JP2003037541A - Wireless device and wireless communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a wireless device and a wireless communication system in which an increase in the outer shape is suppressed and axis alignment is easy. Further, the present invention provides a wireless device and a wireless communication system with low loss even when a millimeter wave is used as a carrier wave. SOLUTION: A wide beam antenna having a wide beam width and a narrow beam antenna having a narrow beam width are used. One of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna is used for transmission, and the other is used for reception. . Furthermore, the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna are different from each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly to a wireless communication system suitable for high speed data communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as the processing speed of personal computers has increased, the digitization of AV (Audio-Visual) equipment has progressed, so that ordinary households can handle high-speed multimedia information that fuses images, sounds, data, and the like. It has become to. The standardization and practical use of multimedia home networks are being studied on a global scale, and accordingly, a high-speed interface capable of integrating and connecting AV devices and peripheral devices of personal computers is required.

A high-speed serial bus IEEE 1394 is one of the standards that realizes such requirements. It has a band guarantee function essential for communicating multimedia signals and a wide band property of 100 to 400 Mbps, and has already been widely adopted as an external interface for digital AV devices and PCs.

Further, recently, a wireless communication system has been realized which propagates a signal conforming to IEEE 1394 at high speed by using, for example, a millimeter wave in the 60 GHz band.

In such a wireless communication system, data must be transmitted at a high speed of 100 Mbps or more and a low error rate. Therefore, in order to avoid multipath propagation, the beam width of the antenna is narrowed and the device configuration is reduced. For the sake of simplicity, a configuration including a transmission-only antenna and a reception-only antenna is adopted.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a wireless device provided in a conventional wireless communication system, and FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a state of data communication by the conventional wireless communication system.

As shown in FIG. 9, a conventional radio apparatus has a transmitting antenna 100 which is an antenna dedicated to transmission, a receiving antenna 200 which is an antenna dedicated to receiving, and a transceiver main body 300 including a transmission / reception circuit, a modulation / demodulation circuit and the like. And a transmitting antenna 10 on one surface of the transceiver main body 300.
0 and the receiving antenna 200 are attached respectively. Transmission antenna 100 and reception antenna 200
A narrow beam planar array antenna in which a large number of antenna elements are arranged in an array is used for each.

As shown in FIG. 10, the conventional wireless communication system includes a plurality of wireless devices shown in FIG. 9 (two in FIG. 10), and the antenna mounting surfaces are installed so as to face each other. . Then, bidirectional high-speed communication is realized by transmitting and receiving data to and from each other using the above-mentioned millimeter wave of the 60 GHz band as a carrier wave.

[0009]

However, in the conventional radio communication system as described above, the radio device has two multi-element planar array antennas, which causes a problem that the external shape becomes large.

Further, since a narrow beam antenna is used, as shown in FIG. 10, alignment and direction alignment (hereinafter referred to as axis alignment) when the wireless devices are installed facing each other.
There was a problem that it was difficult. In particular, the narrower the beam width of the antenna, the more strict the axis alignment must be performed, but there is a drawback that the strict axis alignment cannot be performed because the central axes of the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna are distant from each other.

Further, when the central axes of the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna are separated, when an integrated circuit or module in which a transmitting / receiving circuit is integrated is adopted in order to miniaturize and mass-produce the wireless device, the antennas are The power supply line becomes long. In this case, if a millimeter wave such as a 60 GHz band is used as the carrier wave, the loss becomes large and the performance deteriorates.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional techniques, and provides a radio apparatus and a radio communication system in which an increase in the outer shape is suppressed and axes can be easily aligned. With the goal.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a wireless device and a wireless communication system which have a small loss even when a millimeter wave is used as a carrier wave.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, a radio apparatus of the present invention has a wide beam antenna having a wide beam width and a narrow beam antenna having a narrow beam width. One of the narrow beam antennas is used for transmission and the other is used for reception.

At this time, the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna may be different from each other.

