   3. The transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein the conductive member is one or a plurality of metal wires provided to intersect with the plurality of linear conductors on one side of a surface formed by the plurality of linear conductors. .   3. The conductive member according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the conductive member is one or a plurality of metal wires provided so as to intersect with the plurality of linear conductors, and the plurality of linear conductors and the metal wire form a knitted structure. Transparent antenna. In a transparent antenna in which a plurality of linear conductors are sandwiched in parallel between two insulating films having visible light transparency, and a feeding portion is provided on the insulating film,
Between the two insulating films, a metal foil or a metal plate is provided so as to be in direct contact with the linear conductor as a conductive member for connecting the linear conductors to each other, and the insulating film on one side or both sides of the conductive member is provided. A transparent antenna, wherein a part of the conductive member is removed, and the exposed portion is used as the feeding portion.   A low melting point metal such as solder is provided at a contact portion between the plurality of linear conductors and the conductive member, and the low melting point metal is melted and fixed to connect the plurality of linear conductors to the upper conductive member. The transparent antenna according to claim 1.   The transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein the linear conductor has a diameter of 0.04 mm or less.   The transparent antenna according to claim 1, wherein a wiring interval between the plurality of linear conductors is 10 times or more a diameter of the linear conductor.

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