Antenna system with switchable horizontal half-power beamwidth
An antenna system with a switchable horizontal half-power beamwidth includes: a ground plane module including rows of patch groups that jointly form a ground plane; an antenna unit spaced apart from the ground plane by an interval; and a control module that can receive at least one beam control message. Each two adjacent rows of the patch groups are provided therebetween with at least one switching unit. The control module can bring each of the at least one switching unit to be turned on or turned off according to contents of the at least one beam control message, so as to adjust the electrical properties of the ground plane and change the horizontal half-power beamwidth of the antenna unit. Accordingly, the antenna system has a relatively low-profile spatial property, and requires no extra mechanism design for horizontal half-power beamwidth adjustment and switching based on practical needs.
1 . An antenna system with a switchable horizontal half-power beamwidth, comprising:
a ground plane module comprising:
a substrate having a first side and second side;
at least one switching unit;
a metal grounding element provided on the first side of the substrate; and
first patch groups in rows that are distributed on the second side of the substrate along a first axial direction, are respectively electrically connected to the metal grounding element, and jointly form a ground plane, wherein each two adjacent rows of the first patch groups are spaced apart by a first group distance and electrically connected to each other through the at least one switching unit;
an antenna unit spaced apart from the ground plane by an interval; and
a control module electrically connected to the at least one switching unit and configured to control directly or indirectly each of the at least one switching unit to be turned on or turned off, receive at least one beam control message, and bring each of the at least one switching unit to be turned on or turned off according to contents of the at least one beam control message, so as to adjust electrical properties of the ground plane and change a horizontal half-power beamwidth of the antenna unit.
2 . The antenna system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the first patch groups comprises a plurality of metal patch elements, each of the metal patch elements is electrically connected to the metal grounding element, at least two of the metal patch elements that are in the same row are spaced apart from each other by an element distance and arranged along a second axial direction perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the first axial direction, each two adjacent rows of the first patch groups are electrically connected to each other through a plurality of switching units, and each two of the metal patch elements that are in two adjacent rows and corresponding to each other are electrically connected to each other by a corresponding one of the switching units.
3 . The antenna system according to claim 2 , wherein each of the metal patch elements is electrically connected to the metal grounding element through a corresponding conductor portion.
4 . The antenna system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one second patch group in at least one row that is distributed on the second side of the substrate along the first axial direction and electrically connected to the metal grounding element, wherein at least one of the at least one row of the at least one second patch group is adjacent to and spaced apart by a second group distance from one of the first patch groups.
5 . The antenna system according to claim 4 , wherein each of the at least one row of the at least one second patch group comprises a plurality of metal patch elements, each of the metal patch elements is electrically connected to the metal grounding element through a corresponding conductor portion, and at least two of the metal patch elements that are in the same row are spaced apart from each other by an element distance and arranged along a second axial direction perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the first axial direction.
6 . The antenna system according to claim 4 , wherein the second group distance is equal or substantially equal to the first group distance.
7 . The antenna system according to claim 5 , wherein each of the first patch groups comprises a plurality of metal patch elements, at least two of the metal patch elements of each of the first patch groups that are in the same row are spaced apart from each other by an element distance, and the element distance spacing apart the at least two of the metal patch elements of each of the at least one second patch group is equal or substantially equal to the element distance spacing apart the at least two of the metal patch elements of each of the first patch groups.
8 . The antenna system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the at least one switching unit is a diode, a high-electron-mobility transistor or a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor.
9 . The antenna system according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna unit is a dipole antenna or a patch antenna.
10 . The antenna system according to claim 1 , wherein the interval is or substantially equals to 0.1 to 0.15 times a free-space wavelength corresponding to an operation frequency of the antenna unit.