The narrow beam antenna is a planar antenna composed of a plurality of patch antenna elements arranged in an array on a substrate, and the wide beam antenna is composed of patch antenna elements formed on the substrate. The antenna is preferably a planar antenna, and may be arranged so that the directional axis of the narrow beam antenna and the directional axis of the wide beam antenna coincide with each other.

Further, a first antenna switch for selecting one of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna, and one of a transmitting device and a receiving device are selected, and the first antenna is selected. A second antenna switch for connecting to the antenna selected by the switch may be included.

On the other hand, the wireless communication system of the present invention comprises a plurality of the above-mentioned wireless devices, the wide beam antenna of one of the wireless devices installed facing each other is used for transmission, and the narrow beam antenna is used for reception. In this configuration, the wide beam antenna of the other wireless device that is used and is installed to face is used for transmission, and the narrow beam antenna is used for reception.

Alternatively, a plurality of wireless devices described above are provided,
The wide beam antenna of one of the wireless devices installed facing each other is used for transmission, the narrow beam antenna is used for reception, and the wide beam antenna of the other wireless device installed facing each other is used for reception. The narrow beam antenna is used for transmission.

In the wireless device and the wireless system configured as described above, the wireless device is provided with a wide beam antenna and a narrow beam antenna, respectively, one of which is used for reception and the other of which is used for transmission so that they face each other. A bidirectional link can be established and high-speed data communication can be performed without strictly aligning the axes of the two wireless devices installed.

In particular, crosstalk between the transmitting and receiving antennas can be reduced by setting the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna in different directions.

Further, for example, a narrow beam antenna is configured by using a flat antenna composed of a plurality of patch antenna elements arranged in an array for the narrow beam antenna and a flat antenna composed of patch antenna elements for the wide beam antenna. Since the patch antenna element of the wide beam antenna can be arranged at the center of the plurality of patch antenna elements, the outer shape of the antenna can be reduced.

[0023]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a radio apparatus according to the present invention, and is a perspective view showing the structure of an antenna. 2 and 3 are schematic diagrams showing an example of a wireless communication system including the antenna shown in FIG.

The antenna of the radio apparatus of this embodiment has a narrow beam planar array antenna in which a large number of antenna elements are arranged in an array and a wide beam planar antenna composed of one or a plurality of antenna elements. This is a structure formed on each of the substrates. In FIG. 1, a wide beam antenna 10 formed of a wide beam planar antenna is formed near the center of the substrate surface, and a narrow beam antenna 20 formed of a narrow beam planar array antenna is formed around the wide beam antenna 10.

In the radio apparatus of this embodiment, one of the wide beam antenna 10 and the narrow beam antenna 20 is used exclusively for reception, and the other is used exclusively for transmission.

For example, in the radio communication system shown in FIG. 2, the wide beam antenna 10 is used by each of the two radio devices installed facing each other for transmission, and the narrow beam antenna 20 is installed in the two radio devices installed facing each other. They are used by the wireless devices for reception. The wide beam antenna 10
May be used by each of the two wireless devices for reception, and the narrow beam antenna 20 may be used by each of the two wireless devices for transmission.

As described above, the wireless device is provided with the wide beam antenna 10 and the narrow beam antenna 20, respectively, one of which is used only for reception and the other of which is used only for transmission, so that two wireless devices installed facing each other. A bidirectional link (link 1 and link 2 shown in FIG. 2) is established without strict axis alignment, and high-speed data communication becomes possible.

On the other hand, in the wireless communication system shown in FIG. 3, one of the two wireless devices installed facing each other uses the wide beam antenna 10 for transmission and receives the narrow beam antenna 20. It is used as an application.
In the other wireless device, the wide beam antenna 10 is used for reception and the narrow beam antenna 20 is used for transmission.

Such a configuration is suitable for high-speed data communication on the link 1 using the narrow beam and low-speed data communication on the link 2 using the wide beam. In this case, since it is only necessary to strictly align the axes of the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna of the link 1 using the narrow beam, it is necessary to strictly align the axes of the two (bidirectional) links, as compared with the conventional configuration. This makes it easy to align the axes between wireless devices.

