Disclosure of Invention
The application aims at providing a slot antenna, a touch pen and electronic equipment, and solves the problem that the existing array antenna is large in size and difficult to integrate in small electronic equipment.
In order to solve the technical problem, the present application is implemented as follows:
in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a slot antenna, including:
the liquid crystal display panel comprises a metal layer, a liquid crystal layer and a metal stratum, wherein the metal layer, the liquid crystal layer and the metal stratum are annular and are sequentially sleeved from outside to inside;
the metal layer is provided with a plurality of gap units which are spirally arranged along the surface of the metal layer;
the metal connecting pieces penetrate through the metal layer, the liquid crystal layer and the metal ground layer respectively, are distributed on two sides or one side of the gap units and are integrally spiral;
the plurality of metal connecting pieces and the plurality of gap units form a waveguide gap structure, the first end of the waveguide gap structure is connected with the first feeding port, and the second end of the waveguide gap structure is connected with the second feeding port.
The embodiment of the application provides a pair of slot antenna, the slot unit is for seting up cross gap or strip gap on the metal level.
According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, along the radial direction of the metal layer, the distance between every two adjacent slot units is larger than three-fourths of the working wavelength.
According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the first feed port and the second feed port are respectively connected with the waveguide feed structure through the microstrip waveguide conversion structure.
According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the microstrip waveguide conversion structure is a gradient microstrip line.
According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the distance between every two adjacent metal connecting pieces is smaller than one tenth of the working wavelength.
The embodiment of the application provides a pair of slot antenna, slot antenna still includes the dielectric layer, the metal level with between the liquid crystal layer with all be equipped with between the metal stratum the dielectric layer, a plurality of metal connecting pieces run through the dielectric layer.
According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the dielectric layer is a high-frequency dielectric layer.
In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a stylus, including:
a hollow housing comprising a slot antenna according to the first aspect;
a nib conductor;
the pen point shell is internally provided with the pen point conductor and fixedly arranged at the first end of the outer shell;
and the circuit board is arranged in the shell and is electrically connected with the metal ground layer and the pen point conductor respectively.
In a third aspect,
an embodiment of the present application further provides an electronic device, including:
an apparatus main body;
a stylus according to the second aspect;
wherein the stylus is detachably mounted to the apparatus main body.
In the embodiment of the application, the plurality of slot units are spirally arranged along the surface of the metal layer, and the plurality of metal connecting pieces are spirally arranged on two sides or one side of the slot units, so that the waveguide slot structure can be fed by means of the same feeding structure, and single feeding is realized to simplify the antenna structure; and arranging a liquid crystal layer between the metal layer and the metal ground layer, and controlling the phase of the slit unit by changing the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer after pressurization. Compared with a traditional array antenna, the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application adopts the SIW technology and the liquid crystal material, can realize feed and phase control without setting complex structures such as a power divider and phase control, effectively reduces the size of the antenna, and provides conditions for being applied to small electronic equipment.
Additional aspects and advantages of the present application will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present application.
Detailed Description
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present application, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar function throughout. The embodiments described below with reference to the drawings are exemplary only for the purpose of explaining the present application and are not to be construed as limiting the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.
In the description of the present application, it is to be understood that the terms "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "upper," "lower," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "axial," "radial," and the like are used in the orientations and positional relationships indicated in the drawings for convenience in describing the present application and for simplicity in description, and are not intended to indicate or imply that the referenced devices or elements must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and are not to be considered limiting of the present application.
The structure of a slot antenna according to an embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 1 to 2.
