Antenna assembly
An antenna assembly may include a carrying structure having a number of faces, each face having at least partly a ground plane and each face being provided with at least one dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) element. The antenna assembly may include a controller arrangement, a switching arrangement connected to each of said DRA elements, the controller arrangement being configured to switch the antenna elements and alter frequency, polarization and/or radiation pattern of each DRA element.
1. An antenna assembly comprising:
a carrying structure having a number of faces, each face having at least partly a ground plane and each face being provided with at least one dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) element;
a controller arrangement;
an adder/weight controller;
a sensor;
a demodulator; and
a switching arrangement connected to each of the DRA elements, the controller arrangement to switch the antenna elements and alter at least one of frequency, polarization, or radiation pattern of each DRA element.
2. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , wherein each antenna element comprises:
a dielectric volume having a central axis normal to the ground plane; and
two or more mode-exciting elements, including, a first mode-exciting element provided in or attached to the dielectric volume and extending in a plane provided at a first distance from the central axis and being perpendicular to the ground plane, and a second mode-exciting element provided in or attached to the dielectric volume and extending in a plane provided at a second distance from the central axis and being perpendicular to both the ground plane and the plane of the first mode-exciting element.
3. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , further comprising:
a storage unit,
a passband processor, and
switching elements.
4. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a phase shifter.
5. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , further comprising an adaptive matching circuit.
6. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , where the carrying structure has a cubic shape.
7. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , where the carrying structure is at least one a spherical, a hemispherical, a cylindrical, a semi-cylindrical, a circular, a half-circular, or a pyramidal shape.
8. The antenna assembly of claim 1 , the antenna assembly being functionally associated with a MIMO (Multi-Input, Multi-Output), MISO (Multi-Input, Single-Output), SIMO (Single-Input, Multi-Output) or SISO (Single-Input, Single-Output) antenna system.
9. A communication device comprising:
a controller arrangement;
an adder/weight controller;
a sensor;
a demodulator; and
an antenna arrangement including:
a carrying structure having a number of faces, each face having at least partly a ground plane and each face being provided with at least one dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) element; and
a controller arrangement, a switching arrangement connected to each of the DRA elements, the controller arrangement to switch the antenna elements and alter at least one of frequency, polarization, or radiation pattern of each DRA element.
10. The device of claim 9 , where the antenna element comprises:
a dielectric volume having a central axis normal to the ground plane; and
a number of mode-exciting elements, including:
a first mode-exciting element provided in or attached to the dielectric volume and extending in a plane provided at a first distance from the central axis and being perpendicular to the ground plane, and
a second mode-exciting element provided in or attached to the dielectric volume and extending in a plane provided at a second distance from the central axis and being perpendicular to both the ground plane and the plane of the first mode-exciting element; and
a separate signal feeder for each mode-exciting element.
11. The communication device of claim 9 , where the communication device comprises a cellular phone.
12. The communication device of claim 9 , where the communication device comprises at least one of a base station, a wireless router/gateway, a communication card, a camera, a laptop, or a PDA.
13. A method of enhancing at least one diversity for weak S/N, strong fading, spatial division multiple access (SDMA) for multi-users, MIMO for data rate, strong S/N, strong fading, beam forming for weak S/N, weak fading, in a communication device, the method comprising:
using at least one dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) element on a carrying structure having a number of faces, each face having at least partly a ground plane and each face being provided with;
combining received or transmitted signals to a composite signal;
examining the composite signal; and
based on said examination, by means of a controller arrangement and a switching arrangement connected to each of the DRA elements switching the antenna elements and altering one or several of frequency, polarization, or radiation pattern of each DRA element.