Next, the antenna shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the antenna shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 (a) is an enlarged plan view of a main part, and FIG. 4 (b) is an example of connection with a transmission circuit and a reception circuit. It is a side view shown.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the antenna of the radio apparatus of this embodiment has a narrow beam antenna 20 in which, for example, 8 × 8 patch antenna elements are arranged on a multilayer substrate 30. The wide beam antenna 10 including one patch antenna element is formed in the vicinity of the center thereof.

As shown in FIG. 4B, each patch antenna element of the narrow beam antenna 20 and the patch antenna element of the wide beam antenna 10 have a surface layer of a multilayer substrate 30 including a grounded metal layer 31 as an inner layer. Respectively formed in
A feeder line 32 connected to the back surface layer is connected to each patch antenna element.

The feed line of each patch antenna element of the narrow beam antenna 20 and the feed line of the patch antenna element of the wide beam antenna 10 utilize the inner layer of the multi-layer substrate 30 as a wiring layer, so that the transmitting circuit 41 and the receiving circuit are provided. It is connected to 42 with a minimum length without overlapping.

With such a configuration, it is possible to make the directional axes of the narrow beam antenna 20 and the wide beam antenna 10 completely coincide with each other, and the outer shape of the entire antenna can be the size of the narrow beam antenna 20. You can

Furthermore, when an integrated circuit or module in which the transmitter circuit 41 and the receiver circuit 42 are integrated is adopted, if the integrated circuit or module is attached to the back surface layer of the multi-layer substrate 30, the loss due to the power supply line 32 can be reduced. can do. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a wireless device and a wireless communication system with little loss even when a millimeter wave is used as a carrier wave.

In the example shown in FIG. 4B, two antenna switches are provided between the transmitting circuit 41 and the receiving circuit 42 and the multilayer substrate 30 on which the patch antenna element is formed. In a wireless LAN, it is necessary to detect the carrier (carrier wave) and confirm that there is no transmission from another station before starting the transmission. The configuration shown in FIG. 4B can be applied to such a wireless device for a wireless LAN.

For example, in a standby state (reception state), the first antenna switch 51 is connected to the wide beam antenna 10 by the control unit (not shown), and the second antenna switch 52 is connected.
Is connected to the receiving circuit 42 to monitor the transmitted wave in a wide range. In addition, during high-speed data communication, the first antenna switch 51 is connected to the narrow beam antenna 20,
A signal is transmitted by connecting the antenna switch 52 of 1 to the transmission circuit 41. Furthermore, during low-speed data communication or when the communication distance is short, the first antenna switch 51 is connected to the wide beam antenna 10 and the second antenna switch 5 is connected.
The signal is transmitted by connecting 2 to the transmission circuit 41.

In this way, the wireless device having the antenna shown in FIG. 1 can be used not only for high-speed data communication conforming to IEEE 1394, but also for wireless LAN.

Although FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 show a configuration in which the wide beam antenna 10 is arranged at the center of the narrow beam antenna 20, for example, as shown in FIG. The antenna 11 and the antenna 11 may be arranged in parallel.

In this case, the central axes of the narrow beam antenna 21 and the wide beam antenna 11 are deviated, and the outer shape of the antenna is larger than that of the antenna shown in FIG. 1, but the axis is larger than that of the conventional antenna shown in FIG. It is easy to match and the external shape is small.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the radio communication system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the radio apparatus of the present invention, and is a perspective view showing the structure of the antenna.

The antenna of the radio apparatus of this embodiment has a narrow beam antenna 22 in which a large number of antenna elements are arranged in an array, as in the antenna shown in FIG.
A wide beam antenna 12 including one or a plurality of antenna elements is formed in parallel on a common substrate.

Further, in this embodiment, in order to change the linear polarization directions of the wide beam antenna 12 and the narrow beam antenna 22, as shown in FIG.
The power supply lines from the antenna to the antenna are arranged so that they are orthogonal to each other.