As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, an embodiment of the present invention provides a slot antenna, which includes a metal layer 10, a liquid crystal layer 20, and a metal ground layer 30, wherein the metal layer 10, the liquid crystal layer 20, and the metal ground layer 30 are annular and sequentially sleeved from outside to inside. The metal layer 10 is provided with a plurality of slit units 11, and the metal layer 10, the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal ground layer 30 are provided with a plurality of metal connectors 12 penetrating through the metal layer. The plurality of slit units 11 are spirally arranged along the surface of the metal layer 10 to form a spiral slit unit array, and the plurality of metal connectors 12 are spirally arranged on two sides or one side of the plurality of slit units 11. The plurality of slot units 11 and the plurality of metal connectors 12 form a waveguide slot structure, a first end of the waveguide slot structure is connected with the first feed port 13, and a second end of the waveguide slot structure is connected with the second feed port 14.
It should be noted that the metal layer 10, the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal ground layer 30 may be circular rings, square rings or rings with other geometric shapes, and the application is not limited thereto. It is understood that in some embodiments of the present application, the slot antenna further includes a substrate, the substrate is a solid structure, and the metal layer 10, the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal ground layer 30 are sequentially sleeved on an outer surface of the substrate from outside to inside. According to further embodiments of the present application, the slot antenna is a hollow structure, for example, the inner wall of the hollow structure is formed by the metal ground layer 30, and the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal layer 10 are sequentially disposed from inside to outside. In some embodiments of the present application, the metal connecting member 12 is a through hole structure, and a wall of the through hole structure is provided with a metal layer. In other embodiments of the present application, the metal connecting member 12 is a solid cylinder, the outer surface of the cylinder is provided with a metal layer or the cylinder is a metal column.
The slot cells 11 are arranged spirally along the surface of the metal layer 10, thereby forming a continuous slot cell array. As shown in fig. 2, in the expanded view of the slot antenna, a row of metal connectors 12 is disposed on each of two sides of the slot unit 11, so as to form an isolation strip, and waveguide propagation is realized on the metal layer 10 to form a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW), where the Substrate integrated waveguide and the slot unit array form a waveguide slot structure. In some embodiments of the present application, the metal connectors 12 are arranged on a single side of the slot units 11, and correspondingly, in the expanded view of the slot antenna, a single row of metal connectors 12 is formed between two adjacent rows of slot units 11.
Fig. 2 is an expanded schematic view of the slot antenna provided in the present application, and when a plurality of metal connectors 12 are disposed on two sides of the slot units 11, as shown in fig. 2, sixteen slot units 11 are obliquely arranged into four rows, each row corresponds to four slot units 11, and the four rows are sequentially a first row, a second row, a third row and a fourth row from bottom to top. One row of metal connecting pieces 12 are arranged below the first row of slit units 11 and above the fourth row of slit units 11 respectively, and two rows of metal connecting pieces 12 are arranged between the other two rows of slit units 11. After winding, the metal connectors 12 are in two spiral structures and are arranged on both sides of the slit unit 11. After winding, the start of the first row is connected to the first feeding port 13 located below, the end of the first row is connected to the start of the second row, the end of the second row is connected to the start of the third row, the end of the third row is connected to the start of the fourth row, and the end of the fourth row is connected to the second feeding port 14. In still other embodiments of the present application, a plurality of metal connectors 12 are disposed on one side of the slot unit 11, specifically, taking an expanded view of the slot antenna as an example, one row of metal connectors 12 is disposed below the first row of slot units 11 and above the fourth row of slot units 11, only one row of metal connectors 12 is disposed between the other two rows of slot units, and after winding, the metal connectors 12 are also formed on both sides of the slot unit 11. It should be understood that the number of the slot units 11 is not limited to sixteen, the number of the deployed arrangement rows of the slot antenna is not limited to four, and the number of the slot units 11 and the number of the deployed arrangement rows may be specifically selected according to actual needs, and will not be described in detail herein.
