Abstract
A novel concept of a differential feeding network for four-node antenna/antenna arrays is proposed. The network is constructed out of a four-strip coupled-line directional coupler operating in a mixed differential-nodal mode enabling direct interfacing of differential front-ends with single-ended antennas. It is shown, that such a configuration provides at the outputs of the proposed feeding network four signals, which are equal in amplitude and with phase progression of 90°. Thus, such a network can be utilized for generating either dual-circular polarization from a 2× 2 antenna array or can constitute simultaneously two out-of-phase power dividers and a directional coupler resulting in a two-beam antenna array in one cut-plane and two-element array in the other one. The dual-circular excitation is of particular interest for modern-day transceivers as it enables polarization-division-duplex communication. The presented concept is confirmed by measurements of two different antenna arrays operating at 2.5 GHz frequency range featuring dual-circular and dual-beam properties, respectively.
Highlights
Differential components are increasingly being used in analog electronics since they feature superior interference rejection in comparison to their single-ended counterparts
Following the trend of differential circuits’ utilization, antenna feeding networks connected to modern differential transceivers should operate in a differential mode to avoid balun circuits for balanced-to-unbalanced signal conversion and reduce complexity and losses of the network, etc
We propose for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a novel approach to the design of a beamforming network designated for differential front-end electronics
Summary
Differential components are increasingly being used in analog electronics since they feature superior interference rejection in comparison to their single-ended counterparts. Such a configuration allows to achieve dual-beam or dual-polarization properties of an antenna array and the dual-circular excitation is of particular interest for modern-day transceivers as it enables polarization-division-duplex communication. One can notice that the output signals are all equal in amplitude with the phase progression of 90° Such a feature allows utilization of the differential/nodal directional coupler from Fig. 2c as a differential interface feeding network as shown in Fig. 1b in antenna arrays with dual-beam or dualpolarization properties. The differential coupler serves in this configuration as a feeding network composed of a classic quadrature directional coupler and two out-of-phase power dividers
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