When the wide beam antenna 12 and the narrow beam antenna 22 are provided in the wireless device and one is used for transmitting and the other is used for receiving, the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna are arranged close to each other and one antenna is used. However, since a wide beam is used, crosstalk may occur in which the radio wave radiated from the transmission antenna is received by the reception antenna of the same wireless device.

As in this embodiment, the wide beam antenna 1
By setting the linearly polarized waves of 2 and the narrow beam antenna 22 in different directions, such crosstalk between the transmitting and receiving antennas can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a wireless device and a wireless communication system that can easily perform axis alignment and can perform high-speed data transmission with a low error rate.

In the wireless communication system of this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the wide beam antenna 12 is used in the wireless device.
And narrow beam antenna 22, respectively, and one is used only for reception and the other is used only for transmission. Since these combinations are the same as those in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, description thereof will be omitted.

The antenna shown in FIG. 6 has a structure in which the wide beam antenna 12 and the narrow beam antenna 22 are formed in parallel on the substrate. However, as shown in FIG. A wide beam antenna may be arranged at the center.

Further, FIG. 6 shows an example in which the wide beam antenna 12 and the narrow beam antenna 22 are each formed of a plurality of patch antenna elements, but as a narrow beam antenna and a wide beam antenna, as shown in FIG. A different horn antenna (transmission horn antenna 71, reception horn antenna 72) may be used.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the antenna element 8
1 and a high-frequency processing unit 82 such as a transmission / reception circuit and a modulation / demodulation circuit are integrated into a millimeter wave module MCM (Multi-Chip Mod).
ule) may be used for transmission (transmission MCM 83) and reception (reception MCM 84), respectively.

However, FIG. 7 shows an example in which narrow beam antennas having different linear polarizations are used as the transmitting horn antenna 71 and the receiving horn antenna 72, respectively, and in FIG. 8, linear polarizations are different as the transmitting MCM 83 and the receiving MCM 84. An example using each wide beam antenna is shown.

As described above, also in this embodiment,
It is desirable to use a narrow beam antenna for one of the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna and use a wide beam antenna for the other. Therefore, in the case of the horn antenna shown in FIG. 7, the beam width may be widened by shortening the length of one horn. In the case of the millimeter wave module shown in FIG. 8, for example, the number of one antenna element 81 is increased to form a narrow beam planar array antenna, or
A beam (for radio waves) may be provided on the antenna element 81 to narrow the beam width.

Further, the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna are not limited to the linear polarization, and may be circular polarization. In this case, if one of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna is a circularly polarized wave that rotates in the clockwise direction, and the other is a negative circularly polarized wave that rotates in the counterclockwise direction,
Crosstalk can be reduced similarly to the above.

However, when the circularly polarized wave is used, there is a possibility that the reflected wave of itself will be received (the polarization direction changes with one reflection), so it is possible to have a clear line of sight without obstacles. Limited to communications.

Also, in the radio apparatus of this embodiment, the first antenna switch and the second antenna switch are provided to connect the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna to the transmitting circuit and the receiving circuit. Similarly, the switching may be performed depending on the standby state (reception state), high-speed data communication, low-speed data communication, or short communication distance.

[0058]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects.

The wireless device is provided with a wide beam antenna and a narrow beam antenna, respectively, one of which is used for reception and the other of which is used for transmission, so that the axes of two wireless devices installed facing each other can be strictly aligned. A bidirectional link is established without performing it, and high-speed data communication becomes possible. Further, crosstalk between the transmitting and receiving antennas can be reduced by setting the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna in different directions.

Therefore, it is possible to obtain a radio apparatus and a radio communication system in which axis alignment is easy and high-speed data transmission with a low error rate is possible.