According to the slot antenna of the embodiment of the application, the plurality of slot units 11 are spirally arranged along the surface of the metal layer 10, so that the whole waveguide slot structure can be fed from the first feed port 13 and the second feed port 14 by means of the same feed structure, and single feed is realized to simplify the antenna structure; the liquid crystal layer 20 is disposed between the metal layer 10 and the metal ground layer 30, the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer 20 changes after the metal layer 10 and the metal ground layer 30 are energized, and the phase of the slit cell 11 is controlled by changing the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer 20. Compared with a traditional array antenna, the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application adopts the SIW technology and the liquid crystal material, can realize feed and phase control without setting complex structures such as a power divider and phase control, effectively reduces the size of the antenna, and provides conditions for being applied to small electronic equipment.
As shown in fig. 2, the slit unit 11 is a cross-shaped slit opened on the metal layer 10. The vertical length L1 and the transverse length L2 of the cross-shaped slot are both one-half of the operating wavelength. As shown in fig. 2, if the distance between the metal connectors 12 at both sides of the cross-shaped gap is a, that is, the width of the metal cavity formed by the metal connectors 12 is a, the transverse electric wave TE in the metal cavity is10Has a wavelength of 2a, and is to convert the transverse electric wave TE in the metal cavity10Converted into the radiated electromagnetic wave, the vertical length L1 and the transverse length L2 of the cross-shaped slot are both a. The transverse line of the cross-shaped slit may be parallel to the horizontal direction or may be inclined with respect to the horizontal direction. In addition, the slit unit 11 is an elongated slit opened on the metal layer 10, and the length of the elongated slit is also one half of the operating wavelength. Similarly, the elongated slits may be disposed parallel to the horizontal direction, may be disposed perpendicular to the horizontal direction, or may be disposed inclined to either side with respect to the horizontal direction.
As shown in fig. 2, in the radial direction of the metal layer 10, the distance between two adjacent slit units 11 is d, and d is greater than three-quarters of the operating wavelength. It can be understood that the larger the spacing d between two adjacent slot elements 11, the better the waveguide isolation will be, thereby enabling a wide-angle beam sweep.
In one embodiment, the first feeding port 13 and the second feeding port 14 are respectively connected to the waveguide slot structure through a microstrip-waveguide transition structure. The TE mode and the TM mode of the excitation metal cavity need waveguide feed, and the first feed port 13 and the second feed port 14 respectively adopt microstrip line feed, and therefore, a microstrip waveguide conversion structure is arranged between the first feed port 13 and the starting end of the first row of slot units 11 to convert a traveling wave into a waveguide, thereby realizing impedance matching. Similarly, another microstrip-waveguide transition structure is arranged between the second feed port 14 and the end of the fourth row of slot units 11, so that impedance matching is realized.
Specifically, the microstrip waveguide transition structures are respectively provided with tapered microstrip lines 15. One end of the gradient microstrip line 15 is shown in fig. 2, the lower gradient microstrip line 15 is trapezoidal, the long bottom of the trapezoid is connected with the metal cavity, and the top edge of the trapezoid is connected with the first feed port 13. Similarly, the gradually changing microstrip line 15 located above is in a trapezoid shape, the long bottom of the trapezoid is connected with the metal cavity, and the top side of the trapezoid is connected with the second feed port 14.
The spacing between two adjacent metal connectors 12 is less than one tenth of the operating wavelength. As shown in fig. 2, in each row of metal connectors 12, the distance between two adjacent metal connectors 12 is less than one tenth of the operating wavelength, so that a closed metal cavity can be formed, and the isolation of the slot antenna is improved. The metal connecting member 12 may be circular, square or other geometric shapes, which is not limited in this application.
As shown in fig. 1, the slot antenna further includes a dielectric layer 40, the dielectric layer 40 is disposed between the metal layer 10 and the liquid crystal layer 20 and between the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal ground layer 30, and the plurality of metal connectors 12 penetrate through the dielectric layer 40. According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the dielectric layers 40 are arranged between the metal layer 10 and the liquid crystal layer 20 and between the liquid crystal layer 20 and the metal ground layer 30, so that the loss of millimeter wave signals in the inward transmission process from the metal layer 10 is reduced.
