Search

EP-4007064-B1 - UPPER STRUCTURE FOR VEHICLE

EP4007064B1EP 4007064 B1EP4007064 B1EP 4007064B1EP-4007064-B1

Inventors

  • TANIOKA, Yasuhito
  • SHIGETA, KAZUO
  • HIRASA, YOSHIAKI
  • SHIMURA, Toshiyuki
  • NUMOTO, Masaki
  • MIYAKE, KOICHI

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20200624

Claims (7)

  1. An upper structure for a vehicle (1) comprising: a roof (3) configured to cover an upper portion of a cabin space of the vehicle; an antenna device (10) that includes a casing (11a) disposed on an upper surface of the roof (3) and an antenna (11b) accommodated in the casing (11a) and configured to transmit and/or receive a radio wave; a resin member (18) that is arranged adjacent to the antenna device (10); and a metal member (22) that is attached to the resin member (18) and forms a metal layer, wherein the antenna (11b) is configured to transmit and/or receive the radio wave that is directed to the upper surface of the roof (3) and an upper surface of the resin member (18), wherein the metal member (22) is arranged to reflect the radio wave that is directed to the upper surface of the resin member (18), wherein the resin member (18) includes an upper resin layer (19a) and a lower resin layer (19b), and wherein the metal member (22) is interposed between the upper resin layer (19a) and the lower resin layer (19b).
  2. The upper structure according to claim 1 wherein the antenna device (10) is configured to be disposed in an area on a vehicle rear side of the upper surface of the roof (3).
  3. The upper structure according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the resin member (18) is configured to be disposed in an area on a vehicle rear side of the antenna device (10).
  4. The upper structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the radio wave is a radio wave in a frequency band that is used in V2X communication.
  5. The upper structure according to any one of claims 1 to 4 further comprising, when the antenna device (10) is defined as a first antenna device, a second antenna device (25) that includes an antenna (25a) configured to be provided in a partial area of a rear window (16) that is disposed behind the roof (3), the partial area of the rear window (16) being located below the resin member (18), wherein the metal member (22) is attached to a position of the resin member (18) that does not overlap the antenna (25a) of the second antenna device (25) in vehicle plan view.
  6. The upper structure according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the resin member (18) is a rear window spoiler.
  7. A vehicle (1) comprising the upper structure according to any one of the preceding claims.

Description

Technical Field The present invention relates to an upper structure for a vehicle such as an automobile and, in particular, to an upper structure of a vehicle including an antenna device on a roof of the vehicle. Background Art Conventionally, a vehicle such as an automobile is equipped with an antenna device on a roof. An antenna for one or plural in-vehicle communication devices is installed in the antenna device. In recent years, many vehicles include a shark-fin type antenna device, for example, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1 in a rear end portion of the roof for design quality. Conventionally, the antenna is targeted for transmission and/or reception of a radio wave toward sky above the vehicle. However, in recent years, due to development in V2X communication represented by Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication and Vehicle-to-Roadside-Infrastructure (V2I) communication, in the case where a V2X communication antenna is installed in the antenna device, it is requested to appropriately transmit and/or receive the radio wave also in a direction along the roof. For this reason, for example, the following problem is inherent to a vehicle in which a rear window spoiler (also referred to as a rear window deflector) made of a resin is mounted on a rear gate and a type of a vehicle in which a roof rail made of the resin, or the like is mounted on a roof. In these vehicles, the antenna device, the rear window spoiler and the like are arranged in vicinity of each other along the roof. The rear window spoiler made of the resin, or the like can transmit the radio wave. However, it is actually difficult to completely transmit the radio wave, and there is a case where the radio wave that is directed to an upper surface of the rear window spoiler or the like is incident on inside of the rear window spoiler or the like, is irregularly reflected on the inside, and induces radio wave interference. As a result, such radio wave interference causes degradation of radio wave transceiving performance, which produces a case that cannot be ignored in securing accuracy of the V2X communication. Citation List Patent Literature Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2018-152824 US 2017/229767 A1 describes an aerodynamic device for a vehicle, comprising one or more antenna elements arranged to extend from a surface of the aerodynamic device. Summary of Invention The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstance and therefore has a purpose of providing a technique capable of improving radio wave transceiving performance by an antenna device in a vehicle including the antenna device on a roof. The present invention is an upper structure for a vehicle as defined in claim 1. Brief Description of Drawings [Fig. 1] Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rear portion of a vehicle (an automobile) to which an upper structure of the vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied.[Fig. 2] Fig. 2 is a side view of the rear portion of the vehicle.[Fig. 3] Fig. 3 is a plan view of the rear portion of the vehicle.[Fig. 4] Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the rear portion of the vehicle (a cross-sectional view that is taken along line IV-IV in Fig. 3).[Fig. 5] Fig. 5 is a characteristic diagram illustrating a reception intensity characteristic by an antenna device of the vehicle.[Fig. 6] Fig. 6 is a characteristic diagram illustrating a reception intensity characteristic by an antenna device of a vehicle according to a comparative example.[Fig. 7] Fig. 7 is a plan view of a rear portion of a vehicle according to a second embodiment.[Fig. 8] Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the rear portion of the vehicle (a cross-sectional view that is taken along line VIII-VIII in Fig. 7).[Fig. 9] Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a rear portion of a vehicle according to a modified embodiment forming part of the claimed invention. Description of Embodiments A detailed description will hereinafter be made on an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. [First Embodiment] Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rear portion of a vehicle to which an upper structure of the vehicle according to the present invention is applied, and Fig. 2 is a side view of the rear portion of the vehicle. A vehicle 1 illustrated in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 is a five-door hatchback-type automobile including: a vehicle body 2 that includes a roof 3 for covering an upper portion of a cabin space; a front door (not illustrated) that is openably/closably supported by this vehicle body 2 via unillustrated hinges; and a rear door 34 and a lift gate 45. A right and left pair of rear combination lamps 6 are provided in a rear portion of the vehicle 1. The rear combination lamp 6 functions as a stop lamp and a turn signal lamp. In this embodiment, the rear combination lamp 6 has a split structure having: an outer lamp 6a assembled to the vehicle body 2; and an inner lamp 6b assembled to the lift gate 4. An in-vehicle wireless communicati