Further, for example, a narrow beam antenna is configured by using a flat antenna composed of a plurality of patch antenna elements arranged in an array for the narrow beam antenna and a flat antenna composed of patch antenna elements for the wide beam antenna. Since the patch antenna element of the wide beam antenna can be arranged in the center of the plurality of patch antenna elements, the outer shape of the antenna can be made smaller. In particular, by matching the directional axis of the narrow beam antenna with the directional axis of the wide beam antenna, the feed line from the transmitting / receiving circuit to the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna can be minimized, and thus millimeter waves are used as the carrier wave. Even in such a case, a wireless device and a wireless communication system with less loss can be obtained.

Furthermore, the first antenna switch for selecting either the wide beam antenna or the narrow beam antenna and either the transmitting device or the receiving device are selected, and the first antenna switch is selected. By having a second antenna switch for connecting to the antenna that has been set up, for example, in a standby state (reception state), a wide beam antenna is connected to a receiving device to monitor a transmission wave in a wide range. Also, during high-speed data communication, a narrow beam antenna is connected to the transmitter to transmit signals, and during low-speed data communication or when the communication distance is short, the signal can be transmitted by connecting the transmitter to the wide beam antenna. Send. In this way, the wireless device of the present invention can be used not only for high-speed data communication conforming to IEEE 1394, but also for wireless LAN.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a wireless device of the present invention and is a perspective view showing a configuration of an antenna.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a wireless communication system including the antenna shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system including the antenna illustrated in FIG.

4 is a diagram showing a configuration of the antenna shown in FIG.
FIG. 3A is an enlarged plan view of a main part, and FIG. 2B is a side view showing an example of connection with a transmission circuit and a reception circuit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a wireless device of the present invention, and is a perspective view showing another configuration example of an antenna.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of a wireless device of the present invention, and is a perspective view showing a configuration of an antenna.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of a wireless device of the present invention, and is a perspective view showing another configuration example of an antenna.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of a wireless device of the present invention, and is a perspective view showing another configuration example of an antenna.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a wireless device included in a conventional wireless communication system.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a state of data communication by a conventional wireless communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 11, 12 Wide beam antenna 20, 21, 22 Narrow beam antenna 30 multi-layer board 31 metal layer 32 power lines 41 Transmitter circuit 42 Receiver circuit 51 First Antenna Switch 52 Second antenna switch 61, 62 power supply port 71 Transmission horn antenna 72 Reception horn antenna 81 Antenna element 82 High frequency processing unit 83 Transmission MCM 84 Receive MCM

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 5J021 AA02 AA09 AB06 AB07 CA03                       DB05 FA31 GA04 HA05 JA06                 5J046 AA09 AB03 AB07 AB09 AB13                       PA07                 5K059 AA12 BB01 BB08 CC09 DD27                       EE02                 5K067 AA03 AA33 BB21 CC24 KK02                       KK03

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A wide beam antenna having a wide beam width and a narrow beam antenna having a narrow beam width, wherein one of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna is used for transmission, and the other is used. A wireless device used for reception. 2. The wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the polarization directions of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna are different from each other. 3. The narrow beam antenna is a planar antenna including a plurality of patch antenna elements arranged in an array on a substrate, and the wide beam antenna includes a patch antenna element formed on the substrate. The wireless device according to claim 1, which is a planar antenna. 4. The wireless device according to claim 3, wherein a directivity axis of the narrow beam antenna and a directivity axis of the wide beam antenna coincide with each other. 5. A first antenna switch for selecting one of the wide beam antenna and the narrow beam antenna, and one of a transmitter and a receiver to select the first antenna. The wireless device according to claim 1, further comprising a second antenna switch for connecting to an antenna selected by the switch. 6. A plurality of wireless devices according to claim 1, wherein a wide beam antenna of one of the wireless devices installed facing each other is used for transmission, and a narrow beam antenna is used for reception. A wireless communication system in which the wide beam antenna of the other wireless device installed facing each other is used for transmission and the narrow beam antenna is used for reception. 7. A plurality of wireless devices according to claim 1, wherein a wide beam antenna of one of the wireless devices installed facing each other is used for transmission, and a narrow beam antenna is used for reception. A wireless communication system in which the wide beam antenna of the other wireless device installed facing each other is used for reception and the narrow beam antenna is used for transmission.