Optionally, the dielectric layer 40 is made of a high frequency dielectric. Specifically, the dielectric layer 40 is made of a high-frequency dielectric material produced by Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC), such as Ferro A6M or Ferro A6S.
The liquid crystal layer 20 includes two alignment layers 21 and a liquid crystal material 22 filled between the two alignment layers 21. The voltage-adjustable dielectric constant range of the liquid crystal layer 20 is Er 1-Er 2, wherein Er1 is the minimum value of the adjustable dielectric constant, and Er2 is the maximum value of the adjustable dielectric constant. According to the slot antenna provided by the embodiment of the application, the initial arrangement mode of the liquid crystal material 22 fixed by the two alignment layers 21 is adopted, so that the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer 20 is fixed at the initial minimum value Er 1. Optionally, the liquid crystal layer 20 is made of a liquid crystal material with low loss of millimeter wave band.
For ease of understanding, the principle of the slot antenna according to the embodiment of the present application is described with reference to fig. 3.
As shown in FIG. 2, the distance d between two adjacent cross-shaped slits is a distance, and when the voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer 20 is changed, the phase shift speed β of the liquid crystal layer 20 is changed, so as to change the phase difference Δ φ between two slit units, and the control range of the phase difference Δ φ is determined by the minimum value Er1 and the maximum value Er2 of the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer 20. The influence factor of the phase shift speed β is determined by the type of liquid crystal material, which is known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.
Specifically, the phase difference is calculated by the following formula:
Δφ=β×d
as shown in fig. 2, the slot elements 11 are cross-shaped slots, four slot elements 11 located in the leftmost row form a left scanning basic unit, and when power is fed from the first power feeding port 13, the beam phases of the four slot elements 11 from bottom to top in the left scanning basic unit are arranged from small to large, and the beam scanning range of the slot antenna corresponds to the scanning range of the beam 1 to the beam 5 in fig. 3; when feeding is performed from the second feeding port 14, the beam phases of the four slot elements 11 from top to bottom in the left scanning basic element are arranged from small to large, and the beam scanning range thereof corresponds to the scanning range of the beams 5 to 9 in fig. 3. The scanning principle of the other three rows of slot units 11 of the slot antenna is similar to that of the left scanning basic unit, and the scanning principle is not described in detail.
The structure of a stylus according to an embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 4.
In an embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a stylus 100, as shown in fig. 4, the stylus 100 including a housing 101, a tip conductor 102, a tip housing 103, a cap 104, and a circuit board 105. Wherein the housing 101 is a hollow structure, including the slot antenna formation as described above. Specifically, in some embodiments of the present application, the inner wall of the housing 101 is the metal ground layer 30, and the outer wall of the housing 101 is the metal layer 10; in other embodiments of the present application, the housing 101 includes a hollow substrate, and a metal ground layer 30, a liquid crystal layer 20, and a metal layer 10 coated outside the substrate, which is not limited in this embodiment. The nib conductor 102 is mounted in a nib housing 103, the nib housing 103 is fixedly mounted at a first end of the casing 101, and the cap 104 is fixed at a second end of the casing 101; wherein the first end of the housing 101 is opposite to the second end of the housing 101. The circuit board 105 is mounted within the housing 101. In other embodiments of the present application, the second end of the casing 101 is closed, and the pen cap 104 is not separately provided.
The operation principle of the stylus pen will be described in detail below by taking the inner wall of the casing 101 as the metal ground layer 30 and the outer wall of the casing 101 as the metal layer 10. Specifically, the nib conductor 102 is made of conductive metal, the nib housing 103 is made of plastic, and the nib conductor 102 is clamped in the nib housing 103. The stylus housing 103 is mounted at a first end of the housing 101 and is sealed with a setting gel. The pen cap 104 is provided with a clamping groove matched with the top end of the circuit board 105, and the circuit board 105 is fixed in the shell 101 through the clamping groove, so that the circuit board 105 is prevented from shaking due to external operation. In addition, other securing structures may be used to mount the circuit board 105. The joint of the pen cap 104 and the casing 101 is sealed by a solidified glue. The tip conductor 102 is electrically connected to the circuit board 105. When the nib conductor 102 makes contact with the touch screen of the electronic device, a voltage signal is transmitted through the nib conductor 102 to the circuit board 105, and is applied to the inner wall of the housing 101, i.e., the metal ground 30, via the circuit board 105. It should be noted that, when the housing 101 has other structural forms, it is understood that the voltage loading can be realized by adapting the circuit connection structure.
The stylus 100 provided by the present application may adopt a circuit board 105 structure in an existing stylus, which is not described in detail herein.
The structure of an electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 5 to 6.
In an embodiment of the present application, an electronic device is further provided, which includes a stylus pen 100 and a device main body 200, wherein the stylus pen 100 is detachably mounted on the device main body 200. Taking a mobile phone as an example, as shown in fig. 5, the stylus pen 100 may be mounted on one side of the back surface of the apparatus main body 200, for example. It is understood that the stylus pen 100 may be installed at any one of the four sides of the mobile phone, and the application is not limited thereto.
In order to cooperate with the stylus pen 100, the apparatus body 200 is integrated with an electronic system through which a voltage is supplied to the stylus pen 100. As shown in fig. 6, in an embodiment of the present application, the electronic system includes a voltage module 201, a radio frequency module 202, an inductor 203, a capacitor 204, a combiner 205, and a switch 206. The voltage module 201 is used for applying a voltage to two sides of the liquid crystal layer 20 and controlling an arrangement mode of liquid crystal molecules. The rf module 202 is configured to convert the low frequency signal into a millimeter wave signal. Inductor 203 is used to isolate the millimeter wave signal of rf module 202, reducing energy loss. The inductance is 90-110nH, for example, the inductance is 90nH, 100nH or 110nH, and is selected according to the requirement. The capacitor 204 is used for isolating the dc voltage signal provided by the voltage module 201 and protecting the rf module 202. The capacitor 204 has a size of 90-110pF, for example, the capacitor 204 is 90pF, 100pF or 110pF, and is selected according to the requirement. The combiner 205 combines the dc voltage signal and the millimeter wave signal into a combined signal. In one embodiment, the switch 206 may select to feed the combined signal from the top port, i.e., the second feed port 14, on the outer surface of the housing 101 to the slot antenna. In another embodiment, feeding to the slot antenna from the bottom port, i.e. the first feeding port 13, of the outer surface of the housing 101 may be selected. The positive voltage and the millimeter wave signal are combined by the combiner 205 and then transmitted to the metal layer 10, and the negative voltage is transmitted to the metal layer 30 through the pen tip conductor 102.
The electronic device provided by the embodiment of the application has the advantages that the electronic system for realizing beam scanning is simple in structure, and the space of the integrated circuit board in the electronic device can be effectively reduced.
Other configurations of electronic devices according to embodiments of the present application, such as the composition and installation of electronic systems, are known to those of ordinary skill in the art and are described only briefly above and will not be described in detail.
In the electronic device provided in the embodiment of the present application, the stylus 100 can be detached from the device main body 200 to be used as a stylus of the electronic device, and when the electronic device is installed on the device main body 200, the stylus 100 can be used as a millimeter wave antenna array.
In addition, the present application also provides an electronic device including the slot antenna and the device body 200 as described above, wherein the slot antenna is mounted on the device body 200 and used as an antenna. The electronic equipment provided by the embodiment of the application has a small slot antenna structure, and can effectively reduce the space occupied in the equipment main body 200.
The electronic device may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, an electronic reader, or the like, and certainly, the electronic device disclosed in the embodiment of the present application may also be other types of electronic devices, and the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the specific types of the electronic devices.
In the description herein, reference to the description of the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an illustrative embodiment," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples" or the like means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the application. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.
While embodiments of the present application have been shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the application, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.